We recently asked Wearables readers to tell us what tool has been the key to their success. Many of their responses will appear in the March issue, but we received so much quality feedback that we wanted to share some answers online as well.

Happy new year to all our readers! Once again, we're looking for feedback for the magazine's letters page. This time, we want to know the most important tool behind your business success. Is it a piece of equipment? Software? Your employees? Something else? Your comments could appear on our website or in the magazine.

A post shared by Wearables Magazine (@wearablesmag) on Jan 3, 2018 at 8:53am PST

Margaret Swauger, Creative Impressions Embroidery: For me, the most important tools are my business cards and the telephone. With card in hand, a customer can almost always contact me by phone. Maybe they were just talking to someone, and mentioned embroidery and are either given the card or phone number. Some customers have carried a business card for months before having a need for embroidered items.

Jan Calahan, Oak Tree Embroidery: The most important tool for my business success was attending my first trade show, and giving myself the opportunity to update my business yearly since then. I walked into that first ISS in 2001,with my sister in tow, and we attended WAY too many classes, and visited WAY to many booths. (Make a plan, we didn't have a plan.) We were so overwhelmed, and the shiny stuff actually was calling my name.

I walked out with a CAD cutter, heat press, sublimation system, art manuals for days, mug press, catalogs and tchotchkes to last a lifetime. Thank God we drove, or I would never have made it home.

I also walked out with the most incredible information. Who knew you needed an art program of some sort to create the art, that MS Paint was not going to cut it? ( Enter: Corel Draw) Who knew that you could buy a program to enhance that said art program and actually arch text, change colors? And that I would meet people who would to this day, be such an important part of my life, let alone my business? Who knew if you strategically ordered your apparel that you could reap the rewards of free shipping? Contract people so I didn’t have to turn down jobs? A heat press could give my customers another choice to personalize their garments? Mind blown. 

Richard Wong, Aura Apparel: If I had to pick a few, it would be our exposure unit and the design software we use. We started out with second- and third-rate equipment, and it got us nowhere, until we made a leap of faith to invest into better equipment. The industry community is an enormous help as well, with people sharing their stories, experiences and advice on how to improve your craft. I can't count the times I learned something new from forums.

Larry Cohen, Axis Promotions (asi/128263): Over the past year, we moved to Netsuite so now we have a fully integrated order management and CRM system. It has really helped us streamline our processes. We also have a number of employees using Shufflrr, which enables them to build and share presentations quickly using existing slides.

Lee Romano Sequeira, Sparkle Plenty Designs (asi/88442): One of my favorite tools is my iPhone. From snapping a photo of our latest rhinestone garment to add to our social media portals (like Facebook or Instagram) to using the GPS to keep from getting lost to staying in touch with customers while I’m out of the office. And it’s great for listening to anything from a meditation to my awesome ’80s collection of music. It’s truly a lifesaver!

Linda Winter, Priority Printing & Marketing: SanMar’s ability to set up company order portals, no charge, has allowed me to process orders so much faster with fewer mistakes.

Ashley Griswold, Checkmate Embroidery: Wilcom’s new software, e4, has the capacity to show embroidered proofs on an actual product. It’s been incredibly helpful with the approval process. People can see exactly what the item will look like before production. This has been time-saving, and ultimately, the customer is happy when their expectations are met. All too often, customers have expectations that they don’t tell you. This added proofing makes sure the client see the finished product ahead of time, giving them the chance to edit or approve the layout with confidence.

Dave Quigley, Noreast Custom Apparel: Tough to narrow down on just one. The one-two punch of the SROQ P10 and the T3015G ROQ tunnel have had an incredible impact. Additionally, we have had some great results with internal checklists, and reports and using Printavo to centralize and manage documentation.

Gwen H. Kelly, Suntex Industries (asi/90160): Industry search engines and product placement. These tools have replaced the need for printed catalogs. We can put money previously budgeted for catalogs toward making necessary website improvements instead.

Tim Holliday, Children’s World Uniform Supply and Business World Promo Supply: Our CRM system has been the most valuable, as we are able to put all our customer info in one place, which is super convenient. It also provides a good backup to paper files that can get lost.

Scott Morris, Proforma Top Source: Shoe leather .Because you can have the prettiest tools, gadgets, software, laptop, apps and how-to guides, but if you don’t get off your pants and on your feet hustling, you’re toast.

Megan Boos, The Stitch Witch: My biggest asset is my right-hand girl, Dawn. She’s my assistant, front desk, filing, billing and knows a little about the embroidery machines. We’re a two-person business, and it’s so nice to know you have someone capable and caring to run the business when you’re away. We get rave reviews on our customer service. Nothing goes out the door without being inspected by Dawn. She is quality control times 100. Having the right people working for you is the best thing.

Kent Landman, 360 Promo Marketing: Self promos are a great way to get your name out there. You can leave items behind in office appointments, at gas stations, anywhere.

Randall Johnson, American Solutions for Business: The alphabroder website has a selection called “sellsheet” you can download. This sellsheet provides a complete detail of the item, along with color options. I simply email this to my customer whenever they are in need of an item. I recently had a nice order for Dri-Duck jackets (about $75 each) and the customer selected this based on the sellsheet. They didn’t even ask for a sample.

Aaron Montgomery, MontCo Consulting: Snappa.com has been great for marketing, letting me get my message across in picture format. A Facebook header can be squeezed in lots of different ways, and Snappa accounted for all of them, helping me create a header that worked great on every platform. Snappa has templates for other social media apps, allowing me to easily move graphics between them and helping me create a clean, unified look across channels.