Episode 181 – Workspace Money-Making Design Tips

Custom Apparel Startups

Episode 181 – Workspace Money-Making Design Tips

This Episode

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Mark Stephenson & Marc Vila

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customapparelstartups.com

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CAS Podcast

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ColDesi

You Will Learn

• How to evaluate your workspace to make it more efficient.
• Types of problems to watch for and how to correct them.
• Why you should also consider customers during your redesign.

Resources & Links

• Colman and Company Blog
• ColDesi Learning Center
• Leasing Equipment

Episode 181 – Workspace Money-Making Design Tips

Show Notes

The space in your shop, retail store or warehouse is essential to how much money you can make. Not surprisingly there is an entire field based on workspace optimization and customer experience. How fast you can get things done, how comfortable your customers feel and the overall space you work on can heavily impact your success.

Examples:

• Customer walks into two shops, which one do they buy from?
  • A – Cool art on the walls, music playing, samples on the walls.
  • B – No decorations, loose thread on the floor, and ink stain on wall, and something sticky.
• Production – who can produce shirts faster?
  • A – Neat and clean workstations, equipment nearby, labeled shelving.
  • B – Boxes of shirts shoved under a table, 20 ink carts all various filled stacked up, heat press in the corner away from everything else.

So how can you make your workspace make money for you?

Know Your Style

If your workspace is a pleasant place to be, you will work better in it.

• First design your space to fit your style and brand.
• You want it to feel good to work in, if you are uncomfortable in the space, you won’t be happy.
• Like art a lot? Put some on the walls. Into fishing? Put up a singing fish.
• Consider how you dress and incorporate that into the look. if you dress modern / fashionable, get furniture and decorations that are in that style.
• Tip: Hire a designer or consult friend or family who’s good at it.

Consider Visitors

Will customers enter your workspace / shop?

• If you are going to be alone with no visitors, make the space yours.
• If you plan to have customers come in, consider their experience:
  • Have table and chairs for them to sit in.
  • Keep coffee, soda, water bottles.
  • Have samples ready to show off.
  • Put up pictures or books of work to flip through.
• Make your workspace a different place than your customer interaction space.
  • Don’t push away shirts you are working on so a customer can sit and chat.
• Have public Wi-Fi.
• Computer or tablet available to interact with customers on.

Don’t Break Your Back

Workplace injury or long-term strain on the body is a real thing. Help yourself stay healthy.

• You are in the business of picking things up, bending over and working with machinery, watch your health.
• Put the heat press at the right height.
• Get foot stools and shelves.
• Use tables that match your height.
• Get gloves or braces for back / wrist / knees (if recommended by a Dr.)
  • Or just go to your Dr and say “I do this, what strains or injuries could I get and how do I prevent them?)
• Tip: record a video of yourself working and see if you notice times you strain, bend, hunch over, etc. (or show your Dr!)

Your Workflow Should Be In the Design

Make your space work for you by having everything in the right place.

• If you go from Heat press to printer to heat press to boxing, then consider designing your space in that flow, put the machines/tables in that order.
• If you are bumping your elbows or cannot get a good reach, move things around.
• Be creative like putting heat press facing a printer, this way you turn around and the press is right there.
• Consider more than just placing things by a wall, maybe a circular placement makes sense.
• Tip: record a video of work and see if there is something you notice about wasted time…. like “Look – every time I need a box of shirts I go all the way over there and back, and look – I almost tripped on a wire once!”

Sounds, Tastes and Smells

Eyes are not the only sense, think about the others.

• Music can be a great way to keep you motivated.
• Music can also give customers a good vibe of your shop. If you primarily sell to high schoolers, play pop music.
• Air purifiers, outdoor fresh air, air fresheners, incense, etc. are great ways to keep the shop from smelling like still air, sweat or a factory.
• Keep healthy snacks, gum, mints, sodas, water, coffee, tea etc. Not just for customers, but for you.
• All of this matters because it keeps you going, keeps you positive.

According to a study at Oxford University people who are pleased with their work environment are 13% more productive, and that can include YOU.

Brand It

Have your shop fit your brand, because it’s part of it.

• In the last episode we talked about branding, and your shop should fit that too. Just like your website and your social media.
• If you use fonts or colors on your website, use them in your office.
• Use samples from your site, as samples people can see in real life.
• Music, Sounds, Smells, visuals should match your feel.
  • Sell to business professionals? Make your shop feel like a modern office. Look up google or apple offices.

A good workspace and shop design will absolutely have a long-term impact for your business. This is not only for your production, but your mental and physical health… and of course your customers will WANT to do business with you!

Transcript

Mark Stephenson:
Hello everyone. And welcome to the Custom Apparel Startups Podcast. This is Mark Stephenson.

Marc Vila:
And this is Marc Vila, and today we’re here to talk about workspace money making design tips.

Mark Stephenson:
So you can make money designing your own workspace, or are we suggesting that we might want to go into the workspace design business?

Marc Vila:
Yeah, I’m saying that close your business down and just start a business designing –

Mark Stephenson:
Interior decorating for apparel decorators.

Marc Vila:
No, the space in your shop, or your retail store, or your warehouse, or your home office is essential to how much money you can make. It’s not just about customers come and seeing how it looks, but it’s also about how efficiently and quickly you can work, what it feels like to work in your workspace. Potentially if you have other people coming in to help you, them being able to work efficiently, all of that stuff together really can impact how much money you make.

Mark Stephenson:
So it sounds like we’re kind of dividing this up into things that you can do to be more productive with interior space design, and also the impact that design has potentially on people that might be visiting your shop, if you’re in retail, or maybe some kind of mixed environment.

Marc Vila:
Yeah, and then a bit of mental and physical health too.

Mark Stephenson:
I like that.

Marc Vila:
Yeah, so I think this is a really valuable episode. When I told Mark Stephenson about it, I think he just said, “Useful.” Was how you described it.

Mark Stephenson:
Which is high praise. I mean, that’s effusive basically for me. Don’t leave it there.

Marc Vila:
It wasn’t good idea, it wasn’t good job, or great write up. It was just useful without even a period at the end of it, it wasn’t even a sentence.

Mark Stephenson:
Do we have to screenshot our chats now, to put it as part of the podcast?

Marc Vila:
Maybe. Well, so let’s just start with a couple quick examples just to kind of visualize this right here. So a customer, or potential customer walks into two shops, stores, warehouses, even if it’s your home office, or you work out of your garage, or something. But a customer is coming to you. And who are they more likely to buy from? Shop A, where it’s got some cool art in the walls, there’s some music playing, there’s samples maybe hanging up, or available for somebody to look, touch, and feel. Or B, no decorations, embroidery thread all over the ground, an ink stain on the wall, and something sticky over here.

Mark Stephenson:
No, I agree. But I feel like you really just described the difference between a screen print shop, and all of our customers.

Marc Vila:
Yeah, true. And the thing is, is that I actually walked into a screen print shop a bunch of years ago, probably 10 years ago. But they were A, there was not a drop of ink anywhere, I could tell whatever flooring they had, it had an acrylic paint on it. And probably on purpose, because it looked like nothing would stick to this floor. So they spill ink on it probably all the time, they clean it up. So because they knew customers were walking in, and probably thought customers don’t want to walk in and step on ink, or slip, or whatever.

And then a second quick example is kind of an A or B again, who can produce shirts faster? Who can make things faster? Neat work stations, clean, organized, equipment is near each other and makes sense where it is, there’s labels on the shelves of what things are, extra large shirts, medium shirts, 11 ounce mugs, that’s A. And shop B is, boxes of shirts shoved under a table, 20 ink cartridges for your printer all stacked up in no particular order, all randomly filled to different levels, a heat press in a corner attached to an extension cord. Which shop is going to produce shirts faster, more than likely?

Mark Stephenson:
Yeah, that’s a really good point. And I think people have these stories they tell about themselves, that I think we’ll be addressing during the podcast. And the story is, “I know where everything is, I have my own kind of system.” It’s the pile in the corner system. They feel like they know where everything is, they don’t mind how it looks, because it’s very familiar. And you’ve really got to put in your third party hat, and look at everything with a fresh perspective, as you think about all of the things that we’re going to talk about.

Marc Vila:
Yeah, did you see the movie Tommy Boy?

Mark Stephenson:
Years ago. Yeah, when it first came out.

Marc Vila:
Okay. There was the lady who was in charge of all the orders, and her office was just stacks of papers everywhere. And the joke was, how do you find anything? She was like, “I have a system.” But if you haven’t seen the story, the system was easily destroyed when a villain came in and just threw things up in the air.

Mark Stephenson:
Moved the papers around.

Marc Vila:
Yeah, and then it was destroyed. So you want to think about this, and the reason why, not only will it help you get customers if they see your shop, but if you could produce things faster as well, then you can spend time doing other things. Fulfilling more orders, talking to more customers, attending that luncheon event that you didn’t have time to go to last time, because you were hoping to be done with production by noon, and now it’s two o’clock and you’re still going.

So all of it will add up, and we have… Well, let’s see. Five or six points here to go through, and take some notes, and then go ahead and look at your workspace. And just in my opinion, if you listen to a podcast, and you take a couple notes, and you think of some things. And then you go and you look at your space, and you make 2, 3, 4 little changes, you’re going to feel really good about yourself. Even if it doesn’t have a big, long term impact. You’re recognizing that you want to improve your business. And these are real simple things that I think can have a great impact for you, not only immediately, because you’re going to feel good, you did something, but long term.

Mark Stephenson:
Yeah, I like that. I also wanted to kind of throw a little bit wider net here, and include people that have the hybrid spaces, because I’ve been in two of these. Where they have the hybrid kind of spaces, where they have a little retail space up front, then they have the production shop in the back. And one of them designed their space specifically to be hybrid, so you got to see the retail displays were very nice, then as you walk through the store the equipment was in the back. I’m doing air quotes. Still easily visible, it kind of reminded me a little bit of going into a nice restaurant, but where you can see the kitchen.

Marc Vila:
Yeah. Well, I have great news for you then.

Mark Stephenson:
Yes.

Marc Vila:
There is a section of this podcast that talks just about that.

Mark Stephenson:
Okay.

Marc Vila:
So I’m not going to let you spoil it, because that’s number two. But yes, so I can’t wait for you to tell that story. You’re going to be in charge of that whole section.

Mark Stephenson:
I’m going to do it, I can’t wait.

Marc Vila:
Yeah, because that’s a great thing to consider. So let’s just go ahead and get started, and just like everything else that we make notes about, and I’m a big proponent of this type of stuff, is you start on the high level. So before we get into, where should your heat press be? And how exactly should you design the space? Should you have a customer space up front or not? But the first thing to think about is just know your style, if your workspace is a pleasant place for you to be in, then you’re going to be happier. It’s going to be a good place to be, and it’s going to fit you, and your style, and your brand, and everything’s going to be good with it. So consider that right, if you like fishing stuff, put a singing fish on the wall.

Mark Stephenson:
No.

Marc Vila:
Don’t do that.

Mark Stephenson:
No, that’s never a good idea. I feel like I’m being baited now.

Marc Vila:
You are. But no, if you like art and things like that, hang some art up on the wall. If you’re into nineties alternative rock, put up posters, or hang a guitar on the wall. Design the space to fit your niche, yourself, your personality, and just overall consider who you are, and what you like. If you dress in slacks and button ups, or blouses, and skirts, or pant suits all the time, and that’s kind of your style, then match your shop to be that clean, neat, fitted type of look.

Mark Stephenson:
Yeah, I support that. Especially if your style is mostly pant suits. I think that’s something we really have to recognize, if there’s someone in this industry that traditionally wears pant suits while they work, I want to visit that shop. Just please send me an email, I love that. So I’ll also say that a lot of what you just said, sounds like the things that we talked about in our last podcast episode about, about branding. Make sure that your space matches who you are and what you want to portray.

Marc Vila:
Yeah. And this whole thing just goes right along with that concept of branding, which is great. That’s Episode 180, if you didn’t listen to it’s a good one. We talk about branding, and what that means, and how to build a great brand. And one of the facets of your brand is going to be a workspace, and doing this exercise right here is great for your brand, and it’s important. So really just overall know your style, know your brand, and consider that with your workspace. You don’t have to be in design phase yet, because there’s more to consider. But you should be able to describe in words now what you want your shop to be like.

Mark Stephenson:
So I think that’s actually a great exercise, just describe the feelings based around your…

Marc Vila:
Yeah. Bubbly, open, fresh, grungy, whatever words you want to use to describe it, it’s good to kind of write some of these down, or have them in your head. And then if you’re going to buy things for your shop, like tables or chairs, you’ve got words to describe them. So if it’s modern, well, you know what? I’m just going to go to Ikea, they have lots of modern looks. If it’s kind of retro, I’m going to start off at the thrift shop.

Mark Stephenson:
Right, yeah. And if you own a brand where messy is part of the brand, then really feel free to make your shop like that. As long as you’re still efficient. If your brand is slovenly, then really just embrace that.

Marc Vila:
So is that kind of like the restaurants with the peanuts on the floor?

Mark Stephenson:
Yeah, there you go. That’s a good one. The sand.

Marc Vila:
All right. I think that peanuts on the floor of a workshop… I mean, it sounds dangerous, so I’m not going to officially say that I advocate for that one. But maybe it’s a great idea.

Mark Stephenson:
I mean, if you’ve got retail space and there’s peanuts on the floor, people will definitely talk about your brand.

Marc Vila:
They will, there’s a steakhouse that does it. And I went there looking for a big sign that said, “If you can read this and have a peanut allergy, it’s already too late.”

Mark Stephenson:
They hand out EpiPens at the door.

Marc Vila:
Yeah. All right. Well now Mark, the next one we’re going to talk about is considering visitors. So maybe you could talk about that a little bit, and there’s some other notes we put in here we can dive into too.

Mark Stephenson:
Okay. So if you’ve got a retail space, or most of you probably don’t, but you may have a hybrid space. And like I was saying, I’ve been into a couple of those shops. And one did a great job in incorporating kind of the production into the retail space. You go in the front, you can buy all kinds of stuff, you can pick, you can check out, and never interact with the manufacturing side of the business, but you are welcome to. You go off a little bit to the right, and they’ve got an embroidery machine set up, and they’ve got a bling machine, and everything is just very well organized and nice. And there’s a big advantage to that because you can invite people back to show, they kind of know what goes into producing the product, and you’ve made that part of your experience.

But the other one was the reverse, they do high school kind of stuff. And the retail area is a little bit more disorganized, it’s a little bit more chaotic. And if you go too deep into the shop it’s a completely different world, there’s an ancient screen printing machine that they haven’t used in a couple of decades, it’s got four inches of dust on it. There’s a dead DTG printer from the nineties, it really is kind of half junkyard, half production facility. So that gives a very specific impression on the visitors that you’ve got.

Marc Vila:
Yeah, and there’s something to be said about having your workspace different than your customer interaction space. And one of the reasons is because generally speaking, the rule is that if you have space you fill it. As humans we do that, in general you fill it. So if you have a big table, and that’s the table for the shop, and you’re working, you’re going to have T-shirts on that table, you’re going to have some ink on that table, you’re going to have a laptop, maybe your printer, the table’s going to be full. And then a customer comes in, and you’ve got to shove stuff out of the way so they can sit down and write them on a piece of paper. So not only are you interrupting your production, and potentially losing your space, or losing your place, or something like that. But it’s also just uncomfortable for the customer, they almost feel like, “Oh Gosh, I’m interrupting.” Type of a thing.

Mark Stephenson:
Okay, that’s fair. I do think though that there’s room for it if you’re careful. Because if you think about how a kiosk is organized in a mall, if you go in and you see the embroidery machine kiosks, it’s really attractive when the embroidery machine is running. And there are a lot of Lids style stores that will have an embroidery machine running, and that’s kind of ideal for it because you leave it alone for 15 minutes at a time while it’s doing stuff and it’s very cool, people will stop and watch. And the same goes for some others, like a rhinestone stone machine, is very attractive, a hundred percent of the time people watch. But those are both kind of on the more clean side of the apparel decoration world.

Marc Vila:
Yeah. So in this case, we’re talking about entertaining the customers with the equipment that you have potentially. Capturing attention with it, which is just something to be considered. The reason that the embroidery machine is here, it’s not just because the plug was there, that shouldn’t be the answer. “Well, that’s just where the power was.” You can move power. It should be that the reason why it’s here, is because I find it pretty interesting. There’s a window over there, and we get some people who walk by, and I would like people to stop and look at it, and maybe they’ll come in. That’s a good idea. Also, you may be working from a home office, so you’re limited on space. So then if you keep the embroidery area clean, and neat, and you are going to have some people every once in a while come into the office, then it can be a great part of the decoration of the room. But you just want to consider in general what your visitors are going to see, and what it’s going to feel like to walk in there.

Mark Stephenson:
Yeah, agreed.

Marc Vila:
Yeah. A couple other things just in regards to the visitors, that are just little stuff that people love. Keep some bottled water, or some sodas, or have coffee, or tea available. A little Keurig machine, or something like that. Have samples that are for showing off, ready to be shown off on hangers, or folded up nicely on a shelf somewhere, that a customer can feel, without even being told that they can go look at this stuff, it’s obvious. Or have pictures, have a picture book, a scrapbook of all the jobs you’ve done, a tablet up with a bunch of pictures up, and a little sticker that says, “Scroll to look through stuff.” Anything like that, that lets people know that they’re in a friendly place and they’re welcome.

Mark Stephenson:
I feel like you are describing the ColDesi showroom. When you walk into ColDesi there’s a place to sit down, you’re offered coffee or water, there are chairs, there’s a small clothing display there. And then if you make it into the demo room, there’s T-shirts hanging everywhere that you’re welcome to go and feel out, you can pick up a catalog, the whole thing. So I like that idea of really taking a fresh look at your space, and making it from a customer’s perspective, how would you feel when you walked in?

Marc Vila:
Right. And I think even if you’re a home user, this is important if you’re ever going to invite anybody over that is a potential customer. And you could debate that it’s even more important, because you’re trying to grow the business maybe out of that home. And anytime you’ve got an opportunity to come in and impress somebody you’d want to.

Mark Stephenson:
Yeah. Well, I like that. And you know what? I think that’s probably the same, even if you’re just showing off a little bit for friends and family. Don’t give anyone a reason to say anything negative about your space, or how you do things.

Marc Vila:
Yeah, that’s great, Mark. That’s a really good point, because they’re likely to refer somebody to you, or just encourage you, just be encouraging in general.

Mark Stephenson:
Yeah. Are we ready to move on to the next section? Will it break your back.

Marc Vila:
We can.

Mark Stephenson:
I was just thinking that we don’t talk about this enough, and that’s you have workplace injury, or long term strain on the body is a real thing. And we really don’t talk about that a lot in the custom apparel business, but it definitely is. So this part of kind of shop design, and being aware of this stuff, is just a great idea.

Marc Vila:
Yeah. I mean, the thing is, is this is a business of picking things up, putting things down, bending over, working with heavy stuff, using your hands, and wrists, and arms, and knees a lot. And if you’re not doing things correctly you could get carpal tunnel, or something like that I imagine.

Mark Stephenson:
Yeah. I think about that a lot internally, heat presses are important for about 98% of what we sell. There’s a heat press involved at some point. And at ColDesi we have a variety of people, sizes, and heights, and strengths that have to use all this equipment, and the positioning of all this stuff makes a huge difference. If we’re doing a sample run where somebody’s going to be printing and pressing 50 shirts for the next few days, if Jess is doing a video, versus if Marc Vila is doing a video, both of them will approach a heat press differently, and experience that heat press process differently. So if they were doing it 50 times, it would make a serious impact.

Marc Vila:
Yeah, absolutely. So that means that you should have tables that are the right height, you should get foot stools. I was in a shop, and they had a… It was custom made for sure, because it was made out of a bunch of pieces of wood together, looked like from scrap wood. But I just asked about it. I was like, “What’s that over there for, a little mini table for the heat press?” And they said, “No, we have a couple really short people that work here. That’s for them.” They scooted over and they stand on this, so when they’re working on this area they don’t have to do it on the floor. He’s like, “Actually one of the guys who’s really short is the one who made it.”

So he recognized that it was uncomfortable for his height. And I don’t want to say really short. The owner or whatever was 6’5″, and this other guy was 5’6″. So it was more than a foot difference, and he had a pretty big equipment cart, and the other guy recognized, if I can just get a step up, it’s better. So anyway, stools, table shelves, adjustable height things, anything you can get that has an adjustable height means you can really dial in for yourself. Or if you custom make things yourself out of wood or metal fabrication, that’s even better too.

One thing that I put here is get gloves, or back braces, or wrist braces, or anything that might be recommended by your doctor for the type of work that you do. I mean, if you’re going to a doctor appointment, you can say, “Hey, I started this business, I’m doing this a lot, I’m lifting things a lot. I don’t want to injure myself, is there anything you recommend that I do, or watch out for, or whatever?” And let your doctor tell you, “Yeah, watch out if you start feeling this stuff on your wrist, that means you’re straining it. You can go ahead and you can wear a wrist brace, or straps, or something like that to help with the strain.” Let a professional advise you, especially if you’re already there, it’s free.

Mark Stephenson:
Yeah, I like that a lot. It’s good advice.

Marc Vila:
And then the last little tip on this is record yourself doing some work. Set up your phone, hit record, watch it, and then watch the video and see if you notice, I’m hunched over in that spot, and getting on my tip toes to get here. And even show that to your doctor if they’d be willing to, say, “Hey, here’s a minute of me working. You notice anything?” “Yeah, it looks like you’re going to hurt your back one day.”

Mark Stephenson:
If I needed to do that, I would just send them this podcast and they can see what it’s like.

Marc Vila:
My doctor actually listens to the podcast.

Mark Stephenson:
I really like the idea of the video for a couple of reasons. And I know we’re going to get into the workflow design next, and I think this video would just be super useful, because you’ll identify not just where you’re straining, but where you’re wasting time. And you’ll be able to see the places that you could just be much more efficient after you watch the video.

Marc Vila:
Yeah, that’s great. And that actually flows right into the next one, is your workflow should be in the design. So make your space work for you by having everything in kind of the right order, and in the right spots. So if you have two heat presses, and a printer, and then a table for kind of boxing and folding, and your production is maybe DTG. So it goes pretreat, and pre-press, and a heat press, print on the shirt, press after the shirt, box it up. Then literally the order would be pretreatment machine, heat press, printer, heat press, table.

Mark Stephenson:
Yeah. And don’t forget to think in more than one dimension, because when we do a lot of shop designs where… Let me rephrase that. We don’t do a lot of shop designs. When we’ve done a few articles on shop designs and consulted people that know, what they do is they’ll have the heat presses maybe in the middle of the room. So you are printing on the shirt on the DTG’s, and you just turn around and put it on the heat press. So it doesn’t have to be linear, it doesn’t have to go on the outside walls, depending on the side of your space, use the middle as well.

Marc Vila:
Yeah, that’s great. And experiment with it too, move stuff, try it. “I didn’t like that.” Try a different way until you find the one that feels good. Also, if you are bumping your elbows into things, feeling like you’re being backed into a wall, tripping, anything like that, change it. If it’s ever just, “Oh yeah, with my heat press I’ve got to be careful so I don’t bump my arm on this metal pole.” Don’t put it there, because you’re going to bump your arm.

Mark Stephenson:
A hundred percent.

Marc Vila:
Yeah, you’re going to. One day you will, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but it’s going to be on the day that you’re already frustrated. And then you’re going to hit your funny bone, and you’re going to teach your kids all types of new curse words. So I like what you said about being creative with the space, and not just considering just things on the walls. And then last is just a tip, which is the same thing as before, record a video of you working, and look for inefficiency.

“I noticed every time I finished boxing up a box of shirts, I took the box all the way over there and came all the way back. And one way back, I noticed I stepped over a cord, right in an area where I’m carrying something heavy.” So now you can say, “Okay, well maybe I’ll move the table over there, or I’ll buy something to cover that cord up, because I can’t do anything about it right now. So I’m going to buy one of those things, an anti trip cord thing.” Whatever it is, but you can look at all these things to help make your space better, make your space safer, make it so you can produce faster, which is going to make you more money.

Mark Stephenson:
Yeah. And I think that’s what we should kind of remind people of, the first part of the podcast we talked about considering visitors, making your space match your brand, and honestly don’t break your back, staying healthy. Those three things will help you make more money, because for the first two people will be more comfortable, they’re more likely to stay longer, they’re more likely to come in, they’re more likely to spend money. Not breaking your back means that you’ll be more comfortable working, so you’ll work maybe not more often, but certainly more efficiently. And if that’s part of your display for your customers, you definitely want to work in a way that looks efficient, and does not include you hitting your funny bone and cussing out loud.

Marc Vila:
Yeah. And if you’re going to have people come in and help, or hire somebody, somebody who is a good employee is going to prefer to work in a good place, kind of just in general. So that has to do with all of it. So if you are trying to hire somebody, or get some help, and it’s all organized, you’re going to be able to teach them faster. They’re probably going to want to stay and work there, because it’s just neat, and organized, and everything makes sense. There’s coffee, and tea, and water, so if they get thirsty at work they can easily grab something. And then I think that kind of flows into the next one, unless you have anything to add on this before we move on.

Mark Stephenson:
No, just that I like what you said about employees, because I know that a lot of our customers if they’re just starting out, they’ll use friends and family to pitch in. Or they’ll have somebody that they hire part-time, just when they have a big job. Or even if you’re onboarding your first employee full-time, if you have an organized shop, and a defined process that you can write down, then what you’ll end up with is less new people stopping you and asking you where something is. If you’ve got your own system in your head then, “Where are the medium shirts?” “I think they’re under the box in the back closet next to the cat litter.” You’ve got a well-organized shop, if everything is right.

Marc Vila:
Yeah, or they’re just in one of those boxes.

Mark Stephenson:
It’s one of those boxes, yeah.

Marc Vila:
Yeah. It’s one of those boxes, versus, “Remember when you started, there’s that shelf back there, and just all of them are labeled. So they’re in color order, and then they’re in size order, it’s all labeled. You should be able to find it real easily.” Versus, “In one of those boxes.” And next thing you know, you walk in and somebody’s done 12 shirts already on the wrong shirt. And that could be you doing that, or somebody else.

So now that we’ve got that, and talking about kind of just the environment sounds, tastes, and smells, eyes aren’t the only sense. And we’ve talked a lot about visuals when people are coming, and for you as well, like putting a fish on the wall, having a largemouth bass mounted on the wall, or something like that. Or art, or something like that is all great stuff. But other senses coming into play too. So have music, it’s a great way to keep you motivated, it’s a great way to keep your employees motivated, it makes people feel welcome if the music matches the brand.

Mark Stephenson:
Yeah, and a lot of big brands do that. I think a couple of years in a row I was in an outlet mall and went into Guess for some reason, and they had a DJ at the outlet. If you go into different stores, you can almost tell where you are by the music that they pipe in overhead.

Marc Vila:
Yeah, and it’s all on purpose. So if you have a lot of high schoolers that you work with, because you’re working with local schools, it’s probably a great idea to have pop music playing, modern stuff. You may like classic rock, none of probably your customers do. So if you have a shop where people come in and browse, and their high schoolers, you should play music that they like. It’s a good environment for that, and so it should match the brand that you have. Also smells, or something like that too. I mean, you kind of are in a little bit of a factory. You’re producing goods, you’re using heat to cure things, you have machine oil, and sprays, and liquids, and all this stuff. You’re in a factory, and sometimes those things can have a little bit of a smell. It might not be even strong or dangerous, but it still doesn’t smell like your grandma’s kitchen.

Mark Stephenson:
And I think that’s important, because I’m the canary for ColDesi. So when we first started selling UV printers, we used a different ink set, and it gave me headaches within about 20 minutes. I could only stay and help with videos for about 20 minutes at a time, because it was bothering me. And this is before we got ventilation worked out, and all that stuff. Luckily we transitioned to different inks that don’t have that same issue, not for me, but maybe for somebody else it does. So you should bring someone else in, bring different people into your space, and say, “What do you think of the music? How does it look? Do you smell anything?”

Marc Vila:
And on a lot of these inks and stuff like that, they have safety data sheet documents, and they tell if you need to have air vents, or something like that. But even in general, you want it to smell pleasant, so have air purifiers. If you live in a nice environment have outdoor fresh air coming in, burn incense, have air fresheners, whatever it is, bake fresh cookies in the back.

Mark Stephenson:
You just described the perfect head shop. If you’ve got cannabis brand, what do you want? You want incense, you want fresh, big cookies very close by, it sounds ideal really.

Marc Vila:
Yeah. And then taste too is another interesting thing. Like we said before, have coffee or tea, that’s a pleasant thing for customers and for you. So you’ve been working for a little bit, “I’m going to go get a nice herbal tea right now. I’m going to get a nice black coffee.” Also just have some other things, have some healthy snacks, have gum, or mints, or soda. Have some things that when you get into a little bit of a grind and in a lull, you can stop and you can pop a piece of chewing gum, or crack open a Coke and sit down for five minutes, and drink a Coke and then get back up and go back to work. But these are good things for mental health, or good things for guests. And they just make work just a lot less mundane and boring.

Mark Stephenson:
Yeah, I think this conscious attention to your environment is very useful.

Marc Vila:
Yeah, it’s great. And actually when I was doing some research, I saw this Oxford University study, and it was describing how people who are pleased with their work environment are 13% more productive. And so that can include you, your staff, some help you hire just for a day. But if people feel good, they just generally do things a little bit better, and that’s just in general.

Mark Stephenson:
That’s kind of a great thing to keep in mind when you’re wondering whether or not you should make a change, or do something with your environment, or spend a little bit of money if it’s just for you. You know what I mean? If I had a retail space I would definitely be willing to invest in making it the perfect spot for my customers to come in and buy something. But if I’m working by myself for myself, then I’ll just use the dining room table, even though it’s not the best environment. But if you can maybe mentally draw the line between what Marc Vila just said, about being 13% more productive in a great environment, in a pleasant environment, then maybe you can give yourself a little bit of an excuse to splurge and make things better for you.

Marc Vila:
Yeah, absolutely. And something that I did, just yesterday, you’ll know what it is Mark, because we talked about it.

Mark Stephenson:
I do.

Marc Vila:
But I have this chair that I’m sitting in, and I bought it a bunch of years ago, I just love it. The first time I sat in it, I was just like, “This chair’s perfect for me.” So I love this chair, but it’s old now. I’ve got tear in the leather over here, I have to do this probably once a day.

Mark Stephenson:
Is that why we don’t talk anymore, Marc?

Marc Vila:
Yeah, it is.

Mark Stephenson:
It used to fit well, now just old, it’s got tears everywhere.

Marc Vila:
It’s just old, and just wrinkles. So I stood up the other day, and I felt that my lumbar was a little uncomfortable. And then I looked at my chair, and I’m like, “The cushion’s not what it used to be. It’s all flat in the back area.” I’m like, “I probably should have replaced it last year.” I just didn’t, because it was just so comfy, it was my chair. So I said, “I’m going to splurge, and spend a little bit of money, and buy myself a new chair.” And so then I just thought, what do I want different? And I said, “I have leather last time, which was super comfortable and nice.” But we’re in Florida and I sit close to a window, and sometimes this leather chair is hot, and I’m sweating on my shirt. So I got a chair that’s a mesh back instead. So you should be thinking about that, not only with your chairs and your tables, but what about when you’re going to buy your next heat press. Are you just going to get the same one, or is there something you wish you would’ve done differently last time?

Mark Stephenson:
Right, yeah. I like that a lot. Okay, so let’s go back to the branding topic then. Let’s end up with branding things around you, and things in your retail space, and even your production area, kind of with the stuff that definitely fits your brand.

Marc Vila:
Yeah. I mean, all of it ties together here. And again, it’s not just for customers, it’s for you, it’s the mental state that you’re creating. I know all that stuff sounds hokey, or why would that matter? But I mean, apparently it does. There’s whole industries built around this. There are organizations that’ll hire a consulting firm to go through all of this stuff, and big organizations will spend hundreds of millions of dollars with consultation, and redesign, and all of that stuff, because all of it really does matter.

Not just for the people who work there, but for the customers and the overall image of the company, and everything. So tie the branding into it. If you use a font on your website, and you’re going to put a sign on the wall, put it in that font if you can. If you have pictures of work that you’ve done on your website, have those live samples in your shop, so somebody who’s maybe been to your website, you can show them a shirt, and they’ll be like, “I saw that shirt on the front page of your website.” Or, “I saw that shirt on Instagram.”

Mark Stephenson:
That’s why we make Marc Vila go into the office once a week, is because people come in, and they say, “I saw you on the podcast.”

Marc Vila:
“I saw you on the podcast.”

Mark Stephenson:
So I think that work product goes to something else, if you’ve got a favorite piece of work that you’ve done, that you’re very proud of, you should 100% put that up on the wall in your space, whether or not you have visitors. Because that’s built in motivation, and evidence of what you can accomplish. So it’s definitely a positive reinforcement to make sure that everything’s branded you.

Marc Vila:
Yeah. No, that’s great. So I think that kind of wraps everything up with this, a good workspace, and a good shop design, or a good retail space is going to have a long term impact on your business, on the amount of money you make, on your production, on your mental and physical health. Overall, it’s just really great for you if you do it.

Mark Stephenson:
Agreed, and I think a good retail spice is as well. It just makes the food more tasty. You’ll be happier. No, I agree. I think this was a great topic, Marc. And I plan on implementing it a little bit in my own office space.

Marc Vila:
Yeah, I decided that too. Well, I bought a new chair, which was kind of before I thought about this, which is interesting.

Mark Stephenson:
Yeah, it’s all percolating up there.

Marc Vila:
Yeah, it was all percolating up there. And it’s one of the things I did in the background here, I have all these things that remind me of stuff from my folks, and stuff from my family, and stuff like that. And they were always just positive to me, they’re things that have positive vibes for me. And I said, “You know what? I’m going to put them up. And every once in a while I’ll be talking to somebody, and they’ll mention something and I’ll say, you see that right there? That’s that too.” And I talk about it, and then I have some nineties reference stuff, because I’m a big nineties fan. And people always talk about it, and it’s a good way to build little rapport. So I try to do little things, I’m not perfect at any of this stuff, I don’t claim to be amazing, and I wouldn’t want to be hired to do consulting for it. But I know how to research stuff, and I know how to write stuff, and I think we put together something that’s really useful. So make some changes in your shop today.

Mark Stephenson:
Yeah. Thanks for listening everybody, if you like the podcast, share it. This has been Mark Stephenson.

Marc Vila:
And Marc Vila.

Mark Stephenson:
You guys have a great, well-organized, well-designed money making business.

The post Episode 181 – Workspace Money-Making Design Tips appeared first on Custom Apparel Startups.