August Ink

August Ink has a 3-5 day turn-around time for hand-printed tees. That’s incredible! How do you pull that off?

Time management is key! I’ve started to set a pretty strict schedule for myself…certain days I print, others I prep social media posts and work on other admin things. I have set up systems that help me stay efficient. Even before I had my own business, I loved changing things up when I felt that they could done in a little more streamlined way. I’ve always been a problem solver. But I also know I’m not going be able to do it all by myself forever. As volume picks up, I spend time thinking about my process and how my systems will allow me to plug in a new person to do that job. I think that’s helped me keep things simple and always moving forward!

After only being around a year and a half, your shirts are already sold in several states AND Canada! How hard has it been to handle growth like that?

There have been some growing pains, but I think getting the right equipment and tools in place has really helped me. I just bought a new conveyor belt dryer to cure and dry my products and that’s been awesome! I can get so many more shirts printed in an afternoon than I could before with my flash dryer. Also, getting tools, like ShipStation, has really helped. I use to spend way too much time getting shipments ready…pulling from three different selling platforms….even just getting a print list together took forever! But now all that information gets pulled into one place and saves me so much time! I think it’s all about investing your resources and your time into the right things. I’m someone who hates paying fees and will try to figure out ways to do it myself before adding costs. But I’ve learned that when you invest your money in smart ways the payoff will be huge!

I noticed you offer free shipping on orders over $50. How have you seen that impact orders? Do you see customers striving to hit that threshold?

People love free shipping…heck, I love free shipping! So I do find that a lot of people pick up an extra t-shirt to reach that $50 threshold.

How has ShipStation helped you with your business?

I’m saving so much time with ShipStation, which is what I what I expected. But another result is that shipping errors have been non-existent! By simplifying the process and having everything in one place, all I have to focus on is making sure tees are picked correctly and get in the right box. I ship all orders from my different platforms at once and I’m not wasting time viewing reports from three different places. All these things mean I’m spending less time on shipping items and more time on building my business!

What’s your favorite ShipStation feature?

I love the Order Summary and Pick List so much! It’s so great to wake up in the morning, get to my desk and print a list of what I need to prep for the day with just a couple mouse clicks! So great!