3-Secrets to increase sales for screen printing shops.
Screen printing shop owners: struggling to grow sales? In this post, I break down the 3 things holding most print shops back — inconsistent branding, social content that doesn't convert, and costly production mistakes from weak systems. Learn how to fix all three and start attracting better clients. Western Slope Creative helps screen printing businesses build the brand infrastructure behind the work.
Most screen printing shops that struggle with sales aren't struggling because they print bad shirts.
They're struggling because the business around the printing is broken.
I've spent over five years inside this industry - working presses, talking to shop owners, watching businesses grow and watching some quietly fade out. And I keep seeing the same three problems show up in shops that are talented, hardworking, and still not hitting the numbers they should be.
The good news? All three are fixable. Here's what separates the shops that grow from the ones that stay stuck.
Secret #1: Your Brand Is Already Selling You — the Question Is How
Before a potential client ever calls you, they've already formed an opinion. They've seen your website. Your Instagram. Maybe a shirt someone was wearing around town. And they've made a judgment call.
If your visual brand looks thrown together — inconsistent fonts, a logo that looks like it came out of a free online tool, social posts that are all over the place — they're already comparing you to the cheapest option they can find. Not because your work is cheap. Because your brand tells them it is.
A consistent visual presence isn't vanity. It's a sales tool. Shops with strong, cohesive branding charge more, get taken more seriously, and close faster — because buyers trust them before the conversation even starts.
Think about the clients you actually want — the local businesses, the bands, the breweries, the organizations that are coming back year after year with real budgets. Those clients don't choose their printer the same way someone orders from a bulk online shop. They choose based on who feels like a fit for their brand. If your brand doesn't signal that you understand identity and craft, you're not even in the running.
The custom screen printing industry is worth $12.8 billion and still growing. The shops winning in that market aren't always the fastest or the cheapest. They're the ones that look like they belong at the table.
Secret #2: Stop Posting Finished Jobs. Start Teaching.
Posting a photo of a finished shirt is fine. But it's not doing the heavy lifting you need it to do.
When every post is just "look at this job we printed," you blend in with every other shop on Instagram. You're not giving anyone a reason to choose you. You're just adding to the noise.
The shops that are consistently pulling in inbound leads — clients reaching out to them instead of the other way around — are doing something different. They're teaching. They're showing their process. They're answering the questions their clients are already Googling.
What does a proper screen print feel like versus a bad one? How do you choose between discharge inks and plastisol? What does a realistic art file actually need to look like before it goes to print? These aren't trade secrets — they're the kind of content that builds trust at scale.
When you educate your audience, you become the expert before they ever DM you. By the time they reach out, they're not price shopping anymore — they've already decided they want to work with you. That's the shift. From chasing quotes to attracting clients.
Two posts a week, consistently, focused on value and process — that compounds over time into an audience that knows exactly what you stand for and why you're worth the investment.
Secret #3: One Bad Job Can Wipe Out the Margin on Ten Good Ones
Every experienced printer has a misprint story. The job went wrong because art approval was skipped. The order shipped with the wrong color because the spec sheet was never locked in. The reprint that cost more than the entire job was worth.
Systems aren't glamorous. But they're what keep profitable shops profitable.
An iron-clad order workflow — art approval before anything touches a screen, print specs confirmed in writing, a pre-press checklist that never gets skipped — isn't just about avoiding mistakes. It's about building a business that can actually scale.
When you have solid systems, you stop losing money to avoidable errors. You stop burning time chasing down missing information mid-job. And you stop the kind of client experiences that tank your reputation and your reviews.
Shops that grow past a certain point aren't just better at printing. They're better at running a business. Systems are what make that possible.
Here's the Root of It.
Consistent branding. Helpful content. Bulletproof systems. Three things that have nothing to do with how fast your press runs or how many colors you can hit.
And here's what I've noticed: most print shops are great at the craft. The production quality is there. What's missing is the infrastructure around it — the brand that sells, the content that builds trust, the systems that protect margin.
That's exactly what I help screen printing shops build at Western Slope Creative. If your shop is stuck competing on price when you know your work is worth more, or you're losing clients before the conversation even gets started, let's talk about what's actually going on and what we can do about it.
Reach out today to start a conversation about your shop's brand. You've put in the work on the press side. Let's make sure the business side reflects it.