Become a Millionare Selling Custom T Shirts
The American dream is to strike it rich as a self made millionaire. While in theory this is a fantastic idea, the truth is that there are few industries left where people can start from scratch and make themselves a millionaire through nothing but their own perseverance and skills. Furthering this dilemma is the fact that a lot of those jobs require a very high level of education and more importantly the years spent obtaining that education. I’ll let you in on a secret, I have a bachelor’s degree, and although I do not down play the importance of education for the vast majority of people (especially my children, who already think they know everything), I did not need that degree. I could just as easily started doing what I do now with nothing more than a GED. The wholesale T-Shirt industry is truly a way where a hardworking, motivated, and personable individual can make hundreds of thousands of dollars every year.
How? I started out selling T-Shirts as a part time job to supplement what can only be considered a dismal income. I was actually turned on to the idea from a good friend of mine who makes as much as I do now. All it took to start from scratch was a small amount of money; remember at this point I was living from paycheck to paycheck. I used this money to buy some business cards and register the name of my company. I then sat down and started calling local businesses in the phonebook. A few of these companies went on to be my first customers and many of them continue to do business with me to this day.
With a base of customers, I needed suppliers. I needed suppliers, textile manufactures. This wasn’t hard. They’re in business to sell you their clothing, and they make high quality products. From there it was a matter of getting a contract screen printer to do the printing for me.
That is the long and short of how my business began. I bought t-shirts and paid a contract printer to do the screen printing. I then sold this product to my costumers. I came to think of myself as adding value to the t-shirts and bringing buyers and sellers together; all the while I was making more than I would have thought possible years earlier. I needed very little cash because I didn’t buy anything until my customers had committed to buying the custom t-shirts. If they wanted to pay with credit card it worked even better because I knew I already had the money. There was never very much risk and the potential for reward was fantastic.
Eventually my company was making enough money and taking enough time that I left my previous job as a trader to do it full time. I hired a secretary as soon as I could financially justify it and this freed up my time to seek and meet with customers. My company allowed me to make enough to grow the business and still never worry about my financial situation. The most beautiful thing about doing it the way I did in terms of growth is that I never felt like I was risking anything I couldn’t afford to lose.
About fifteen years after I started I got to a point where I was making enough money to try another expansion. I decided I would move into the screen printing myself. I currently own my own screen printing equipment and have a full time staff to do the contract printing for others that I used to have done for my own customers. I currently am in the process of setting up other companies that do what I started to do. I sell these companies to other ambition individuals and work as their screen printer. They go and get the customers for themselves, and I offer advice and the contract screen printing. We set up the new companies with their own website that offers pricing and quotes built in to it. We do the screen printing at special prices because of the special nature of the relationship that we have with these companies. Our websites allow the companies to decide what price they want to sell the shirts. This relationship benefits everyone because they don’t need to go thru the hoops of finding the printer and setting up the company and website, and it generates business for our company too.
This is where I currently am in my own business. I have attempted to show you the evolution of my business. I have made more than enough money to live comfortably, help put my children thru college, and save for retirement. The best part is how much I enjoy my job. I have woken up every day for the past ten years and known that I am my own boss. My destiny is my own hand and I answer to no one. I firmly believe getting into this industry was one of the best choices I ever made. Think about that all of this the next time that you wake up dreading going to work or the next time your boss is any four letter word you’d like.
By: Mike Thompson
Discipline & Performance Problems Quick Tips
1. Never procrastinate with a performance problem. If you don’t address the issue when it arises, staff will question whether you are doing anything at all.
2. When talking to an employee about a problem, phrase your comments in terms of preventing the problem from recurring. Use the inappropriate performance as a jumping off point, indicate why it is problematic, and then quickly move on to preventing re-occurence. This moves the focus from blame to improvement.
3. Whenver possible, elicit the employee’s suggestions about how to prevent the problem from recurring. Put the responsibility for suggesting solutions with the employee. When possible, help the employee implement their solution.
4. Make it clear that your comments pertain to behaviour or performance, and not the person. Restrict your comments to particular instances of inappropriate performance and avoid inferring cause (lazy, uncaring, incompetent).
5. Remember that to improve problem performance it is often necessary to “drive out fear”. Some think that putting the fear of God into employees will spur them on to better performance. Fear is more likely to reduce performance, loyalty and effort.
6. If you never recognize effective performance, and do not praise those who perform well, you will not be effective in dealing with problem performance.
7. Above all, remember that even the best of employees will find a discussion about inappropriate performance to be unpleasant. Some will take it personally, some will not. Be prepared for some defensiveness, and do not rise to the bait. Stay in control of yourself, and the situation.
Leadership Secrets – The Responsive Manager/Leader
The Responsiveness Paradigm outlined elsewhere in this newsletter is applicable at a number of levels. For example, it applies to organizations in general, and the ability of the organization to respond to the needs of customers, staff and other stakeholders (eg. politicians, etc). It applies to non-supervisory staff, and their ability to respond to the needs of their managers, customers and co-workers. This month we are going to look at responsiveness as it applied to managers, leaders and/or supervisors.
Influence Of The Responsive Manager
The responsive manager tends to succeed by building bonds of respect and trust with those around him/her. Staff respond positively to responsive managers; they work more diligently, work to help the manager and the organization succeed, and will go the extra mile when necessary. That is because responsive managers act consistent with the principle that their jobs are to help their staff do their jobs. So, a basic inter-dependence emerges based on behaviours that show concern, respect and trust.
Responsive managers also influence those above them in the hierarchy. Because responsive managers have the ability to read and act upon the needs of their “bosses”, they are perceived as helpful and reliable, or in a simple way, very useful. This allows them to get the “ear” of people above them in the system, and further helps get things done when needed.
Contrast this with the limited influence of the UNresponsive manager. The unresponsive manager is restricted in influence because those around him/her do not respect or trust them to look out for their welfare. Influence is more limited to the use of power coming from the formal position, and fear, a motivational component that is hard to sustain over time. Unresponsive managers tend to be perceived as self-interested, or at best uninterested in the needs of those around them. They also tend to be perceived by those above them as less reliable and less useful due to their focus on empire building, organization protection, and self-interest, rather than getting done what needs to be done.
How Do They Do It?
Responsive managers apply a number of specific skills and abilities to the task (as outlined generally in The Responsiveness Paradigm article). Above all, they appear to be “withit”. Withitness
has a number of components. First withit managers are able to put aside their concerns to listen to (and appear to listen to) those around them. As a result, they know what is going on, and know what is both said, and said between the lines. They have the knack of appearing to know what people need even if those needs are not expressed directly.
However, knowing what is going on, and identifying the needs of those around them is not sufficient. The responsive manager also acts upon that knowledge, attempting to help fulfil the needs of employees, superiors, etc. Responsive managers wield influence to solve problems for those around them, often before even being asked.
Here’s an example:
I was responsible for automating an office system in a government department. As happens sometimes, the Management Information Systems people were not keen on our going our own way on the project, despite the fact that they had indicated they could not do it for us in the near future. As a result their cooperation (needed for the project) was patchy. As team leader, I faced a number of roadblocks, despite the fact that our Assistant Deputy Minister wanted to see this project come to fruition. I regularly reported back to our Director, outlining progress and roadblocks. Every time I communicated roadblocks to the Director, they were removed within a short time, despite the fact that I did not request direct action. In addition, the Director advised and counselled me on how to deal with the “systems people” so I could have maximum impact. Despite the roadblocks, the project was completed on time and was very successful, much to the chagrin of some of the systems people, who I think were hoping we would fail.
This is a simple story, but one full of meaning. In this situation the Director was able to identify the project leader’s needs with respect to the project, listening carefully, and identifying actions she could take to “smooth the path”. Not only was the Director able to remove obstacles and fulfil the need of the project leader, but the Director responded on a deeper level, helping to teach the Project Leader methods of becoming more effective, fulfilling yet another need. All of this was assumed to be the proper role of the Director, and was done without expressing all of the needs specifically or explicitly.
We can contrast this with the unresponsiveness of the MIS people. They lectured, they fussed, they predicted dire consequences, rather than offering consistent, responsive help. They focused not on responding to the needs of their clients, but on some other factors having to do with control, and their own needs. Eventually, their lack of responsiveness resulted in the very thing they did not want; loss of control of the project. As a result of this project their overall status in the organization suffered, simply because at both an organization and individual level they were seen as barriers, rather than useful.
Let’s look at one more example.
An employee had been working for a government branch for about a year, having moved to the city as a new resident. In a casual conversation, the supervisor noted that the employee wasn’t looking at his best, and asked how he was feeling. The employee explained that he hadn’t been feeling well lately, and sounded very tired and overwhelmed. The supervisor determined that the staff member didn’t have a local family doctor, asked if he would like the supervisor to arrange an appointment, and proceeded to do so immediately. The problem turned out to be a minor one.
In this example we see again the ideas of “withitness” and responsiveness. The supervisor was able to identify that the staff member was in need of some help, despite the fact that the staff member did not state this explicitly. Note that the supervisor didn’t pressure the staff member to go to the doctor, but identified needs, checked them out, and then acted upon them. In this case, help consisted of direct, helpful action.
Conclusion
These two examples are the stuff of loyalty and commitment. They are remembered years and years after the fact, and continue to extend the influence of managers. In this sense responsiveness is a critical component of management success, because it allows managers and supervisors to get things done, for the benefit of all players.
In the limited space we have, we have attempted to give you a feel of what responsiveness means. You might want to extend your own understanding by considering some of the following questions.
1. If you are a manager or supervisor, how can you modify your own behaviours so that you become and are perceived as more responsive by a) your staff, b) your boss and c) your customers?
2. Again, if you are a manager or supervisor what is your definition of the “responsive employee”? Can you identify your “favourite employees”, and consider how they are responsive to you? Our bet is you will find that your most valued employees are responsive.
3. If you are non-management, what would you need to do to be perceived as more responsive by the people around you?