Fast Times and Great Service: How YoPrint Helped Queen City Graphix Accelerate Sales by 600%

May 15, 2023

About Queen City Graphix

Queen City Graphix had a very interesting start. Its founder, Jeremy Boyts, came from a background of buying and then selling T-shirts while in college for various special events. He managed to pay off his college education thanks to this venture, and eventually, it became much cheaper to make shirts of his own than to buy and sell them.

In April 2020, Jeremy bought over a Dallas-based company that eventually became Queen City Graphix. “Springfield is the ‘Queen City’ of Missouri,” Jeremy says of the company name, “so when I looked up [if Queen City is] available… it’s all available: I can have the domain, the e-mail, all of it.”

Queen City Graphix offers a wide range of in-house services: screen printing, embroidery, vinyl transfer, and button making, to name a few. “We are about to break into direct-to-film,” Jeremy shared. “We also offer laser engraving… [as] a little bit extra that we do.”

It was always Jeremy’s plan to come back and open his business in Missouri. “My family’s been here [for] 160 years, my great-great-grandfather built his business here… everything about us is about Springfield, it’s about the Queen City. So we’re very heavily involved in the community, youth sports… we try to give back and be a part of the [community] as best as we can.”

Jeremy ran two days’ worth of market research before introducing themselves to prospective customers. He found it interesting and amusing when people would say that they’d heard of the company before or that they’d been trying to “get a hold of [them] for weeks.” Jeremy smiled at the mention of it: “We [didn’t] even exist!”

But just three days after the purchase was finalized, Covid restrictions went into effect all over the country. Jeremy’s first thought at the time was, “I just spent a lot of money!” Nevertheless, they quarantined like everyone else while figuring out what was the next step for the fledgling business.

Learning with YoPrint

Around the time Queen City Graphix started, Jeremy was unfamiliar with the solutions available to his shop until he discovered YoPrint. “I’ve never known anybody but YoPrint,” he recalls. “I used Square’s invoicing one time… in theory, I think I could make it work, [but] [t]here was too many buttons, too many things to learn, too many things to go wrong.”

He asked Jennifer, his office manager at the time, to help him look for something else that would work for Queen City Graphix. “She found YoPrint, she went through the free demo, and she was sold… she said YoPrint’s the way, [so] we jumped in.” Jeremy valued her opinion greatly – “she came to me with incredible confidence that this is where I needed to be.”

They had it all set up within the month of April itself. Since signing on with YoPrint, Jeremy has never looked back. Jeremy recalled the time he was invited to a special event with other, bigger print companies. “I asked all these guys, like, “What do you different?”… and I said, “What software do you use?” So I Googled [Printavo].”

“I called [them]… and went through their tour,” Jeremy continued. He was bewildered when they then shared that they had “proprietary payment systems” in place. “That’s why the industry [standard] is two to three weeks, because [they] hold your money!”

Big Points in User Friendliness

Jeremy particularly loves how easy it is to use YoPrint.

“The system is easy to navigate, “[and] none of my employees have ever said anything… it’s super easy and super transparent.”

He’s even seen his new hires use the software with little to no guidance and still be able to get most of it right: “90 percent proficient [the] first time, [then] had it down the second and third time.”

The integration with Square is particularly important to Jeremy since he’s been using Square since they started.

“I can use my own point of sales processing [with YoPrint], and being able to tag Square [is great]; YoPrint also makes it that invoicing for placing larger orders is wickedly easy. The fact that [Printavo] makes it proprietary… is insane.”

The integrations with the main vendors are also an addon that Jeremy really appreciates, especially with how often t-shirt prices have been changing by the week. “Everything stays up to date with current trending values, and that’s live [data].” It gives Queen City Graphix the leverage it needs to stay ahead of the curve and maintain its profitability.

“And then you cannot ignore cloning,” Jeremy adds. YoPrint’s ability to easily duplicate orders and even job details is possibly Jeremy’s top favorite feature because it is easy to create these repeat orders quickly.

“Cloning is the sexiest thing I’ve seen in a long time! If I had to [manually] add a product every single line for size, I may have quit this business!”

“If you’re coming back again and again,” Jeremy continues, “that [cloning ability is] a huge benefit. [I can just] copy the same thing, and we’re off to the races!”

There’s More To It

Jeremy’s also found that he could “twist YoPrint to be something it wasn’t meant to be” in how modular its functionality is – even if it’s not related to printing! He specifically mentions a particular scenario in which he wanted to purchase a trailer and needed a bill of sale.

“I used YoPrint, fiddled around with it long enough, [and] changed [a lot of things] to create a bill of sale. So that level of… fluidity that you can go in and really make YoPrint whatever you want it to be, there’s no reason to go anywhere else.”

Keeping Track of Growth

Jeremy also uses YoPrint as a sort of bookkeeping system for his shop that every staff member can access anytime.

“Through YoPrint, they can see profit margins, what our markups are, what we’re charging, and if we were giving discounts…It’s actually been really great because we leave it constantly up, and the guys can just jump in and look at it.”

Jeremy also runs an open book system with his staff, ensuring everyone is on the same page concerning the business. While it did come about from some less-than-pleasant situations, Jeremy figured that “it’s easier for me to explain to people why we might be having a setback if they can see why we’re having a setback… so if we have a problem, I’m not the only one seeing the problem.” From there, everyone can work together to prepare for the rough times.

It also had a great silver lining, too. “My employees have become better money managers [and] planners,” Jeremy pointed out. “They know… [not to] get crazy [and] buy something [they] don’t need.”

The accessibility also lets staff see how the shop is doing and incentivizes them to do their best: “If they’re wondering, ‘Hey, am I getting a bonus this month?’ they can scroll through the dashboard and go, ‘Oh, it’s been a great month! Probably gonna get a bonus!’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah!’”

Beyond this, Queen City Graphix also uses YoPrint as a de facto customer relationship management system, keeping track of all their customers, their contact information, and more. Any time they bring up a past client or a name that sounds familiar, they can easily access YoPrint and get all the data they need about that person or company.

Customer Service Done Right

Jeremy has a background in behavioral psychology and marketing which has helped him grow Queen City Graphix to where it is today. He knows very well how good customer service can shape a business – “it’s one of the most strong points of my business,” Jeremy said. And in YoPrint’s case, Jeremy was thoroughly impressed.

Jeremy really appreciates how easy it is to reach out to YoPrint and get a hold of someone when needed.

“When I can get in contact with [YoPrint’s] customer service [in a snap]… the fact that I can be in this conversation [with YoPrint] is very important to me… [it’s] a cut above any other.”

Going Forward Together

Jeremy recently ran a three-year analysis from 2020 to 2022 (from March to September, their busiest periods each year) and found that they were growing leaps and bounds. In fact, their growth in revenue grew six times from 2020 to 2021!

Jeremy credits YoPrint for Queen City Graphix’s rapid growth. With how easy it is to learn the ropes and effortlessly manage and complete orders on time, YoPrint enables Queen City Graphix to deliver quality products and top-notch customer service. “In two days, we’ve done 3000 shirts,” Jeremy remarks. “We’re that fast because [of] YoPrint. YoPrint lets me use Square [and it makes things a lot easier]… it’s super [user] friendly, super easy-to-use.”

Jeremy is content to stick with YoPrint for the foreseeable future. In fact, he’s more than happy to welcome new features that will help make the user experience that much better. “If I can get YoPrint to integrate with my air fryer, it’d be over!” he joked.

“It’s been a journey,” he says with a smile. “I’ve got to watch YoPrint grow, and as YoPrint’s grown, I’ve grown, and we can look forward to doing more.”