Sometimes, decorators get into the business out of sheer necessity. When they can’t find the service or level of quality they want, they decide to do it themselves. For GoLoud Graphics, this was especially the case. Owner Sarah Franz says she and her husband already had a customer base before they took off.

“My degree is in music education, and I was a band and choir director,” she explains. “I’m also a preacher’s kid, so I grew up around all these organizations that always need shirts.” 

Searching for Better Quality Prints 

Sarah says the couple’s primary motivation to start printing their own shirts came after several mixed experiences ordering uniforms for their kids’ Little League teams. 

“For the first three seasons, my kids played Little League and never got their uniforms on time,” she recalls. “When they did arrive, there’d be three different colors of red on one print, two different blues on another. We just thought, we can do better than that!”

That spark led Sarah and her husband to start exploring how they could begin printing their own shirts and give the community and local businesses a more meaningful experience with custom merchandise. 

“Our idea was for it to be something our kids could grow into, where they could work after practice,” she adds .”We wanted to build opportunity, not just a business.”

Scaling Up, Down, and Back Again 

Starting around 2010, GoLoud began as a home-based business with one heat press and a few loyal customers, such as local schools, but it kept the entire family busy. They learned how to screen print largely from Ryonet’s educational videos, and some classes from trade shows.

“Once the kids were tall enough to reach the heat press, they started learning how to use it,” Sarah jokes. The family would typically screen print the front of jerseys and heat-press team numbers onto the back. 

By 2013–2014, demand was growing rapidly, driven by the company’s strong word-of-mouth reputation. Customers began requesting more customization options, including embroidery, one-off orders, and personalization. Rather than turn business down, Sarah says they began exploring how they could pivot.

“I went from doing no embroidery to running a four-head embroidery machine and a 48-inch vinyl cutter overnight,” she says. “I learned how to embroider from the lady I purchased the business from and jumped in feet first.”

While the business was catching momentum, the couple started to feel the strain of running a shop with a retail storefront with minimal help. Overhead began eating away at profits, and Sarah says the work-life balance diminished.

“I was missing senior-year events because I was stuck at the shop,” she notes. “That’s when we knew something had to change.”

Ultimately, the couple decided to fold retail operations in 2018.

Rethinking the Business and Rejoining InkSoft 

After closing the storefront, Sarah retained a small number of profitable and loyal customers. The business focused on contract work and took on smaller embroidery and print jobs that larger contract decorators typically passed along.  

Sarah says that because they had scaled down, the family could adapt and weather the storm during the pandemic’s shutdown and economic downturn. 

GoLoud Graphics’ InkSoft store

The business began filling orders for a scrubs company that required custom, one-off embroidery, which helped keep them busy during a challenging time for most print shops.

“They couldn’t find an embroidery house willing to do small runs or name personalization, but that’s exactly what I did best,” she notes. 

As the business’s online presence grew, they also rejoined InkSoft. They had tried the platform early on but didn’t see a strong fit for their size and goals. Now, they needed the right tools for the job. 

“I didn’t want to be a CustomInk where people designed random stuff online,” she says. “I wanted spiritwear stores that were clean, simple, and on-brand for schools, clubs, and teams.”

Using InkSoft’s store tools, she trained customers to think like boutique brands.

“I would tell them: stop ordering 500 shirts you can’t sell. Order less, sell out, and make a profit,” she says.

Sarah also credits her indispensable assistant, Jen, who can set up a new store in half an hour, as part of their success with online stores. 

“I couldn’t run this place without her,” she notes. “She’s fast, organized, and totally gets our customers.”

Building New Momentum with InkSoft and GraphicsFlow Tools 

In addition to tools like Google Tasks and Keep, GoLoud uses Inksoft’s proposals to make estimates and mock-ups easier, and Graphics Flow to help their customers find designs quickly.

“After we moved to InkSoft, our order volume grew around 25%-30%” says Sarah. “It was easier for our customers to order, and they ordered more.”

The on-demand model helped the business grow exponentially. GoLoud now manages 54 active InkSoft stores, including a site for the shop, spiritwear stores, and some private portals for corporate customers who need custom outfits for their staff.

“A lot of businesses just need an easier way to outfit their staff,” Sarah explains. “They log into a password-protected store, pick what they need, pay, and we handle the rest.”

Leveling Up with Direct-to-Film 

Like many printers in recent years, Sarah says the business saw a massive opportunity when researching Direct-to-Film (DTF) printing. She began ordering gang sheets for her school and spiritwear clients, and the transition from traditional transfers was seamless.

“Three months later, I started getting calls asking ‘when are you going to start offering DTF prints?’,” she explains.  “But they were already wearing it!”

The addition of DTF has enabled the family to consistently price jobs accurately, regardless of order size. The consistent pricing and easy invoicing also complement InkSoft Stores, since schools can order shirts and swag on demand instead of buying hundreds of pieces that may not sell.

“Whether someone orders one shirt or 35, the decoration process is the same,” Sarah explains, adding that the easy-to-understand pricing is more popular than traditional bulk pricing. 

Growing the Space 

More recently, GoLoud has seen an uptick in business in their physical space. They set up a standalone facility after the production and shipping area grew from the garage into the house.

“My husband and boys finally said, ‘That’s it,’ and built out a 1,000-square-foot space for me,” Sarah explains.

Sarah says the biggest change has been the ability to move around the space. 

“In the garage, we had a 4’x6′ work table in the center of the space,” she explains. “Jen would set up camp on one side, and I would on the other. Then we would pass things to each other across the table and stack and unstack boxes to complete our tasks.”


Now, they can maintain control over work areas. Jobs are waiting in their respective areas, like heat press or embroidery, instead of being stacked at an entryway.

Even as GoLoud grows, Sarah says she’s still rooted in what started it all: a place customers can expect quality and attention to detail.

“We built this business to make life easier for people like teams, schools, and families,” she notes. “That’s still what drives us.”