Left to right: Owners Jim & Jane Sweeney along with their daughter Allison Everett (Production Manager) at their Minuteman Press franchise in Houston, Texas. Jane notes that Allison “is a vital part of our DTF program.”
HOUSTON, Texas – Jim and Jane Sweeney are the owners of the Minuteman Press franchise in Houston, Texas for the last 29 years; they first joined Minuteman Press in June of 1994. Jim and Jane did a great job over the years building their business. They have excelled at growing apparel sales in recent years.
Jim summarizes: “The past 2 years have certainly been interesting. As of July 2023, we are 30.5% in front of our 2022 sales. This is a 35% increase over 2021. It seems like the world (or our world anyway) came out of its 2-year long malaise in 2022.”
Jim shares more specific details about his center’s booming apparel business and how he and Jane’s Minuteman Press franchise in Houston have accomplished such strong growth in their apparel sales. The center can be found at 1040 Hercules Ave, Clear Lake City; Houston – Clear Lake City TX 77058.
Investing in Business
On growing the business over the past two years, Jim says, “During the early pandemic we pivoted to personal protection products, which naturally led to custom face masks. Jane was sewing 1000 masks while I provided custom logo cloth face masks to schools, hospitals, and medical offices. We were able to sell 40,000 custom-made masks in that period. They either went through a heat press or they were sent to a screen printing vendor. We also donated a lot of masks to schools, non-profits, etc.”
He continues, “Finally, in 2022, our traditional printing was finally starting to climb back to pre-pandemic levels. Trade shows and marketing events became more common, which led to an increase in promotional products. After the initial surge, large-format work actually decreased. EDDM has become a bigger part of our sales. We definitely noticed a large increase in our direct mailing once we registered on the USPS’s website as EDDM service providers. The Graphic Whizard’s slitter cutter and creaser have made business card printing even more profitable. Our marketing efforts consists of: heavy community involvement; direct mail postcards, especially this year with the Deal of the Month art provided by MMP corporate; SEO/SEM on the Minuteman.com website, and social media, specifically as it relates to Direct to Film Transfer sales.”
Building an Apparel Booming Business
Minuteman Press offers custom branded clothing as a way to help businesses build their brand and market themselves. Jim explains:
“We really started getting serious about apparel about 8 years ago when we purchased a commercial embroidery machine. Jane created a wonderful lobby presentation about five years ago. The area includes apparel, promotional products, and large-format items.
The Epson F570 added dye-sublimation capability, then DTG for single prints (which we eventually sold). In this period, screen-printed transfers were used, mostly 613 or FM expressions. Turnaround time became an issue. The turnaround time was the issue.
We purchased a second, and then a third Stahls’ heat press during this time. We decided to start a Direct to Film printing company. We purchased our dual-head DTF finisher and large format DTF printer about 2.5 years back after converting several desktop printers for printing our own transfer. We have the capacity to produce transfers not only for ourselves, but also to sell to screen printers and sign shops, as well as Facebook Group/Etsy users. We added additional capacity with a 4 head DTF printer in January of this year (we will most likely be adding a third printer in the third quarter this year).”
Jim continues: “Wholesale Transfer printing is now approximately 20% of our monthly sales; we ship all over the country, with a daily capacity for printing thousands of transfers. Adding embroidery and our in-house t-shirt sales makes apparel approximately 30% of our monthly revenue.”
He adds, “Concurrently with this growth in transfer sales, the embroidery business was taking off. Regularly, we receive embroidery orders of 10-50 button-down or polos. Our customers included a large grocery chain, 2 hospitals in the area and 150-200 shirts per order. We completed an embroidery jacket order of $24,000 in the fall and just recently delivered a $32,000 order for that hospital. Of course, we use a trusted local vendor for larger quantities of jackets.”
“Our apparel business continues to grow weekly with more, and larger, in-house turn-key t-shirt sales really ramping up.” -Jim Sweeney, owner, Minuteman Press, Houston/Clear Lake, Texas
How to expand your clothing business
Jim offers 3 ways to help you grow your apparel business.
“1. The lobby display is what we believe is driving the most apparel sales. This is in addition to wholesale transfer sales. This display, which includes apparel samples, promo items and our large-format samples, was put in place several years back. The display always attracts new customers, and even existing ones, whenever they come into our store. Around 1 out of 5 customers who enter the store ask about a product they saw on display. We convert about 85% inquiries into actual sales.
2. Our CSR also knows a lot about our services and products, including apparel. Allison, our daughter and CSR/production manger, has been involved in our company in many aspects over the years. She was also the manager of our Galveston branch (which we will sell in August, 2022). Although I understand that everyone is not as lucky as me, it does not mean that you should stop training your employees and giving them the necessary tools to perform their job well. SanMar offers great catalogs of apparel with samples. You can also create a website for apparel using the marketing tools they provide. It goes without saying, too, that your entire staff should wear logo shirts to showcase their capabilities.
3. Attend a local trade show in the apparel industry, ASI, or the MMP International World Expo if you can. Start small with your own shirts. Educate your self, ask for samples and purchase a heat press. The apparel we offer our customers is the perfect complement to other services. Apparel sales spur printing sales, just like printing sales should spur apparel sales.”
An Example of a Client
Jim shares how he met the needs of one of his customers, a local specialty hospital. He shares: “One of our regular ordering apparel clients is a local specialty hospital. They also have 15 physical therapy clinics in Houston. Initially, we provided them with printing products and large-format prints. Then, they contracted us to create new signage for their outlying office buildings. Finally, the partnership grew and included apparel. We have them set up on 2 Stahl’s Spirit Sale websites. The hospital can purchase clothing for its new staff and employees. In addition to standard corporate apparel, each department has their own branded t-shirt.”
Jim continues, “At least once or twice per year, this hospital does a bulk purchase of 430 t-shirts for all the staff members. Purchases could be made for jackets and rain jackets as well as backpacks, specialty items or tee-shirts. We’ve provided $200,000 or more in just apparel and high-end promo items to the hospital in the last 3 years. This hospital then referred us to the hospital that I mentioned earlier in the article, who has just taken delivery of their second large jacket embroidery order.”
Other People’s Advice on Apparel
When asked what advice he would give to others businesses about utilizing custom apparel, Jim answers, “Apparel is an easy sell. Wear your logo. Wear your logo. Referrals are always a good idea. Don’t be afraid of it just because you haven’t done it before.”
For more information on Jim and Jane Sweeney’s Minuteman Press franchise in Houston/Clear Lake, visit https://minuteman.com/us/locations/tx/houston27/
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