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HOW TO DELEGATE APPAREL ORDERS TO AN EMPLOYEE

Apparel orders are an excellent task to delegate an employee. Unfortunately, we’ve seen too many owners botch this exchange of duties and we’re here to help fix it to ensure a smooth hand off. 

Here are our 3 simple steps to passing off apparel responsibilities:

  1. Let us know ASAP. It is important that we explain the process to them and go over our success strategies. While we may have years of knowledge and experience built up about apparel orders, most people do not have experience organizing custom apparel. Again, we will on board them for you. Specifically, sharing past orders, going over future apparel projects, and explaining how picking different items works. 
  2. The biggest issue with delegating responsibilities is that most employees feel that you gave them this task because something is “broken”. Tell them up front: is something broken? Do they need to fix it? Or do they simply need to manage this? We’ve run across situations where the employee is trying to fix something that isn’t broken. So to avoid over complicating things, be sure to tell them exactly what you need them to do: fix it or manage it.
  3. Delegate, don’t abdicate. When owners delegate the apparel process, they tend to disappear until a major issue happens. Maybe an employee didn’t follow the apparel plan we set in place. Maybe the design they created was so far off from your branding that you now have a business full of shirts and designs you don’t recognize. Whatever the reason, don’t disappear. Be involved with some part of the process. At a minimum, you need to review the finalization with your GM. Make sure the design, quantity, and pricing all align with your expectations for apparel projects.