Turn Down The Hustle: Empowering Online T-Shirt Sellers

22 | 10 Reasons You Need Weekly Runs For Your T-Shirt Business (Pt. I)

• Sun Kissed Virtual Assistant • Episode 22

Share episode

In this episode, I'm dishing out the details of my own wedding prep journey, sparking a call to arms for all the matrimonial gurus out there to share their sage advice. But hold on to your veils, as we swiftly pivot towards the heart of entrepreneurial success. Imagine the potential of your T-shirt business skyrocketing as you unveil 20 fresh designs week after week, igniting a buzz that turns first-time buyers into devout followers. This isn't just about keeping your product line fresh—it's about embedding a ritual of excitement and exclusivity into your brand's DNA, ensuring that your customers are always eager for the next big drop.

Now, let's talk visibility—because in the crowded marketplace of fashion, being seen is just as important as being innovative. Join me as I lay out a marketing blueprint that stamps your brand into the minds of customers, not once or twice, but seven impactful times across their favorite platforms. Whether it's through captivating Instagram stories or engrossing live sessions, we're making sure your T-shirts are the talk of the town. And it's not all about the hustle; it's about finding that sweet spot where a well-oiled work schedule meets the creative flow, giving you the breathing room to dream up your next big hit. So, press play and prepare to transform your T-shirt business into a well-tuned machine of creativity and sales.

Got an idea for an episode? Shoot me a message and tell me about it!

Get all of the links and podcast in one place, by visiting the show notes.
Follow me on Facebook page, right here.
Do you prefer consuming video content, subscribe to my YouTube channel.

Speaker 1:

Welcome back to the podcast. If you're on my email list, you know I am in the midst of planning my wedding. Yes, I got engaged, super excited. If you have any wedding planning tips, advice, anything like that, I'd love to hear them. Just email me at Amy at SunKissVAcom. I would love to know all of those dos and don'ts. Okay, so last episode we finished up with Facebook group tools, so now we're moving on to a little two-part series.

Speaker 1:

In today's episode there's 10 reasons you need to create weekly runs Between business branding, scheduling, social media, finding the sweet spot on your heat press, keeping up with your expenses. Running a business can be a handful. Oh, and I didn't even mention that nine to five you're working or at home trying to chase kids and come back to your business when you can. It's nearly impossible at times. Oh, I didn't even mention Don't forget you need to figure out what to offer your audience and then also move them towards checking out.

Speaker 1:

Do you feel like you are reinventing the wheel repeatedly and doing a lot of extra work just to prepare inconsistent drops? When you think about it, you actually only drop new teas whenever you see a screen prints on sale. There is a high likelihood your inconsistency is leaving money on the table. And then don't even get me started on the extra stress you're adding to your plate to because you don't have a system. So in this episode I'm going to walk you through why. I recommend you organize your business to offer a new weekly run every week with 20 new products that are only available for a short time. So you're adding in that scarcity. I'm going to be elaborating on the exact template found in my content calendars. You'll see if you've purchased one before the placeholders for your products and how that works. Weekly runs provide 20 new products offered on Tuesday and you have through Sunday to shop, or you can keep them open a little bit longer. But the key is is that every Tuesday you are offering new products.

Speaker 2:

You're listening to Turndown the Hustle, the podcast dedicated to transforming how you run your creative online t-shirt business by working smarter, not harder, so you can spend more time with your why, people and passions that matter most in your life. So throw on your favorite graphic tee and turn up the heat. Press, because it's time to turn down the hustle. Here's your host digital marketer. Cold brew lover, t-shirt maker, freckled hype girl and owner of SunKiss Virtual Assistant, amy.

Speaker 1:

Number one weekly runs set the baseline. Think of your weekly run as the foundational layer of your sales offer. You can add more to it and it gets more complex, but your weekly run is your foundational layer. Before you start planning a bid war or a fun game for the week, you want to have your weekly run set and scheduled. And if that extra energy you had at the beginning of the week, when you were super motivated, wears off to do those extra bid wars or flash sales, no worries, because your weekly run is still running in background and allows you that ability to have some time off. Weekly runs are still perfect, even while you are on vacation. Why? Because you don't need to make the items that week. You are just offering them and then when you get home then you can fulfill those orders, versus not running anything while you're on vacation and then when you get back your business is kind of dead. So you can still make money while you're not actually at home. Get in the habit of planning, preparing and scheduling your weekly run before adding anything extra and fun. Your consistency will pay off. So it's pretty much like let's do your chores first, then we can go do all the fun stuff.

Speaker 1:

Number two it creates expectations for customers. Algorithms can be harsh the majority of the time. Social media posts, on average, are shown to three to 5% of your following. Take a look at your last post, reach, and see if that percentage is about accurate. Your customers may not shop, not because they don't want to, but maybe because they didn't see your post or your offer. But what if our customers were trained to know exactly when to expect new items from us each week? With a weekly drop, this is possible. We can work around the algorithm with consistency. We don't need social media to nudge our customers. Instead, they will come looking for your offer. Take it a step further to reward the early birds with the 10% off their order every Tuesday, which equates to day one of the drop. If you wanted to get up another notch, I highly recommend you start to build out your email list and email your customers whenever a new drop is available.

Speaker 1:

Number three the ability to plan ahead. Now that you have a system for weekly runs, you can plan well in advance. If there is a week you know you will be busy, work ahead of the schedule to go ahead and get your weekly drop done. With a strategy, you will now no longer scramble weekly to list your product offer. Instead, you can sit down and schedule all of your products for the entire month. If you sell a product where you don't depend on another vendor to keep stock, you can schedule those products well in advance of a month. Maybe you're scheduling two to three months out. Use the technique of batching to your advantage with weekly run, so you sit down, do all of your focus work one task at one time to alleviate task switching. This is a fun one.

Speaker 1:

Number four generate content for social media. If you need help sharing your offer on social media, a weekly run creates a structured posting plan for you and it doubles as social media content. There is a range of options to choose from, so here are just a few ideas on how to break out your 20 posts each week. So the first option you could just post all 20 products in one post on Tuesday. Another option would be to do five posts a week and you put four products in each post, so that's a total of five posts. You will do that on Tuesday through Saturday, and again it closes on Sunday. Or maybe you don't like to be active on the weekends, so you want to change that to four posts a week, five products in each post, tuesday through Friday. If you see more results with your audience, like they are more engaging whenever you just put one product per post, then you could do four posts a day, one product in each post, tuesday through Saturday. So that's just 20 posts and you're giving each product its own dedicated post. Or the latter would be five posts a day, one product in each post, if you're only posting Tuesday through Friday. Again, if you struggle with what to post on social media by running weekly drops, it also doubles as your social media content.

Speaker 1:

Number five create a sense of urgency. If you've ever been confused on oh, how long should I allow this to stay available for, or am I pulling it down too soon? Is it too late? Like will they know when this product is no longer available? Weekly runs solve this for you. It creates a consistent sense of urgency each week for your customers to shop If they want this item. They will soon learn they need to get their order in On Sunday. These items are going to close and there is no guarantee they can get these items again. Or if you're taking on the strategy of you're going to leave them available. Then you can create a sense of urgency with an expiring discount code.

Speaker 1:

Number six close with your tea parties. Many customers may have found you through a tea party they were invited to and in that tea party they had to place their order in that party, sunday at 8 pm. So they are already expecting when it closes. Use this to your advantage in your VIP group. They will understand that when this product closes or there is a deadline to order, it is really a deadline to order. Soon it will become ingrained for them and just as we discuss their expectations for new releases, the same will be valid for expectations on product closing. Versus trying to reach your audience and say, hey, don't forget, this is closing Over time, they don't really need that reminder. They will just start associating Sunday at 8pm. Oop, the weekly drop is closing. I forgot to go look at what it is. Let me go take a peek at the website.

Speaker 1:

Number seven save money with one material order a week. When I first started selling teas, I did not have a schedule for ordering materials. It led me to order from S&S Activewear multiple times a week and then I was paying a lot of extra shipping costs. It's like roughly $20 per order if you don't meet the minimum threshold. The same can be said for screen prints. Are you ordering multiple times a week from the same screen print vendor? I would place an order and then I'd get another tea order and then I'd like shoot, I need to go order again. So by having a weekly run system and using this in line with your tea party structure as well, it will start to save you money, because now you can combine your parties in your weekly run and order it all together because it's all closing Sunday at 8pm, right? And then, when I started doing that, I was able to hit a $200 order each week to qualify for free shipping from S&S Activewear. I highly recommend. If you're using Jiffy shirts right now, I recommend, if you have the appropriate documentation, to make an account with S&S Activewear. Go check it out. Even if you don't hit free shipping. Let's say you have just eight shirts you need to order. If you take that $20 shipping divided by eight and add that cost to each of your baseline shirts, I bet you it's still cheaper than what you would get individually with Jiffy shirts. But overall, creating these systems allow you to combine your material orders and save money.

Speaker 1:

Number eight regroup with a prep day. I gathered all my orders every Monday because they closed Sunday at 8pm, and then I placed one order, just like we just talked about. I used the downtime on Mondays to ensure my weekly run for the next week was scheduled and ready to go. I also updated my office inventory, straightened up in preparation for my blank teas to arrive the next day. If I ordered by 5pm, s&s delivered teas the next day to my house. With this routine, when I walked into my office after work I knew exactly what I should be working on and that really helped me maximize the little time that I had by having a clear plan and strategy.

Speaker 1:

Number nine find your enough point. Weekly runs help me enforce healthy boundaries. I got lost scrolling and browsing design ideas for hours before weekly runs. I never knew when enough products were enough. Like, should I keep building 30, 50, like, oh, what about this design? It always left me feeling like I fell short. With a weekly run, it was clear that I only needed to find 20 products and I was done With that. It kind of also forced me to be critical of which products I pulled to run versus just throwing the kitchen sink at them any kind of designs. It can also create decision paralysis for your customers if you have too many designs available. Think about how easy it is to grab an outfit from a packed suitcase on vacation versus whenever you're at home with a closet full of options. It is common for creative entrepreneurs like yourself to not know when to turn the lights off and call it a night. By creating a daily system, I knew when my work was done and when I could call it a job will done. And number 10, it allows you to have new, exciting themes the best part of all new, fresh product offerings.

Speaker 1:

Changing up the weekly product category each week will leave your audience on edge, wondering what you will have the next week. What I mean by this is you're not just throwing together 20 random products and posting them with your weekly runs. You're going to pick a product theme and build 20 products around that theme. If that feels a little bit overwhelming, don't worry. I have already mapped out 52 weekly drops for you in my product drop organizer. The 2024 product drop organizer is the third iteration. I've been doing it for three years. You can take a look at senkisvacom, forward slash, pdo, papa, delta, oscar to learn more. It has a overwhelming amount of planning tools in there for the entire year. It also gives you monthly, weekly, daily observances to give you even more ideas on how to structure your product drops. And if you just want me to create all of your product drops for you like, give you the mockups, give you the email templates, sales posts, you name it then you should come join my product drop organizer club.

Speaker 1:

Now that we've gone over the 10 reasons for a weekly run in your creative business, let's talk about the so what? Why does that matter? I want you to be mindful of the marketing rule of seven. This rule states that a customer needs to be exposed to a product on an average of seven times before buying. Think about how often you look in the fridge before deciding on an item. Think about how you continually scour the closet before you're like okay, I'll just pick this.

Speaker 1:

With the marketing rule of seven in play, when you make all 20 products available on your website simultaneously, when you release the first product, your customers will be able to see all of your products for the week and it will increase their exposure to the product and increase the chance of buying when they see the scheduled item later in the week and remind them of the product. So what do I mean by that? When it comes to your website, post all 20 available. Even if you're not scheduling that mockup to be shown with a caption until Sunday, it's okay for them to go ahead and see everything you have available, because we don't want your audience to wait to order just to make sure that they don't find something else later in the week that they like better and then they forget to come back at all. The marketing rule of seven also creates more emphasis on why you should be sharing your products on stories, email, instagram, going live, maybe doing a pre-recorded video to talk about the weekly drop. You need to make sure that you're allowing your customers the exposure to it. So then the marketing rule of seven can take effect, versus just posting it once, adding it to your website and then saying, hmm, no one bought. I wonder why we need to consistently expose them. So I want you to list and name seven ways you plan for your customers to see these products each week. Once you create that system, you can add that to your weekly run procedures.

Speaker 1:

And one thing I did not talk about in this episode is how, whenever you have all of your work done, how much it frees you up to be creative again. If you're finding yourself in a rut or a creativity rut and you're not really sure why, write down the things and pinpoint what is stressing you out. A lot of times for creative entrepreneurs, it feels like you're just running on a hamster reel and you can never catch a breath of air. I know I am my most creative when I know that all of my tasks are complete and I can be creative out of abundance. Get into a routine with your business task and watch the creativity and freedom flow back into your business. Then, finally, the weight is off your shoulders. It's time to sell and scale.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Amy

Host