Episode 31: “Cloning Your Best Customers Can 3X Your Profits

Marshall Atkinson

Is your company completely dialed into your exact target customer? Do you hit the bull's eye every time? That's what we're going to focus on with today's Success Stories podcast as Salinas, California-based Darryl Garcia, with Color Tech will be discussing his journey to align his business goals with the customers he can serve best. A former UPS driver, Darrell knows all about the hustle. He's created something special with Color Tech that is laser-focused on alignment and profitability. This is an episode that you'll get you to rethink how you are handling business with your shop, so get ready.

Marshall Atkinson

Welcome, Darryl, to the Success Stories podcast.

Darryl Garcia

Hey, good morning, Marshall. Glad to be here.

Marshall Atkinson

Yeah. And we've known each other for quite a long time now. Several years ago. And here's something I think a lot of people will find interesting is that we had the same birthday.

Darryl Garcia

Same birthday. Yep. That was very interesting. And it's really nice to the timeline of you'll always remember where that was. That was the night before Shirt Lab, St. Louis, and yourself, and Tom Rauen and I were having dinner. And we were started for whatever reason we got on IDs and we started exchanging IDs, looking at pictures, I don't remember how it started, and you go, "Hey--

Marshall Atkinson

We got we got carded.

Darryl Garcia

We got carded, is that what it was?

Marshall Atkinson

Yeah, we got carded. And I'm like, "Okay," well, I'm like, you know, I think at the time I was 55.

Darryl Garcia

Well looking at you, I'm 54.

Marshall Atkinson

Thanks for the compliment.

Darryl Garcia

Yeah, exactly. They're working for a tip already. Which is funny.

Marshall Atkinson

All right. So you're ready for some questions? For sure. All right, cool. So here's the first one. And I know you have worked extremely hard over the last few years, dialing in your business to be in complete alignment with how you want it to work. So can you talk about your journey from where you started? way back when, as a former ups driver? And then maybe, exactly how you're doing it now?

Darryl Garcia

Sure. Well, that would have been back in 1999. Looking to do something different. I was still at UPS, obviously, just no one wanted to do something different. And being a UPS driver, you see a lot of small businesses out there and you see their struggles. They're like, "Hey, can you hold that COD another day for me?" You see all the struggles of the small business being the UPS driver, very intimate behind the scenes. So being familiar with seeing that part. And then also seeing the success I'm going to say the amount of fun and hard work that these folks were having. So I was like, "What do I want to do?" I know I don't want to deliver boxes my whole life. It was a great wage, great job, but looking for something different. And there was an embroidery shop that I delivered to every day. And when I had the same thought process going on they asked me "So, what's new?" And I had just done a remodel on an old home and was living in it and I go, "I just finished this project on the side I'm looking for what's next." And they said, "Hey, man, you gotta try screen printing. We always need a screen printer." And I knew nothing about it. So it was probably like I said 1999, '98, '90 -- more like '99 probably have to look on a calendar with a show in Las Vegas, didn't know what it was, went there, the lines were massive to just get your pass to get in. There was no... very pre-dated, well how easy it is now to get into these trade shows. And my first impression I walked in, I'll never forget this. I told Richard Greaves this I walked in, and Newman stretch frames how to display going on. And they had like a circus to slay dancers on top of their frames, you know, pre-stretched, showing the stability and the strength of their mesh. So that was my first impression of going to a trade show. So from there, obviously definitely overwhelmed. But one thing I do remember is there was a kid I sat with and visited with asking them questions, because it was definitely a field trip as far as the seat knowledge, you know, get information. young gentlemen, I think he was with a mesh company. We met at a time and he said you don't need to be here on the floor. You need to be in these classes. And he gave me a schedule. So that was great knowledge from the very beginning great knowledge and that's where that journey started as far as getting good knowledge, the right knowledge, and then aligning myself with people that I could die. Just the information, how they taught where I wanted to go where they were, then you'd meet people in those classes where they are and you can kind of see you're where you want to go where I wanted to go for several years, definitely struggled, eventually left ups in 2000 and had opened up the shop and was under the impression that you know, if I work really, really hard, it will become a success. So I did that for a few years and realize this is not gonna work. I'm working really, really hard. So get better processes in place, got better equipment, still pretty manual. He started out as a manual, but I got a really good manual press held really good registration, started learning more and more about inks ink transfer, and then started meeting mentors. They were mentoring my whole life up through today. And some of the first people I met in no particular order or by everybody first of mind is Alan Buffington from urine commie a great teacher, great friend to this date. I've learned so much from Alan and he's supported and he's seen he supports me to this day, I'm still in contact with them. Walt right from your economy, Mark Coudray, from share graphics, Linda Terell, she was a rep for Rutland inks, and she would come by the shop. And she'd be so what's new, and she was always pushing me to get better it was that developed those kinds of mentors. So that's at the very beginning, extremely helpful. I was definitely a babe in the woods. And also another gentleman I want to make sure I mentioned is was Jim Domingo's and Jim will meet Domingo's was at Midwest up in Hayward. And he became a great mentor for me, he said anytime. And when he said, anytime he meant any time to call him if I had questions, he worked at a company called Winterland or Winterland, up in the Bay Area, and they were a huge printer back in the day, right? They are in like pre-pre-film output pre digitation we have now. So having a group of folks like that the very beginning, that was like the first 10 years building, building, and then probably around 2012, I met you in 2010. At the SCA, it was back in Las Vegas, it was just a post-economic meltdown. And we visited and hung out. And you gave me I still have it, I have it on my desk, she gave me a greenlit Notepad, you wrote your email in there, and you said, email me sometime. And that's how our friendship started. Does that was I've known? So I've been in contact with you since 2010. And also going through the publications back in the day, whether it be Printware Impressions or Screen Printing Magazine, and seeing people like "Oh, there's Marshall, I know that guy. He's right. I'm gonna read what he's writing." And obviously reading Marx articles, Alan wants to write articles from your economy, bring stability, avoiding more, and so forth. And that made a big difference in what I and I feel really fortunate in that, but I was also looking for it. And I probably go back to that kid that told me back in 1999, or that young man said, you need to be in the classes. Now that's what they're here. And so I just realized the value of that.

Marshall Atkinson

So your effort to find a more or less informal board of directors or your mentorship group, is what has allowed you to evolve and change your business over the years, right?

Darryl Garcia

100%. And also, I believe this has something to do with it. I'm coachable, I love sports, sports kept me in school, I went and stayed in school, if I wasn't in sports, realizing the value of a good coach, you know, get me to where I can't be wrong, get on myself. Very, very helpful. And so 2010, '12, '14, started moving along, but also a not a lot of profitability. A good topline, I guess, but not much bottom line, and working very hard. And then I was probably between 2012 and 2014 15 do a bit discouraged because I was investing in technology progressing as a printer might be my own personal experience I wasn't getting rewarded with the work or the clientele, Mike man. And so we're very kind of bitter and bitter at myself, like man, what am I doing here? What do I need to get clarity? So seeking more coaching, more clarity, I get old at 20. And I found out where 80% of my income is produced by the 20% of that clientele found out what they looked at what they had in common, and started cloning those client types of clients and types of jobs. So immediately within three months, my average ticket price went up, the workload actually went down because of doing better work. The workload went down and up the first year, I tripled the income and the shop trip literally tripled it. And then I'm like, wow, this is why this works. So that works, staying on that path, and then getting more and more introduced to a more tailored plated system templated system as far as how we take on the artwork, how we move artwork through how we move jobs through, whether it be onboarding a new client or onboarding a new project towards more templated, and then press and squeeze that to make the cycle shorter and shorter. That's been a tremendous help. And obviously, these aren't on my own. I've had great coaching and great mentors that help along the way and refined it, it's made a huge difference. And I'm a small shop, man. And so I like it that way. And maybe at some point, it will change. But it works really, really well for me.

Marshall Atkinson

So one of the things that I love, using use an example when I talk to other shops because you do some things that not a lot of people do. And I want you to walk through kind of your seizure rules of who you're doing business with and how you approach it, for example, money upfront, and why appointment only and minimums and that type of stuff. So talk about how where you were and then when you made these, this decision to shift to really being in alignment with your customers and focusing on the standards and rules that you're going to run your shop buy in the type of customers that you want. Talk about that a little bit. Sure.

Darryl Garcia

Oh, that's Yeah, thanks for bringing that up. That's an exciting part. Yeah, so it was around probably four years ago, maybe four and a half, five years ago, I made a decision I was in a blackout the windows. So all the shop all the front windows that face outward, they're all blacked out. And I blacked them out. And then I put vinyl on it it says all work by appointment only. And then they have a URL they can go to. And then also on the door, it says minimum order size 144. So that helped out a huge and then it just helped out. And it was like kind of I'm not gonna leap of faith as I believed in it, I believe, because we were getting so many as we know, like, you know, become like tire kickers are people not really serious or not knowing and, and it's like, I get paid to print we get paid to produce a product not to answer questions along that line, or we will help them and we will answer questions. But that helped out. So blacked out the windows, raise the minimum, and full payment upfront. And then they do that put procedure in place. You know, as far as our approval within three to five days after art approval production within 10 to 12 days, working days. And just staying with that if something needs to be rushed, we can rush it. But having that those systems in place are very, very was very helpful, blacking out the windows, and also putting a link on the website to schedule phone calls, we will take a call, I won't take it but I have an assistant lady who we will take a call and we'll book an appointment, I have a link with Calendly, they can book a call within 1015 minute call, we can find out if we're a good fit. And I learned this workshop that I went to. And you know the guy and it's like, you know I'm open to anyone. And at the same time, I'm not for everyone. But I'm open to anyone. But I'm not for everyone. So knowing that and being clear on that, and then sharing that with folks, they're good. They're usually good with it. And then also to what I realized and I was sharing this with the lady who works here last week is that we set ourselves up with that blacking out the windows and calling us is that when somebody calls me or calls the shop is we have the leverage. I'm not calling them looking for a business they're calling me looking for we're going to get their stuff done. So it's a matter of handling it correctly asking the right questions and leverage is a good thing not a bad thing on somebody but a good thing like okay, we're more in control of our destiny here. It's made a huge difference. And not only that, it shared last week, it's a lot of fun in the last several months because we're doing work for people we like I don't know if that's the right way to look at it, but we like the people we work for and they like us we like them. Like we'd hang out and and and that's kind of people that I want to have those kind of relationships, I want to work for people that I because when they when we do a job for him, they get us they get me they get the lady that works here and they get us they're not just getting a shingle off though, you know where there's some name, they're getting us and we're gonna make sure that it's on point.

Marshall Atkinson

Yeah, and for people listening, you know, Darryll doesn't have a shop with six autos and a whole bunch of people. It's just Darryll in Grizelda running a shop, right? And Daryll does all the work, right? And Grizelda does some admin stuff. So I kind of want you to talk about, you know, operating your business with just yourself and one other person. So talk about how you balanced the sales aspect of its production, the admin sign of ruin the business, all that kind of stuff. So walk everyone through that.

Darryl Garcia

Sure. For me when we started A is Griselda will have it at two hours in the morning as far as finalizing orders garments have been sourced, everything's in line arts getting produced two hours, and then I had it brought to my attention last week, he has a quarter your workday. So now if I try to get down to an hour because that's it, that's 25% of the workday, two hours, right, it's working, but I'm gonna try to squeeze that down more. And, and then Griselda will handle all the pre-press. And she can and what we've done is we've aligned things where we can do things side by side at the same time. So we can expose screens can take a call, if we need to withdraw a headset can also text when you're in contact with a client, with getting art approvals out or payments secured. And then it's also working on a back to art on a templated system where we output our art, we're working off a pin registration system, everything's templated. And she will have the screen room full of screens for the week. And she'll expose screens, take calls, dry screens, tape off screens. So by noon on Monday, we have screens ready to go for the week, that's very helpful then for me is a matter of I'll make sure we've got ink prepped, you know, all the stocks laid out and ready to go along that line. And we will bring in a third person, if we need to, as far as for a catcher, if we need a catcher at the end of the belt or something along with that liner. And then what I did also too, we put in a folding and bagging line. So we have an auto folder, bagger, and sealer, the only missing piece for that would be to get the stamp the size label, or the information on the outside of the bag as it goes up the conveyor, that'd be nice to have that. But it's, it's using automation. And super important I find for me or for us is having those templated models in place and those procedures, you know, systems, right? Very, very helpful.

Marshall Atkinson

It's all about your processes. And that's one of the things I think that you're really strong at is that you're setting in place exactly how you want your company to run, but you're not afraid to tweak it or change something or ask questions. Hey, can I do this better? And you've always been doing on and you probably asked more questions and but ya know, and I think that's just fantastic. When you're trying to figure something out, you have a gut feeling maybe something isn't working the way that you want it to work, what's your kind of way of solving that? How do you work on that?

Darryl Garcia

An indicator for me and it's not something I learned is whether it be emotional friction or physical friction. If I'm experiencing either one of those there's something to work on in the process. And we've all had that emotional friction in our workplace and then we also noticed physical friction whether it be moving shirts, tables, Inc, orders on a job wall, whatever it may be, and then emotional friction of like, why is this happening again, you know, becomes a brace off, and then break it down. That's been the big indicator for me very, very helpful. And then having a notepad and I have a razor board out in the shop that I'll write down if something comes up a problem. And then at the end of the week, I'll put them on a notepad or take a picture of them and sit down on my computer and address them if I need to improve on a template improve on communication. There's a lot of communication if they want to communicate clearly and expectations are clear. helps out a whole lot. Does that help answer the questions?

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Marshall Atkinson

So I just want to get into mentorship a little bit here, right? So over the period of time, I've known you I've come to appreciate your quest to learn and implement best practices to run your business more efficiently. Can you talk about that a bit and how the mindset of always being open to changes help you along the way?

Darryl Garcia

I think it goes back to being very young and then never asking questions as a kid, never wanting to not have to think that somebody that I didn't know and then as I got you to know became an adult and got into Learning the beginning of the screen for any business, I need to ask questions. I can't figure this out on my own. And that learned to ask for help. And I think a lot of it goes to those people that I shared at the very beginning that I first met and talked about for mentorship, they, they were so nice to me. They were so open, and they actually wanted to help they appreciated the questions. You know, I would get comments back. That's a great question. And, and so it got me enthused to like, okay, you know, do not be afraid to ask, continue to learn, you know, and come those folks that I met, I mentioned at the very beginning, it was just made a big difference. I didn't feel or they made me feel like I mattered, my business mattered, but I matter. They matter as far as me asking them to get information. And that's, you know, and then part of what I do today, I try to do the same thing, when somebody asked me a question about the process or getting shirts done, is to give them a you know, try to be as sincere or to be sincere with answering them that made a big difference. And it just opened it up to continue to ask and to know that there's never a there's always another over there. Right. So you as you learn, and then you improve, and you learn and improve some more. And it was like, I had read his articles throughout my, throughout my printing career. And it was the first Thread X they had, was that like, what 2018 I think, or 2017? And it was after Thread X, there was a workshop in Decatur, “In Transfer with Joe Clark” and I had read his articles. And I'm like, I need to go to this workshop, and I went to Joe and I learned so much I was ready to learn what he was sharing. And I made so much sense. And I'm like, “Oh my gosh, it was one of the best workshops I ever attended on ink.” And then once again, it was Joe Howe. And for me having all those same qualities, tangibles, however you want to say it as those other mentors that I mentioned, he's like, call me and he would question asked me, you know, and then I would ask them a question. And my phone would ring out here in California, like a 530 at night. And he be I guess, driving home or maybe sitting in his office at his house, and I go back east. And he was asking me to return my phone call. And he was answering some questions as far as I had technical questions for him. And then I went and asked him, I go, I go, you know, Joe, I go, I'm just I'm a small shop out here. And I go, what are you gonna call me back? Then tell me Give me your time. And he just real calmly said it's just it's what I'm supposed to do. He was running synergy at the time, too. And he was also an owner-distributor. And I'm like, “What a great role model.”

Marshall Atkinson

Yeah, well, he's missed.

Darryl Garcia

Yeah, for sure. You know, and as I said, It's fortunate that I get to meet people as Dan got to, you know that Greg Hale held that workshop that I got to go, but I got to be there. So it's, it's a mentorship meant everything, and then asking questions has helped out so much. It's been a lot of fun.

Marshall Atkinson

Yeah, great. So let's get lined up here. Let's talk about profitability. Okay, so one of the things that I really appreciate about color tech is that you spend a lot of time ensuring that the customers are a good fit for your business before you even get started doing anything, right. So why do you do that? And how can someone listening, learn to be more selective?

Darryl Garcia

The first thought is, knowing the kind of work that you want to do is clear on it. And I'm pretty clear on the work that I like we like to do, I like to do, that makes a big difference. Not taking jobs that aren't a good fit, makes a big difference. And then focusing or specializing in one particular market or segment years ago, it may not have been big enough, but it's big enough now, due to the reach of the internet, you can focus specialize in a particular market or particular technique. I think, for me, you can make a living doing that you don't need to be all over the board that's made a big difference. You know, so I'm not running jobs for the shop that takes a tremendous amount of Free Press.

A tremendous amount of, I would say, just pre-press this, these are the jobs that are going to run even even even with what we decorate on. I say no, a friend of mine is a private chef, before he was a private chef, he was a chef in a restaurant down in La Jolla. And he goes I say no all the time. I never knew why he did that. You know, he many many years have been doing it. And I've kind of adapted that where I don't say no, like no literally, but I do say no all the time, in a roundabout way.

Like that's not a good fit for us. And that comes down to even the fabrics we decorate on I'm not gonna decorate on a fabric that is going to cause me grief. I'm just not. And the same thing with training.

I can look at jobs and see how the arts have done up and go that's just grief. It’s just grief, you know, and just go I'm not gonna do that. And there's nothing wrong with It, you know, it sets that's for somebody else. But for me, it's having that clarity on that, you know, I've had that then on trust and have that bead of sweat on my upper lip. Well, man, this thing is, is causing all kinds of problems, right? And so once, so that's made a big difference being really, really clear, super clear on not only our client but being super clear on what I want to decorate on, you know? I'm not gonna go In n’ Out burger to get tacos. I'm just not. I mean, I'm just not.

Marshall Atkinson

I know, I know. So one of the things that you did that I really liked is that you're not afraid to take classes and courses and do different things. You know, you've been to Shirt Lab, you've been to Thread X, you work with Mark Coudray with this catalyst program. You took the Chris Voss program on negotiation. Yeah, and learned a lot there. And I think that really helps you solidify a lot of how you're dealing with your customers, don't you think?

Darryl Garcia

That particular class? Oh, for sure. The negotiation class was awesome. It was a workshop that he did down in San Diego, which I went to in 2019. And then it was like a three-week follow-up with zoom calls with them, just to get clear on asking good questions, continuing the dialogue, using mirrors using labels. And you know, and also that, you know, and what he shared, he shares a lot on we talked about in a roundabout way I or maybe direct way is collaborating, how important is on the collaborating part. It's super important. So anyway, that made a big difference. I can be maybe a little bit too aggressive. Sometimes somebody asked about the price, I might set throwback a label, it says quality's not important to you. And I'm saying they're cheap. And that could be negative, you know, or I could use it, I could change it up a little bit and say, sounds like you're ready to get a deal done, and let and kind of see what fill where they're at. And then one of my favorite ones to use is how do you see this moving forward in the future. And it's, you know, it's kind of like inception, right. And I want to see if they have a vision of working together. And if I'm not in that vision, that is never going to happen. And so that's one of those things that gets right to it real quick. Also, you get real quick, all of a sudden, you realize you're doing fewer follow-ups on quotes, or fewer follow-ups, in your interviewing is working. And I think that's what creates the amount of joy with the people we're working with right now is we're working with people to have a vision of working with us. And it's so important, you know, and ask questions and continues to that night, all the people you mentioned that I worked with, yeah, they're just awesome. It's made a huge difference. And I thoroughly enjoyed it man, and you know, working with you and you the Shirt, Lab events, with Mark with Alan, you know, mirror calm, he put on a few shops, things that they co-hosted down in Fullerton that I went to when Linda, one of my mentors was still working with a particular Rep. And it was just super helpful. And you know, and then it's also I, for me, my experience is also working with the distributors that will be supportive, supportive as far as with what they're carrying, and how they're supporting their clientele. You know what, you know, that's made a big difference, too.

Marshall Atkinson

And not to mention, I think the thing that really separates you, because a lot of people go to stuff like that, is you actually take the ideas that you like, or think that might work. And you put them in action, you actually do them.

Darryl Garcia

Thanks. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we mentioned that at a particular workshop, we were sitting side by side. And I appreciate that it works. It makes a difference, you know, and with the one auto and a couple of sewing machines, and the folder and bagger and the labeler. For neck labels, we stay plenty busy. And we and we have a lot of open time. As far as open press time, I could be busier. But I don't want to be busy being busy. So yeah, it's made a huge difference. It's been mentorship is key, you know, and for me, I'm coachable. I love to learn and continue to learn. And you know, is like we've learned from Mark, you know, we have like the triangle business, we have sales and marketing, we have produced. And then we have administration, those three, three sides. And you know, and as you can get cranked up and say sales and production, your weaknesses are going to show up because you're not being able to say spend enough time on administration, you're going to find out how can I make this process, consolidate and make it have it move through faster? And then the same with production, where all of a sudden you're like this is taking longer? What's different this month or this week than it was last week with a beam at the same amount of jobs? And why is it so much slower? Or was it taking longer or why did he go faster? Wow, that went fast. What line Oh, and it was ever wasn't in perfect alignment is okay, we're going to create more of this.

Marshall Atkinson

So what do you think has allowed you to really increase your profits? Not so much your top-line sales, but your bottom line re actually putting more money in the bank.

Darryl Garcia

I would say getting after the monthly overhead as quickly as possible, knowing what jobs fit in that. So do what the work that I do. And so if my expenses for the month, getting them addressed, try to get them addressed within the first 10 working days of the month, then have the rest of the month to add to follow the bottom line. That's been huge, very, very helpful. And then you know, not be afraid to charge for what I believe in worth, you know, not caving on price has made a big difference. And then being efficient, being super-efficient, moving through not having to go back and it can happen but do reexpose screen or where's that stack of mediums at or what have you just been super-efficient in the processes that have helped a huge and I and the more efficient, I can be dad one call with that rate per hour earn per hour just goes up. And it's a lot of fun.

Marshall Atkinson

So it's all about knowing your numbers.

Darryl Garcia

Right. But I do know my daily operating cost is it's very helpful, you know, and it's like, it's very, very helpful, it's made a huge difference, and was getting clear on that over the last several years. And then super clear during this last year, because you know, we all had a little bit of downtime, like, okay, as all this makes sense. It makes sense as far as how I have the operating expense, and my guess is where it's at. And then everything will continue to rise with the energy and labor when we get busy again. But that will be a counter for what amount of hours. So if we do five hours of production a week, I mean a day, that can be anywhere from 20 to 25 hours of production. And as a two-person shop, if we're averaging and we don't need to go out on average huge numbers. If we can average between like, say 240 and 360 an hour, we're fine, it's fine, you know, it's totally fine. And then we have other additional revenue streams with sewing services, and also with the bagging and folding and tagging, right, but it's no one those I don't have to have these huge stressful numbers on a daily basis to put through the production. And like I say, if it's just the to person, and we can average anywhere from 240 to like 360 on average run, and that's units per hour, prints per hour, and that and get that through within the five-hour window up and down and ready for the next day. And if we end up doing done faster, we'll start on the next day's project. It's like a sport, man, I really enjoy sports. And I look at it as a sport, you know, and if it's done efficiently and you know your game, you know, you're not an air carrier or corral. You know, you're not a throwing team. You're running a team, you know your strengths. And you play on your strengths.

Marshall Atkinson

Well, you know, Bill Walsh, you know, the great football coach said the score will take care of itself, right? It's all about having really good processes. Yes, sir. All right, Darryl. So thank you so much for sharing your story as successfully as today. If someone wants to learn more about what you do, or how you can help them, what is the best way to contact you? They're not going to knock on your door.

Darryl Garcia

Yeah, exactly. And see, one would be there's a number you can call or text, it's 831-235-5525. That's the shop mobile which takes either a call or a text, obviously, and then through the internet, they can go to colortechsp.com.

Marshall Atkinson

Awesome. Thank you so much Darryl you've been great.

Darryl Garcia

You got it, man. Thanks, Marshall have a great day.

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