How to Prepare Your Print Shop for Busy Season (Part 1): Get Organized Before the Rush

Every print shop has a busy season.

Whether it's back-to-school, holiday apparel, sports uniforms, corporate events, or year-end promotions, the phones start ringing, emails pile up, and production schedules fill faster than expected.

For organized shops, busy season is exciting. It's an opportunity to increase revenue, strengthen customer relationships, and finish the year strong.

For disorganized shops, it's stressful.

Deadlines get missed. Artwork approvals fall through the cracks. Inventory runs short. Employees work overtime, mistakes increase, and customers become frustrated.

The good news is that most busy season problems don't start during busy season—they start months before it.

In this first article of our two-part series, we'll focus on preparing your shop before the rush begins. In Part 2, we'll cover how to keep everything running smoothly once your production floor is operating at full capacity.

Start by Cleaning Up Your Workflow

Busy season exposes every weakness in your business.

If orders already get delayed during slower months, they'll only become more difficult to manage when your workload doubles.

Before business picks up, take time to evaluate your entire workflow.

Ask yourself:

• Where do orders typically slow down?

• Which departments experience the most bottlenecks?

• Where do employees spend the most time answering questions?

• Which tasks depend on one specific person?

The more organized your workflow is before the rush begins, the easier it becomes to handle additional volume.

If you're unsure where to start, our guide on How to Organize a Screen Printing Shop walks through the fundamentals of building efficient processes.

Review Jobs That Are Already Open

Many shops enter busy season with dozens—or even hundreds—of unfinished jobs.

Some are waiting for artwork.

Some need customer approvals.

Others are missing inventory.

Before accepting a surge of new orders, review every open job and identify what's preventing it from moving forward.

Cleaning up your backlog now gives your team a fresh starting point when orders begin pouring in.

Improving Order Status Visibility also makes it much easier for everyone to understand what needs attention first.

Make Sure Customer Approvals Are Current

Artwork approvals are one of the most common causes of production delays.

During busy season, even a one-day delay waiting for customer approval can throw off multiple production schedules.

Before production ramps up:

• Follow up on outstanding approvals.

• Confirm artwork revisions have been completed.

• Verify approval records are easy to find.

• Ensure everyone knows which jobs are ready for production.

If approvals are scattered between emails, text messages, and sticky notes, now is the time to organize them.

Our article on Customer Approval Tracking explains how better approval management reduces production delays.

Verify Inventory Before Customers Need It

Nothing slows production faster than discovering you're missing garments, ink, thread, or supplies after a job has already been scheduled.

Before busy season arrives:

• Review frequently ordered garments.

• Check ink and consumable levels.

• Identify slow-moving inventory.

• Order long lead-time items early.

• Meet with key suppliers about expected demand.

A little planning today can prevent major production headaches later.

Talk With Your Vendors Early

Your vendors experience busy season too.

If you're waiting until the last minute to place large orders, you're competing with every other print shop doing exactly the same thing.

Reach out early.

Discuss expected lead times.

Review purchasing procedures.

Confirm shipping expectations.

Building strong vendor relationships before the rush helps avoid unnecessary surprises later.

If purchasing is already creating challenges, our guide on Purchasing for Print Shops offers practical ways to streamline the process.

Get Your Team Ready Before You're Busy

One of the biggest mistakes shops make is waiting until they're overwhelmed to begin training.

Busy season isn't the time for employees to learn basic procedures.

Instead:

• Review standard operating procedures.

• Cross-train employees where possible.

• Update documentation.

• Practice new workflows.

• Answer questions before production becomes hectic.

Even experienced employees benefit from reviewing expectations before workloads increase.

Well-prepared teams make fewer mistakes and require less supervision when pressure builds.

Standardize Customer Communication

Busy season usually means more phone calls.

More emails.

More change requests.

More status updates.

Without a consistent communication process, employees spend valuable time searching for information instead of serving customers.

Establish clear expectations for:

• Order updates

• Artwork questions

• Customer approvals

• Production changes

• Shipping notifications

Consistent Customer Communication keeps customers informed while reducing interruptions for your staff.

Busy Season Rewards Organized Shops

Every print shop gets busy.

The difference is how prepared they are before it happens.

The shops that enjoy their busiest months aren't necessarily working harder.

They're working with organized systems, clear processes, and teams that know exactly what to do.

Taking time to prepare now will pay dividends when orders begin arriving faster than ever.

Coming Up in Part 2

Preparation is only half the battle.

In How to Prepare Your Print Shop for Busy Season (Part 2), we'll cover how successful shops manage increased workloads, avoid bottlenecks, keep employees productive, and maintain excellent customer service—even during their busiest weeks of the year.

Ready for Your Best Busy Season Yet?

The busiest shops aren't always the biggest shops—they're the most organized.

PriceIt helps print shops manage orders, artwork, purchasing, production scheduling, customer communication, and inventory from one centralized system, making it easier to stay in control when business takes off.

If you're looking for Screen Printing Software that helps your team stay organized before and during busy season, schedule a free demo and see how PriceIt can help your shop handle more orders with less stress.

About PriceIt Software

For more than 25 years, PriceIt Software has helped screen printing, embroidery, DTG, DTF, and promotional products businesses become more organized, efficient, and profitable.

Backed by more than 35 years of hands-on experience in the decorated apparel industry, PriceIt was built to solve the everyday challenges print shops face—from managing artwork and customer approvals to production scheduling, purchasing, inventory, and customer communication.

The insights shared in this article are based on decades of real-world industry experience and a commitment to helping print shops streamline operations, reduce costly mistakes, and build more efficient, profitable businesses.