Resources
Resources for
Decorated Apparel Shops
Practical tools, expert resources, and trusted recommendations to help you improve sales, operations, pricing, leadership, and profitability — curated from decades in the industry.
About Marshall Atkinson
Helping Decorated Apparel Businesses Improve Profitability, Leadership, Operations, and Growth
Marshall Atkinson is a decorated apparel industry consultant, speaker, author, educator, and business strategist specializing in profitability improvement, pricing strategy, operational excellence, leadership development, and artificial intelligence implementation for screen printing, embroidery, promotional products, and apparel decoration businesses.
For more than 33 years, Marshall has worked with shop owners, managers, and leadership teams throughout the decorated apparel industry, helping businesses solve the challenges that limit growth and profitability. His expertise spans pricing systems, workflow optimization, production management, employee accountability, sales systems, marketing strategy, business planning, and emerging technology adoption.
Unlike general business consultants, Marshall works exclusively within the decorated apparel industry. His unique combination of shop-floor operational experience, financial expertise, leadership development, and industry-specific knowledge allows him to connect daily production decisions with long-term business success.
Published 1,206 articles, interviews, podcasts, and educational resources.
His practical, approach has helped hundreds of businesses improve margins, increase productivity, strengthen leadership teams, implement new technology, and build sustainable growth.
Industry Impact
- 33+ years serving the decorated apparel industry
- Hundreds of businesses advised and coached worldwide
- Thousands of industry professionals educated through workshops, consulting engagements, events, articles, videos, and training programs
- Author of multiple books focused on profitability, leadership, strategy, and business growth
- Contributor to leading industry publications
- Speaker at major industry conferences, expos, and educational events
- Elected to the Academy of Screen and Digital Printing Technologies (ASDPT)
- Creator of one of the industry's largest collections of business-focused educational content
Areas of Expertise
- Pricing Strategy & Profitability
- Screen Printing Operations
- Embroidery Operations
- Production Efficiency
- Workflow Optimization
- Leadership Development
- Employee Accountability
- Strategic Planning
- Sales Systems
- Marketing Strategy
- Artificial Intelligence Implementation
- Business Growth
Organizations
Shirt Lab: Marshall is the co-founder of Shirt Lab and Shirt Lab Tribe, educational organizations dedicated to helping decorated apparel businesses improve profitability, leadership, operations, and growth through practical business education.
Midjourney Experience: Marshall is the founder of Midjourney Experience, an educational platform helping creative professionals leverage artificial intelligence tools to improve creativity, productivity, and business performance.
Free Tools
Free Tools & Downloads
Practical calculators, worksheets, templates, and guides you can use immediately to improve sales, operations, pricing, and profitability.
Value Per Hour Tracker
Track your shop's Value Per Hour across departments to identify your biggest bottlenecks and constraints.
AI Playbook for Apparel Decorators
AI is not the easy button. It's the easier button. Used well, it will help you think more clearly, decide faster, create with intention, iterate without drama, and solve real problems. This guide is a practical playbook to get you started. No fluff. Just what works.
Be Different AI Playbook
It's hard to measure "Better" but people know Different when they see it. Learn to stand out and get noticed and use AI to help you chart an amazing course to create a better future for your business. Use these series of prompts to fine tune your "Different."
Midjourney SREF Code Booster Pack
A new collection of fun and creative SREF Codes for you to try. Complete with examples!
Midjourney Next 50 SREF Code Favorites
I'm constantly searching for amazing SREF Codes to use in Midjourney. Here's a collection of 50 that I've found to be amazing. I'm sure you will too. Get the guide and try these out!
Midjourney Monochrome SREF Code Library
Sometimes you don't want too many colors in a Midjourney image. Of course, you can achieve that with good Midjourney prompting, but a great SREF Code is a handy way to get the results you want. Here's a collection of some incredible SREF Codes for you to use.
Midjourney Survival Guide: From Overwhelmed to Empowered
Start learning the basics of Midjourney with this free and easy-to-understand guide. Walk through tons of examples as the guide shows you how Midjourney works so you can get up to speed quickly.
Midjourney SREF Code: Faces
Using an SREF Code in Midjourney helps control the aesthetic of the output. In this guide, we used the same prompt with four characters so you can see how the SREF Code changes the art's look and style.
Midjourney Comic Book SREF Guide
Check out 20 SREF Codes that have a fantastic "comic book" look. Which one of these will be your favorite?
Midjourney SREF Code Library
This was the first AI Vibe Coded tool I created in Base44 in August 2025. It scans my personal Marshall Atkinson Instagram account for any post that uses an SREF Code. It auto-pulls in the data and the image, then catalogs them in the app.
Midjourney Idea Generator
Learning prompting can be difficult. I created this prompt vocabulary tool for new users to Midjourney to try out and test prompt words to see what they do in Midjourney. Try it out yourself!
Ollie Crayon Website
I started a new Amazon book publishing company, Ollie Crayon, that creates coloring books for grown-ups. These are for fun and relaxation. Check it out!
Recommendations
Trusted Resources & Services
Companies, tools, and services I personally use or recommend to clients. These are vetted resources that deliver real results for decorated apparel shops.
Shirt Lab Tribe
Shirt Lab Tribe is the number one mastermind group in the decorated apparel industry. Members have access to a video content library, workshops, weekly open office hour calls, and discounts on virtual and live events. This is the place where serious shop owners come to network and learn.
Join The TribeMark Coudray
Mark Coudray is one of the leading voices in the decorated apparel industry. He untangles the complicated and helps any business think several steps ahead in their decision-making.
Learn About Mark CoudrayPrinting United Expo
Printing United Expo is the most dynmaic and comprehensive printing event in the world.
Learn About Printing United ExpoMidjourney Experience YouTube Channel
Learn how professional creatives are using Midjourney, an AI image creation tool, to save time and create more profit with their work. The Midjourney Experience YouTube Channel is a professional resource for learning how to maximize your results with Midjourney.
Watch Midjourney Experience VideosMidjourney Experience Academy (SKOOL Platform)
You’re a creative professional. Deadlines are tight, clients expect polished work, and every project has to stand out. That’s why we built the Midjourney Experience Academy. A community of professional creatives mastering Midjourney together. When you join today, you’ll start creating client-ready work this week that is faster, sharper, and built with confidence.
Enroll in the AcademyLegacy Virtual
My go-to recommendation for hiring a virtual assistant. I have two longtime VAs at Legacy Virtual who help with my backend work and marketing efforts. Using a VA helps keep your in-house staff working on higher-value tasks. Get more accomplished by expanding your staff capacity by adding a team member from Legacy.
Get More DoneThe Database Diva
Lori Feldman wants to help you with your sales by automating your marketing processes. She's assembled a crack team of experts to help you build out your marketing drips, systems, and processes. She's taught at several Shirt Lab events both live and virtual, and really knows her stuff.
Talk to LoriAlan Howe
Need help in the screen room? Contact Alan Howe. He has a practical framework for diagnosing and resolving screen-printing challenges. He breaks down your entire print process into five core fundamentals: Screen Tension, Stencil, Squeegee & Floodbar, Ink Curing, and Process Control.
Learn About Alan HowePromoHunt
Boost your productivity with powerful, free sourcing, saving, and selling tools. No more juggling between Search Tools, Supplier Websites, Portals, and Spreadsheets. PromoHunt consolidates essential information for you, so you can focus on what matters without any disruptions.
Learn About PromoHuntGigapixel
Upscale your art files into usable assets. I use Gigapixel constantly, and it works great. I like the control I have over the final image, and the tools clean up the jagged edges of low-resolution images nicely. Highly recommend!
Clean Up Your ArtStrand Writing Services
If you need an expert copywriter, I can think of none better than Nicole Rollender. Done-for-you copy and content support for companies, agencies and founders who want it done right, on brand, on time, and with some swagger to make you stand out.
Get Nicole to Write ItJay Busselle
Most brands don’t need more content, better tools, or louder tactics. They need clarity—about what to say, who it’s for, and why it matters. Clarity is the input. AI is the amplifier. Alignment is the outcome.
Talk to JayFavorite Books
Books I Recommend to Clients
Books I regularly recommend for improving business strategy, leadership, sales, marketing, and operations. These have made a real difference for the shops I work with.
Profit First
by Mike Michalowicz
Conventional accounting uses the logical (albeit, flawed) formula: Sales - Expenses = Profit. The problem is, businesses are run by humans, and humans aren't always logical. Serial entrepreneur Mike Michalowicz has developed a behavioral approach to accounting to flip the formula: Sales - Profit = Expenses
Extreme Ownership
by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Since it’s release in October 2015, Extreme Ownership has revolutionized leadership development and set a new standard for literature on the subject. Required reading for many of the most successful organizations, it has become an integral part of the official leadership training programs for scores of business teams, military units, and first responders.
Marketing Rebellion
by Mark Schaeffer
"Marketing Rebellion" is a wake-up call. Now that our customers have the accumulated knowledge of the human race in the plan of their hands, they expect something more from us. They don't want to be interrupted, spammed, or intercepted. They need us to come alongside them at their point of need.
Traction: Get a Grip On Your Business
by Gino Wickman
In Traction, you'll learn the secrets of strengthening the six key components of your business. You'll discover simple yet powerful ways to run your company that will give you and your leadership team more focus, more growth, and more enjoyment.
Fanatical Prospecting
by Jeb Blount
The brutal fact is the number one reason for failure in sales is an empty pipe and the root cause of an empty pipeline is the failure to consistently prospect. By ignoring the muscle of prospecting, many otherwise competent salespeople and sales organizations consistently underperform.
The Goal
by Eliyahu Goldratt
Written in a fast-paced thriller style, 'The Goal' contains a serious message for all managers in industry and explains the ideas which underline the Theory of Constraints developed by the author.
Objections
by Jeb Blount
In his signature right-to-the-point style, Jeb pulls no punches and slaps you in the face with the cold, hard truth about what’s really holding you back from closing sales and reaching your income goals. Then he pulls you in with examples, stories, and lessons that teach powerful human-influence frameworks for getting past NO - even with the most challenging objections.
The Little Red Book of Selling
by Jeffrey Gitomer
Jeffrey Gitomer’s Little Red Book of Selling became the all-time bestselling Classic because it’s the only sales book that focuses on BOTH “how to sell” and the unknown secret of selling, “why people buy.” Answers that every salesperson wants and needs.
Atomic Habits
by James Clear
Atomic Habits will reshape the way you think about progress and success, and give you the tools and strategies you need to transform your habits--whether you are a team looking to win a championship, an organization hoping to redefine an industry, or simply an individual who wishes to quit smoking, lose weight, reduce stress, or achieve any other goal.
The Content Entrepreneur
by Joe Pulizzi + 33 Other Authors
From “the godfather of content marketing” comes business-changing insights from 33 experts on the proven way to build a content business. In this comprehensive guide for serious content creators you’ll find critical strategies to accelerate your success as you move from content creator to content entrepreneur. Marshall Atkinson wrote the "Operating Your Content Entrepreneur Business" on page 195
Unreasonable Hospitality
by Will Guidara
Today, every business can choose to be a hospitality business—and we can all transform ordinary transactions into extraordinary experiences. Featuring sparkling stories of his journey through restaurants, with the industry’s most famous players like Daniel Boulud and Danny Meyer, Guidara urges us all to find the magic in what we do—for ourselves, the people we work with, and the people we serve.
Never Split the Difference
by Chris Voss
Never Split the Difference is your definitive source for defusing potential crises, winning people over, and achieving your goals at work and at home with proven negotiating strategies.
Building a Story Brand
by Donald Miller
In this book, Donal Miller shares the proven system he has created to help you engage and truly influence customers. The StoryBrand process is a proven solution to the struggle business leaders face when talking about their companies. Without a clear, distinct message, customers will not understand what you can do for them and are unwilling to engage, causing you to lose potential sales, opportunities for customer engagement, and much more.
This Is Marketing
by Seth Godin
Great marketers don't use consumers to solve their company's problem; they use marketing to solve other people's problems. Their tactics rely on empathy, connection, and emotional labor instead of attention-stealing ads and spammy email funnels.
Need Help Applying This to Your Shop?
Tools and recommendations are a great start. If you want expert guidance tailored to your specific situation, let's talk.
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