Here is the first of five possible Educational Email Courses (EEC), I could build for your business. An EEC is a series of emails sent to your prospective client email listeach day for five days. Each email is written to be educational not “selly.”
You and I will work together so that we craft a message in your voice, that will add benefit to the prospect’s life. Then we send a second and third, fourth and fifth course lesson. Each one unique to your business educating your prospects on items of interest to them.
EEC is one of the most successful forms of sales enabling copy created.
The email Day 1 course below is a sample of an email with the points First paragraph, main message, deep dive, conclusion, call to action (CTA), highlighted. This is the first day EEC email I would send to my prospects. Without the BOLD headings of course.
We could craft something similar for your prospects. Go ahead and take a look at what I am doing here and think about how something similar could benefit your business.
Subject: Unlocking Your Potential: The Key to Business Growth
First Paragraph: Have you ever wondered why some businesses thrive while others struggle to get off the ground? It all starts with a deep understanding of yourself and your business. Today, we’ll dive into the most crucial step in your journey to expanding your clientele—knowing who you are and what you bring to the table.
Main Message: Before you can effectively market your services, you need to have a clear understanding of your strengths, weaknesses, values, and goals. This self-awareness will guide your business decisions and strategies, ensuring they align with your personal and professional identity.
Reflect on these questions:
What are your core strengths and skills?
What values drive your business decisions?
What are your long-term business goals?
How do you differentiate yourself from the competition?
Deep Dive: Understanding yourself involves more than just listing your strengths and goals. It’s about digging deeper into your motivations and aspirations. Consider keeping a journal where you can regularly reflect on your experiences and insights. This practice can reveal patterns and provide clarity on what truly matters to you.
Core Strengths and Skills: Identify your top three strengths. Are you particularly good at building relationships, solving problems, or leading a team? Understanding your strengths will help you focus on activities that maximize your impact.
Values: Reflect on the principles that guide your decisions. Is integrity your top priority? Do you value innovation and creativity? Knowing your values helps ensure your business practices align with what matters most to you.
Goals: Set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals. These could include revenue targets, market expansion plans, or personal development objectives.
Differentiation: Analyze your competitors. What do they offer, and how can you stand out? Your unique value proposition will be a combination of your skills, values, and the specific needs of your target market.
Conclusion: Understanding yourself is the first step towards building a successful business. It sets the stage for identifying your unique selling proposition, which we’ll explore in the next email. Remember, self-awareness is the cornerstone of effective business leadership.
Call to Action: Start your journey today by reflecting on your strengths, values, and goals. Grab a notebook, and spend 15 minutes jotting down your thoughts. This simple exercise can provide profound insights into your business direction. As a premium ghostwriter, I specialize in capturing your personal style and voice to create tailored educational email courses that will build your clientele. Reply to this email to schedule a meeting where I can learn about you and your business, and craft a customized email course designed to boost your success.
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Trust me, this works. Let me know when you can schedule a ZOOM cal and we can discuss your business goals and aspirations. jaepperson@mac.com
With time comes opportunity and changing environments. The generalist consultant is becoming less feasible, and I have determined that I need to stop being the “anything to everyone” consultant. Now, I will look to my 40 years of corporate and academic life and focus on one particular specialty. Of course, I will still support my book My XYZs of Excellence and my online course “One Day at a Time” because they are both too good to forget. But a new direction has been implemented.
Introducing Our New Focus: Premium Ghostwriting for Professionals
I will focus on the specialist provider—the healthcare provider who is just a tad bit frustrated with the rules of the big insurance companies and big Pharma and is choosing to focus on their patients instead. These are the true providers of healthcare: the concierge physician, the cash-pay chiropractor, the legal professional building their practice one client at a time.
Why This Focus?
In today’s competitive market, professionals in the healthcare, legal, and accounting fields often find themselves overwhelmed with the dual demands of providing top-notch services and maintaining a strong client base. Many of these professionals are transitioning away from traditional insurance-based models to cash-based practices, seeking greater autonomy and financial stability. However, effectively communicating the unique value of their services to potential clients can be a significant challenge.
Our Expertise
With decades of experience in auditing, analysis, consulting, and writing, our team is uniquely positioned to help these professionals articulate their expertise and connect with their target audience. Whether it’s crafting compelling website content, engaging newsletters, or insightful training materials, our goal is to help our clients showcase their skills and attract the right clientele.
What We Offer
Tailored Content Creation: We create customized content that reflects your unique voice and professional values, helping you stand out in a crowded market.
Website Audits and Enhancements: Our comprehensive website audits identify areas for improvement, ensuring your online presence effectively converts visitors into clients.
Engaging Newsletters: Regularly communicating with your audience through newsletters helps build trust and keep your services top-of-mind.
Training Materials: We develop high-quality training materials that not only educate but also inspire your team and clients.
Our Commitment
At J A Epperson Analysis and Advisory, LLC, our mission is to help you achieve success and elevate your practice. Integrity, loyalty, and a commitment to ethical practices guide everything we do. We believe in transparency and work closely with you to craft solutions that are both effective and aligned with your goals.
Let’s Connect
If you’re a doctor, lawyer, or accountant looking to grow your cash-paying client base, we invite you to reach out. Together, we can create content that not only attracts clients but also reflects the excellence of your professional services. Contact us today for a free marketing review and discover how having your own personal ghostwriter can ellevate your practice.
Are you struggling to come up with fresh and exciting blog posts? Don’t worry, you’re not alone! Writing a blog post for business is no easy task, but it doesn’t have to be daunting or difficult. Here are five simple tips to help you write great blog posts that will engage your readers and keep them coming back for more.
Research Thoroughly Take the time to research your topic thoroughly before writing about it. This includes reading about the topic from other sources, speaking with experts in the field, and gathering empirical data if possible. Doing this will ensure that your blog post is well-informed, accurate, and interesting. It also helps you avoid accidentally publishing inaccurate information or making claims that don’t hold up against scrutiny.
Start with an Interesting Hook Your first sentence should draw the reader in and pique their interest. Start off strong by highlighting an intriguing fact or statistic related to your topic, then dive right into the meat of your article. This will make sure that readers stay engaged throughout the entire post and don’t get bored halfway through.
Break Up Content Into Sections Nobody likes scrolling endlessly through dense blocks of text—it’s boring! So break up your content into digestible chunks by using subheadings, bullet points, images, infographics, etc. Doing this will also make it easier for readers to quickly find the information they’re looking for without having to sift through paragraphs of text.
Add Supporting Media Adding media such as photos and videos can help support your content and make it more engaging for readers. Images are especially helpful in breaking up long sections of text and can even help illustrate a point more clearly than words alone can do. Videos can be used in a variety of ways; from interviews with industry leaders to product tutorials or even short promotional clips about your business or services offered. Conclusion: Writing a great blog post doesn’t have to be intimidating or overwhelming; all it takes is a little bit of research and some creative thinking! Follow these five tips and you’ll soon find yourself churning out high-quality blog posts like an old pro! Keep these tips in mind when creating content so that you can provide valuable information while still keeping things interesting for your readers.
Then My XYZ’s of Excellence from J.A. Epperson Analysis & Advisory is the perfect tool for you. This book helps small business owners and department leaders provide 26 days of training that will help turn employees into well-trained, efficient leaders. The book! My XYZ’s of Excellence – 26 Days to Excellence in Business Leadership and Life is the perfect training tool for anyone wanting to help their businesses grow by creating leaders instead of employees. It offers 26 days of powerful and inspiring training that goes beyond what traditional leadership books offer, making it an ideal onboarding resource for any growing team.
You won’t find anything like it out there on the market today – this is an invaluable resource for anyone looking to grow professionally and capitalize on their own strengths as a leader. And don’t forget – if you purchase the book, I also invite you to take advantage of my online training course with over 200 individual lessons so that you can help your team internalize the concepts and principles required to make the training stick.
Transform your team with this comprehensive guide – learn how to make effective decisions, prioritize productivity over perfectionism, manage through relationships rather than authority, develop gritty communication skills and much more. With this book as your go-to source on leadership development, take control of the success of your business today!
Get the book! My XYZ’s Of Excellence – 26 Days to Excellence in Business Leadership and Life on Amazon now and then contact us directly for exclusive access to our online course materials!
Take a look at the content by checking out this; Click Here for an eBook/Flip Book version of My XYZ’s of Excellence. Remember this book was used to create an online course with interactive training just for you to provide your team an experience that is more then just reading the book. Let me know and I’ll get you access jae@jaeaa.consulting
Originally called a “magic cube”, it is considered the world’s best-selling toy, with some 500 million pieces.
Daniel Colombo October 26, 2020 4 min read
This article was translated from our Spanish edition (Entrepreneur Site) using AI technologies. Errors may exist due to this process. Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
The game poses a common goal. Each piece is different. The cube is a system. All the pieces are linked.
It’s there, with its bright, mixed, distinctive colors. Arouse curiosity when someone is manipulating you. It’s exciting when we ourselves manage to fit at least one full face. In short, it has something irresistible: wherever there is a Rubik’s cube, the temptation is to take it in your hands and start playing.
This 2020 the cube celebrates 40 years of world landing. In essence, it is a three-dimensional mechanical puzzle created by Hungarian sculptor and architecture professor Ernő Rubik in 1974. He licensed it to Ideal Toys in 1980 and from there began its path of expansion.
You may be interested: Test, build, accelerate and scale: Meet the 4 cycles of Jeff Bezos Originally called the “magic cube,” it is considered the world’s best-selling toy, with some 500 million pieces. According to the Guinness Guide of Records the original format is 3 x 3 x 3 cubes, and more recently it has been transformed into a megamix format (dodecahedron, 12 faces), a pyramid, a clock (on two sides, each face with 9 clocks to line up) and even the Frenchman Grégoire Pfennig has made a 33 x 33 x 33 version, the largest magic cube, with 6,153 pieces.
7 leadership lessons with a cube in your hands As I write these lines, I have at my side the Rubik who is watching me attentively, as if inviting me to an unfinished challenge. And observing it, I became aware of some aspects of team leadership that we can learn to apply:
The game poses a common goal
It’s about aligning each face of the cube. In the team this is defined as purpose towards the goal we want to achieve. A team with clear objectives and a strong spirit of influential leadership produces better results.
Each piece is different
Individualities make up the whole, each one adds up and has value in obtaining the final result. The role of the leader and each member is to appreciate these differences and manage to reconcile them when there are deviations in order to redirect them without losing sight of the final objective.
Image: NeONBRAND via Unsplash
The cube is a system
The hub does not work if a part is missing, defective, or jammed, preventing action. The same thing happens in teams. In itself, the movement, synergy, strategy and ability of the leader to give the right momentum is what will bring about the expected result.
All parts are linked
In the cube each one is linked with the others and when moving, they produce a completely different result. It is the same when working together with others, where individual impact influences everyone: every piece counts. Cohesion is essential especially in times of confusion, where it is not known well where to move, and it is precisely that communion that produces the result, based on trust, contribution, creativity and collaboration.
Each individual movement affects the whole
As in a team, individual performance is directly proportional to the success of the entire team : when very strong, self-centered individuals appear and disconnected from what needs to be done to achieve the objectives, the teams do not work and they wear out.
Image: Dev Asangbam via Unsplash
Pieces drive each other with strategic thinking
Through movement and solution-focused thinking, cube dynamics invites you to learn about how closeness between members of an organization has a direct impact on how the end will be reached. As for the leader, he observes, analyzes, feels, and acts guiding the pieces and motivating them in the alignment that he seeks to achieve.
Gears need optimal operation and communication
To finish these seven leadership ideas playing with the Rubik’s cube, a strategic aspect for the proper functioning of any team is communication. In itself, it is a system that has codes, symbols, representations. If the verbal, the non-verbal, the rituals and the flow that circulates are appropriate, the team will be able to better achieve the goal it pursues. Otherwise, performance will be impaired and therefore poor.
There is a meme circulating on the Internet that says ” Life is like a Rubik’s cube, you solve it or you complicate it even more.” It invites us to reflect on the role of the leader and of each member of the team and to ask ourselves: with your participation, do you make the team grow and contribute positively? Or do you generate the opposite? The answer is in each piece.
What if you could provide a fantastic EWA financial benefit for your employees without a charge to your bottom line. That would be a good thing. Right?
What is EWA, you ask? Good question; the answer is something your competitors already know. EWA means “earned wage access,” and it is a benefit that is sweeping the world.
Imagine your employees having access to their earned wages before payday. They no longer have to approach with “hat in hand,” asking for a wage advance. With this benefit, they can access up to 50% of their earned wages between paydays. Life happens between paydays.
I can help you become a hero to that employee who has an emergency appliance or car repair, a family accident, or an emergency vet visit requiring money they don’t have in their savings. They need cash now, and remember, it’s their money. They earned it yesterday or today, but you’re not going to pay it to them until “payday.”
It seems only fitting that your employees have access to their earnings as they earn them. But who would offer that for no cost to you, the employer? I know someone who would be thrilled to help you.
Check this:
What did you think? Pretty impressive if you ask me. A financial institution that doesn’t charge a monthly fee or requires a percentage of each check cashed. A bank account that allows for EWA and ATMs and a debit card at no cost to you and minimal cost to no cost to your employee.
What’s not to love? Call me at 253-592-2410 or 408-634-4648. Then, please email me at admin@jaepperson.com, and let’s set you up.
Since the world can always use more great leaders, I am giving away my entire 26-module course “My XYZ’s of Excellence – 26 Days to Excellence in Business Leadership and Life.” This is the online course “One Day at a Time” which was created to help you incorporate the concepts found in the book. https://jaepperson.thinkific.com
You may have looked at the first Day 1 module, Assess and Acknowledge, now you can have access to the entire course. How cool is that? Because I’m not an idiot, I am limiting this opportunity to those who I think can actually benefit from a holistic, transformative leadership course that helps business managers and small business owners learn how to internalize 26 success-building concepts so they can avoid failure and become an even more successful leader.
The number of times this coupon works is limited. Don’t delay. Simply go to the course site, click on the button with the child and the “Believe in Yourself” mural and order the entire $2450.00 course. When you get to the checkout page simply put in the coupon code all26xyz and watch the price change to zero. Pretty nifty.
Many people have asked whether they could just check out one or two of the modules, so have at it. Once you open the course, you can go to any day you want as long as that day has been opened. You’ve seen the PDF with the 26 Business Principles; now feel free to check out Day 8 Meaningful Measurable Milestones or Day 9 Plan Prepare Plan. Or go through them all from Day 1 to Day 26, where you end on a great module, Believe and Become.
Again I can’t stress how amazing an opportunity this is to have the entire course available for FREE. Check it out; today, there is a limit to my generosity. Share this information with others who can benefit from this material, but remember the number of free coupons is limited. Get yours first, then send a notice to everyone you know.
No matter how foggy the world looks, you can still “get on your trail to success.”
Follow this link https://jaepperson.thinkific.com and remember to enter coupon code all26xyz or go ahead and purchase the course in one payment or six. I am also offering a subscription to the course, where you receive unlimited access as long as you maintain your membership.
Shopify gives advice on how to start your online business using their platform – Why not!
– This is a HUGE resource for any of you interested in getting started in an online store. I’ve never seen anything this complete…
It may be a 10 minute read but once you “decide to become” … and follow the amazing leads on this page you will spend your entire weekend getting SMART!
Do it NOW! – J Epperson
This may be you at the end of your research. Read this post!
The future of ecommerce is incredibly bright. But, starting an ecommerce business is hard work and demands many steps and decisions that need to come together at the right time.
– (Check out my previous blog post on selling T-Shirts… It’s an idea 🙂
Finding a product to sell
The first step to building an ecommerce business is knowing what products you want to sell online, wholesale, or direct-to-consumer. This often is the most challenging part of starting a new online business. In this section, we’ll highlight strategies you can use to find product opportunities, explore the best places to look for product ideas, and finally, look at trending products to consider.
Once you have a product idea in mind, how do you know if it will sell? In this section, we’ll cover a few approaches that active entrepreneurs have used to validate their product ideas and potential market.
In less than 40-minutes, let us walk you through how to find product ideas, how to validate them, and how to sell the product once you have an idea you want to pursue.Register now
Obtaining your product
After landing on a strong product idea, your next step is figuring out where and how you’re going to obtain your products. The next four posts cover the various methods for acquiring your products, along with the pros and cons of each model.
Many independent retailers face a challenging road ahead. Shifting your brick-and-mortar business online can help you weather this storm, generate cash flow, and build a more resilient business.
You’ve found your product, evaluated its potential, and sourced a supplier. But before you get into that, you’ll need to thoroughly research your competition so you know what you’re up against and how you can differentiate your business from theirs.
With your competitive research complete, it’s time to write your business plan. A business plan is a roadmap that helps bring your ideas and thoughts together. A business plan is vital in determining what to prioritize and how to effectively reach new customers.
Aside from figuring out what to sell, another challenging decision is determining your business or brand name and choosing an appropriate and available domain name. These blog posts will help you tackle these important tasks.
Once you’ve selected a memorable name and registered a corresponding domain, it’s time to craft a simple logo. In these resources, we’ll show you several options for creating a great logo for your new business.
Learn more: From a logo maker and business name generator to gift certificate templates and a discount calculator, Shopify offers free marketing tools to help run your business.
Understanding search engine optimization (SEO)
You’re almost ready to begin building your online store. However, before you jump into it, you should understand the basics of search engine optimization so you can properly structure your site and pages for Google and other search engines.
With a better understanding of search engines, it’s time to build out your store. There are many crucial elements to consider. Below, we’ve listed our essential reads to help you build high-converting product pages, write captivating product descriptions, shoot beautiful product photography, choose your ecommerce color palette, and much more.
Don’t forget, if you run into any problems getting your store set up, you can always hire help from Shopify Experts.
Choosing your sales channels
One of the best ways to reach new customers is to choose sales channels where they already shop. The right mix of sales channels will depend on your products and your target customers, but there are a number of great options that can complement and support your self-hosted store.
As you prepare for the launch of your new business, there are several shipping and fulfillment elements you need to prepare for. In this section, we’ve curated a few comprehensive guides on how to determine your shipping strategy.
Now that you’ve launched, the hard work of marketing your products begins. While many new store owners should consider selling their physical products in person, the rest of digital marketing rests on doing one thing well: driving targeted traffic. Next, we’ll share a variety of marketing tactics that will help you in your first months.
You’re well on your way and now likely have a few sales under your belt. It’s time to get serious and focused. The following posts will help you zero in on your top-performing marketing tactics or expand into new ones for driving traffic and converting that traffic to sales.
Building your own ecommerce business is as exciting as it is challenging. At a rapid pace you’ll learn a ton about choosing a product, evaluating its viability, figuring out how to get it produced, building an online store, and marketing and selling to new customers. The process can feel like you’re solving a head scratcher of a puzzle, but it’s rewarding all the same.
We hope following this resource roundup helps provide you with a clearer roadmap. As always, the best advice anyone can give is to just get started and to enjoy yourself along the way.
I told you it was an amazing compilation of just about everything you would need to start and sell from a Shopify site. Let’s “Get Going”… That would be Day 12 of My XYZ’s of Excellence – One Day at a Time – Online CourseCheck it out.
Print on demand services to create custom products. With custom products, you can create your own clothing line, monetize your audience, or cater to a specific niche. Print on demand is a fulfillment model that makes all of that possible without having to hold your own inventory.
But choosing the best print-on-demand company to work with and bring your vision to life can require a lot of research. Each platform has its own distinct catalog of products, shipping considerations, and unique features that will factor into your decision.
To help narrow your list of options, we’ve reviewed 10 of the best print-on-demand sites for designing, selling, and shipping your own custom products.
The 10 best print-on-demand companies The following print-on-demand sites are free to start with and require you to pay only for the cost of the product and shipping after someone has placed an order:
Printful SPOD Printify Apliiq Dropship Teelaunch CustomCat Lulu Xpress T-Pop JetPrint: Print On Demand AOP+ Easy Print on Demand To make it even easier to choose the best print-on-demand site for your specific needs, we’ll look at these key factors:
Shipping: How long does production take after a customer has placed an order? Where does the company ship from? What are its standard shipping times? How is shipping calculated? Printing options: What printing techniques and customizations do they offer? Unique features: Are there any unique features or offerings that set them apart from the rest? Recommended for: Who is this print-on-demand solution best for? Product catalog overview: What are some of the customizable products the service offers? All of the print-on-demand companies on this list integrate with Shopify, letting you build a branded online storefront to sell your own custom products wherever your audience spends their time.
Printful
Shipping: Products are usually ready to ship within two to five business days from the US, Mexico, or Europe with 50% of orders ready in under three days. Standard shipping to the US starts at $3.99 and takes three to four business days (see their shipping map for other destinations). Shipping costs depend on the product with discounted rates for additional items in the same order. Printing options: Printful offers direct-to-garment, embroidery, cut and sew, and sublimation printing depending on the product. You can also add tear-away tags to your products, as well as inserts and stickers to your packaging for an additional cost for a more branded customer experience. Unique features: A built-in mockup generator means you can be ready to sell in minutes. Printful also boasts the most integrations with marketplaces and commerce platforms—including Shopify. They also offer a 20% discount on sample orders. Recommended for: Both beginners and experienced entrepreneurs who want a flexible, well-rounded solution to start on that can scale with them. Printful is one of the most popular print-on-demand companies, offering a wide range of products to customize and features to help you get started that range from mockup generators to services like logo design. Whether you want to sell apparel, prints, home decor, or accessories, you can find what you’re looking for in Printful’s catalog.
For an additional cost, you can also add your own branding to your products and packaging, including inside labels and packaging inserts to help encourage repeat business or promote another product line. Printful also offers services from graphic design to marketing videos, as well as bulk discounts of up to 30%.
Product catalog: T-shirts (American Apparel, Bella + Canvas, Gildan, etc.) Sweatpants, leggings, and joggers Tote bags and backpacks Mugs Phone cases Bean bag chairs Framed posters Prints And over 220 more
How to quickly start a profitable print-on-demand store
In our free 40-minute video workshop, we’ll get you from product idea, to setting up an online store, to getting your first print-on-demand sale.
SPOD
Shipping: Ships within 48 hours from the US, starting at $3.57 for domestic shipping with an estimated arrival time of 3 to 8 business days. Costs are based on total order value rather than individual products or quantity. See SPOD’s shipping calculator for more details. Printing options: Digital direct, thermal sublimation, digital transfer/laser transfer, special flex, depending on the product you want to create. Unique features: A product customization tool that lets customers personalize their purchase with their own images, your own designs or over 50k free designs offered by SPOD. It also offers a 20% discount on sample orders. Recommended for: People new to print on demand who are looking for speedy fulfillment, simplified shipping, and competitive prices. If you want to give customers the ability to personalize your products, such as a t-shirt sporting a picture of their dog, SPOD also has one of the best customization tools in the game. SPOD is a print-on-demand site owned by Spreadshirt. It boasts one of the fastest fulfillment times in the industry—95% of orders ship within 48 hours—which makes for a satisfying experience for the end customer.
While it may not offer the largest variety of available products, it does offer some of the most competitive prices and an easy-to-use product designer.
It also has a simple pricing model for shipping, which is based on the value of the products you order. With most print-on-demand companies, calculating shipping costs can quickly become complicated for orders containing multiple products from different categories. With costs based on order value, SPOD makes it easier to create shipping rules that maximize your profitability while using upselling and cross selling to encourage customers to add more to their cart.
Product catalog: Classic t-shirts (as low as $6.39) Premium organic t-shirts Adjustable aprons Baseball caps Women’s longer-length fitted tank top Camper mugs 7-inch crew socks And 110 more options
Printify
Shipping: Printify is a vendor network, which means it sources and prints products from partners around the world. That also means that products, shipping costs, location, packaging, and production times will depend on the print provider you choose. Printing options: Direct to garment, sublimation, cut and sew, embroidery, and more, depending on the print provider and product. Unique features: You can upgrade to the monthly premium plan for 20% off all orders, which can allow for better profit margins when you’re ready to scale. Recommended for: Anyone looking for a flexible and cost-effective print-on-demand solution that lets you find a printing partner that ships specific products from a specific region of the world. Printify is notable in that it gives you access to a large network of printing partners distributed around the world. This not only means a larger variety of products to choose from, it also lets you select your printer based on the country you want to sell in for faster and more cost-effective shipping.
Altogether, Printify offers some of the best margins and the largest selection of products available. The inherent trade-off is that the quality of the products and the printer’s service can vary based on who you work with. Also, choosing to work with multiple vendors that will require further setup.
Product catalog: T-shirts Hoodies Backpacks Canvas wraps and framed prints Fridge magnets Stickers Swimwear Skirts Blankets Sneakers High heels And over 250 more Choosing the best print-on-demand company to work with and bring your vision to life can require a lot of research.
Apliiq Print On Demand
Shipping: Production can take up to seven days for orders. Apliiq offers weight-based shipping starting at $3.99 to the US and ship internationally to over 150 countries worldwide (see their international shipping page for their shipping rates table). For faster fulfillment, you can pay a 10% rush order fee or choose an expedited shipping option. Printing options: Add your own branded label, clothing tags, or embroidered patches to create products that truly feel like your own. Apliiq also offers digital print, screen print (for bulk orders), cut and sew, appliqué (where your designs are sewn on as a separate fabric), and embroidery options. Unique features: Add custom labels, clothing tags, and patches to brand your products. Apliiq offers more robust customization than other platforms with the ability to design the interior lining of a hoodie or add pockets, patches, and more to your clothing. Recommended for: Anyone who’s serious about fashion and starting their own clothing line with premium apparel at a higher price point, especially if you want to order in bulk to have products on hand to sell offline. If you want to start a clothing line that puts design and quality above all else, there are few better options than Apliiq. Based in downtown LA, it offers a wide range of customization options that let you create your own retail-quality private label apparel products.
With better wholesale discounts than most print-on-demand providers (starting at 20% off for a bulk order of 10), Apliiq is a great partner for anyone who wants to start a fashion brand and sell through a mix of online and offline retail channels.
For $100 a year, you can upgrade to a plan that includes 100 custom woven labels that will be sewn onto your products. Instead of offering a discount on samples, like most companies, you pay a markup for quality assurance, wherein an in-house production artist will review your product and make minor tweaks to your design. That way, when you’re ready to dropship or buy in bulk, you can be confident that customers will receive the best version of your product.
Product catalog: Pocket tees (designs on the chest pocket) Premium joggers Hoodies with print on interior lining Kangaroo hoodies Premium snapback hat Denim jackets Eco-friendly clothing And more
Teelaunch
Shipping: Production usually takes three to six business days, after which orders are ready to ship from facilities in the US, Canada, or the UK. Shipping costs depend on the product and destination. You can see Teelaunch’s full breakdown of product costs for details. Printing options: Direct to garment and cut and sew all-over-print for apparel, and laser etching for products like tumblers and cooking boards. Unique features: Teelaunch offers a product personalization tool that lets customers add their name or upload their own photo to a product. It also autogenerates high-quality professional product mockups, including lifestyle photos for some items. Recommended for: Anyone looking for an all-around solution for creating quality products. Teelaunch makes it easy to source high-quality items at competitive prices. Teelaunch is another solid and versatile print-on-demand partner. What stands out the most is the quality of the mockups it generates for you—it gives you professional-looking product images to use in marketing materials and even lifestyle photos for some of its items.
With a competitively priced catalog of quality products (including rather unique items like Bluetooth speakers), reasonable fulfillment times, and a responsive customer support team, Teelaunch has all the ingredients to help you build a print-on-demand business.
Product catalog: T-shirts (Next Level, Bella + Canvas, and more) 3-piece canvas sets Color-changing mugs Monogram handbags Balloons Penryn backpacks Running shoes Bluetooth speakers Dog bowls Jewelry iPhone cases Phone chargers Journals And over 120 more
CustomCat
Shipping: Orders are produced in the US and usually ready to ship within two to three business days. From there, it takes about one to seven business days for domestic shipping and four to 15 days for international shipping. Domestic shipping to the US costs $4.99 for the first item and then $1.50 for each additional item, while international shipping is $7.50 for the first item and $5.95 for each additional item. See CustomCat’s FAQ page for details. Printing options: Direct-to-garment, sublimation, 3D dye diffusion, and embroidery printing. Unique features: An optional paid plan for $30 a month gives you access to some of the lowest prices in the industry ($7 tees and $3.50 mugs). Recommended for: Sourcing hard-to-find products as they boast one of the largest catalogs on this list. CustomCat is a large-scale print-on-demand company with the biggest catalog of products on this list—over 550 and counting. If you’re looking for a variety of products and are OK with a simple design tool, CustomCat is a good all-around partner with competitive prices and fast fulfillment times.
It offers a wide range of brands and products to choose from, along with a paid plan of $30 a month to get a discount on its entire catalog.
Product catalog: T-shirts (Bella + Canvas, Dickies, Gildan, and more) Sweatpants Laptop sleeves Pet accessories Jewelry Drinkware Windbreaker jackets and pants Jerseys And over 550 more items
Lulu xPress
Shipping: Ships within three to five business days to over 150 countries from fulfillment centers in the US, Canada, Europe, and the UK. Starts at $3.99 to ship to the US. See Lulu’s pricing calculator for details. Printing options: Digital printing with the option to choose paper type, trim size (from pocketbook to A4 landscape), print quality and color, binding type (perfect bound, hardcover, etc.), and matte or glossy finish. Unique features: With Lulu, you can also sell your books on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Lulu’s own marketplace, or even as an ebook. Recommended for: Authors, teachers, comedians, illustrators, and creatives of all kinds who want to monetize their talent or their audience with a book or calendar product. Lulu xPress is the print-on-demand arm of Lulu, an online platform for self-publishers. It makes it easy to create and sell your own print products, from books to calendars, that you can customize in a variety of ways.
Lulu xPress is great for writers, photographers, educators, and creatives, especially those with an established audience that they want to monetize. Outside of the standard merchandise that creators typically sell, Lulu lets you convert digital content into a physical item, such as turning your webcomics into a coffee table book.
Best of all, using Lulu doesn’t close you off from other distribution channels with more reach and scale, such as retail book stores and Amazon. Instead, Lulu xPress is an easy way to test an idea or retain more of your profits by selling directly to consumers under your own brand, bypassing all the gatekeepers of traditional publishing.
Product catalog: Novels Photobooks Cookbooks Journals Artbooks Workbooks Novelty coffee-table books Textbooks Poetry books Calendars Comic books Magazines And other print products You need to find a reliable service to partner with to ensure your products look and feel the way you want.
T-Pop
Shipping: Orders are printed in France and take two to four days before they’re ready to ship. From there, orders within France arrive in two to three working days, the rest of Europe in three to seven days, and international orders in five to 10 days. Shipping rates are weight based, which you can dig into on T-Pop’s shipping page. Printing options: Direct-to-garment for cotton apparel and sublimation dye for polyester and accessories. Unique features: White label customer experience with fully customizable packing slips, plus eco-friendly products, printing, and packaging. Recommended for: Selling within Europe or anyone looking for a quality print-on-demand company with an ethical and eco-friendly supply chain and business practice. T-Pop is a print-on-demand company based in Europe that focuses on apparel and accessories. When customers receive your order, everything from the packaging to the packing slip will bear your brand. With a monthly sales volume of 100, you can also add your brand to the inside labels of your products for 2.50.
What makes T-Pop stand out is its commitment to the environment, from “zero plastic” packaging—advertised on it for customers to see—to 100% recycled paper packing slips.
It goes the extra mile to ensure its supply chain is as ethical as possible. Its main supplier, Stanley/Stella, is part of the Fair Wear Foundation, an organization focused on ensuring compliance with labor laws in the manufacture of apparel products.
Product catalog: T-shirts Hoodie dress Aluminum bottle Tank tops Tote bags Sweatshirts Metal and ceramic mugs Cushion and cushion covers Baby bibs and onesies And more Template Icon
JetPrint: Print on Demand
Shipping: Average production time is three to five business days. It offers free global shipping with an average arrival time of 14–20 business days. However, it also offers $15 express shipping for delivery within five to nine business days. See their FAQ page for details. Printing options: JetPrint focuses mainly on watches with the ability to print your own designs on the watch face. It offers many different watch types, colors, and straps to customize the final product. Unique features: Automatically process orders, setting a timeframe that allows you to make changes or corrections if needed. JetPrint also gives you the ability to automatically generate a variety of high-quality mockups and detailed specs to use on your product page. Recommended for: Anyone interested in starting their own custom watch company with a drop-shipping fulfillment model. JetPrint specializes in a unique product category within the print-on-demand space: watches. With different styles, straps, and colors to choose from, you can design your own watches to sell on demand. Shipping is simplified into free and express options with international coverage, making it easy to advertise free international shipping to entice customers to shop with you.
Once you’ve designed your product, JetPrint will automatically generate a collection of product photos that show off your watches from several angles.
While JetPrint’s focus has largely been on watches, it’s also expanding its catalog to include other product categories, such as home decor and phone accessories.
Product catalog: Genuine leather strap watches Steel strap watches Magnetic steel strap watches Perpetual calendar watches Hard phone cases T-shirts Wall tapestries And more
AOP+ Easy Print on Demand
Shipping: Production usually takes three to five business days (seven to 10 for all-over-print), after which it will ship from one of its fulfillment centers in the US, Europe, or the UK. Shipping costs depend on the product with discounts on additional items in the same order. See AOP+’s shipping rates for details. Printing options: AOP+ focuses on dye sublimation all-over-print (hence the name) and direct-to-garment printing. Unique features: Include your own custom packing slip in orders. You can also unlock discounts of up to 10% off, along with other custom branding options, like packaging stickers and private labeling features, with AOP+’s paid plans. Recommended for: Anyone who wants to quickly launch and test their designs on a large variety of products or is open to paying a monthly fee ($11.99 to $19.99) to bring their unique vision for a custom print-on-demand business to life. As its name suggests, AOP+ focuses mainly on easy all-over-print products. You simply upload a design and choose which products you’d like to create, making it perhaps the fastest print-on-demand app to get started with. It also prints everything in-house, which allows for better quality control.
While AOP+ offers a free plan that includes many of the features you’d expect from a print-on-demand company, its paid plans are where it truly shines, giving you access to both discounts, various customization options, and more.
Product catalog: T-shirts Mugs Throw pillows Leggings Organic tote bags Hard phone cases Hoodie dresses Flip flops Doormats Flags And over 200 more items
Print on demand’s strongest appeal is giving you a low-risk way to try your hand at selling custom products. As we’ve covered above, you need to find a reliable service to partner with to ensure your products look and feel the way you want and are reliably shipped to your customers.
At first glance, many print-on-demand companies can seem interchangeable, especially if all you want to do is start an online t-shirt business. But it’s important to choose a partner based on where its strengths lie, the products it offers, and how it can scale with your vision. Once you know what you want, your partner’s distinctive catalogs, pricing, and feature sets make a meaningful difference.
Illustration by Eugenia Mello
About the author Braveen Kumar
Braveen Kumar is part of the content team at Shopify where he develops resources to help aspiring entrepreneurs start and grow their own businesses.
By David Humphreys | Published on November 06, 2020 (Updated on 11/10/2020) | 7 min read
Teams across the globe have embraced remote work, and with it a whole new way to collaborate. A modern work environment doesn’t just get created overnight, there are hurdles along the way to make it feel “normal”.
Team building is not a one-off activity you do when you happen to think “hey, it’s been a while since we did a team bonding exercise!”. Team building efforts are most effective when done regularly, and result in a caring and connected team.
When it comes to remote teams, virtual team building is especially important. Since the intention to communicate and collaborate needs to be at the forefront of all remote initiatives, making sure that your team feels emotionally connected is a good place to start.
Instead of looking at those as “cheesy” or just a standard in-person exercise, start looking at it as a way of breaking your virtual team’s routine to cultivate connections, spark conversations, and getting to know your co-workers, beyond just work.
Team Building, But Make It Remote By many measures, communicating in person is just flat out easier. When your team members are sitting directly across from you, it’s more straightforward to give them your full attention, pick up on nonverbal cues, and build rapport via shared experiences.
However, choosing to get together in person as a distributed team does come with some major downsides. Assuming it’s safe to travel, airfare and hotel accommodations can be pricey, and each flight will add about 0.5 metric tons of CO2 to your carbon footprint.
On the other hand, relying on the internet to communicate can also be challenging. Up to 92% of human communication is nonverbal, and current technology can only partially translate the spectrum of human expression.
Even video conferencing, which allows you to pick up on facial expressions and some body language (which constitutes 55% of communication), has its limitations. When the person you’re talking to is a two-inch-tall disembodied head that magically transforms into a buffering wheel every 15 seconds, deciphering facial expressions and body language can be frustrating.
But remote meetings don’t have to be that awkward. Building rapport and understanding helps fill in the communication gaps during those technologically-challenging moments. Let’s look at some icebreakers and quick virtual activities to help your team kick-off your next conference call on the same page.
Easy (Not Cheesy) Remote Team Building Exercises Getting to know your co-workers does not have to be time-consuming or awkward. The key here is to make it consistent, rather than a random bonding exercise. In the long run, your team will become more familiar with the idea of opening up to other team members through some fun virtual activities.
Here are some quick and ongoing team building activities to implement in your distributed team conference calls to keep work moving forward in a collaborative and connected light.
Point Your Camera Out The Window One of the great aspects of video conferencing is that it allows you to catch a glimpse of an unfamiliar environment in real-time, without ever leaving the comfort of your remote office.
If you live in Minnesota and someone is joining your meeting from New Zealand, chances are you’ll want to take a peek out their window. Will it overlook a spectacular Lord of the Rings-style vista or an ordinary Wellington street? The opportunity to play tourist for five minutes will be fun for everyone involved and will help the team get a common perspective of their surroundings.
team building activity showing your surrounder
Here’s an example. Where do you think the picture above is from? It kind of looks somewhere in Scandinavian, doesn’t it?
Here’s a hint: It’s Canada’s Silicon Valley and—more importantly—the historic birthplace of Joseph Schneider, founder of the Schneider hot dog company. Is it easier to guess now?
If you said Waterloo, Ontario, you guessed right!
See how fun that was? You can add fun facts to your location to give more hints for your co-workers to guess. This is also a great icebreaker for a virtual happy hour.
Desk Show And Tell Another major advantage of virtual meetings is that everything in your office is always within reach. Chances are, you’ve decorated your workspace in a way that reflects your personal taste.
Explaining the story behind a piece of artwork or an accessory on your desk can be a great way for other people to get to know you better. The next time you’re on a video call with your team, take them on a tour of your desk!
Alternatively, you can use the objects on your desk as the basis for a virtual team building game: Which item within reach would you take with you if you were stranded on a tropical island?
Here’s some advice: Take a laptop charger. In lieu of a proper rope, it would be the ideal instrument for rappelling up trees to pick coconuts.
You can also expand this team building activity to your chat tool, such as Slack, by randomly asking your team members to share their remote office desk at a certain time of the day.
You can learn a lot about your remote workers’ personalities and state of mind depending on the day they are having.
Example: Is the chaos that is Max’s desk reflective of Max’s organizational skills or a stressful day? This will help your virtual team create empathy and connection with other team members across the globe.
Two Truths And A Lie This virtual team building activity is based on the popular Jimmy Fallon’s segment, and there’s no reason to believe it won’t be popular during your conference call. The rules of this virtual icebreaker are simple: Write down three statements, two of which are true and one of which is false. Read all three statements out loud and give everyone else a minute to guess which of the statements is false.
You’d be surprised how many times you can play this before you run out of fake things to share, or eventually knowing your co-workers so well, that you can easily tell when they are lying.
Team Coffee Or Team Lunch It’s a scientific fact that eating together promotes team bonding. Most companies that pride themselves on having a strong company culture have picked up on this, and just because your team can’t physically meet at the same restaurant doesn’t mean that this tried and true team building activity is off-limits.
It’s fairly straightforward to hold team lunches remotely via video conferencing: Have food, eat in front of your camera, let the conversations (and probably coffee) flow. It may feel weird, but it works!
If you have a group of foodies, you could create a remote cooking experience with your co-workers. This can even be opened as a company-wide virtual team building activity where participants share their recipes using the same ingredients. This is a great way to learn different flavors when your remote team has a diverse cultural background.
Breaking down virtual barriers by breaking bread is simple to organize and something everyone will have in common.
Summarize A Story In 60 Seconds Everything becomes more exciting when a time limit is involved. For instance, listening to an academic summarize their PhD dissertation is hardly the stuff of high drama, and yet one of the most popular public events at universities is the 3MT, a competition in which PhD students attempt to whittle down their thesis into an easily digestible three-minute-long sound bite.
Substitute PhD dissertations with resumes, change the time limit from 3 minutes to 1 minute, and you have the basis for a pretty good (and quick) team building exercise that can be added to any virtual meeting.
Your colleagues are going to want to know a bit about your background, but they’re not going to want to know about it in Proustian detail. By forcing everyone to summarize their careers in 60 seconds, you’re not only sharing information that will help cement bonds between team members, but you’re doing it in a way that would nab solid ratings if your virtual meeting were broadcasted on TV.
You can also spin up this idea as a fun way to start your virtual meetings. Instead of sharing a career background story, you can have each team member sharing a fun, not yet-known story about themselves in 60 seconds.
Start With Team Building Basics, End With A Bond These five virtual team building activities are just a small fraction of the hundreds of possible meeting games out there, but they’re ones that are easily adapted to fit into your regular meetings.
Remember, good virtual team building activities should create natural conversations—similar to the ones that take place in the traditional workspace, and all while sitting in the comfort of your favorite chair and outfit.
Start small. Pick one idea above and give it a try! You will be impressed by the results that this can bring to your team.
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in 2017 and we’ve added a whole heap of new ideas and nuggets of information to this post in October 2020.
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