How we got here
History is fun, isn't it?
We actually grew, believe it or not. Took a lot of work, but somehow, we managed to increase sales and people found out that we were fairly quick with most work. We, on the other hand, found that sewing day and night wasn't quite as much fun. And we couldn't get the cars into the garage. Too many boxes of clothes. Besides, UPS didn't like delivering to the house. Cranky, aren't they?
A wonderful lady came to work for us about 1994, by the way. She worked at the house. Her name was Mary and she had just retired from another job. She was wonderful, patient, and became part of the family. She was sixty two when she started. That's an important note, by the way, if you can get to page three.
So, we moved. It was tough. We had to start wearing clothes again. Had to be moderately responsible and go to work in the morning. It wasn't fun at first. But we managed. Our first move took place in 1999, to a small converted storefront that a friend let us sublet. He was happy to have us there, since he had a nice sporting goods business and was pleased that we could do names on the spot for him.
Ambition took over, though. Early in 2000, we found ourselves in the midst of negotiations to purchase another embroidery shop of similar size, although that company had more sewing heads. At the time, we had a mere thirteen sewing heads on four machines. We were already cramped in the small space, so we found ourselves negotiating a move to nearly three times the area we currently had, to 3,600 square feet containing three additional embroidery machines and nineteen more heads. Suddenly, we were looking at an actual business, with employees and everything. It was frightening, but a challenge.
Glad you could make it this far!
In 2000, we moved, added the other nineteen sewing heads, four brand new employees and an enormous amount of space. It was pretty thrilling, having actual offices, a work area that sometimes hummed along with the sounds of machines running and people talking. Team Mates started to look like an actual business?
There were difficulties, of course. The employees at the place we purchased were ready to quit, but agreed to stay for a short time longer, just to help us out. We, of course, begged and pleaded. It was disgusting. Thankfully, they didn't embarrass us by taking pictures or anything.
Our really sad part was that Mary (from page 2) decided to move on. She was 69 by then and wanted to go home to Michigan with her daughter, who was planning a move. Retire? No way. She still works, four years later, as food services manager for a retirement community in Benton Harbor. A wonderful woman and we miss her a lot. We still send her cards and presents at Christmas.
On the other hand, four of the employees we hired in 2000 are still with us, still working hard and are now part of the nine people who keep very busy in the shop today. They have become experts in the embroidery industry, doing some of the most complex tackle twill and embroidery imaginable. We're lucky that they've joined the team and hope that they stay for a long time to come.
Used to be the last page. But I'll at least say that you don't have to watch the slide show. That would be really long.
Since moving, we've concentrated on improving what we do. We focus on our clients and try to make it easy for them to get work done. Long ago, we dispensed with the idea of rush fees and just get the job done. Apparently, it works. We get it done, don't charge extra for the occasional emergency and concentrate on giving the very best quality and delivery that we possibly can.
We've been doing tackle twill work since 1993 and consider ourselves pretty darned good at it, by the way. You can read more about that on the tackle twill pages.
In 2004, we began carrying two lines of apparel, Russell Athletic wear and Champion Athletic wear. We think they're the best and are very grateful that we can provide our customers with the added convenience and quality goods.
In March of 2005, we're moving yet again. Bigger space, more shop area, a much nicer display area. It's exciting. Apparently we're not done growing.
In the meantime, we continue to provide the quality, delivery and hopefully a decent price on all wearables, embroidery and tackle twill. We cut the twill in our shop, do all of the design work right here and are always happy to give a tour if you happen to be in town.
Of course, new information will be added to this little bit of history as soon as it happens. The current final note here is that our goals are to make it look easy, make it look good and make your shopping experience so pleasant that you'll come back just because you enjoyed it so much. And, we'll be happy to take any suggestions you might have.
Sorry. There was more. My mistake. Apparently things change.
Okay, so here's the skinny. That last page was written before we moved. A few things have happened since. It's June, 2006, so although I will try to be brief, we all know by now that I'm not. Please be patient..
We did get the move done. Took seven hours to get the machines back up and running and another seven weeks to get the joint straightened out, but we wound up with a total of 4,500 square feet and a much better location. Even have pictures somewhere. I'll put one or two on the site one of these days. Our name is on the building even!
We were more or less content to do our work and focus (as always) on quality and delivery, but in August, a tremendous opportunity came along and we purchased yet another embroidery shop. Strange how these things tend to happen.
The new shop was located in a nearby town and was supplied by a single primary customer, although that part was a bit frightening. The very fortunate side was that we already knew the customer and have had a good continuing relationship with them for a number of years, so we weren't as nervous about having a single large contributor to revenues.
The purchase led to our increasing in size to 77 operating sewing heads, more than doubling our size and increasing our output by more than double. We were thrilled to be able to do so and have suddenly moved into the category of 'contract embroiderer' instead of small shop. We do, of course, have a ways to go before actually being a major national company, but it never hurts to think big, does it?
So we've grown. Twice as big as we were last year at this time. And wait, there's even more (do I start to sound like Ron Popeil here?). But there is. Really. .
Growth is good.
“Be not simply good, be good for something.” Henry David Thoreau
We were absolutely thrilled at the results of our purchase. Well, pretty much so. It did, of course, result in a huge number of fourteen hour days. And sleepless nights. As we neared the Christmas season, which is historically our busiest time, we began to realize that we were poorly equipped to handle this growth with the administrative staff that we had. A search began.
And failed. Miserably. Apparently there are not a lot of people who feel that me being in charge is a good thing. We had one short-term employee who came in after seven whole days and gave her resignation. No advice, just a resignation. We seem to have overwhelmed her.
Adjustments were eventually made. We sent our wonderful shop manager, Linda, to the new shop and she did a fabulous job. We did manage to hire a new employee, Marty, who is the local shop manager. Marty is also my brother. We actually get along, even though I sign his paychecks.
Of course, this didn't stop us from moving ahead. Growth, even at the present fast level did not preclude the need for advertising. And quality control. And re-pricing. But those are other stories. It also created whole complete new issues that we are still trying to solve.
Take this, for instance. Our rent was increased. Dramatically. In the second, newly purchased shop. It was an unexpected series of events that brought the whole thing about, but suffice to say that we were forced to look for new accomodations for what is fast becoming our primary production shop, mainly due to the hard work that Linda has put it.
Fortunately, one of the warehouses in the Eagan building where we have our main offices happened to be vacant. As of June 7, 2006, we now have eight thousand lovely square (mostly) feet of prime office and warehouse all neatly located in the same general vicinity. The two shops are even within walking distance, at least in the summer. Winter might be a different story. But we are actually able to increase production even more.
Apart from that, just because this has become so darned personal, my twin sons graduated college this year. One's going to work for Chrysler as an engineer. The other one commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Air Force and heads off to Shaw AFB. He got married two weeks after graduation to a very lovely lady and until they are shipped off to Shaw, they have rented an apartment within a block of our shop. Maybe they'll bring us dinner on occasion.
And I reserve the right to continue to add to this little saga.
Survival Part Deux
So you thought that just because we quit writing for awhile, we were done?
I'm writing finally in 2014. Part of this is due to the fact that I can now edit and add pages easily. We're upgrading our website, moving it into a slightly more robust and current landscape. Part of it was due to a real question. Would Team Mates survive 2008, 2009 and the rest of the years, and live to tell the tale?
The year 2008 was frightening. It held us in our seats, a little bit like "Play Misty For Me." Remember that solid Clint Eastwood thriller? All I remember was that the date I was with when I saw it dug her fingers into the back of my hand until she drew blood. It was downright horrifying.
I went into that year knowing that something was wrong. Aside from the unrest in my own industry, there were signs that we were headed for a, well, slight downward trend. Housing and property went on a tailspin ride that landed the whole economy in a deep pit. Banks started asking for money from the government because no one had any to actually put into them. People began talking about being 'upside down' on their property. By the end of the year, we were all standing on our heads, watching the blood drain from our feet and we no longer saw any part of industry or the world as being safe.
Team Mates suffered during that time. We knew it and there was nothing that we could do. Sales slowed, payments slowed and we knew that it was make or break time. The assistance of a very wonderful banker helped to pull us out literally at the last minute. We refinanced, paid off a lot of debts and came through the year scathed but alive.
It was a time when I finally faced the fact that we needed a new and better structure, a new way to do our work and a whole lot of guidance. Recurrent during that year was contact with a consulting company known as E-Myth, Incorporated. They aren't an ordinary consultant and make absolutely no promise that they can solve your troubles. The only thing that is provided in fact, is a coach who, via telephone calls and assignments, whose primary function is to encourage you to work hard on your business.
I've been a consultant in the past. I was pretty miserable at it. One thing that I never got beyond was listening to the owners say "I've put my heart and soul [a cliche at best] into this company and it owes me." We never got around to fixing what was wrong.
By the end of 2008, though, I finally realized that I didn't want to be one of those owners. So I listened. And imagined. And watched my company and observed others like mine and finally began to understand that something was drastically wrong with the way that we were doing business. The secret was, well, change.
So, curious? Different writing today, huh? And we're still here to write about it. There's more.
Journey with me into space and time
Come, my darlings, we shall travel together
Yes, there is a secret. Change flies. Time goes pretty slowly if you watch a clock.
Where were we? Oh, E-Myth. Michael Gerber wrote the book. It's still in print if you're interested. It's really a good read. In May, 2009, I signed up for the intensive, even though we couldn't really afford it at the time. On the other side of that cheap coin, it's pretty darned affordable.
I got a coach. I buckled down. I started, finally, to replace knowledge with understanding. And Team Mates began to turn the corner. So how, Rachel, how?
First, we looked at who we, Team Mates, are. We suffered a major amount of turnover during that year. New decorators, new staff, new directions. We began to focus. I began to focus. I didn't look at how much we were doing. Instead, I saw what we were doing. I analyzed my own purpose and desire in life. I saw that what I was doing was, well, you know the nagging spouse and how he (or she) tries to change the other? That was me with my company.
And the result? Totally bad.
I took a survey in 2009. Mostly, the survey included questions about our internal operations. Were people happy? Were we presentable as a shop? Were we efficient?
Beginning in 2010, we started on the lowest rated score. We were filthy. Unkempt. We didn't look good to our employees.
I realized something. Employees. They are the business. We are a manufacturer. We are a service organization. We are partners with our customers, the distribution network. Our employees are our only sales staff. If they are not at least pleased with their work, then we will not be a success. Growth? That comes via the successful handling of current customers. It does not come through the effort of selling.
And so we're through 2009. Oh, we grew a little. And, we spent a lot of time cleaning up and tossing stuff. More? Really? Well, Augie, if you insist.
So you think the Three Stooges were funny?
Well, duh. And Nyuk nyuk to you.
Embroidery is a tough business. Team Mates, if you didn't already know, is a contract decorator. That means that we, the company, rely on them, the distributors, to sell. We have to make it easy for distributors to sell clothing with little sewn-on logos. You can get a really good logo from anyone. Really. The embroidery machines are incredible these days. A new one will sew a logo, trim it up, do a hand stand and play a Brahms lullaby while spouting philosophy. OH yeah.
It just takes an operator. And a bookkeeper. And a manager. And the special crew who reviews your order, makes sure that the men's large pullover that you ordered isn't a women's size medium. Oh, and a shipping department that actually send it to you, not the neighbor down the street who ordered the latest iPad online last month.
It sometimes takes a planet. Or maybe just a well-oiled team.
Your author here inserts a footnote. He wants to be liked. He wants to be perceived as a really good guy. So he does what he can to prove that to his loyal (really, you got this far into this little About Us history and you deserve a really big bonus) reading following that he is basically okay. His problem (the author's) is that he didn't interact well with Team Mates' employees. So he took a deep breath and got up from his desk and, well, set off on a journey of discovery.
He asked his employees how they felt. What they wanted out of life. Where they were headed. He expected things like "I'm out the door as soon as a better job comes along." He received compliments about the fact that we 'seemed like we actually cared.' It was surprising and gave us all a lot more confidence.
And E-Myth has traveled the route with us. Suggestions. Things like sharing our numbers, becoming open about how errors were made and how they could be fixed. Involving employees would seem to be one of the best ways to do this, especially since we started to evolve into a business that served customers and graduated away from focusing on getting work out the door. As a result, things improved dramatically. Production increased. We started meeting deadlines and pleasing customers. We started to work as a team.
Of course there is a next step. It is a big one. How, and in what way do we serve our customers? Jeepers, you had to ask? There's a big secret here. Ask Your Customers. And that is just what we did. More about that in a second. I have to go fill hay bags. More on that as well.