PDQ Promotions Printing & Embroidery

While others stunt or shrink- We Grow -’08 defined ‘09 we will shine.

As we look  at the final quarter of the year and all the doom and gloom that surrounds the Shrinking town of Tracy, Callifornia, I see a beautiful sunset and a promising dawn. Beautiful in the sense that we continue to grow despite some extensive set backs and adaptations in our book of business as well as our product mix and offering. As some of you may know we started as a home based business in our garage where we managed to produce quality product, with quick turn around, and simple pricing. This was four years ago. With no background but a big drive and personal vision, we tweaked and adapted to where we are today. We have always had a vision and plan but that vision or plan never really looked like where we are today. Does that mean that we failed or does that mean that we were flexible and did not fight what our business, clients, and friends were telling us. I think thanks to the hard work and dedication of our immediate family and my wife’s unwillingness to fail we navigated to future success.
In 2005 when we made a decision to buy not a franchise but rather a stand alone business with nothing but a training team and starter equipment -we had no experience in the industry, no financial support, and definately a lot of naysayers; we knew we had to be very careful and very open. As we took 2006 to break into the community, develop our network, and push our limits we realized close to around Halloween that we had outgrown our home. We had projects and orders littered through out the garage, living room, family room, home office, and finally our guest room. Each year at this time we always re-examine and tweak our vision as you will see in the coming article. 2006 was good year but a limited year for us in that we were learning the trade, the secrets, the tools, the pitfalls.
October 2006 we actively sought to acquire an embroidery machine to expand our offerings of Promotional products, screen printing, pad printing, and our newly acquired heat press and vinyl cutter. At the time little did we know the pandora’s box that it would open for us. We already knew that we had outgrown the house, we also knew we could not grow the business enough without the embroidery. We in a sense attacked in two directions we sought to educate on the pitfalls of embroidery and also looked at what kind of location we could get. Unfortunately for us there was a commercial space shortage and the rents were exhorbitant and way out of our price range.

The week before Halloween I had a very important conversation with a client and close friend. He started inquiring on property on our behalf without providing our names or industry. He connected us to the soon to be PDQ Promotions Printing & Embroidery showroom on 11th St. Roughly at the same time we attended an awards and equipment show at a hotel in South San Francisco where we hit a Home run unbeknownst to us at the time. We made a purchase of a back up screen printer and a stamp maker which we loaded into our vehicle that very day. We also met a cadre of distributors hawking their embroidery machines, direct to garment printers, sublimation systems, pad printing, graphics programs, and finally engraving.

We had been to a trade show but apparently those didnt allow equipment vendors just product vendors so this was our first glimpse of correlated but separate industries. I saw one particular vendor that had an embroidery machine, a direct to garment printer, and two engravers set up and working. I tell you I liked what I saw. The gentleman was very nice, not pushy, and kind of funny. I asked really stupid questions and he answered very smartly. So he ranted about how his engraver was the best in the market and it could etch on almost anything. I proceeded to hand him a dixie cup with water and asked him to engrave my name on the water! I see the irony of this being our ice breaker.

We secured financing from a bank with some outrageous terms… We looked at the vendor and said it would be both the easiest as well as hardest deal he would ever make. Easy in that we wanted it all no salemanship needed, but we had to first get more favorable finance terms and we had to get a location that we could afford- one could not happen with out either of the other two. I will not say how it happened but on Dec 27 2006 we took possession of TWO embroidery machines, one engraver, and one laser engraver.

That started the wheel rolling and we moved into our location on January 22, 2007 and opened the store one week later on the 27th. We opened just as one of our biggest segment of clientele was imploding. The Mortgage and Real Estate Companies as well as a hospitality company were starting to show cracks in their business plans. for the next 3 months revenue was way below projection and the clients we did have were having issues paying. We knew we had to cut back and cut back hard and fast. We struggled deeply all of 2007.

January of 2007 signaled a turning point. Our referral base and name recognition had started to get around. We acquired another vinyl cutter and started to integrate multimedia processes with our existing equipment. In April I was approached by another similar business about 150 miles away that was interested in selling her sublimation equipment and retiring. 10 cents on the dollar we had a sublimation capability, 30 days later we opened negotiations on a third embroidery machine from a small shop that was folding. 3 months later I contacted a third business about a four head machine and we aquired it as well. Simultaneously we hired our first employee and began the incorporation process.

I see a tough year end but I think our survival so far will allow us to continue to grow next year and next year will be the best year ever for PDQ Promotions Printing and Embroidery. We will invest in POS and management information systems as well as refining our product mix. We will consider moving to a larger facility that will allow us to display more boutique items as well as allow for better production flow. As the economy improves our efficiencies will really pay a dividend. We look forward to meeting new clients and servicing our existing clients in 2009 and beyond

Holiday Gift Guide Video

We have worked closely with a supportive supplier and created a video of 75 of our most popular items that are value and distinction driven. Several of the items are under $20 if your artwork is already on file. These items are priced to move but supplies are limited.

http://63.251.14.198/marketing/video.jsp?m=DE4DC6AE3565559E77D7B82D42D1E90C

Welcome to PDQ Promotions Printing & Embroidery Blog

This blog will be used to communicate events, organizations, and news that PDQ Promotions Printing & Embroidery participate in. We may from time to time use this blog to discuss marketing techiniques  or special products that have come on line for us. We always welcome comments from clients and registered users so please join in. We also welcome our clients to come to our showroom and say hi. We are at 163 W 11th St in downtown Tracy, Ca. We can also be seen online at www.pdqpromoprint.com