Investing in promotional clothing or high quality personalised uniforms is a big step for a small business – it means laying out a reasonably large amount of money for what often seems like no sales return. How do you choose which company should get that money and how can you try to turn your investment into immediate sales?
Choosing a uniform provider
Communications with the companies you’re choosing between can be vital – see how they handle your questions about returns and re-orders, alterations to your order or special needs such as unusual sizes. The way that a company deals with your initial order can be a real clue to how they are going to work out in the long term. If they take time to understand your needs, can make suggestions that will save you money, and seem to care about getting things right, that’s good. Above all though, are they prompt in replying to you and do they answer the questions that you ask? If not … be careful.
Make sure your chosen provider has a good range of top clothing brands, so that you can be confident your order will be printed or embroidered on clothing that will look good and last well.
Turn clothing into orders
Use your new uniform to publicise your business – even the smallest firm can write a press release saying that it’s got a new corporate look, take a digital photo of a staff member wearing the new uniform, and email it to the local press and the trade papers. If they don’t use it, it’s cost you nothing but if there’s an empty inch of space, an editor has to fill it with something, and now that most papers and magazines are also online, they have a real need to fill their pages with new information, so you could easily find you get good free publicity.
