How to Fund New Embroidery Equipment Without Going Into Debt

Finding Hidden Money in Your Business

You see new equipment, you want that shiny new embroidery machine, your business needs it, but the money isn't there and you don't want debt. You guys, I've been there constantly, and today I'm gonna share two strategies that have worked for me.

Hi, my name's Hope Yoder, and this is the Embroidery Profit Podcast. Today we're gonna find you some money that you didn't know you had.

The "Dave Ramsey" Philosophy for Small Business

Now, before I dive into this, I wanna give some credit to who this philosophy is behind. And this is something that I've done for years. And it's Dave Ramsey. Maybe you're familiar with his teaching.

He also has a book called EntreLeadership, which is talking about 20 years of practical business wisdom from the trenches. And his core value is how to operate your life or your business debt-free at any level. And he coaches a lot of people who are in debt and helps give them practical ways to get out of debt.

Now, I'm using Dave Ramsey as a verb. It's something I made up. It's not a phrase, it's not his philosophy. It's just kind of my take on me listening to Dave Ramsey for years. Are you ready for it? So when you hear me say, we're gonna Dave Ramsey it, you'll know what I mean.

In fact, this came from my bookkeeper years ago. We were talking about I needed some equipment. I don't even remember what it was. This is probably 15 years ago. And I remember I said to her, "Well, I'll just Dave Ramsey it." She looked at me and she goes, "That's not a verb." Anyway, yeah, I'm using it as a verb.

Now, I will say, while I respect him and his teaching has helped us tremendously, I don't necessarily agree with everything that he teaches. I do think that business debt is not wrong. Now, right now, we don't have any business debt. And that's been our goal. And you'll hear a little bit about that.

But I want you to hear me clear. Business debt, I don't think that it's wrong. I think it's a lot less stressful if you don't have debt and you can find a way to pay for it outright. But sometimes when your business is growing, that's not possible.

The difference between borrowing what you want versus borrowing what the true business needs to make you money, there's a difference between just wanting it and needing it. And so that may be the difference on how you get it.

Now in this episode, I want you to think critically, is there money to be found to fund that next purchase before you go out and borrow money? That's what Dave Ramseying it means to me. A lot of times I'll look around my space, I'll find things that I haven't used in over a year, and I know that somebody probably can get some real value out of it.

I get those things ready, I take good photos, I list them on eBay, Facebook Marketplace, or wherever. And then I can use that money to fund what my business actually needs today instead of allowing it to sit there and collect dust. Think of it as having a very high-end, bougie garage sale. You might have things sitting there that could earn you thousands of dollars that you don't even know you had.

How I Found $10,000 in My Own Studio

Now, I want to tell you about how I found $10,000 a few months ago. Now, if you've listened to the podcast and you've followed along with me since the beginning, first I want to say thank you so much. In the first couple episodes, I talked about how I got started with embroidery. And that might be fun and encouraging to you if you haven't listened to that already.

But I was very well known in the hobby space. And I did a lot of events all over the country. And so I had almost every brand, top-of-the-line home embroidery machine. And what I mean by that is it was a flatbed machine, not a multi-needle machine.

And I had this one embroidery machine that I really didn't use very much. We used it to teach on and to make projects. And I noticed that at the latest convention for that brand, they were releasing another top of the line machine, meaning mine was one below top of the line.

Now that machine hadn't been used in a year, probably a couple years. So I got to thinking, man, I could sell that and have cash for what I need for my business today. So I drug that machine from upstairs to downstairs in my studio. You guys, it was covered in dust.

So I had to do a little spit polishing on that. Not really, that's kind of gross. But I polished it off, I got rid of the dust, I laid it out, I put all the hoops in the picture, and I took some nice photos and I listed it on Facebook Marketplace and on eBay.

Now, eBay, you're gonna need to ship most likely. So I did have the original boxes. And that's something I want to mention. If you're buying equipment, maybe not a commercial machine, but other types of things like that, save the original box because one day you may want to sell it and that will actually allow you to sell it in other places.

Now I'm excited to say that we got $10,000. Someone came and picked it up, and she Zelled me the money, and man, I had what I needed. Now we found money to purchase a Marrow machine for finishing patches that I don't embroider. So my husband and I agreed I wouldn't borrow for that machine.

I would buy the Marrow machine outright, which was about $5,000. So I bought it outright and I had zero debt. And man, that feels good. Now you may be wondering, what did we do with the other $5,000? Well, we put it in our savings just to add a little cushion.

Now that old equipment that I hadn't turned on in a long time that no longer served my needs as a commercial embroiderer, it funded a piece of equipment that will. A piece of equipment that will actually make me money and I didn't have to borrow to get it.

In fact, as I'm thinking about this, I have two more flatbed embroidery machines that I need to sell. One is pretty close to a top of the line, and the other one is an older good solid machine. But you know what? Somebody's probably looking for that machine. So if I wasn't recording this, I would take a note. Get those two things sold.

Now, I do want to say it doesn't have to be an embroidery machine. It could be another piece of business equipment. For instance, I actually have three digital cutters where I used to go around the country teaching digital cutting events with my staff and my team members, and we don't use those anymore.

Two are in a box and one is out on the counter. And I haven't used those in five years, you guys. And they're still really good cutters worth several hundred dollars each. Maybe you have stereo equipment or camera gear. I know my husband is constantly buying new Canon products and lenses and reselling them so he can get the next thing.

And it doesn't take him long to sell that. As I'm sitting here behind my camera, you guys, I see a Schwen Airdyne that my dad gave me. We've used it about five times. I do not enjoy riding that sucker. So I could probably sell it.

Maybe you have collectibles. You can walk around your space with fresh eyes and see what has value to someone else that means nothing to you anymore that could be money. One person's past hobby could be the dream that someone else is waiting to purchase second hand.

Investing vs. Spending: The ROI of a Dual Heat Press

All right, now not everything that I purchase gets the Dave Ramsey verbiage applied to it. Sometimes the numbers make the decisions. And I've really had to rein myself in and not just buy everything that pops into my head, even if I feel like it's good for business.

There's so many things that I see other makers and Facebook groups purchasing. And I want it too. I gotta be honest, like the FOMO, fear of missing out. But I've learned as a true business person that let that go, sit on it for a while.

Probably it's not something that's gonna make my business money. And it probably doesn't even fit into my business model. Just because Susie's doing it and making a lot of money, so she says on social media, doesn't mean that it's right for me.

Now, here is something that was right for us. We do a lot of apparel, a lot of embroidery, and even more DTF transfers. And my coworker was standing in front of a flat heat press for almost eight hours several times a week.

And I started to think, man, what if she hates doing this? Like I don't want her to quit. I love working with her and I value her and we have a lot of fun. And am I making her job hard? One that she dreads. And I really didn't want to ask her about that because I was afraid she'd say yes.

So I started doing some research. How could I press twice as many shirts in a day? Now I'm just going to use this number. I don't even know if it's a real number, but I'm going to throw out the number 150. Let's say she was pressing 150 shirts a day. How could I double that and make it more efficient so we could make more money?

So what I started looking at were dual hydraulic presses. And you guys don't Google this unless you're doing a lot of DTF transfers. Don't let me be your Susie. I'm just giving you this as an example. And I found two types of heat presses that were dual, which means they had two bottom platens.

And one was a dual heat press that needed a compressor. And I got to thinking, hey, I have a compressor just sitting on the floor that I was gonna Dave Ramsey, aka sell, and I thought to myself, I should hang on to this a little longer.

Now we're in a commercial building with concrete floors, two-story, and a compressor. Quite honestly, we stopped using it for a laser business because I mastered my laser settings and it was just really noisy.

So I found a hydraulic dual heat press, which takes five gallons of hydraulic fluid, and everybody said it was quieter. So I did all of my research and I found out that I could probably make twice as much money every time I pressed shirts if I upgraded from a single press to a dual press.

So here's what that means for me. Instead of making 150 shirts a day, we could actually knock out 300 shirts a day. So in a week, we could do 750 shirts. Guys, that's good math.

That is going to not only make us more money in the same amount of time, double the money. My co-worker isn't going to be as fatigued. Now that math works because think of all the time that we're gonna save and how fast that dual heat press is going to pay for itself.

So I had money in my bank account. We really didn't have to Dave Ramsey this. It was a no-brainer. Twice as many shirts in the same amount of time with one operator not having to hire another staff member. That ROI, return on my investment, math works every time.

I look at it as I'm not spending money to buy that heat press. I'm investing. And that's what we did. And every time we use it, I have to think to myself, that was a good investment.

The Marv Factor: Navigating Risk and Debt

Now I'm gonna move on to something, another made-up term, the Marv, M-A-R-V factor. I'm gonna get a little personal with you guys. Is that okay? I feel like you probably know me by now.

And if you meet me in person, what you see here and hear here, if you're listening to the podcast or watching on YouTube, is pretty much I'm just the real deal. I probably share too much. So this may go in that sharing too much, but I want to be real and transparent with you.

My husband Marv and I have been married for 38 years of almost sheer bliss, right? If you're married, you get that joke. We love each other, we've been together a long time, but believe it or not, we differ on some opinions. Like hard to believe, right? Someone married still has differences of opinion.

Now, Marv, I have to give him credit. We're debt-free, almost debt-free, because of Marv. He's the driving force behind us never borrowing money. And most of the time, I agree with Marv with us not borrowing money, but other times I'm downright frustrated with him.

And I'm gonna tell you one of those times. Now, we have a dream to buy a six-head embroidery machine. My way would get it faster. I think that we have enough customers and enough client base, especially with a couple big opportunities coming our way.

And once we land those, I'm probably going to be looking at borrowing to buy that machine to get it faster. But you know what? That is going to add a little stress to me because I'm going to have to be knowing that I'm making X amount more every month to make those payments.

And while I want the machine faster and I'm gonna look at borrowing, I don't know if I'll really do it or not because I don't know that I want that stress on top of everything else going with being the business owner.

Now, Marv's way is completely different with my philosophy. Well, I wouldn't say borrowing is a philosophy, but it's definitely something that I think about. Marv's way is earn it, find the money. Be debt-free, even if it takes longer.

Now, if you have a business partner or a spouse, you may identify with Marv or you may identify with me or a little bit of both. And I want you to hear this. If you're multitasking, stop, put down your phone. If you're driving, eyes on the road.

But neither one of these, Marv or my philosophy, is wrong. It's just a different risk tolerance. You may identify with me or you may identify with my husband. And you guys have probably had this conversation too.

Identifying Your Fastest Path to Revenue

Now I can't make this decision for you because honestly, I struggle with it myself. All right. And we're kind of in the trenches with that right now. And you may hear what we decide on a future podcast.

But I want to tell you something that I want you to repeat to yourself. I want you to think about it when you're quiet and still. I want you to think about it when you wake up in the morning. And I want you to think about it when you go to bed at night.

And this is a question that I ask myself constantly. Are you ready for it? Do you know what it is? Here it is. What is your fastest path to revenue? I recently was listening to a business coach, and that's a question that he asked us, and he keeps saying it again and again, and now it's ingrained in me.

In fact, every student that comes through our Embroidery Profit Academy, I ask them the same thing, what is their fastest path to revenue? In our shop, we do laser engraving, UV printing, embroidery, DTF transfers, and we even have a hot foil Bible stamping machine.

And every service hits a different monthly goal. Now, let's stop for a minute. Do you know how much your business makes every month? You may be so busy wearing all the hats that you don't know.

So when the podcast is done, before the day is over, I want you to go back and add up every way that you collect money for the last two months and see how much do you make a month. And then if you don't have a goal, you need a goal because you can't grow and you can't make more money as easily as you can if you have a goal.

And that number, I want you to actually write down a number. For us, we go big or go home, even though we live in Florida and not Texas. I double that. Whatever I made last month, my goal is probably going to be to double that, or at least go one and a half times more.

The goal should seem a little unrealistic. It should push you forward to move forward to do more. So back to the equipment that we own: the laser, the UV printer, the DTF, the embroidery machines, the hot foil stamping machine.

I have to ask myself: which machine is going to get me to the fastest path of revenue, or which service do we offer is going to get me there faster? Because the machines don't make you rich. You make yourself rich.

So before you make any purchase, ask yourself a few things. Who am I going to sell these services to? Who is my target client? How will I reach those people through a website, through BNI networking, another networking, a group? How am I going to let them know I'm here?

Because a solid plan plus borrowing, that could make some sense. But if you don't have a plan and you're borrowing, that's gonna add financial stress that none of us need.

Free Resources for Business Owners

Now, going into that, I want to tell you that there is some free help available in your area. Now, I'm gonna give you my disclaimer right here. I am not an accountant, I am not a lawyer. Even though I coach people and my students who come through our academy, I'm not really a business coach.

I am just a real business owner with 30 years of real life experience, and you need to do what's right for you. So here's a few resources you can look up in your area.

The first one is SCORE, SCORE.org. It's a free one-to-one business mentoring program from real professionals who donate their time. So you can Google that and look it up. There's also the Small Business Development Centers, the SBDC, and there's over a thousand locations and they offer free consultations.

Now another good source you may not have thought of is a local CPA. Many of them do free consultations. You can just ask, give a few a call in your area and see if they offer that. I know we have a CPA in our BNI group, and he's always saying how he offers free consultations.

And the very first time I heard that, I thought, wow, I didn't even think that a CPA would offer that. But of course, they want you as a client, so it makes sense for them to do free consultation to get you in the door. Or maybe you know a business owner who's really good with business and money. Maybe you could take them to coffee or dinner or lunch and have a conversation with them.

Now I'm going to tell you about the Lamborghini in my studio. A couple weeks ago, we invested in a fourth embroidery machine. It is sweet, you guys. It is a top-of-the-line embroidery machine that I don't have to fiddle or mess with.

And for us, this is one of those moments where we had to decide are we going to make an investment and will it pay for itself? We struggled a long time because I gotta be honest, this is the most I've ever paid for a machine. Okay. It cost a lot of pretty pennies.

And my husband and I prayed about it and evaluated it and went back and forth. But at the end of the day, we decided to go to the next level. We needed this. So I had it installed a week ago, and man, that thing is sweet.

Now we have a new goal that we're working towards. I want that same machine, but a six-head version. Now, that requires me telling myself or asking myself, what is my fastest path of revenue?

Am I going to Dave Ramsey it? You bet you I've got a lot of things that I'm going to sell. I'm going to put it in my business savings account to go towards that purchase. And then we're going to have to decide how do we wanna pay for the rest?

In fact, I want to tell you something. I want to brag on my husband, Marv. He's a good guy, you guys. Hopefully you'll get to meet him someday. All of my students who come through our academy, they get to meet him, and everybody loves Marv.

While I'm kind of the boring business person, he's a business person too, but he just has some really good ideas. He doesn't talk near as much as I do. So when he talks, people listen. And he came to me not too long ago and he goes, "Babe, I want you to print out a color picture of that six head embroidery machine that you want. I want you to bring it home and I'm gonna tape it to the refrigerator so we see it every day."

And that'll remind us to work towards getting that machine. All right, that dream of mine is real, you guys, but the work to get there is also real. We have a plan, we've thought it through, we're gonna find money, and we're gonna work on elevating those services that are the fastest path to revenue.

I'm gonna be reaching out to some of our former clients to let them know: hey, we offer this now. That's easier than getting new clients. That's the easiest way to get more money is to let clients who maybe don't know the services that you offer, who've already given you some of their money, who already trust you, reach out to them instead of trying to acquire new clients. That takes less time and less money.

Action Steps: Your 20-Minute Money Audit

Right, before we end this, I want to leave you with some practical, no bull, no fluff action steps. I'm gonna give you some homework. And I want you to let me know if you did this. Email me or DM me or post in my embroidery lounge that you've done this.

I want you to set a timer for 20 minutes. Next, I want you to grab a notebook, a sheet of paper, your iPad, whatever. And I want you to take some notes. Set that timer and walk around with your clipboard in your space, whether it's at home or your studio.

And I want you to write down every single thing that you haven't used in a year. I want you to write it each on a line. So maybe you have embroidery machine, workout equipment, cameras, stereo, jewelry, everything that you list needs to be on its own line.

I want you to find that money. This isn't going to cost you anything to do but time and effort. And when you have that, then I want you to go sit down by your computer, look on eBay, Facebook Marketplace, and I want you to find similar items to what you wrote down.

And right beside it, to the right of that, I want you to write down the different price points, the low and the high, that people are selling the same things for. And then I want you to take one of those items. Now remember, what is your fastest path to revenue?

I want you to take that item that's gonna bring in the most money and I want you to list it, take photos, dust it off, and get it posted so you can Dave Ramsey it like I do. Now, if you've ever sold something to fund a business purchase, I want you to tell me about it. Tell me your story. I would love to hear from you.

Share this with an embroidery person or friend that needs to grow without drowning in debt. You guys, I'm Hope Yoder. This is the Embroidery Profit Podcast. Thank you for spending some time with me, and I'll see you on the next episode.

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