The Print Life Screen Print Podcast

How to start a small business. In podcast #3 Cam dives deep into the first stages of planing your entry into the business world. The beginning stages can make or break your success in the business world. I know because I'm still paying for the repercussions of failing to plan. Truthfully had I planned to deeply I would have never taken that first step, so at the end of the day I have no regrets in the way I went about my business but perhaps you can learn from my failings like I'm still learning from the.  Check out our last podcast. Want to know more about our screen printing prices? Start on the products page and build your quote from there. visit The Print Life on YouTube to subscribe to our Vlogs

In our first ever live podcast I cover a wide variety of topics including The good and bad of the Screen Printing Business, screen printing tips and tricks, general small business advice, new, even my favorite quote of the day. This podcast was streamed live on out Youtube channel visit The Print Life to subscribe. 

Small Business Marketing with Reyes the Entrepreneur. Grow your T-shirt business with Youtube and social media tactics. We talk about all kinds of marketing and t shirt business topics in today's podcast. A question I constantly ask myself is what makes a small business work while others don't. In this podcast I talk with Reyes about a variety of topics but my main talking point is how he stays motivated when things get tough or when he is not sure what to do next. Small business marketing must remain constant.

Word of Mouth Advertising with Juan Carlos of Squeegee Prints.check out our t shirt printing services here

Product Development for Screen Printing with Ron Sievert Inventor of The EzGrip Squeegee Cam: (02:35) We have a very, very special guests. And the reason he's special and the reason I asked him to come on is because, um, I am, I'm personally just, I guess I would say I'm a creative person. I'm interested in creating products and developing products. And you know, whether I want to take them to market or not, I've just always been intrigued by the process. And this gentleman has, he's done a handful of products, but today we're going to talk about one product in particular and how he went about building it and what he did and what to look out for, what's the good, what's the bad, all that kind of stuff. So without further ado, let's introduce Mr Ron Seaver. He is the creator of the easy grip squeegee, the easy group squeegee. Ron, welcome to the show, my friend. Thank you for coming on. Ron: (03:42) Real pleasure to be here with you cam and your viewing audience. Cam: (03:46) Thanks dude. So, uh, what's new with you? What are you been up to these days? Oh, you know, same old thing. Try not trying to market this new invention. Yeah, man. All right. Time consuming project. It is. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, I, I guess I'm going to give a little bit of backstory before I start talking to you just about the easy squeegee. So I learned about the easy squeegee from a co, uh, a friend of mine who is also in the screen printing business is named Jack. He runs Jurassic prints and he can, he comes up to me one day and he goes, dude, have you seen this new thing that's the advanced screen has over there and I'm on nowadays. He's like, this is new squeeze. You brought us like super lightweight. It's very affordable. It's really fun. Cool. And of course me being the guy that just likes to test out any new product, especially if it's affordable, I go running over to advanced screen, I grab up a couple of them, I bring them back and we start using them and it was awesome. Cam: (04:39) And then, uh, I put it in a video. Right? Just completely, it was on my own, my own accord. I had no intention of ever reaching out to you, but I did the video on it. And uh, shortly there after is how I actually got in touch with you. Right. Cause you just called to say thanks for doing the video. Um, when you're, when you, or what did you do or what, what was happening when you decided, hey, I need to make this cause this, this thing just simply does not exist. What does the story behind that? Ron: (05:13) Actually, it's pretty simple. I started working in the print screen industry as a printer and it wasn't, but a few weeks after I started printing that I realized that, um, this most crap the squeegee could use an improvement and primarily from the a aeronomics standpoint as well as several other benefits and features that were missing with the would squeegee. You know, the squeegee, we really had somebody who knows 100 years ago, uh, picked up a piece of wood through a piece of rubber in the bottom. Said, hey, I got a squeegee, but never, they never started from scratch. And I don't know if anyone has, other than myself, sat down and said, what does a squeegee need? What or what, what do we, what are we looking for in the squeegee? We need something that uh, is going to be good on your hands, good on your body, something that's not going to fall in the ink, something that's easy to change, blade something that FCC to clean. Um, and so I made a list, but what if I were going to with Venice, squeegee, what would I want that product to be and I don't know, made my lip and I went to the uh, you know, research and development and started well at my research and development was really ace hardware and Anna would squeegee, I took a snugging, took ISACA Downer with Squeegee, put a couple of brackets on it, put some rubber handle grips on it and started adjusting to develop the right angles, the right with the right pressures, the right height. Cam: (06:56) Yeah. Cause with that squeegee, the first thing that you notice when you put your hands on it is like is the angles of it, right? Like when you first pick it up you're like, wow. Like it makes sense. But I would assume in the product development process, there was a lot of kind of back and forth on really trying to find that ideal angle. Ron: (07:13) Oh the hell. There was a bat. In fact, when I first did it, I didn't put an angle. I used to have like the handles can be straight up off the rubber in the same plane as the rubber. So I took it, I pole on it. All I did is they pulled it over and here, boy, I've got this great invention, right? This, this thing's going to fly around the world and everybody's gonna love it. And on my first pole, it just, just pulled the, the blade stayed in one spot in the handles came for me. Now wait, this isn't working. And then I started to understand the principles, the dynamics between 'em uh, you know, angle pressure and um, delivery and yeah. And then yes, it was, it was tough because having that right angle so that women, especially in novice puts his hands on a squeegee for the first time with the easy grip. All you have to basically do is hold it up, right. The angle of the blade for printing is preset into the design of the, of the squeaky handle itself. And that's really an important factor. Cam: (08:23) It is. It's the first thing that I noticed having pulled wooden squeegees for a very long time was just that simple fact that like you just grab it and like intuitively it gives you the right angle. So it's almost like you don't even have to think about it, which is a Vegan, which is very rare cause when you're trying to teach people screenprinting right, or whatever it is, uh, the angles and all that stuff or it's Kinda hard to drill it into their heads. Well this thing just kind of seems to do it automatically. And the question is to me is like, how did you, it's that's, that's I guess part of research and development. How do you, how do you figure all that stuff out, man? Because it's the, I guess you're just prototyping it over and over and over. Is that the beginning stages when you're trying to create a new product? Lots of prototype Ron: (09:06) stats it, Yep. In my case, I would bend it millimeters. I would take the eye. I mean, I just had a flat bracket that I had screwed to the wood and then bend it from there at the top of the word, bend it towards me. I burned them. I sometimes would have one bed further than the other and one side so that they weren't equal to try to determine which was best. I just don't weeks develop in that aspect. Just the excellent angle because they had to be perfect cam. I put out a product and it was art. Well, you know what, this is a plastic injection more than product. So we're talking big, huge amount of money to develop the mall. Cam: (09:53) Right. And I, I do actually I want to dive into more of that here in a little bit because I actually have a lot of questions about that process. Right. Ron: (10:00) So you have to have it right before you, before you go into the process. Gotcha. I was just research development Cam: (10:07) and that's going to apply to really any product. The R and D in that first prototype is where you're going to spend the most of your time and you're, and probably you probably spend a big chunk of mine. It depends on what it is, but you could spend a lot of money on prototyping, right? Maybe you didn't have to in this case, but Ron: (10:23) no, but you, if you, you have to spend what's necessary. Yeah. And, um, and then of course that gets into money. Of course it is. Yes, it does. And you know, so when, when you would ask, we were talking about product development, the um, uh, the beginning of product development, a lot of people think is an idea. Yes. It's having the money, right. And having three times the amount of money that you think you're going to need, whether you the cash or you have a drama. If I'm a family member who's promising it, um, just ask him when he promises, which they show me the case, show me, cause I've heard a lot of promises, but you're gonna need money. If you run out of money then then, then your is all, yeah. Cam: (11:15) Yeah. And not to just talk about myself only, which is what I have a tendency to do. But W I, you know, I'm, I've gone through two different products that I'm attempting to develop. One of them was the press, which is pretty straight forward, but the, the software, what I found was even even if like you're having a contractor or something like that that you're working with and they give you a quote, you still have to add 20 for some fifth, sometimes even a hundred percent to that quote to get it to where you have it in your head. [inaudible] that's been my experience. It's never what you originally think it's going to cost. It's always more Ron: (11:48) always. And 100%, maybe more, but then there's all these other expenses, so many expenses that you don't know of in the beginning, it leaks back, but they're real and they start to drain the bank account and then you make compromises and that's, that's where you don't want to really end up. And I got Ya. So, um, Cam: (12:13) if I was to come to you, right, right, right now, whether I'm a s and maybe I'm not even in the screen printing industry, but I was to come up to you as, hey Ron. So I have this really great idea. Um, and uh, you know, maybe, maybe I've even done a few little prototypes. I'm pretty sure that I've got it. I've got it. A pretty good product here. What, what do you, what would you say the first crucial step is in the process of bringing a product to fruition? Ron: (12:40) All right, so you have a widget, right? Which are this an imaginary product? Ron : (12:45) Okay. Ron: (12:46) My first question, you would be, um, who's going gonna want it besides you? Cam: (12:55) Interesting. So you're literally stepping outside of even creating this product. Ron: (12:59) Well if you, you know, if you don't have your sales, well yeah, sure. If you don't have your sails set up, if you don't know who's going to buy it, why they're going to buy it, how much they're going to pay for it. Are they already buying? Is it actually a new product or is it like the easy grip, which is just an, you know, a better most trip I, I made the best mouse trap, but it's still is only a better mouse trap. So with the easy grip, I could go to a printer who says, well, why do I need the easy grip? Which squeegees working? Understood now, now that's my first obstacle. So where I'm using the easy grip, I love it. My friends use the easy grip, they love it. Everybody's convinced me how much they love the easy grip. So I start to fall in love with the easy grip. Ron: (13:45) And then sometimes you lose your objectivity. When you get too close to your own product, you start not hearing the criticism because you don't want to hear the criticism. You've got this idea that's going to set the world on fire and you don't want anything to stand in the way. I'm kind of like buying a a a sailboat and all you have in mind is sitting on the deck of the sailboat on a beautiful summer. But in fact, when you get the sailboat, it's raining for the entire, um, you've got to kind of remove yourself from your dreams and your aspirations and become the customer. And do I need this product or do I want this product? If it has a true need and you can establish that, then you, that'll look at competition. Somebody else, they're out, they're already building anything like it. So what, what are, how are you going to enhance that particular product to bring the customers to you is Gotcha. Cheaper is going to be better. Yeah. There'll be a greater quality. What's going to drive people to your product over someone else's product? Cam: (15:01) Well, so, so as you're saying this, like I'm kind of, I'm, I'm getting split between two ideas and I think I've even made a recent video about this idea of d. Ron: (15:13) In your opinion, would you Cam: (15:16) almost develop the market before you develop the product or make, I mean, would you, Ron: (15:22) yeah. Yes. Hmm. See if there's, okay, well, I don't know how, let's see. What's the best way to say this? Um, if you don't have, if you don't have a market, you don't have a product. Right. You know, I feel like, you know, if you don't have a need, what is it that you're fulfilling? Because by the time we're making something to make money, if you're doing this, if this is a hobby and it really doesn't matter if you make money, you're doing it because you love it, um, then then fine. Do what ever you want. But if you're going to enter into this, if you have a wife, children or, or aspirations of, of, you know, making a success, financial success yourself, then you've got to determine your market. Gotcha. Sure. Cam: (16:18) That's, I think that that's, I think that's invaluable advice. Ron: (16:21) I think right now, I'll tell you what I did. Um, I, I called every distributor dealer supply house. I'm going to call them dealers, but it's, it's like AST, never fucking company out there. Uh, Becky's a great gal. And um, so, um, I called all of the dealers, all the supply houses in the United States and asked them how many squeegees they sold. So I established what my potential market could be before I even spent it. Well before three old money. Yeah. All right, Cam: (16:58) so, so you might, so it's not to say that you weren't doing a little, a little bit of like homebrew product development, but once you kind of want you to kind of set into your mind that hey, I may actually put some real investment into this. I'm going to do some research first. Ron: (17:12) Well, yes. Now in my case, I needed to, um, develop funds from, I didn't have the money, all the money that I needed, so I had to get some investors. Well, how do, how do you convince an investor? Because we're back to you bringing a Wicha to me. I mean, my first thing is how are you going to sell it? Who are you? Who can, where are you going to sell it to? What's your cost? What's your profit? Who are you selling it to? How many are you going to sell because you're borrowing money from me and I want you to pay me back. All right. Okay. Yeah. I mean if you think of it from, like I said, more objectively or outside the box, just think of you as the, you asking for money, reverse the situation. Somebody is asking for money from you and that all of a sudden you get a little more critical about the idea. Cam: (17:59) Right? And that's what you were saying earlier about removing yourself from it. Don't fall in love and just put yourself in the other's shoes. That's a real big part. Ron: (18:07) It's the biggest part, I think. And it's, it's, it's hard. Yeah. Because it's your baby. Uh, how, and uh, and you think everybody's going to react to it the same way you do. You're taken out. Show it to your first, uh, customer, or you're your first, um, um, victim, you know, and the, and the, what the hell is this? Why do I need this? You know, you get deflated and you go, well, why didn't I think about that? All right. You know, that's, I get it. Yeah, you've gotta be prepared. You gotta be able to have an answer for that person. Lots of people don't want to look at it negative in developing a new product. The most crucial thing to do is rip it apart. Sit down and just, just why won't this work? You've added a be totally honest. You gotta be totally critical and make sure that you, you're gonna, you know, it's like, it's like you'd been in a debating class, you know, taking either side of the debate, but if you can't say why it will work, you won't see the flaws in it. Ron: (19:13) And if you could come up with valid reasons why it wouldn't work. Now this is back to being married to it yet gotta walk. It's like being in Vegas. If you don't know when to walk your, it's over. Yeah, I've got no one to hold them. Know when to fold them. You're just going to, you're just going to save more money into a bad idea. Right. So those are these, those are the first stages, which I love that man. That's great advice. Back up on money. Make sure you've got some really valid reasons why your product is going to be successful. Okay, perfect man. Cam: (19:49) Um, let's, let's just say we're, we're talking for the sake of argument here that the, um, you've done that part of it. You've done all your research. Um, you're convinced, uh, based on the research from the, the clients are from the, the potential market, that it is something that the industry needs. Um, what are some, early, what are some early roadblocks that you, that you may run into in regards to taking it from like a, an early prototype, a homebrew prototype to, to whatever manufacturing process you're going to use. Early roadblock. Ron: (20:25) It's um, money. Goddamn money always comes down to money. Yeah, sure. You got enough money, you're going to be able to do a lot. Yeah. You know, you've tried to avoid mistakes because mistakes are expensive and okay, so you know, and that's another factor of when you said you need a 100% more. Well that's if it all works the way you had planned it to work. And my doubt there's a glitch or in my case with the easy grip, I, I'm a very complex tool from the makers, from the factory standpoint of trying to make that tool. We've got three dimensions going in every direction. And uh, it was an extreme challenge. So I could have gone is that this is what I want. They could have turned around and said, well that's not possible. Right. And in fact, when I was searching for my move makers, several of them told me they could not make it accepted several pieces. Ron: (21:25) I said, I don't want to piece three piece tool. I want the simplest tool. That's another, another genius aspect of the easy grip and one piece. There's no assembly. These are really important things when you start thinking about your labor costs. No Assembly to this. Yeah, no parts to be lost. The consumer doesn't have to assemble it. There's um, you know, that's really important. If I had three parts, who's going to put them together? Who's going to put them together? Who's going to box it? Who's going to ship it? How's, how's that all gonna be affected? How's my packaging material? How's await it? I mean there's just, there's so many little details that you've, Cam: (22:11) and when you, when you were developing it, I mean, you know, like let's say you've decided it needs to be one piece or did, did you always know it needs to be one piece or do you start figuring out like, oh, if I don't make this one piece, I'm going to have to deal with all of this other stuff. Which, you know, did the chicken come before the egg or did you learn that it needed to be one piece as you were going? Or did you always know, well, this is Ron: (22:34) my first squeegee Rodeo, you know, uh, sure. One piece is one piece better than multiple pieces. Yeah. Yes. If I, well, and in this particular case it is, um, if, if I don't make it one piece, and this is now we're going to jump just a little bit here down the road, but once this out on the market, somebody wants to copy your idea, so you've got to come out with the best idea that the most complete and rephrase it that with the most complete. Um, we'll talk about the easy grip, most complete tool with the most complete features. If I miss something, I leave something out that's an open door to the competition that behind me and improve my product. So, so yeah, Cam: (23:24) I guess I kind of want to, uh, elaborate on that concept and just kind of get your take on it. So, uh, as you know, I've, I've been just kind of kind of messing around in the software world recently. And one thing that I heard from some like, well, you know, these big VC guys, they kind of tend to claim to just get a product to the market if it's not perfect. Uh, you know, so I guess there's almost like two sides to that. I guess maybe it depends on the market. I don't know. Yes. Ron: (23:55) Yeah. You have to say, you know, every product is going to be different. Okay. Well what, tell, tell me why would you want to take a product to the market if it isn't in a sense finished or complete or, Cam: (24:08) I think really the only reason is, is would it would kind of circle back to that market research, figuring out if you actually have a user base for it. I think that's really the only reason that you would actually go to market without a, with a crappy or like a less than perfect product would be just to see if the base is there. Ron: (24:26) Well, in my mind, uh, I'm, I'm not sure what you would mean by market though. You know, I, yeah, it would be a test market, right? A limited test market. Um, then you're going to be picking that test market. You're going to be choosing that undergrads or those types of conditions. I can understand why you would do it if it needs, if the tool needs to development that, that it requires hands on and a lot of input from people who, you know, I got, I'm sure will the right product to use here as an example. But um, if it's required for your product, then then sure. I mean, you've got to do whatever is required, but you've got to make that determination in advance and if that's going to be required, then know it in advance because that's gotta be part of Your Business Plan. Gotcha. Okay. Cam: (25:19) W what's your, what is your take on, on some form of a business plan when it comes to is, is it a crucial Ron: (25:24) yeah, of course. Yeah. Cam: (25:27) Oh boy. I think, I think many of us are like Layla love. Fuck that. But everyone says it. Everyone who's ever done anything worthwhile in this business, they would all say that the business plan is a crucial element. Ron: (25:42) Well, you've got to know what's ahead of you. I mean, would you, would you start, would you go into a baseball game and not know how many of your needs are going to be played in the game? Cam: (25:53) Well, you could do it, but you may not. Yeah. You may not do very well. Yeah. You won't understand what's going on. Ron: (25:57) Right? So if I don't understand what's going to what, what, what obstacles are gonna be ahead of you, what's going to be required? How can you, how can you be efficient? You know, don't overcome those obstacles because it's, it's all about really overcoming problems. Right. And, um, like with your software, you know, when we were talking earlier, you were telling me that unforeseen issues that came up, Cam: (26:29) one of the big ones for me was just on like one of the things that I'm running into and I literally, it was the complete opposite of what I expected was the on is the onboarding process, but taking them from whatever it is they're doing to ours, there's technical issues that you have to work out. So for me, if I'm, if I'm considering myself an inventor or a product creator, my first obstacle that that is kind of the process I have to either I figured out how to overcome it or it's, you know, it's not going to get worked out for you. You have to figure it out. But had I done a business plan, I like a legit one. I may have a, I did like a pseudo one, but I may have understood that that was going to be a problem earlier on and I could have planned for it differently. I think. Ron: (27:15) Well, and, and a lot of people right now are wondering, well, what the hell is a business plam I, yeah, these guys are saying we'll have a business plan. Well, fine, what, what, so what's that? You know, how do I go about developing a business plan? Well, go to Google, go to Google, look up anything like your product idea and start looking up business plans. Look up the outline to a business plan. Yeah. Cam: (27:41) Yeah. To interject. There's that. There's, I think it's the sba.gov. They have literally got a business plan, uh, uh, step by step guide that will walk you through writing a, uh, it's a baseline one, but it'll, it'll get it done for you and early stage one. Ron: (27:57) Well, um, yeah, so then you have to put it in your own parameters for your own particular product, but it, um, um, research. Yeah. Don't be afraid to research and continue to research and don't think, because you come up with one answer that if that's the final answer, you don't read one business plan and say this doesn't, this not applicable to me or this applies and this is all I have to do. Rate 20 of them. Look, you're developing a product. You can't go down the road and get it out there and find out you screwed up. I did the big times in first fall. Well, how do I know how to do a business plan? I've done many of them and I've made mistake. You know, it's trial and error. I, I'm not a kid anymore. So I've had the experience to be able to, you know, some of this is natural for me, very, you know, from everything from setting up, uh, your business entity or you gotta be a sole proprietor, you gotta to be an LLC, you're going be a corporation. How does all of that impact your taxes or impact? You definitely don't spend up. Don't, don't give other people your money in advance to [inaudible]. You know, there's, I don't know how to express which step is important because each time it's different. We were talking about patterns for instance. Cam: (29:22) Yeah, I did. I actually wanted to talk to you about that. Let's go right into it. Ron: (29:25) Okay. Yeah. So a patent lawyer wants $15,000, 10 to $15,000, just to even basically do a preliminary, uh, uh, draft or luminary patent. Does your product need to be, what's the advantage of happening? So if you, if you go out the first thing, you spend your first $15,000 with an attorney and then he, and he come back and, and, um, and you didn't need to patent it or couldn't be patented. The idea isn't novel. Where's your $15,000? It's sitting in the attorney's bank accounts sending his daughter to college, you know? Cam: (30:07) All right. And, and I was picking your brain about that, that concept of a patent earlier. And I mean, you kind of come to the conclusion like, although I feel like they probably are important, um, but all it really does is it, from what you were telling me earlier is it gives you the power to litigate, but if even if you, even if you have that power, if you don't have the financial backing to, to push, right, the enforcement of that patent, it's basically a useless filing if you can't back it up. Ron: (30:38) But that is cam, that's 100% correct. And what what, what you mean by that? People don't quite understand it. Yeah. Um, you, if someone steals your idea, you have to sue them for the profit that they make off, that you would have made, not just the profit they make, but it's the business that they took away from you. The litigate something like that is so nebulous. There's so many gray areas and uh, a federal attorney and patents or us, uh, federal law. So you need a federal attorney. A lot of people think you can go get an attorney to said a die a, I used an attorney before a couple hundred bucks to retain a federal attorney for a patent lawsuit. You're looking at anywhere from 150 to a quarter million dollars. That's just to retain it. That's for something like the easy grip. That's simple. Now you're in software. How do you prove it's like a song? How can I prove that, that these 12 notes in my song I stole from somebody else and that I didn't think of it myself? Cam: (31:56) And that's what you mean by gray area, that you have to have the power of the team to prove this. What's ultimately a gray concept in a lot of ways. Ron: (32:03) A totally great and yeah, and you don't get to go talk to a judge, you know, this is all, this is all behind the scenes, all your money you spend up front before and long before you ever get to court. So trusting my advice on this, and I'm not gonna tell anyone not to get a pad. Patents have the purpose, especially, you know, especially for something that would be in the software or maybe the electronic or digital, um, uh, inventions versus a utility patent. Your, your screen printing machine that you put in the box, that's a utility. The easy as a utility tool, something that's not tangible is a lot harder to, to litigate, right? And so for me, what I wanted to do was be the first, because no one had invented this, be the best, be the cheapest. Those are the three important qualities that someone else. Ron: (33:04) So if somebody wants to steal the easy grip idea, and for everybody out there right now thinking I'm going to steal easy grip, I fit, make a better one than me and make a cheaper than me and get the will, take the loyalty away from my dealers that look that loyalty that they've extended to me because of my customer service, because of the, um, uh, the benefits that that product has brought to them. So when you're talking like a 25 minute easy grips, 24, 98 without the blade, yeah. Um, somebody's going to come in and, and underscore that financially, you know, price wise, whether they're going to knock it down to 20 bucks, right? So, um, if they do that, where's their profit? What, what's their game? So a lot of people would say, I should've charged $40 for these scripts. And then, and my concern was no, because that gives somebody else the room to come and sell it for 25. Ron: (34:02) So don't, don't try to make $1 million. Try to try, try to be with, try to be your customer. What would you pay for that thing? Well, yeah, fair. You know, not what you need. And now here's another issue. Back to the money. It's always going to come back to the money. But if your product is costing you, if it costs the $20 to make the easy grip and I wanted to sell it for 25, I'm not going to work. Is it more, is the dealers going to make pass to make kids profit? I have to make my profit. So, um, you know, you've got to, this is part of this business plan. Cam: (34:39) Yeah. And so you have to understand your model. Like, so if you were the guy, it may be feasible if you were going to go direct to consumer as opposed to go through a distributor network. So it all, that's why it all comes back down to that plan on how you plan to get it into there and what, what you need to make that plan function. Ron: (34:56) Yes. And a business plan is just, it's just, okay, let's say I'm going to get in the car and drive, um, you know, drive to drive somewhere for the, for the night. Yeah. Before I walk up out of the house, what's my business plan? Well, my business plan is do I have my wallet? Do I have my money? Do I, do I have a map? Do I have water, food, enough gasoline? This is, that's all a business plan is. It's just figuring out in advance every aspect. So if I'm a W W we'll use the scenario. If I, if the weather is bad, then part of my plan includes an umbrella. So all you do is sit down and you think from, from from the moment of conception to the moment of use or or clean up or whatever, you know that from picking up the tool to putting the tool back onto the shelf, what's every little aspect that's going to be done or how that tool is going to be handled. You have to think, thinking is really hard. Cam: (36:06) Hey [inaudible] preaching to the choir buddy. So I already got a headache. Ron: (36:10) Yeah, just thinking about it. But what you do that's an and at every little detail. So this is back to putting yourself in somebody else's shoes and just like planning a trip in a car, you do that automatically because you're used to doing it all. Your life has been done. You get in the car with your parents and you watch what your parents bring in so it becomes a natural course of events for you. When you're developing a new product, you've got to, you've got to take yourself out of the box, sit down and just think it through. Think it through. Think every aspect. That's how you develop a business plan. They're not some mystical thing that other people know that you don't know or somebody went to school and you didn't go to school. That's all bullshit. Yeah, it's just common sense and I love it. Most people that have common sense didn't even go to school. So that's a good point man. I love it. Yet a lot of God damn out of people that have to object to that. But uh, you know, Cam: (37:09) well yeah, but you know, this is all opinion based stuff. So we take it with a grain of salt. But I think that a eight, it really does get you thinking. And I think the important topic of this conversation so far is just that the person is thinking about putting this product out there, that they understand how they're going to get it there. And it's beyond just the creation of the product. It moves into how you're actually going to sell it. And what you're going to do to sell it. So I think it's extremely useful. I think you've given us a lot of Info so far. But I would like to harp on the patent thing a little bit more and, and here's why, man. I get, uh, you know, like when the prep, when I did the press thing or when anything I've ever kind of really done and people are always like, well, did you pat in it? Did you patinated it's always this concept of, of um, everything will be okay if you just get the patent and everything will be just fine and dandy if you just patent this thing is, I know you're not a lawyer so you can't give actual legal advice, but is that is not necessarily the case. Like we were saying earlier, the patent is just a tool to allow you to enforce it. But should people put so much of their concern in the patent, I guess is my big question. Well, Ron: (38:18) patents are very expensive. Um, all right, so wait, Ron : (38:28) no. Ron: (38:30) Yeah, I don't think they should. If you don't know where your product's going to go, if you haven't, um, it's back to money. If you have the money to hire an attorney, if you got $15,000 that you want to blow on it or your investors won't go forward with you without the patent application, you know, there's reasons for it and it does give you the right to litigate. It also gives you the right to scare people. You know, you could send a letter of cease and desist and they go, well, you know, he's got a bad ending or he's got a patent issued so he could litigate it. And yes, it has. It has enforcement power of course. Cam: (39:10) But the big boys, the big boys that have money, they can just, they can, they can just, they can just annihilate you by running you out of cash too. Ron: (39:18) Nice word annihilate. Yeah, because that's what they do. Yeah, it's right. It's all pre trial motions. Pretrial motions costs thousands of dollars. Each one and the other attorneys will want to perform 30 of them. It's $90,000. Well that's the way it works for potion. You have to respond if anytime during at, well, I won't say anytime. Many times if you are in litigation and you decide you've run out of money or you need to drop the case, you're going to be countersued you understood for all the attorney's expenses for any damages you might have cost them, any, any expenses that you cost them. So you don't get to walk away. It's not a tight, you start the fight, you've got to go the distance. I love that. Yeah. Right. So Cam: (40:19) it's a big game. That whole world is a very big game. So if you're going to do something, you, you told me this already, but I kind of want to make sure that everybody else hears it. You have an idea for a product. Speaker 6: (40:31) Uh, Cam: (40:34) what do you, what do you do? What do you, do you have an idea for a product? What's the best product to choose? He's, he's, you kind of told me this earlier, but a speed guy didn't understand. So if you've come up with an idea for a product, um, is it something that like you're like, okay, well these guys are also doing something very similar and maybe I can get the patent for this, but I feel like this is important enough to make it, or you can, you can do kind of what you were telling me earlier where you just pick something that you feel that your competitors won't be as inclined to push for is to some degree or something like that, right? Ron: (41:11) Uh, well, no, not necessarily. I wouldn't, I w I wouldn't avoid, well, I would, you know, without talking about a specific product, it's Kinda hard here because there's so many kids realities and sometimes they apply and sometimes they don't. I wouldn't, I wouldn't, you know, if you can't get, if you have competition, why are somebody's record? Why somebody going to buy your product over somebody else's? And I wouldn't do it from, hey, they, they got world's greatest idea, so I'm going to patent it and then I can go annihilate them and take their business away from them. A, first of all, who says it's going to get patented? Who says it's going to get approved? Right. Okay. Your attorney, the Bernie that took $15,000, Cam: (42:04) it's a, he'll always tell you, you'll get it. Ron: (42:06) He is going to get approved and then, and then, uh, the patent office goes back and says, well, we need modifications. We need more information or this, this needs to be changed to a certain way. Your drawings aren't right. Um, though you go back to patent attorney, well it's another 10,000. Well, you didn't tell me that in the beginning, you know. Well, they didn't, we didn't know this was going to happen in the beginning. You know, and the attorney's not going to come up front and say, well it could, well again, they may have it makes it, yeah. They may say, well, if 15,000 starts to process, it may be 100,000 before we're finished. Gotcha. Litigating. Okay. So, um, and if somebody else's already has it and they don't have it patented, why don't they good? They already go down the road that you might be going down to find out that the idea's not novel and the patent won't be issued. How long does it take to get that patent? Cam: (43:04) Kennan, inventor figure some of these answered these questions for himself or five years for you. Huh? Maybe four tours to even have the patent reviewed. Interesting. We can, can, can up potential invent or at least do some of that early stage foot work to find out if it even is patentable himself. Ron: (43:21) Yes, I did. I actually wrote my own path. I applied to Japan. It's pending. Um, and I did all my own research, but I'm not a patent attorney. You know, if I was that good, I would be a patent attorney. You know, I'm not making the big bucks or, um, I, I, um, yes, there's a lot, there's, there's a lot available online and if you go to the United States Patent Office website, they, they is a very easy and very convenient search. Uh, they have a search tool for searching existing patents. Okay. You could put in a word like I, for me, I put in Squeegee, screenprint, squeegee to handle squeegee. Um, and, and all I came up with four squeegees were, would squeegees but then because I kind of knew that nobody else had anything like this, but then how did I know somebody in 1940 didn't invent it and never took it and patented it and down and then died, or the war started. Ron: (44:26) And so any cat killed in war and the patent and the idea just to the wayside. So, um, you know, got the, the research, that's the first thing a patent attorney would do. So that's the first thing you're going to pay him for, is to research to see if you can even move forward. Gotcha. But if you can do it yourself now for you with your software, that would be impossible. You could not happen a utility patent. Uh, it would be easier because it's mechanical. You can see drawings and you can try to analyze them. But if you then in your research, you start reading these patents, Greek, if oh great, you have no idea what the hell they're talking about and, and it's, and it's not in plain English so you can read it but you won't understand it. I surely helped in that guys and I did also spend the a hundred dollars by the way, to get through one of the classes on mine already. Ron: (45:34) $90 write your own patent and yet, uh, two hours. Yeah, it took me six months of research and study and I work daily. I mean, I can't tell Ya, you know, my pattern was like 20 some pages and I can't tell you how much, um, you know, uh, uh, the nightmare complexity and how you word something I was telling you the other day about contain this contains red, white, and blue. This includes red, white, and blue. What's different that, what is the difference? Well, contained means that it only has red, white and blue includes means it has red, white, and blue, but it can't include other items. So you're not being finite when you say clues. Cam: (46:23) Right? Finite. Seems like your ERC. Uh, so a little warm, like couldn't, it took me weeks to understand that word honestly, for you to hear. Yeah. Well, and that's what, that's why you're hiring those attorneys. They speak that language, they get it, but they charge you for it. Ron: (46:38) I may try. That's right. That's all the therapists, you know, they've got it. And that's why they use the old English language a lot is because we don't, we don't know how to do it and they do. And so they get paid for it. Cam: (46:49) Okay. And I think we'll, we'll move on from the patent thing after this, but I think the final question for me is, because it feels to me like what you're saying is if you have an idea, just g do what you're gonna do, do your research and if you feel like there's a market for it, get it to market. Uh, and that's, I guess kind of where we've ended up. But what would happen if you, you did bring something to market and you, you start selling it, but then at a competitor of deep pocket competitor comes through and attempts to patent to could, can they sue you for revenues lost at that point even though that, okay. Okay. There you go. Then it's beautiful. Ron: (47:30) Yeah. It's get the damn thing out there. You get it out. Yeah. Try to be first. I mean, um, it's not a secret to me that somebody might want to steal the easy-grip concept. Sure. Uh, but, um, um, so if it happens Cam: (47:51) then, then, then it goes back to what you were talking about. Yeah. You know, so it's the brand loyalty and all this and that, that comes along with it. Yeah. Ron: (47:57) And how are they going to do it? But if, if somebody successfully did that, ah, what, that's part of my business plan. How, how do I, how do I react to that if it happens? Understand. Um, a lot of times this is waived. A lot of times you might just have to walk. Yeah. You know, sometimes, uh, what was the fish? Oh, this goes back so many years. Nobody will remember that fish. Remember the talking fish that it came out of a plaque on the wall. Cam: (48:27) Oh yeah. Yeah. I do remember saying to you and shit, Ron: (48:29) he came, he sang the song, be happy. I think it was uh, you know, 70 came out with that, that idea was stolen right away, but he made his money. He made what he could make up front before it got stolen. If you knew that was going to happen, then he would have delivered it to the marketplace possibly differently than if he thought he was going to capture the market over a long term period. So guy's product is going to be a short term shot because of the competition. Bass part of Your Business Plan. This is, ah, I was just thinking it through in advance and not being married to the project to say, well, mine sell good. Nobody else could ever improve upon it. Interesting. Easy grip is so good. Nobody else is ever going to. Cam: (49:15) But I felt, yeah, I agree. But I do feel like that that would be something that a lot of people that get married to a product, they, they tend to romanticize the idea of running it long term. But sometimes you shorten up the market time, try to hammer it out and make your money on it and then get out of it before it gets copied. So there's other options too, to creating a product I think is what we could take away from it. Ron: (49:38) Yes. And then it's also how long does it take to get it out there if it's going to take three years for you to, for the marketplace to become aware of your product. Yeah. If it's not a mainstream product, if it doesn't have a TV advertising, radio, TV, print advertising, if you're not, uh, or you know any other kind of electronic advertising, if you, if it's going to be a three year delivery, you have three years of exposure. Ron : (50:07) Mm. Ron: (50:07) And within three years, if you know it's going to get knocked off then, then your delivery time takes too long now. Yeah. Probably your ideas. No good. Ron : (50:16) [inaudible] Ron: (50:16) and you've got to be able to say, well hell, I got the best thing, but I still, it's not gonna work for me. Gotcha. You know, and then onto the next one, another idea will come. This is back to learn when to walk. And I, and I'm not trying to discourage anybody because nothing's more fun than owning your own business, being your own boss, calling your own shots. But it's, you know, cam, if you don't want to work Sundays, then don't be your own boss. You don't want the night when everybody else is going to go out and have fun and you have to do invoicing and, and you've got to get the invoices out. You're, your helper didn't come in that day and they have to be out then that's what it takes to be your own boss. But a lot of people in this industry, uh, are their own bosses. So they've, they've already kind of assume that role of, of working harder and longer than any of your employees. And a lot of times you worked for less money than you pay the guys working for you. So self sacrifice is a big key. And in running your own business. I agree man. It's great advice. Yes. Not for everybody, but it, it has, it's has great rewards. Cam: (51:32) Beautiful. And, and we kind of touched on this a little bit ago, but maybe we can elaborate on it. Just what in regards to selling the product once you've created it, once it's out there, what can you like, what can you expect as some, some early roadblocks when it comes to actually selling a product? Because I know for sure they exist, there's going to be a lot of things, but what are some early roadblocks that a product could expect to run into when it comes to selling it? That was a very long question. Said it twice too. Ron: (52:04) Well, your business plan is going to tell you that. So that means you've already gonna think it through for your specific product. Uh, where I live, somebody started a winery. Hmm. Now he's out there trying to find liquor stores or district wide. Yeah. Liquor stores. Well, liquor stores don't buy wine from you. They buy wine from a distributor. So you're selling your product to a distributor. How you going to compete against Miller? Highlight the WHO's, who's got tons of Promo material, uh, tons of support, tons of brand name. You know, why are they going to try yours over somebody else? So how the biggest obstacle is bad. Well is sales. Okay? It's all, it's all going to be around sales. So what, what's the obstacle and sales competition? And I needed product, a too costly of a product. Um, uh, well those three would be enough to blow you out of the water any day. Cam: (53:08) Yeah, right? Yeah. That's the big three right there. Ron: (53:12) Or, or you worked on yours for three years and you come out with it to find out that uh, you're soft and this wouldn't apply to you, but I'll use it as an example. Uh, you're developing your software and because of your limited resources, it's taken you longer to get it established and again, worked out. And then the computer, true. The complete computer platforms change. So it even go into windows 10 now they don't have a driver for your software. You're going to be. So you had a lot of outside forces that can influence you, that you can not foresee in your business plan that that will, that will wipe you out or you've got enough money to, to overcome it. Right. Cam: (53:59) But that's the nature of it too, about being able to just, you, you do everything that you can within your power. But then when it, when it finally becomes, that's the end of the road, you just have to veer off. You can't get to bent out of shape about it, not working out. At the end of the day, you'll get bent out of shape. Trust me. You've been there before. Your wife will show the divorces in your near future. Yeah. Right. Ron: (54:27) You get that. I mean, we're all emotional animals and creatures, so, um, nothing's worse than disappointment or rejection. And it's back to, um, if, if you can get that prototype of pact AST, if you're watching Becky. Um, I took my, my prototype, well no, I actually went to product with it and I took the product to AST so I broke my own rules. And um, and in my case it didn't have a flood handle. And which you brought to light in your video. Cam: (55:02) Yeah. The first one. Yeah. Cause I bought it from AST and it didn't happen. Ron: (55:04) The never of the center of the flood had what we're talking about. The flood handle is this right here? Can you see that? Yeah. The center piece. So you can flood with one hand. Right. Well I some I didn't make the perfect product I had, but I had no, I was able to go back to the mold maker. It was a simple fix. Simply quick fix. It was, um, so you want to talk about being deflated? You have, Hey, hi, this is so great. And because why can't flood with one hand? I don't want it. Right? Yeah. Hi. I don't know what, oops. Um, Cam: (55:43) and in some products, cases, not yours, it was you. Fortunately, it was a fairly simple fix, but in some cases that could be detrimental having to make a huge change like that Ron: (55:53) after the money back in the reserve after having more than a hundred percent more than you need. Gotcha. Yeah. Yeah. It doesn't have because now you're stopped and now somebody else can see that idea and pick up where you can't go forward. So now you help somebody else become a millionaire, you want to live with that for the rest of your life. Cam: (56:15) Yeah. That's another interesting thing though too because the products are interesting in that like, um, you know, like with the squeegee, you know, you're still, it's a squeegee. So like even if they come out with one, like there still is room in markets for like different kinds of products, which is cool. Right? It's not too, it's not so like if someone does a variation that yours won't still do well or whatever. And I feel like it's the same way with the software world. Like even though there's different offerings out there, they can all exist in the same space. Ron: (56:47) I think there, I think you're really kinda talking apples and oranges. I, I understand what you're saying. And in principle you're right, but I wouldn't compare, you know, our utility tool to conceptual software. Gotcha. Cam: (57:02) Well, so within the, within the utility tool, like let's just say we're talking about tools, then there's still room for different kinds of a similar tool that does the same job, but they're, they're different, right? Like you, you, um, can also see the use for a wood squeegee. Like, like granted, they may use the easy squeegee most of the time, but they would also use the traditional squeegee for certain applications Ron: (57:24) I used with squeegees. Yeah, yeah. Um, four pockets. Right now I'm not going to put a 13 inch blade in to do a three inch wide image. Right? And, and, and I had to choose with the easy grip, the width, because even though they use the easy grip is 13 inches wide. And you've told me that you put 14 inch blades in there and they worked fine. Yeah. But what, so people have said to me, well, when are you going to come up with the larger point? I had never, if, because what's the, I'm covering let's say 85%, maybe even up to 90% of all images with my 13 to 14 inch with, right. You know, so when somebody says this, the easy grip way to replace the word squeegee, no, it's, it's an alternative. Yeah. Is it a turn alternative for a whiting or for most jobs and uh, that's all. I think it's a great option. Cam: (58:25) And did you know that when you were creating and when it was coming, when you were kind of putting it together, like you understood that part of your plan was it, it, it was, it was going to be an addition to correct it, right? Yeah. And that was part of it. But you understood that going in. Ron: (58:39) Yeah. Even though it's good, even though it's a superior, um, tool cause it doesn't fall on the acre as a quick way changing system that doesn't require screws and bolts or, or any other type of contraption. Um, Ron : (58:54) um, Ron: (58:58) yeah. Where were we going with that? Talk about some times and I just forgot what I was talking about. Hey, welcome that. A lot of ideas in there though. We will come out sooner or later. Cam: (59:13) Right man. Um, you know, I, I've been kind of just browsing the chat while we were, while I was listening to your information and there's some, there's stuff in here I just kind of Cam: (59:22) want to bring up. Sure. Um, first off, you, you don't ever, you're not obligated to answer anything, but I'm just going to bring it up and we'll see what they say. Um, was this, did you have this out before that big heavy chunk of whatever the action engineering has put out? Was this before or after the same time? Ish. Ron: (59:41) Good question. Yeah, I'm not, I don't know. Well, well, um, somebody from Ashford engineering was listening to this podcast cause I'm really careful in what I say here, right? I saw I, yeah, I did release my product before action engineering released a product I graphic prototype on the shirt board for and ask people what they thought of that. That was July 4th, 2016. I saw the product there and uh, responded by saying, Hey, um, this is what I have at that. I didn't approach it by saying, Hey, you're no good. I'm better. I just came out and said, well, this is what I've done. This is what's on the market. Did you have rockets? They were surprised to know. No way in, you know, Cam: (01:00:41) did you have a little poopy? Oh Shit. Every time I see competition I'm like, Ron: (01:00:46) I shit myself a little bit. Fuck, okay. Cam: (01:00:49) Even when I see other competitors, like when I saw yours I was like, oh shit man. You always fill the kind of is a weird anxiety about it. Ron: (01:00:55) Well, not with, you know, action is a large company. They have a lot of products. This is just, this is just a side side product. And uh, somebody, I'm sure, what are their engineers, what are their printers? That action said, hey, why don't we try thrown some, some handles on this because I bet it will be a better Eric economically beneficial. And, uh, and they have, from what I could tell at that time when they went on the forum because they had the graphic prototype rather than an actual prototype, um, I think they were just putting some feelers out there, which is, which is a good thing to do. Now there's a risk and this is what a lot of people that invent a product, they don't want to tell anybody about the product because they're afraid somebody's gonna steal it in advance. But action, um, ash has got a lot of, you know, big company, they've got a lot of money. Ron: (01:01:49) If, if I had been, if that reverse that situation and I saw that action had put something out before me and, and it was self-standing see, actions is not sales standing doesn't have the same play changing system. It's a, it's not one piece. It's, um, made out of metal reminders made out of lightweight nylon plastic. So I would say that I have advantages over the action tool. Just physical advantages over the action tool. Yeah. Um, so I had confidence and if we had reversed it and they had the self-standing product and I didn't, then I would have said time to walk. Gotcha. And if I had made that mold and advance and my world was up to $70,000, we didn't. Yeah, we didn't really talk about that. So that's a, it's a big investment. Yeah, because it is, it's a one piece. It's a, is it injection molding? Ron: (01:02:47) Injection molding. So what that means is you have a cap, you have, you have two pieces. You see my hands, you got two pieces and let's say one half over a block, cut it down the center. This side over here, we're going to form an apple. So this side over here has the right side. It has the uh, concave design of an apple on the right side. The left side has the concave design of the left side of the apple. You put the two pieces together, you inject plastic into that liquid plastic into the cavity. It cools. You pull the two pieces apart. Bingo. Bingo. They got an apple. All right. What that's done under 25, 20, 25,000 pounds of pressure. It's done under height. I'd mentioned liquid plastic. Well, how's it get liquified? It's fine. That's how it gets in there. And, and your mold is supposed to last for hundreds of thousands, but yours isn't that simple. Ron: (01:03:51) The way yours was done, you couldn't, I can't even imagine how they would pull it apart. They can't, it can't just be two pieces. No, nope. My mind goes together and then has other pieces that come into it. So they call those slides. I am for additional pieces that slide into the part before they start shooting the plastic in. It's a really complex tool. You would have to understand mold designed to really know why this tool is so hard to, to, to make. Yeah. So, um, um, to be sweet to see it done like in a video or something. Well, you know, I, I've got pictures, I've got a video of it, but I don't share that because that would tell other people how to make my move and fair enough and that, that part is best my secret. Fair enough. Yeah. Um, by the way, the Mo, the mold weighs around 600 pounds and it's only a block about this big, it's class C steel. Ron: (01:04:55) So it's not just normal steel. This is, this stuff is, is, I mean, just that, you know, when he told me, he says, well, we gotta buy the block and it's going to cost like $7,000 for a block of steel. Now I will, God, I can go down to the hardware so I could melt steel for less than 7,000 doubts. But would you have steel that would not war, right? You put the under 25,000 pounds of pressure and high heat for 10 12 days in a row part after part after part. I don't make, I don't make, you know, millions of parts at one time. What if I was successful? What if I was trying to make millions of parts the world as to be capable of that? So yeah, Cam: (01:05:37) and there is one thing that's very noticeable early on, the quality of the mold on it, like is a very high quality. You could like, you know, when you're actually investigating the product, it's very, very nice. So whoever did it did a bang up job. Ron: (01:05:52) Acme plastics in Phoenix, Arizona. You notice? Yep. Right here in my own hometown. Yeah, just off Peoria and 17. Yeah, they nailed it, man. Add the toolmaker. John made it by hand. Oh really? Yes. It took one year. That's another thing they told me. How long would it take or took them a year. John, you know, I love you but you're always hell and you do good work, but let's pick up the pace a little bit. John [inaudible]. So I mean he actually did it by hand with, with drill presses. Cam: (01:06:28) That's amazing. It's totally amazing because it looks like he lived, he got in there and he was like fine filing it and like adding texture to the handles is pretty impressive. Um, did Ryan at knock it off? We were talking about that earlier. Did Ryan at knock off the easiest squeegee? If someone's asking that right here? Ron: (01:06:45) No, no, of course. That Ryan, it buys from, from me. So you just give him, he's a, one of my distributors, he's, he's my latest distributor, my new distributor. I don't think Ryan personally is that type of individual. I don't think I'm, he runs up there to meet that would, uh, try to knock it off and take business away from, uh, uh, take, take the business away. They don't. Yeah, they're good like that. No, Ryan, I did approach Ryan, Cam: (01:07:14) but it's a custom color. You did you say you made them like that green color? Yes. Ron: (01:07:18) Oh cool. Well that was awesome. Yes. They, well, you know, green is his color and he's branded everything in green. So I mean, he's got green emotion. He's got green masking tape. It's natural for him to put a green squeegee in the screen. So that's as just part of his branding. Um, and uh, you know, for me, I would actually, I would have preferred to have had only yellow squeegees. It was never my intent to make more colors. It's that that can become a nightmare for me. Uh, because now I've got an inventory green ones. I got a inventory yellow ones. And, uh, and why did I even choose yellow? Yeah. I wonder why did I choose yellow? I Dunno. It reminds me of like, I don't know why because that's one of the easiest colors. It's one of the fewest colors we print with. Ron: (01:08:12) So when you go to clean up, let's say I had a black squeegee, how would you find the black gay kind of squeegee to have cleaned it off? I had a weight squeegee. Same thing with waiting. I needed a color that was going to be in contrast with the most common colors used in printing. So that would, it's just just common sense here. When you clean it, you could see where you needed to clean. So that's where it good. Thank you. Now why I chose green and fortunately that color also shows the contrast for most colors. So it makes it easy to clean. Cam: (01:08:46) Yeah, it looks good. I like it. Um, hang on here. I'm, I'm kind of reading through some of our questions here as I'm working through this. Okay. So this is, this is more of a statement. This is from able printing graphics with a medical background. And years in anatomy and lab and then working in a bike store comparing the economics between a mountain bike and a road bike. The easy grip is like a road bike. Interesting statement that because yeah it is. It's an ex. Absolutely. That's a great parallel. It's more like riding a road bike than a mountain bike. Um, let's see what else. Better for it. Yeah, there you go. And he says it's better for long distances, easier and better on your body. Engages the correct muscles. I love that. So we're turning into an easy grip pitch machine now, but I'm cool with that baby. Cam: (01:09:35) Oh that, that was a able printing and graphics. So thank you for the statement Abel. We appreciate it. Yeah, I'm on board with the thing man. Like I don't know, it's not really a commercial to me because I just think it's cool. I think it's a very cool product. I don't think it's a full replacement, but I think it's a, it's a beautiful addition and what we do is bounce between them and it makes, it makes for different muscle engagement, you know, depending on which one you're using. So I think it's awesome. And I will tell anybody and you guys if you have any more questions, submit them. I did, didn't I? I'll tell them again and again and again and again if you have any more questions for us, hit us up now. Um, in the meantime, dude, we're, we're already well over an hour here. Uh, so before we actually get outta here, if someone submit some questions, we'll ask them, but before we go, do you got any plugs, anything that you want to share, social media? Are you involved in any of that kind of stuff? Ron: (01:10:32) Ask the question to get Cam: (01:10:34) what kind of, uh, what kind of stuff do you want to share? Websites, social media or anything? Ron: (01:10:38) Yeah, sure. If, um, if you're not familiar with it, go to Ron Sievert, uh, Facebook and I have a DZ grip, but under the name Ron Siebert, I can engage with you. We can have conversations. Um, that would be for Facebook. I, um, I would say part of my business plan was how do I get to the consumer? I don't, well, first let be plugged something. Sure. All right guys. I don't want to forget this blood. Lots of philosophy. Where can I buy? The easy grip answer is simple. Ask Your supplier, call your supplier up and say, do you sell the easy grill? If they say no, say why not? Everybody else is selling it. Everybody else is using it. There's a superior product. I read about it on Facebook. It's loved by everybody. Why aren't you selling? So that's the best place to go to find my have defined the product. Ron: (01:11:37) Or You could go to my website, the easy grip.com but I've been able to capture the a Google search engines in the degree that you can put an easy grip squeegee, a, you've probably put in easy squeegee, but that's not my name. You might put it and it's still going to come up. Now I'm going to niche market. That's another thing. And you know, when we're back to this product development, um, I, I, I got into this because it was a niche because I knew that the marketplace was, was it low cost availability? I could reach the full market place without much money. There's not a lot of trade shows, there's not a lot of things. And I thought, do I sell direct and this is this, we should touch on this too. Sell direct to the end user. Or do I sell through a dealer network? Ron: (01:12:34) If I sell to the end user, I'll make more money because the dealer won't be taking his profit. But what does the dealer do for me? And that in this case it's essential to go through a dealer. I'm not Ryan yet. I me

Define You Niche Markets with Mark Coudray

The Screen Print Journey with Matt Fontaine

Advanced Screen Printing with Jason Lablue. Is the screen printing business a tough infuriating business? Yes! Dose that stop us from pursuing this field? Most of the time no! We are on a quest to find answers to complex processes, and sometimes we need advice from a reliable source. Jason Lablue is the Screen Print Source. Today we talk about Inks, Screens,

Buying Your first Automatic Screen Printing Press. Today I'm going deep with Drew Konstantars on the topic of Screen Print Automation. I learn about his background in the screen print industry. and how he got started.

Emulsion Screen Printing Tips and Tricks Master Class with Martin Medvetz from Chromaline Ever wonder how much of the emulsion info you hear is BS? Me to, in this podcast I talked with Martin Medvetz, a former Chemist turned emulsion guru, turned emulsion salesman for Chromaline. I have Emulsion questions, and he gives me emulsion answers. I'm also introduction a new segment call Print Myth Busting. The idea is to get industry experts to bust myths submitted in the chat. and he busts all of the Emulsion Screen Printing myths. After a brief introduction Martin dives head first into the chemistry of the different emulsion types. Using a visual aid to he explains the chemical reaction that happens when emulsion is hit with uv light. Now that we understand what happens. He is able to move onto the different types of emulsion available to screen printers and what would types are best for what applications. there is allot to take in but after this podcast you will be screen printing emulsion pro. Subscribe to The Print Life on Youtube To check out other podcast episodes head to the main podcast page

Talking with Hunter is very informative and fun. We talk about Technology and Business and I am excited and engaged in the conversation. Its the hunger of youth, I got that in spades, and the ability to talk about mutual interests. Motivation is flowing and inspiration is growing. Enjoy the conversation. We talk about all things related to the business of screen printing, specifically but also talk about motivation to get started.

In this episode, Dylan tells us how he got started, what he did wright, and what he did wrong in his business to get were he is today. After talking with Dylan I was reminded of how fun and privileged we are to be able to work for ourselves.

Jesse Martinez talks with us about water based screen printing. This episode is loaded with water based screen printing information. Grab your pen, and pay attention.

Scott Fresener has been in the screen printing industry since the 70's He has seen trends come and go, was on the forefront of DTG technology, and wrote the screen printing industries bible. today we cover a wide variety of topics from salesman ship to marketing and getting your first auto.

Getting out of the Screen Printing Comfort Zone.

The post #40 5 reasons we go into business for ourselves. appeared first on Monument Limited.

Should I quit my Job and start screen printing full time??

How to be More Efficient in Your Life as a Small Business Owner

The post #37 Getting your Screen Print Website to Show up on Google appeared first on Monument Limited.

The post #36 Increaseing Shop Efficiancy with Marshall Atkinson. appeared first on Monument Limited.

Screen Printing Pricing; Should I under cut other screen printers to get business?   At the end of the day this is the big question every new printer has. I will admit in the begging I priced jobs super low, I would not be beat on price. I had everyone telling me not to be the lowest, but in my head I was doing what I though I had to do. My brilliant idea was to corner the market by undercutting everyone and putting them out of business. Once they were all out of business then then I would raise my prices. Let me tell you we got all the work. Even looked like a super busy shop that needed to automate to keep up with screen print orders. problem was I did not have any profit. My cash flow was the Sahara desert, dry, and to try and get to the point, I was only able to almost put one person out of business, I almost put myself out of business. So the moral of the story is if you are a printer, there will always be some asshole, like me that will under cut you, and the client will go to them if all they care about is price. But I have found with most clients price is only the second most important thing to them. What they really want is a good experience and they want to be able to trust the services they are working with. I also want to put something in perspective. You are a bootstrapper, I hear most of the new b printers complain about the 10 dollar difference between this film manufacturer and that film manufacturer. Most printers are cheap skates by nature because you are starting without financial help so you penny pinch every damn thing. But as a printer matures in the business they start to care less about the 10 dollar price difference and more about the final product or the service and convenience of their supplier. So you eventually become the ideal client as you mature in business so to are the clients you are going after newb business owners will always look for the cheapest deal, but seasoned vets go with service and trust as long as the price dose not exceed their budget. Many of your clients have already been were you are now and have matured as well, those are the clients you want. The real question you should ask yourself is how can I offer more value than the other cheap ass about to go out of business printer down the street from you? The biggest value increasing methods I have found are, always answer you phone. Always be available during business hours, always be ahead of your deadline. That last one is super hard to pull of when you are growing and busting at the seams. If you can educate and inform your clients with out boring them to death with technical mumbo jumbo, they will trust you and eventually they will bust out that credit card and place an order with you the more expensive guy. To tie this up and reiterate. Focus on customer service especially with the clients you already have. You wont get as much work you wont look as busy as your competitors but in actuality you will be in a better financial situation and you will build a better foundation of good solid clients, that keep coming back because of you, not because of your pricing. - Cam Earven

#34 Organizing your Screen Print Shop, Organizing your life. The Print Life Screen Printing Podcast

The post #33 Live Screen Printing Podcast. Lets Talk about Printing appeared first on Monument Limited.

#32 Guiding Your Screen Print Clients Through The Art Process

#31 The Importance of R&D in Your Screen Printing Shop Lets Talk about conducting screen printing R&D The reason I bring this topic up is because of the difficulty involved in carving out time to actually acquire different products, additives, chemicals, emulsions, inks, even things like screens that are different that the stuff you are currently using. Most of us printers tend to find a few products we like, and after that come hell or high water we probably aren't going to change it up much after that because after we find things that work we just need to produce. Sure some clients don't care or they dont say anything if your print feels like a bulletproof vest. Some dont mind the heather gray print when you try to print discharge white on a 50/50 blend. But most clients do care very much they have a look and feel in their head and if you print doesn't meet the expectations in their head, they may not say anything but they do care. So we need to talk about some easy solutions to start conduction Research and Development in your shop. First like any great CEO or athlete the trick to completing any task is setting a specific time and date aside to work on what ever it is that you want to pursue. Lets say you want to test a combination of thin thread screen, and a print flash print with and ink you have never used for me that would be permeset augua. I want to conduct some R&D as soon as possible but I need to acquire to products get them in the shop first. So im gonna order a sample pack most manufacturers will provide them at a very affordable price or even for free. My first though is always the cost but I can assure you every cent you spend on educating your self and your team will come back ten fold. So I order the products Now I have to set a time and date and stick to it Hard for me When date come conduct r&d Mix your inks coat your screen and do the work Unexpected results. In almost every instance if I have not used the product before something will not be right Adjust and try again. Work until you figure out the process. Sometimes you wont even come to a solution.

#30 Staying Motivated in The Screen Printing Business. I think one of the biggest challenges in business is staying motivated when you have hit a wall or your business growth or the skill you are working on has slow or stop altogether. Any highly skilled person weather we are talking about and athlete, an artist, what mechanic, they have all experienced this problem, they have worked for years at something and inevitably they get to a sticking point, they stopped getting better, got bored or tired, and when they get there. they may take a small break but they always get back after it, and they stick with it long enough to push through the wall and they become a true master. But lets keep in mind these are the 1%. We aren't there yet but how to be become that? First you have to recognize that you are going through this celling? You might find your self struggling to work on a particular project or skill that needs your attention. Most of the time a person will find this difficult if they feel the growth is slow or not producing the results they desire. In the beginning it doesn't bother you, you expect it. But later on after that initial learning curve you may feel like you have reached you peak or you have learned everything you are capable of learning. This is for sure a ceiling and a prime opportunity for you to get bored or loose motivation you may feel frustrated and not sure what to do next. I think this first big wall and its what stops most people from moving forward with what ever they pursue. They have no follow through and don't get me wrong I'm guilty of this. Everyone is, don't let anyone fool, you. What you will find is that people that seem more motivated have just had more wins or have pushed through a few ceilings to get that win and once you get the first win its easier to get the second and the third. What steps can a person take to get out of the wall and get back that upward trajectory? You have to push through the thing that is beating you or boring you. Take a step away for an hour, a day, a month, what ever you need if you lover the thing your pursuing you will find your self wanting to work on the project. Another option is to force your self to continue to work on the skill, by setting aside a small amount of time on certain days of the week to push through that sticking point eventually you will click over. When you get on an upward trajectory what can you do to keep the momentum going forward. When it clicks and you are crushing it again. Keep the growth going by setting time aside to work. This should help you keep moving forward. What should you strive for? In my mind you should strive to be consistent. That is one of my biggest short comings, I get bored with almost everything.

Podcast #29 we have actually done way more than this but so many of them had huge technical problems so I didn't upload them. Today I have the print fam recommend a business topic to talk about and I riff,

#28 Pursuing a Passion Business For Profit

In todays podcast we chat with Rob from the shirt peddler about the benefits of starting with a used screen printing press. Unless you need maximum speed an all air press from the 90's is a great place to start.

The post #24 The Print Life Podcast Live Screen Printing Q&A with Cam Earven appeared first on Monument Limited.

In todays podcast I talk about offering clients discounts during the slow season and how to properly achieve this so that they don't hold out on future orders.

#20 Creativity in The Screen Printing Industry.

#19 How to Increase Your Screen Print Quality.  In todays podcast I talk about how to increase your screenprint quality. This is a complex topic. Most printers drive to have the best quality print, but it gets to a point were we are all printing the same quality, when you get there what else can you do to offer quality? folding bagging, customer service, What???? I explore this topic in as much detail as I can. I also cover small printer news and answer you questions live.  If you need screen-printing quotes Click Here Watch the video of this podcast every Wednesday at 7 pm mst

Today on The Print Life Podcast #18 I talk with the print fam about the importance of saying to potential screen print clients. I ponder why I cant spell worth a damn, and I answer questions fro the screen print fam live. Get  your print quote here

In episode 17 of The Print Life Podcast I ask the question, are we in a screen printing bubble? I cover local screen print shop news and updates along with the usual screen printing Q&A. It a great time as usual.  Need a Screen Printing Quote?  Visit The Print Life on YouTube

Starting a print shop without graphics background. Today on The Print Life Podcast, I talk about Starting a print shop without graphics background I shout out my Youtube subscribers, I cover feature news from small start up screen print shops, I do the Wednesday screen printing Q&A, and I rant about stupid shit in my life.  Click If you need a screen printing quote 

#15 The Print Life Podcast: The Importance of Print Placement. In today's podcast I shout out print shop owners news. I talk about the importance of print placement in the print industry. then I answer you screen printing questions.

In today's episode we talk about DTG printing and decide if it has a place in the world of screen printing. I ask the listeners what their favorite brand of t shirt is, and I update everyone on the status of my move the the new space, and I answer your screen printing questions. If you need screen printing quotes CLICK HERE FOR A QUOTE Visit our YOUTUBE Channel to watch our daily Vlogs

In this Wednesdays podcast we talk about The Importance of Good Accounting Practices in the Screen Printing Business. After I wrap my business topic of the day I get right into the Wednesday Q&A, the Print Fam helps with a solution for submitting shop news then we wrap the rest of the podcast up quick. Click Here For all our Podcast Episodes

In todays podcast I talk about the importance of an eco friendly screen printing shop. I also cover cover some local screen printing shops news, and conduct a Q&A. Thanks for listening to the print life podcast by Cam Earven owner of Monument Limited a Screen Print shop based in Phoenix Arizona If you need a Screen Printing Quote Start Here If you want to watch some super dope screen printing videos visit The Print Life on YouTube and subscribe.

In today's podcast I talk about strategies on How to get more Screen Printing Clients. I also answer questions from viewers that tuned in live on you tube and I report news from other screen printers. For other interesting stuff visit our Vlog Page on the site. or you can subscribe to the channel here

In today's podcast I talk about the importance of proper branding in the screen printing industry. I cover the first official screen printer shop update submitted by listeners through Instagram. One that is wrapped I answer some great t shirt screen printing questions. We offer live screen printing services for trade shows and other events Watch the video of the podcast on out YouTube Channel The Print Life

In podcast #9 I ask the question "Are Silk Screen Printing Customer's Always Right?" I showcase a very impressive screen printing shop, and answer screen printing questions.  Yes!!! But…. I believe customers expectations need to be managed from the very beginning. We are in the process of testing and figuring out what areas need to be reviewed with the clients verbally vs What we can just leave for the terms. Here is a scenario; Clients provides art work, you sit down with them and review the art, you make sure to verbally review the following areas, shirt color, shirt sizes, Ink color, print location, print width, and print distance from collar. They verbally agree that they love everything. So you take that as a green light. The garments are ordered, the screens are burned and set up, and the job goes to print, it gets packed and the client is informed that their garments are ready for pick up. The clients shows up and you bust out one of the shirts to get the sign off then you see the face.. You all know the face, I call it Airport Face. It the face that says it's shit and that they aren't happy but don't want to be confrontational and get dragged out of the terminal by TSA. So you ask is everything as expected? Flood gates are opened. The print isn't as big as they wanted it to be, and the graphic is on the front but they wanted it on the back. You took notes and you show them the notes and you printed based on those notes. How did the miscommunication happen? There is so much room for error and miscommunication. So after that scenario is the customer right or not. You have the notes Didn't get a signature Client doesn't remember saying yes. What can you do? Should you reprint? I say yes because you didn't get a sign of on the production notes AKA the Tech Sheets aka art approvals. You need them to review every detail and check of on each individual area in full, including final print size, print location, distance from collar, ink color, shirt color and shirt sizes. In closing If you had gotten all of that then the customer would not be right in this scenario and you could review the approved specs and prove it. Check out The Print Life on Youtube If you need Screen Printing Services Click here

Owning a Silk Screen Printing Business Instead of Running It. in today's podcast I talk about amazons move to own the screen printing industry, I call out the former American Apparel CEO Dov Charney for his new company Los Angels Apparel. and I answer a ton of questions from my listeners in regards to screen printing. If you like this pod cast check out the video on Youtube We also offer screen printing services here If you enjoyed this podcast please leave me a positive review on I tunes.

In podcast #7 I update you on the Live-Event-Screen-Printing in Las Vegas. How the event went, what i learned and what I look forward to next time. To start the event with the new press went off without a hitch, the big problem for live event screen printing is the travel. There are opportunity's for things to go wrong at every corner. But this always work out. Hindsight tells me not to allow my self to get cheesed during travel because it never goes as planned. Checkout out our video podcast on youtube. if you need custom screen printing click here

Silk Screen Printing Q&A With Cam Earven from Phoenix Arizona In todays Live podcast I talk about the first man to forge metal and after that I conduct an in depth Silk Screen Printing Q&A With Cam Earven from Phoenix Arizona. This episode was super fun to record. before I get to the Silk Screen Printing Q&A. I dive into my quote of the day. " Never Complain, Never Explain" - by Benjamin Disraeli. While I was looking for my quote of the day Never Complain stood out to me. You see I do complain to my wonderful girlfriend, I complain about my business, my personal problems even my food. I dont apply this quote to my life but I will because complaining leads to self fulfillment. the proper way to handle   Check out our last podcast or watch the video podcast on Youtube make sure to subscribe.

In The Print Life Podcast #5 I Talk about the process of starting you first small business. and touch on some of the shows I'm currently watching on Netflix. You wanna get into it with me? Give this podcast a listen.  Watch The Print Life Vlog on YouTube and listen you my previous podcast here If you need T-Shirt Silk Screen Printing Quotes we got you covered.

Hiring Your First Employee for your Screen Printing Shop can be an over whelming task for the first time business owner. In today's podcast I talk in detail about my first experience Hiring Your First Employee from craigslist. Before I get into all that I talk about Amazon their newest patent win for on demand manufacturing and what is means for the garment industry as a whole, I talk briefly about a quote from Confucius then we dive into the Q&A. Be sure to check out last weeks podcast.  and if you need screen printing you can get quick quotes right here on this site just click here to start building your project. This podcast was shot on YouTube live

Is Automation in the Silk Screen Printing industry Good or Bad? I have an in-depth conversation with my self on this topic. I give some great t-shirt screen printing tips to viewers that tuned into my live feed on YouTube. I talk about the flat earth conspiracy and other random stuff. Check out our first podcast it's rough but it got the job done. If you prefer a video podcast head over to youtube and subscribe to our live podcast