Customer Success Story: Strive to Be
27 June, 2022
BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT: Find out how Nathan Kendjorsky, owner of Strive to Be, uses GraphicsFlow to help run a bustling screen-printing business while raising his family.
Raising a family is challenging, and running a business while trying to raise a family is a whole other ballgame. For Nathan Kendjorsky, juggling both worlds has been his daily routine for a while now. Nathan started his screen-printing business, Strive to Be, after a stint in the corporate world.
In 2014, Nathan says he started exploring the custom printed merch world. At that time, he oversaw the gear for wrestling teams he coached in the Columbus, Ohio, area. That side gig, he says, started opening up doors to the decorated apparel market.
“At that point, I was outsourcing printing to my uncle who owned a screen printing business,” he says.
While he coached wrestling teams in his off-hours, Nathan worked a corporate job where he honed some of his design skills. After Nathan’s wife secured a fellowship in Kentucky, the family had to move from Ohio to the Bluegrass state.
“I asked my job if I could work remotely, but they said ‘no. But now, more than five years later, everyone works remotely,” he jokes.
While Nathan and his wife prepared for their move, he says he discovered a screen printing shop in Kentucky that was selling its entire shop off. Nathan saw a golden opportunity and says he decided to seize the moment.
“The owner sold me the whole package half off because he was going to have to pay rent anyway,” he explains.
Since purchasing the shop, Nathan’s built up Strive-to-Be’s reputation with local customers as he helps raise his two daughters during the day. He says that having GraphicsFlow’s tools and resources to help create designs and streamline the creative process with customers has been extremely helpful.
More time and more designs
Since Nathan’s creating mockups with whatever downtime he can while raising his girls, he says he’s always been interested in resources that can help him do his job better and faster. Before using GraphicsFlow, he says customer designs might take him upwards of four hours between the research, mockup, and approval steps. And that was if a customer actually approved the design on the first round or didn’t come to the table with a vague, hard-to-build idea.
With the introduction of GraphicsFlow’s art library and Art Portal, he’s been able to speed up the process significantly.
“Now I can just send customers a link to my Art Portal, tell them to pick 2-3 designs that look best for them, and I let them know that I can customize it once they’ve chosen their favorites,” he said explains.
For some of his regular customers, where he already has a general idea of what to create, Nathan says he’ll also use the GraphicsFlow art library as a resource to create mockups quickly. He’ll send 5-6 design ideas through the Art Approval workspace, have them choose the ones they like best, and forge ahead with customized mockups.
With both approaches, Nathan says he’s gone from 3-4 hours down to as little as a half-hour to build a mockup for a customer. By sheer coincidence, Nathan points to one of his regular customers, who is also a dad that helps run a school wrestling program. The Art Approvals workspace and the diversity of the Art Portal design options have made it simpler for both parties.
After the customer selects designs and Nathan’s turned mockups back around, that customer shares the Art Approval with the rest of the coaching staff, and they’re off and running.
Better ways to sell online
Since setting up GraphicsFlow about two years ago, Nathan’s also started using InkSoft tools to accommodate his customers. He’s been operating online stores to help a handful of customers run fundraising campaigns and has had better luck with InkSoft Stores compared to other options on the market.
“I used to have to download product images, mock them up, then re-upload them, all before I even set up a store; it was way too much work,” he explains. “InkSoft Stores are much simpler because of the vendor integration, and uploading art is more straightforward.”
Always growing
Currently, Strive to Be primarily screen prints apparel, but now that he’s been able to streamline mockups and design creation, Nathan says he’s exploring other possibilities. Specifically, direct-to-film (DTF) transfers because of their versatility.
“I try to stay within 3-4 colors with screen printing, but being able to do short runs with the GraphicsFlow library, combined with the color options of DTF, would be huge,” he explains.
For other businesses considering GraphicsFlow, Nathan points back to improved efficiency and the diversity of design options.
“The most important thing is time savings,” he notes. “And, giving your customers a vision that you can eventually turn into a final product without the headaches of having to do hours of research or extra design.”
And while maybe not every printer is looking to squeeze design mockups between nap-times or their kids’ TV time, having a faster and more efficient way to create customer artwork is beneficial to all types of print businesses. Learn more about Strive to Be here.
Want to learn more about how GraphicsFlow can streamline your art department? Contact a Client Advisor today for a tour.
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