5 Reasons Why You Should Start an Embroidery Business | Apparel Academy (Ep. 1)

hey guys welcome to the

embroidery

insider podcast I'm your host Henry Ma and in this episode we're going to talk about why you

should

start

an

embroidery

business

so let me tell you guys what you can expect in this podcast you can expect expert strategies and advice from myself that we have given to embroiders over the years and you'll also see episodes where we'll invite guest speakers and experts in their relative fields within

embroidery

to come and give their insight and

their advice to you so you can learn from the community of embroiderers that are out there so before we get

start

ed I just wanted to kind of set the tone for what we're gonna cover today in this episode we're we gonna talk about the fundamentals and the basics of why you

should

be

start

ing in an

embroidery

business

this is something that people wonder a lot about okay is

embroidery

business

the right

business

for me and is this gonna be profitable so I want to kind of give you five

reasons

why

embroidery

is so popular and why people are getting into it and whether it might be the good fit for you and how you

should

think about getting into the

embroidery

business

going forward so first and foremost if you look at

business

es out there there's always a cost associated with

start

ing a

business

right and the upfront investment but with

embroidery

actually it's quite inexpensive and quite affordable to get

start

ed and what I mean by that is the variable cost if you look

at other industries you might have to you know rents rent a retail space you might have to get the get expensive supplies to kick-

start

your

business

but with

embroidery

actually the supplies are very inexpensive we're talking about backing and thread and the essentials like bobbin to to make an embroider product and we've actually done the calculations and those numbers come out to be about you know 15 to 16 cents on average per item if you look at the relative percentage of

something like that over the cost of the item that's a very very negligible chunk of your variable cost compared to other industries where your your cost of goods the input that you have to put in to make a product it's gonna be much much higher sometimes you know thirty to forty percent of your overall revenue so that's one reason why

embroidery

is so easy for people to get

start

ed in because the relative cost is very very minimal and speaking of retail space a lot of employers

start

out at their homes right in the garage and a lot of

business

es

start

that way so you don't have to I don't want people to think that you have to invest in a retail space in order to

start

off in this

business

your many successful embroiderers

start

ed out from their garage from their homes and have outgrown that and you can decide at the right time to move into a retail space if that is a right fit for you so that's point number one now that we talked about kind of the supply

side let's talk about the demand right if you look around everywhere then this is reason number two if you look around everywhere you will see embroidered goods and embroidered products pretty much any where that you go whether that's to a local restaurant to your local Starbucks where the staff has embroidered aprons and caps to your local gym or any

business

es that need embroidered

apparel

for their staff the the demand is everywhere and it's actually interesting that on one of our

Facebook Live episodes that we did a while back someone asked this question of do you think the

embroidery

business

is saturated and I flat out told them no and the reason why is because the demand is so high and the margins are so high that it allows the room and the capacity for people to get into this

business

because whether it's your local

business

your your friends and family is for an event for example there are always people needing embroidered goods and that's where the the void

is for skilled embroiderers to be able to fill that void and fulfill that need and so if you're skilled and you have a niche for example caps or you do something that you're the other local embroiderers can't do then you can fulfill that niche and there's more than enough space and and room in the industry for different niches to to co-exist and therefore I'd really believe that the demand for

embroidery

is always gonna be there because every

business

wants to show off their

logo and and kind of dawn the the company swag and be able to build that culture and that brand around the

business

and if you can position yourself to do well in that space you have more than enough room to go around and expand your

business

in your local area now the third reason why an

embroidery

business

is a good

business

to

start

in is because there are so many good resources out there and platforms for you to get customers and get the word out there so ranging from free resources like

Facebook pages were and social media where you can build a following and a lot of our customers have done that just have an Instagram account or a Facebook page and kind of post a work that you do that is self and word-of-mouth can travel and get you

business

in your in your local area in your local network and those satisfies customers who also refer other customers to you in the future that's a just a free easy way to get

start

ed but also other platforms like Etsy for example a lot of

embroidered and custom goods are made on there and is very easy to get

start

ed very easy to post your customized goods on there for and and Etsy has a large enough platform that attracts a lot of users that are looking for embroidered goods on there whether it's embroidered jackets towels maybe even gifts for weddings and baby showers so that kind of platform also allows you to kind of get

start

ed without kind of wondering where your

business

is gonna come from and we've also actually

created a platform called Garmeo which is essentially a platform that links

business

es and and individuals that have a need for

embroidery

to those who are able to fulfill that order so

business

es that have

embroidery

machines that are looking to fulfill orders can join a platform like Garmeo where orders are being routed to them kind of like an uber for the

embroidery

space so that they can take the orders and kind of not worry about dealing with where the orders are going to come from more so

focusing on how to fulfill those orders and do them well so those resources are are always out there and it's so easy to get

start

ed without having to put in a lot of investment in a retail space or wondering how you're gonna do advertising to get your

business

now the the fourth reason why the

embroidery

business

so easy to get

start

ed in is because the cost of the equipment has gone down over all these years now if you look at maybe twenty years ago the cost of equipment for

embroidery

machines are probably easily in the six figures you're talking about a single head machine or a two head to a four head machine being anywhere between you know sixty to a hundred thousand dollars so those costs have gone down over the years at as technology has evolved and has made it more more affordable and easier for people to acquire these equipment to get

start

ed in this in this industry you're talking about single head machines now ranging anywhere from you know eight to

ten thousand dollars on the on the kind of

start

er machine side and then maybe twelve to fifteen thousand dollars on the commercial side so those the the increase in technology and the development in technology has really helped make

embroidery

machines and

embroidery

equipment more affordable for people to take advantage of and get

start

ed and

start

producing things right away without kind of a large hurdle or or a cost of entry into this industry and last but not least I mentioned a little bit

about the kind of platforms where you can get

business

es but again customers and

business

but also the unmatched support that's in this industry a lot of other industries have a lot of competition where there isn't much of a community of people that are willing to help to help one another but I think what's special about the customer

apparel

and

embroidery

in particular is that people are willing to help each other and there are a ton of resources out there that are free and and

very easily accessed by by anyone that are looking to learn and as long as you put in the time and the effort to kind of learn those things you can definitely be successful in your

business

es this isn't rocket science right and so some of the resources out there I mean with YouTube being a platform that has a lot of how to's we've actually also as a manufacturer developed a series of videos where we teach people how to do certain projects whether that's you know towels beanies

caps shirts patches those videos are you know free content that we give to not only our customers but anyone looking to kind of learn about

embroidery

in general and give them the tools and tips on how to take a project from

start

to

start

to finish there are there's are also groups on Facebook that are very very active we have a group called

embroidery

and custom

apparel

mastery where there's over 10,000 members in there ranging from people focusing on

embroidery

to direct-to-garment

printing to screen printing and those people are very active and asking questions asking how to price things how to where to get the best wholesale goods blanks and and so that community of people is something that you don't really see in other industries and so that level of resources is free to you to access if you want to just learn about things right there's no commitment to actually join the group you just join and if you want to lurk around and read about what other people are

asking that's also a great way to educate yourself on this industry and and along with the resources that we provide on the YouTube channels with our

embroidery

hub episodes with with podcast like like like this where you get these

business

advice and how choose on the on detect on the technique side in in video format that helps you prime yourself so that you when you are ready to make that leap and jump into the

embroidery

business

you already have enough knowledge and really get a head

start

from everyone else and the continual support that you'll get in these groups and the communities of people that are very willing to help one another so we also have actually a private Facebook group for our eco maçussa MERS only where it's more focused on the on the technical techniques and details of our products so that we are also building a community of people that have our product and can get the support and resources that they need to be successful in their

business

so all

in all of the resources that are out there for you to learn and to and to take advantage of but it's up to you to really kind of capture that information learn it implement it and then really execute it in your

business

to make a difference so I hope that helps those are the five

reasons

that kind of I've summarized into why you

should

start

an

embroidery

business

and why it might be the good fit for you so to kind of recap first and foremost the the setup costs are very very low the

variable costs are very low number two there are a bunch of resources and sorry there's a they're a bunch of demand for

embroidery

in in every

business

in every local

business

or anybody that wants to brand their their

business

there is a need for

embroidery

so the demand is out there and it's continuing to grow as people want more and more personalized goods number three there are a lot of platforms out there to help you get

business

so that you don't have to be frustrated about

how - like how do I get those orders coming in number for the cost of machinery has gone down due to the increase in technology and last but not least the unmatched industry support and the resources and the community of people that are out there that has your success in mind so whether it's other embroiderers ranging from other embroiderers to manufacturers like us where we are providing you with the help and resources to make sure that you are successful in your

business

so I hope that

helps in somewhere in the in the description of this of this episode there are gonna be links to other resources like the

embroidery

hub episodes that I mentioned about as well as to the Facebook group that I mentioned

embroidery

and custom

apparel

mastery where you can join for free over 10,000 people in that group and then last but not least if you want more information on kind of why

embroidery

is the perfect side

business

I encourage you to check out a blog post that our team has written

regarding that topic if you want to learn more alright guys so I hope that you found this episode helpful make sure to rate this episode and to subscribe to our podcasts for more insightful information like this I hope to see you guys next time