HOW THE OWNER OF CONVERGENT TATTOO GOT HIS evenings BACK.
Jimmy Rogers opened a six-chair shop in Daytona Beach three years ago. Here's the paperwork he stopped doing, and what he got back.
A six-chair shop on Mason Avenue.
Jimmy Rogers has been tattooing for twenty years, fifteen of them in Daytona Beach. Three years ago he opened his own shop, Convergent Tattoo, on Mason Avenue. Six chairs. Six artists. On a regular day they're putting out somewhere between twelve and twenty tattoos. Bike weeks and spring break, more.
Each one of those tattoos used to mean a consent form, an ID copy, an envelope of cash or a card receipt, and another set of numbers to add up at the desk on payday. Now Jimmy gets an extra half hour back home.
"I save a half hour and I get an extra half hour at home with the fam. That's a major deal for me."
Jimmy Rogers, Owner
This is how he got there.
The paper years.
Jimmy didn't open Convergent on Tattoo Studio Pro because the marketing got him. He opened it that way because he'd already spent fifteen years watching what shops on paper actually look like.
"Up until my previous shop, everybody was on paper. The first shop I worked at was on Beachside. The place was slammed. Always. Nine tattooers. The amount of paperwork they had was incredible. Stacks of boxes. I remember thinking, what are these? These are just consent forms from last year? You need a storage unit for this?"
Jimmy Rogers
It's not just the volume. It's what the volume costs you. Storage. Toner. Time. The hour at the end of the week sitting at the desk adding up artists' payroll by hand. The fifteen minutes hunting for one consent form from eighteen months ago because someone called.
"And you got to keep it for so many years. I run out of space here to begin with. I got a fine line between collector and hoarder, so I ain't got room for boxes."
Jimmy Rogers
When he opened Convergent, going back to paper wasn't on the table. The shop ran on Tattoo Studio Pro from day one.
"I would not operate without it. When we first opened, I had it from the start."
Jimmy Rogers
What he was looking for.
Jimmy worked at one shop that had a software system, so he came in knowing what he didn't want.
"There was just a lot more going on with that system that I didn't like. It would seem a little bit overcomplicated. There was just too many moving parts in there."
Jimmy Rogers
He shopped around the same way most studio owners do.
"I was on a Google search, just trying to look up different programs. There was three or four I had in mind. It was either they didn't offer what I was looking for, it didn't offer as much as you offered, or the price was outlandish."
Jimmy Rogers
Some of the alternatives only handled consent forms. Some of them came with a booking system designed for hair salons that didn't fit how a tattoo shop runs a calendar.
"The booking system was not good for a tattoo shop. Maybe good for a hair salon, but it didn't really cater to how I booked any of my appointments or how we run our calendar here."
Jimmy Rogers
"Your company offered everything I was looking for and more for fair price."
Jimmy Rogers
Everything is right here. It's all right on this tablet. Just put it in one. Simplify your life.
A busy day at Convergent now.
Six tattooers, all on the same system. Consent forms get signed on a tablet at the counter. Payments run through Tattoo Studio Pro. Client records, contact info, photos, all searchable. Every artist has their own passcode and works the app from their phone or one of the iPads at the front.
When payday comes around, Jimmy doesn't sit down with a calculator.
"If I'm doing payroll, if I don't have to sit and add up all the numbers, I go in to see what payroll is, it's already calculated out. Tips are calculated out. That right there saves me a bunch of time."
Jimmy Rogers
When he wants to email old clients about a flash event, he doesn't type addresses one at a time.
"If I had to type in every single email and phone number to do some sort of promotional deal, when we look at all the records, I can just copy, paste all those emails. I would very much miss that."
Jimmy Rogers
The boxes of paper that used to define what a busy shop looks like aren't there. The room they would have taken up is full of tattooers instead.
The half hour.
We asked Jimmy if he could put a number on the time he gets back in a week. He didn't want to inflate it.
"At least a couple hours a week. It may not be like a huge significant number, but if I can save an hour, not having to organize stacks of paper, not having to go through a box if I do have to look something up, at least a couple hours. For sure."
Jimmy Rogers
For Jimmy, that time doesn't just stay at the desk.
"I save a half hour and I get an extra half hour at home with the fam. That's a major deal for me."
Jimmy Rogers
What he'd say to a shop still juggling.
There are two kinds of shops Jimmy talks to. The ones still running on paper, and the ones running three or four apps that don't talk to each other. He has the same advice for both.
"If they're juggling apps, I have to assume it would just look like a tumbleweed of things, all over the place. Everything is right here. It's all right on this tablet. You don't have to have this over here, paper over here, that over there. Just put it in one. Simplify your life. Save yourself a little bit of time. Thirty minutes a day. And it's less of a headache. You don't have to focus on this, focus on this, forget this one because you're too focused on this one."
Jimmy Rogers
On the support side.
Jimmy has been a customer for almost three years. There was a stretch a while back when the app hit a rough patch, and he stayed.
"You were always ready to find a solution. Your customer service and your response time was immediate. You were always willing to help. There was never a 'I'm sorry about your luck, you probably just don't know how to use it.' I don't find that kind of customer service in a lot of things."
Jimmy Rogers
The takeaway.
We asked Jimmy what the one major benefit of Tattoo Studio Pro is for him. He didn't pause.
"The major benefit is to keep several moving parts of this business all focused in one location. To be able to keep it all organized in one area right in front of me. Everything that I need is all right in front of me. I don't have to go look in several different spaces for it. Everything I need is in one spot."
Jimmy Rogers
The rest is what one spot buys back. For Jimmy, it's a half hour with his family that he didn't have before.
I save a half hour and I get it back at home with the fam.