Ep 15: Dave Ramsey-ing It How I Fund Embroidery Equipment Without Going Into Debt
Hope calls her approach “Dave Ramsey-ing it”—looking for money already sitting inside your business before automatically turning to financing. She shares how selling an embroidery machine she was no longer using generated $10,000 in cash, allowing her to purchase a roughly $5,000 machine outright and put the remaining money into savings.
But growing debt-free doesn’t mean never spending money. Hope explains how she evaluates ROI, production efficiency, revenue potential, and business needs before investing in equipment. She walks through the decision to upgrade to a dual heat press that could dramatically increase production capacity while reducing employee fatigue—turning an equipment purchase into a strategic investment instead of an impulse buy.
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Want to grow your embroidery business and invest in new equipment without drowning in debt? In this episode of The Embroidery Profit Podcast, Hope Yoder shares the real-world strategies she uses to fund embroidery equipment, make smarter business investments, and decide when a purchase will actually generate revenue.
Hope calls her approach “Dave Ramsey-ing it”—looking for money already sitting inside your business before automatically turning to financing. She shares how selling an embroidery machine she was no longer using generated $10,000 in cash, allowing her to purchase a roughly $5,000 machine outright and put the remaining money into savings.
But growing debt-free doesn’t mean never spending money. Hope explains how she evaluates ROI, production efficiency, revenue potential, and business needs before investing in equipment. She walks through the decision to upgrade to a dual heat press that could dramatically increase production capacity while reducing employee fatigue—turning an equipment purchase into a strategic investment instead of an impulse buy.
You’ll also hear Hope and her husband Marv’s different perspectives on borrowing money for business growth, why your personal risk tolerance matters, and the question Hope believes every embroidery business owner should ask before buying another machine:
What is your fastest path to revenue?
In this episode, you’ll learn how to:
- Find hidden cash by selling unused embroidery machines, cutters, cameras, equipment, and other assets
- Separate equipment you want from equipment your business actually needs
- Evaluate the ROI of a new embroidery machine or heat press
- Avoid buying equipment just because other makers are buying it
- Decide when paying cash makes sense and when financing may be worth considering
- Identify the products and services that can generate revenue fastest
- Use existing customers to create additional sales opportunities
- Build toward bigger equipment purchases with a clear financial plan
- Grow your embroidery business without adding unnecessary financial stress
Hope also gives you practical homework: take 20 minutes, walk through your studio or home, identify everything you haven’t used in a year, research what those items are selling for, and list the item that could bring in the most cash first.
Your next embroidery machine may be more affordable than you think—you may just need to find the money you already have.
If you’re building an embroidery business, custom apparel business, DTF business, or decorated apparel company, subscribe to The Embroidery Profit Podcast for practical strategies on pricing, profitability, equipment, sales, production, and growing a business that actually makes money.
CHAPTERS
00:00 – Funding Embroidery Equipment Without Debt
00:29 – What “Dave Ramsey-ing It” Means
02:36 – Finding Money Before You Borrow
03:27 – How Hope Found $10,000
05:25 – Turning Old Equipment Into Cash
08:02 – Avoiding Equipment FOMO
08:58 – When Equipment Is Worth the Investment
11:17 – Calculating ROI and Production Capacity
12:27 – The “Marv Factor”
13:21 – Debt-Free Growth vs. Financing
15:48 – What Is Your Fastest Path to Revenue?
17:03 – Know Your Monthly Revenue
18:40 – Questions to Ask Before Buying Equipment
19:14 – Free Small Business Resources
20:54 – Investing in a New Embroidery Machine
21:52 – The Dream Six-Head Embroidery Machine
23:34 – Your Existing Customers Are an Opportunity
23:52 – Practical Debt-Free Growth Homework
25:36 – Final Thoughts
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#EmbroideryBusiness #EmbroideryMachine #SmallBusinessGrowth
WEBVTT
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[SPEAKER_00]: You see new equipment.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You want that shiny new embroidery machine.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Your business needs it, but the money isn't there and you don't want debt.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You guys, I've been there constantly.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And today I'm going to share two strategies that have worked for me.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Hi, my name's Hope Yoder.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And this is the embroidery profit podcast.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Today, we're going to find you some money that you didn't know you had.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Now, before I dive into this, I want to give some credit to who this philosophy is behind.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And this is something that I've done for years.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And it's Dave Ramsey.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you're familiar with his teaching.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He also has a book called Entra Leadership.
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[SPEAKER_00]: which is talking about 20 years of practical business wisdom from the trenches.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And his core value is how to operate your life or your business debt free at any level.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And he coaches a lot of people who are in debt and helps give him practical ways to get out of debt.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I'm using Dave Ramsey as a verb.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It's something I made up.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It's not a phrase, it's not his philosophy.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It's just kind of my take on me listing to Dave Ramsey for years.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Are you ready for it?
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[SPEAKER_00]: So when you hear me say, we're gonna Dave Ramsey it.
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[SPEAKER_00]: you'll know what I mean.
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[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, this came from my bookkeeper years ago, we were talking about I needed some equipment.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I don't even remember what it was.
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[SPEAKER_00]: This is probably 15 years ago.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And I remember I said to her, well, I'll just Dave Ramsey it.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She looked at me and she goes, that's not a verb.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, yeah, I'm using it as a verb.
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[SPEAKER_00]: 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.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I do think that business debt is not wrong.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Now, right now, we don't have any business debt.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And that's been our goal and you'll hear a little bit about that.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But I want you to hear me clear business debt.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think that it's wrong.
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[SPEAKER_00]: 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.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So the difference between borrowing what you want.
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[SPEAKER_00]: versus borrowing what the true business needs to make you money.
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[SPEAKER_00]: There's a difference between just wanting it and needing it.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And so that may be the difference on how you get it.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Now, in this episode, I want you to think critically.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Is there money to be found to fund that next purchase before you go out and borrow money?
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[SPEAKER_00]: That's what Dave Ramzenet means to me.
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[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of times I'll look around my space.
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[SPEAKER_00]: 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.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I get those things ready.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I take good photos.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I list them on eBay, Facebook, Marketplace, or wherever.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And then I can use that money to fund what my business actually needs today instead of allowing it to sit there and collect us.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Think of it as having a very high-end bougie garage sale.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You might have things sitting there that could earn you thousands of dollars that you don't even know you had.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I want to tell you about how I found $10,000 a few months ago.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Now, if you've listened to the podcast and you followed along with me since the beginning, first I want to say thank you so much.
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[SPEAKER_00]: 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.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But I was very well-known in the hobby space.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And I did a lot of events all over the country.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And so I had almost every brand, top of the line, home and birdie machine.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And what I mean by that is it was a flat bed machine, not a multi-needle machine.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And I had this one embroidery machine that I really didn't use very much.
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[SPEAKER_00]: We used it to teach on and to make projects.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And I noticed that at the latest convention for that brand,
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[SPEAKER_00]: Another top of the line machine, meaning mine was one below top of the line.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Now that machine hadn't been used in a year, probably a couple years.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So I got to thinking.
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[SPEAKER_00]: man, I could sell that and have cash for what I need for my business today.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So I drug that machine from upstairs to downstairs in my studio.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You guys, it was covered in dust.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So I had to do a little spit polishing on that.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Not really, that's kind of gross.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But I polished it off.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I got rid of the dust.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I laid it out.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I put all the hoops in the picture and I took some
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[SPEAKER_00]: and on eBay.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Now, eBay, you're going to need to ship most likely.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So I did have the original boxes.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And that's something I want to mention.
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[SPEAKER_00]: If you're buying equipment, maybe not a commercial machine, but other types of things like that, save the original box.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Because one day, you may want to sell it.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And that will actually allow you to sell it in other places.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I'm excited to say that we got $10,000.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Someone came and picked it up.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And she's helped me the money and
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[SPEAKER_00]: I had what I needed.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Now we found...
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[SPEAKER_00]: money to purchase a Merrill machine for finishing patches that I don't embroider.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So my husband and I agreed I wouldn't borrow for that machine.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I would buy the Merrill machine outright, which was about $5,000.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So I bought it outright and I had zero debt and man that fills good.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Now you may be wondering what did we do with the other $5,000?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Well, we put it in our savings just to add
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[SPEAKER_00]: 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
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[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't have to borrow to get it.
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[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, as I'm thinking about this, I have two more flatbed embroidery machines that I need to sell.
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[SPEAKER_00]: 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.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I do want to say it doesn't have to be an embroidery machine.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It could be another piece of business equipment.
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[SPEAKER_00]: 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.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Two are in a box and one is out on the counter.
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[SPEAKER_00]: and I haven't used those in five years you guys, and they're still really good cutters worth several hundred dollars each.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you have stereo equipment or camera gear.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I know my husband is constantly buying new canon products and lenses and reselling them
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[SPEAKER_00]: so we can get the next thing, and it doesn't take them long to sell that.
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[SPEAKER_00]: As I'm sitting here behind my camera, you guys, I see a Schwinn Air Dine that my dad gave me.
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[SPEAKER_00]: We've used it about five times, I do not enjoy writing that sucker.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So I could probably sell it.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you have collectibles.
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[SPEAKER_00]: 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.
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[SPEAKER_00]: One person's past hobby could be the dream that someone else is waiting to purchase second hand.
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[SPEAKER_00]: All right, now not everything,
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[SPEAKER_00]: that I purchase gets the Dave Ramsey verbiage applied to it.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes the numbers make the decisions.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And I've really had to rain myself in and not just buy everything that pops into my head, even if I feel like it's good for business.
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[SPEAKER_00]: There's so many things that I see other makers in
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[SPEAKER_00]: And I want it too.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I got to be honest, like the foam oath fear of missing out, but I've learned as a true business person that let that go sit on it for a while.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Probably it's not something that's going to 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.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So she says on social media doesn't mean that it's right for me.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Now here is something that was right for us.
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[SPEAKER_00]: We do a lot of a peril, a lot of embroidery, and even more DTF transfers.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And my coworker was standing in front of a flat heat press for almost eight hours several times a week.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And I started to think, man, what if she hates doing this?
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[SPEAKER_00]: like I don't want her to quit.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I love working with her and I value her and we have a lot of fun.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And am I making her job hard one that she dreads and I really didn't want to ask her about that because I would
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[SPEAKER_00]: So I started doing some research how could I press twice as many shirts in a day.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I'm just going to use this number.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I don't even know if it's a real number.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But I'm going to throw out the number 150.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Let's say she was pressing 150 shirts a day.
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[SPEAKER_00]: How could I double that and make it more efficient?
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[SPEAKER_00]: So we could make more money.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So what I started looking at were dual hydraulic presses.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And you guys don't Google this unless you're doing a lot of DTF transfers.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Don't let me be your Susie.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just giving you this as an example.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And I found two types of heat presses that were dual, which means they had two bottom Platinum's.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And one was a heat dual heat press that needed a compressor.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And I got to think, and hey, I have a compressor just sitting on the floor that I was going to Dave Ramsey, aka cell.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And I thought to myself, I should hang on to this a little longer.
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[SPEAKER_00]: 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.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So I found a hydraulic dual heat press which takes five gallons of hydraulic fluid and everybody said it was quieter.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So I did all of my research and I found out
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[SPEAKER_00]: I could probably make twice as much money every time I pressed shirts if I upgraded from a single press to a dual press.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So here's what that means for me, instead of making a hundred and fifty shirts a day, we can actually knock out 300 shirts a day.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So in a week, we could do 750 shirts, guys, that's good math.
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[SPEAKER_00]: That is going to not only make us more money in the same amount of time, double the money.
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[SPEAKER_00]: My coworker isn't going to be as fatigued.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Now, that math works because think of all the time that we're going to save and how fast that dual heat press is going to pay for itself.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So I had money in my bank account.
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[SPEAKER_00]: We really didn't have to Dave Ramsey this.
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[SPEAKER_00]: 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.
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[SPEAKER_00]: That ROI return on my investment
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[SPEAKER_00]: I look at it as I'm not spending money to buy that heat press.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm investing and that's what we did in every time we use it.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I have to think to myself that was a good investment.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Now I'm going to move on to something another made-up term, the Marvel MARV factor.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to get a little personal with you guys.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Is that okay?
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[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like
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[SPEAKER_00]: You probably know me by now and if you meet me in person, what you see here and here here, if you're listening to the podcast or watching on YouTube is pretty much, I'm just the real deal.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I probably share too much.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So this may go in that sharing too much, but I want to be real and transparent with you.
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[SPEAKER_00]: My husband, Marvin, and I have been married for 38 years of almost
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[SPEAKER_00]: 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?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Someone married still has differences of opinion.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Now, Marv, I have to give him credit.
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[SPEAKER_00]: We're debt free almost debt free because of Marv.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He's the driving force behind us, never borrowing money.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And most of the time, I agree with Marv with us not borrowing
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[SPEAKER_00]: But other times, I'm downright frustrated with him.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm going to tell you one of those times.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Now, we have a dream to buy a six-head embroidery machine.
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[SPEAKER_00]: My way would get it faster.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I think that we have enough customers and enough client base, especially with a couple big opportunities coming our way.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And once we land those, I'm probably going to be looking at borrowing to buy that machine to get it faster.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But you know what, that is going to add a little stress to me because I'm going to have to be
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[SPEAKER_00]: knowing that I'm making X amount more every month to make those payments.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And while I want the machine faster, and I'm going to look at borrowing, I don't know if I'll really do it or not.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Because I don't know that I want that stress on top of everything else going with being the business owner.
14:30.061 --> 14:33.503
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, Mark's way is completely different with
14:34.003 --> 14:34.904
[SPEAKER_00]: my philosophy.
14:35.504 --> 14:39.788
[SPEAKER_00]: I wouldn't say borrowing is a philosophy, but it's definitely something that I think about.
14:40.368 --> 14:42.070
[SPEAKER_00]: Mark's way is earn it.
14:42.910 --> 14:43.971
[SPEAKER_00]: Find the money.
14:44.391 --> 14:47.394
[SPEAKER_00]: Be debt-free even if it takes longer.
14:48.208 --> 14:59.273
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, if you have a business partner or a spouse, you may identify with Marv, or you may identify with me are a little bit of both, and I want you to hear this.
15:00.214 --> 15:05.856
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're multitasking, stop, put down your phone, if you're driving eyes on the road.
15:06.557 --> 15:10.199
[SPEAKER_00]: But neither one of these Marv or my philosophy is wrong.
15:10.579 --> 15:13.300
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just a different risk tolerance.
15:14.040 --> 15:17.342
[SPEAKER_00]: You may identify with me, or you may identify with my husband.
15:19.134 --> 15:21.455
[SPEAKER_00]: and guys will probably have this conversation too.
15:22.016 --> 15:27.499
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I can't make this decision for you because honestly, I struggle with it myself, all right?
15:27.599 --> 15:33.743
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're kind of in the trenches with that right now and you may hear what we decide on a future podcast.
15:34.143 --> 15:37.886
[SPEAKER_00]: But I want to tell you something that I want you to repeat to yourself.
15:38.266 --> 15:47.612
[SPEAKER_00]: 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.
15:48.233 --> 15:51.638
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is a question that I ask myself constantly.
15:52.039 --> 15:52.760
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you ready for it?
15:53.541 --> 15:54.162
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you know what it is?
15:55.584 --> 15:56.105
[SPEAKER_00]: Here it is.
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[SPEAKER_00]: What is your fastest path to revenue?
16:02.006 --> 16:04.488
[SPEAKER_00]: I recently was listening to a business coach.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And that's a question that he asked us.
16:07.170 --> 16:09.071
[SPEAKER_00]: And he keeps saying it again and again.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And now it's ingrained in me.
16:10.832 --> 16:17.938
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, every student that comes through our embroidery profit academy, I asked them the same thing.
16:18.598 --> 16:20.940
[SPEAKER_00]: What is their fastest path to revenue?
16:21.220 --> 16:30.610
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey guys, we'll be right back to the show in a minute, but did you know that I offer a hands-on embroidery school where I teach you to get your shop up and running over a weekend?
16:31.010 --> 16:43.083
[SPEAKER_00]: We work on real commercial machines on real project and not only am I going to train you to get your shop up and running, but I'm going to give you my entire framework and my system and workflow.
16:43.383 --> 16:47.424
[SPEAKER_00]: So you don't have to spend years figuring out what you're doing wrong.
16:47.684 --> 16:52.226
[SPEAKER_00]: You can get right back up into making money and quit staying stuck.
16:52.566 --> 16:54.706
[SPEAKER_00]: I'd love to see you in one of my next courses.
16:55.166 --> 17:01.528
[SPEAKER_00]: So the link will be in the show notes or you can go to hopeyotor.com and look under the tab courses.
17:01.868 --> 17:03.389
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's jump right back in.
17:03.949 --> 17:06.870
[SPEAKER_00]: Now in our shop, we do laser engraving.
17:07.771 --> 17:15.309
[SPEAKER_00]: UV printing, embroidery, DTF transfers, and we even have a hot foil Bible stamping machine.
17:16.425 --> 17:20.068
[SPEAKER_00]: And every service hits a different monthly goal.
17:20.228 --> 17:22.169
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, let's stop for a minute.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Do you know how much your business makes every month?
17:26.852 --> 17:30.075
[SPEAKER_00]: You may be so busy wearing all the hats that you don't know.
17:30.215 --> 17:41.223
[SPEAKER_00]: 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?
17:41.683 --> 18:02.081
[SPEAKER_00]: 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.
18:02.561 --> 18:08.847
[SPEAKER_00]: 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.
18:09.287 --> 18:11.349
[SPEAKER_00]: The goal should seem a little unrealistic.
18:11.469 --> 18:15.453
[SPEAKER_00]: It should push you forward to move forward to do more.
18:16.053 --> 18:23.860
[SPEAKER_00]: So back to the equipment that we own, the laser, the UV printer, the DTF, the embroidery machines, the hotfoil stamping machine.
18:24.301 --> 18:29.045
[SPEAKER_00]: I have to ask myself which machine is going to get me?
18:29.585 --> 18:39.937
[SPEAKER_00]: To the fastest path of revenue or which service do we offer is going to get me their faster because the machines don't make you rich You make yourself rich.
18:40.637 --> 18:48.906
[SPEAKER_00]: So before you make any purchase ask yourself a few things Who am I going to sell these services to?
18:49.984 --> 18:51.566
[SPEAKER_00]: Who is my target client?
18:52.366 --> 18:58.612
[SPEAKER_00]: How will I reach those people through a website through BNI networking and other networking and group?
18:59.133 --> 19:01.435
[SPEAKER_00]: How am I going to let them know I'm here?
19:01.975 --> 19:06.780
[SPEAKER_00]: Because a solid plan, plus borrowing, that could make some sense.
19:07.321 --> 19:09.703
[SPEAKER_00]: But if you don't have a plan and you're borrowing,
19:10.183 --> 19:14.586
[SPEAKER_00]: That's going to add financial stress that none of us need.
19:15.106 --> 19:20.610
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, going into that, I want to tell you that there is some free help available in your area.
19:21.010 --> 19:23.412
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I'm going to give you my disclaimer right here.
19:23.612 --> 19:24.733
[SPEAKER_00]: I am not an accountant.
19:24.893 --> 19:25.874
[SPEAKER_00]: I am not a lawyer.
19:26.574 --> 19:31.436
[SPEAKER_00]: Even though I coach people and my students who come through our academy, I'm not really a business coach.
19:32.236 --> 19:40.139
[SPEAKER_00]: I am just a real business owner with 30 years of real life experience, and you need to do what's right for you.
19:40.359 --> 19:43.560
[SPEAKER_00]: So here's a few resources you can look up in your area.
19:44.140 --> 19:46.141
[SPEAKER_00]: The first one is score SCORE.ORG.
19:50.142 --> 19:59.466
[SPEAKER_00]: 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.
19:59.966 --> 20:09.111
[SPEAKER_00]: There's also the small business development centers, the SBDC, and there's over a thousand location, and they offer free consultations.
20:09.751 --> 20:14.753
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, another good source you may not have thought of is a local CPA.
20:15.353 --> 20:18.295
[SPEAKER_00]: Many of them do free consultations,
20:19.255 --> 20:23.798
[SPEAKER_00]: You can just ask, give a few a call in your area and see if they offer that.
20:23.938 --> 20:30.622
[SPEAKER_00]: I know we have a CPA and our B&I group and he's always saying how he offers free consultations.
20:31.022 --> 20:42.750
[SPEAKER_00]: 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.
20:43.470 --> 20:54.205
[SPEAKER_00]: 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.
20:54.632 --> 21:03.499
[SPEAKER_00]: Now I'm going to tell you about the Lamborghini and my studio, a couple weeks ago we invested in a fourth embroidery machine.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It is sweet, you guys.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It is a top of the line embroidery machine that I don't have to fiddle or mess with.
21:12.485 --> 21:16.108
[SPEAKER_00]: And for us, this is one of those moments where we
21:22.833 --> 21:28.778
[SPEAKER_00]: We struggled a long time because I got to be honest, this is the most I've ever paid for a machine.
21:28.998 --> 21:37.646
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, it cost a lot of pretty pennies and my husband and I prayed about it and evaluated it and went back and forth.
21:37.666 --> 21:41.129
[SPEAKER_00]: But at the end of the day, we decided to go to the next level.
21:41.709 --> 21:42.610
[SPEAKER_00]: We needed this.
21:42.990 --> 21:47.014
[SPEAKER_00]: So I had it installed a week ago and pan that thing is sweet.
21:47.874 --> 21:50.877
[SPEAKER_00]: Now we have a new goal that we're working towards.
21:52.408 --> 21:55.849
[SPEAKER_00]: I want that same machine, but a six-head version.
21:56.509 --> 22:03.252
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, that requires me telling myself, or asking myself, what is my fastest path to revenue?
22:03.712 --> 22:05.152
[SPEAKER_00]: Am I gonna day Ramsay it?
22:05.433 --> 22:08.474
[SPEAKER_00]: You bet you, I've got a lot of things that I'm gonna sell.
22:08.554 --> 22:12.635
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna put it my business savings account to go towards that purchase.
22:13.335 --> 22:17.357
[SPEAKER_00]: And then we're gonna have to decide, how do we wanna pay for the rest?
22:17.817 --> 22:20.418
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, I wanna tell you something, I wanna brag on my husband, Mark.
22:21.258 --> 22:22.579
[SPEAKER_00]: He's a good guy, you guys.
22:23.380 --> 22:25.861
[SPEAKER_00]: Hopefully you'll get to meet him some day.
22:25.981 --> 22:31.345
[SPEAKER_00]: All of my students who come through our academy, they get to meet him and everybody loves Mark.
22:31.785 --> 22:39.851
[SPEAKER_00]: While I'm kind of the boring business person, he's a business person too, but he just has some really good ideas.
22:40.151 --> 22:41.692
[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't talk near as much as I do.
22:42.193 --> 22:46.135
[SPEAKER_00]: So when he talks people listen, and he came to me not too long ago,
22:50.634 --> 22:55.578
[SPEAKER_00]: a color picture of that six head embroidery machine that you want.
22:56.239 --> 22:59.922
[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to bring it home and I'm going to tape it to the refrigerator.
23:00.302 --> 23:07.028
[SPEAKER_00]: So we see it every day and that'll remind us to work towards getting that machine.
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[SPEAKER_00]: All right, that dream of mine is real, you guys, but the work to get there is also real.
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[SPEAKER_00]: We have a plan.
23:15.473 --> 23:16.834
[SPEAKER_00]: We've thought it through.
23:16.914 --> 23:24.419
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to find money and we're going to work on elevating those services that are the fastest path to revenue.
23:25.019 --> 23:30.743
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to be reaching out to some of our former clients to let them know, hey, we offer this now.
23:31.563 --> 23:34.025
[SPEAKER_00]: That's easier than getting new clients.
23:34.425 --> 23:47.753
[SPEAKER_00]: 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 other money who already trust you, reach out to them instead of trying to acquire new clients.
23:48.374 --> 23:51.416
[SPEAKER_00]: That takes less time and less money.
23:52.096 --> 23:52.336
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
23:52.737 --> 23:58.663
[SPEAKER_00]: Before we end this, I want to leave you with some practical, noble, no-fluff action steps.
23:58.683 --> 24:00.025
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to give you some homework.
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[SPEAKER_00]: 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.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to set a timer for 20 minutes.
24:12.898 --> 24:20.420
[SPEAKER_00]: Next, I want you to grab a notebook, a sheet of paper, your iPad, whatever, and I want you to take some notes.
24:21.100 --> 24:28.062
[SPEAKER_00]: Set that timer and walk around with your clipboard in your space, whether it's at home or your studio.
24:28.382 --> 24:31.383
[SPEAKER_00]: And I want you to write down every single thing.
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[SPEAKER_00]: that you haven't used in a year.
24:35.103 --> 24:37.185
[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to write it each on a line.
24:37.346 --> 24:47.296
[SPEAKER_00]: So maybe you have embroidery machine, workout equipment, camera, stereo, jewelry, everything that you list needs to be on its own line.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to find that money.
24:50.039 --> 24:54.063
[SPEAKER_00]: This isn't going to cost you anything to do, but time and effort.
24:54.463 --> 25:05.095
[SPEAKER_00]: 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.
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[SPEAKER_00]: 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.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And then I want you to take one of those items.
25:19.688 --> 25:23.069
[SPEAKER_00]: Now remember, what is your fastest path to revenue?
25:23.509 --> 25:27.070
[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to take that item that's going to bring in the most money.
25:27.650 --> 25:36.152
[SPEAKER_00]: 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.
25:36.572 --> 25:43.293
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, if you've ever sold something to fund a business purchase, I want you to tell me about it, tell me your story.
25:43.914 --> 25:45.534
[SPEAKER_00]: I would love to hear from you.
25:46.294 --> 25:52.300
[SPEAKER_00]: share this with an embroidery person or friend that needs to grow without drowning in debt.
25:52.660 --> 25:53.981
[SPEAKER_00]: You guys, I'm Hope Yoder.
25:54.082 --> 25:56.364
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the embroidery profit podcast.
25:56.844 --> 26:00.608
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for spending some time with me, and I'll see you on the next episode.