Category: Blogs

While good software solutions for business simplify your life, poorly designed systems tend to complicate it. Whether you are looking for Apparel ERP or embroidery business software, you need to ensure that you are asking the right questions when you are shopping around, so that the system you purchase is streamlined and efficient, and allows you and your employees to run your business more effectively. Here are some key questions to ask about any business software you are considering purchasing before you make your final decision:

1. How is the price of the software determined? Are you paying a flat fee, or is the price calculated per user or per processor? Software costs are determined in a multitude of ways, and the manner in which the price is calculated can cause it to be too high, or just right.

2. Is there a satisfaction guarantee? Most companies overlook this guarantee when they find software that they think will be perfect for their business, and then when they are unsatisfied, they expect a refund. If there is no guarantee, you are essentially purchasing goods on final sale, which is a decision you will regret if the software doesn’t turn out to be everything you hoped for.

3. How quick is the turnaround for fixing bugs? Make sure the company that developed the software places a high priority on customer service and has a fast turnaround for helping you solve any problems you run into within your system.

4. How do you receive updates? Updates can cause a huge headache, if they are not delivered in a manner that makes sense, so make sure you know how updates are handled, and that you are happy with the method in which they are sent out, before committing.

Running a business is never easy, even when you have the hardest-working staff available. There are simply so many aspects of running a business to address — how can you possibly make sure that every aspect is taken care of all of the time without adding stress to your life? The answer lies in technology. Choosing the right software solutions for your business can help you streamline all the different processes, leaving you with a few less worries on your plate.

Here at ShopWorks, we know all too well what it takes to run a business. We also know how important it is to find different ways to make the day-to-day operations faster and easier. That is why we have worked hard to develop our line of software solutions. Our products include everything you need to take care of different aspects of your business. Then you can concentrate on marketing and expanding your business, as well as simply enjoying your life.

We have onsite software that can manage things such as inventory, production, accounting, and much more. We also offer various applications that can take care of monitoring quality, fulfilling orders, and keeping your customers updated on the latest status of their orders. Imagine going to bed each night knowing that your business is practically running itself. Talk about a stress reliever!

Contact us today at ShopWorks to learn more about our different software solutions and find out how they can help you better manage and operate your business.

Five Signs You Need to Streamline Your Business Operations

One of the most effective things you can do to make your business more efficient is streamline your information and business processes. Here are five signs that your business may need to be restructured and streamlined with the help of software solutions for business, like print estimating software or other on-site software systems.

1. One sign that you need to streamline is if all of your client contact information is not in one place. All of your appointments, emergency contacts, contact numbers, emails, waivers and other documents should be in one place, whether it’s a filing cabinet or a section of your business software. This makes it incredibly easy to find whatever contact information you are looking for the moment you need it.

2. You should be able to find out exactly how many active clients you have at a moment’s notice. If you can’t find the number of auto-pay clients you have instantly, you need to update to a better system.

3. You should be able to track staff pay and progress on the computer, instead of manually. If you have paper sheets on which you keep track of this and add up at the end of the month, then you know it’s time to streamline your business.

4. You shouldn’t dread past due expenses conversations with clients, since they should know exactly when payments are due. An online system takes care of all of this, eliminating the possibility of human error, altogether.

5. If all of your current information is in the computer, but all past order information is in various filing cabinets, it’s time to update your filing methods. All of the information for each account and job should be stored in an easy-to-access, single place in your system.

OnSite Business ERP Software

OnSite is an apparel ERP suite of software that allows you to run your whole business using just this one software suite. It integrates with many different applications within the suite, allowing you to be productive. Each of the applications works with sales and marketing tools, purchasing and inventory, order processing, shipping and receiving, product management, and accounting software, all of which saves you time and money.

1. With integrated software, you do not have to jump between multiple applications. Instead, you are inside of one software program that offers multiple apps that allow you to process orders, check inventory, and complete sales and marketing.
2. Software is made specifically for screen printers, digital printers, and promotional product distributers. If your business fits in this model, you will find this software suite helpful to your business.
3. The software works for both Windows and Mac, which means your business is likely to be compatible. Everything works over the network, which means everyone can access it at the same time with excellent results.
4. You can choose to have on-site or web-based training for the software suite. This makes it very easy to make the switch, since help will be available. In most cases, the training only lasts two days, but you can opt to have more time if needed.
5. OnSite includes accounting software. In reviews placing OnSite’s accounting tools against QuickBooks, OnSite has much more favorable reviews. It also offers more services, such as shipping and order status.

For more information on ERP software, contact us at ShopWorks.

One of the most important things you can do if you want your business to continue to grow and improve is to collect and analyze data about your business through software solutions for business. Using OnSite software to analyze business data makes it easy to answers questions about different areas of your business. Here are a few beneficial areas where you should begin collecting data for analysis:

• Employee Surveys: Your business literally can’t stay open without employees, so you need to make sure that your employees are happy and are motivated, not just to get their work done, but to go above and beyond for your company. You should circulate employee surveys throughout your company, about once a month through your apparel software system, and analyze the answers for areas that you can improve your company and ways that you can increase employee satisfaction. You should still make distinctions between reasonable requests and unreasonable ones, but if there is something you can do to make your employees happier to come to work, you should try to do it.

• Monitor Your Machines: Each machine needs to be working up to its full capabilities if you want your company to be as efficient as possible. Collecting data about your machines’ capabilities and their performance can show you where you need to make improvements when you have the money to do so.

• Customer Feedback: Again, your company would collapse without customers, so you should be conducting active customer feedback surveys and working to provide the best customer service possible.

While most companies focus on lowering the prices of their services and products, research shows you should put more effort into providing high quality products and services if you want to grow and keep your customer base. Many customers are willing to pay a little more for a product or a service, as long as they get high functionality and the product arrives quickly. Here are three reasons why you should focus on product improvement, instead of lowering the price.

1. Make sure your product is easy to purchase, by investing in good software solutions for business, including onsite software, and making your website as user-friendly as possible. People don’t like to have to search for purchasing and payment options, so if another site has a comparable product or service, and has a more user-friendly website, customers are likely to purchase from them.

2. Make sure you pay enough in shipping so that your product arrives as quickly as possible. People don’t like to see “ten to fifteen days” in the delivery box. Make sure it’s closer to “two to seven days,” and offer an option that is even shorter. This is a big part of customer service, and is one that you should make sure you spend time developing.

3. Put enough money into your product so that it has a unique, “must-have” feature. This not only pushes your product above your competitors’ products, but it makes your customers feel exclusive and wealthy. Even if the feature is one that you will only use a handful of times, spend time developing it, if it will really stand out.

OnSite Business Software Demo: We here at OnSite 7 offer many opportunities that allow potential clients to get to know our software solutions for businesses before committing to the system and purchasing it for their whole company. One of the best ways of doing this is by signing up for an online demo.

All online demonstrations allow you to see exactly what the technician is doing throughout the demo, which is personalized to fit your company’s needs and show you how the software can directly save you and your business money. This means that no matter for what you need to use OnSite 7, whether it be Apparel ERP, a print estimating software, or a sign business software, the technician will walk you through the applications that will be most useful to you. The OnSite business software demo can last for as much or as little time as you would like, and are usually between a half an hour and an hour long. If you would prefer it to be longer or shorter, though, all you have to do is ask.

Once your demo is completed, you will receive access to more than 40 hours of training videos on ShopWorks Central, where you will also be able to download a fully functioning demo and test it yourself.

To request a personalized OnSite demo, all you have to do is fill out a form with your personal and company information, the number of employees at your company, your preferred day and start time for your personalized demo, and additional notes that you would like to include.

You can contact a commercial screen printing business that produces custom shirts for easy gifts for family members this holiday season. This is a quick, cheap, and effective way to scratch most people off your list, without leaving your house or doing much work. Choosing great t-shirt gifts for family is simple and easy if you follow the steps below.

1. Consider the things that each member of the family is into. Are they film buffs, or do they have a favorite saying? You can use these ideas to create a custom shirt for them.

2. Scroll through the shirts on the website you plan to order shirts from. Many offer awesome sample designs that you can order as is or customize. Use these as a basis for your design if you’re out of ideas.

3. Make bulk orders of the same design to save cash. Is there a family saying or something that your family has in common? You can use this as a basis for your design. Bulk orders usually consist of 20 or more shirts, but it depends on the company.

4. If you’re planning on doing a vacation type gift versus a traditional Christmas holiday, consider spreading the news with custom shirts. If you’re going on a skiing trip, for example, you can have shirts created that say something along the lines of “Robinson Family Mountain Lodge Ski Resort.” This would make breaking the news quite fun, especially for the kids.

5. Having kids wear matching shirts for family trips is a great idea to keep everyone in a group, especially when you travel somewhere busy for your holiday.

For more information about custom T-shirts, screen printing, and software, contact us at ShopWorks.

Improve Business Efficiency with ShopWorks

Many companies tend to aim for progress and forward movement in their business overall, and while that is a good end goal, they often don’t go about achieving it in the best way. To move forward in the long run, companies must first make sure that everything is already running as it should.

For this to happen, their employees and processes must be working  efficiently. By going back and making your business more efficient, you free up time and effort that can then be used to work on future progress and moving forward.

One of the biggest ways to improve business efficiency is investing in a good, industry-specific apparel software, such as ShopWorks. ShopWorks allows all of your employees to communicate more efficiently, helps facilitate the smooth transfer of information down a logical chain of command, and stores information to ensure your business continues to run smoothly in the future.

Don’t try to move forward before securing the business processes you already have. Call for more information about ShopWorks and to find out how it can help your business today.