Prepared for Trevor Campbell · Updated October 5, 2026

Your store is almost ready to sell. Here's what's left.

A plan for Patriot Pro's Apparel. From Steve Vo, Rise Local.

You've already fixed a lot since Friday. I checked the store this morning:

The product side is coming together. What's left is the part that brings buyers to it, and that's where I come in.

1. What's still holding the store back

Jacksonville customers looking for your kind of hat get sent out of town. When I searched "custom leather patch hats" in Google Maps around Jacksonville, it showed shops in Raleigh, N.C., and Pace, FL, ahead of anyone in Jacksonville. No Jacksonville shop I found owns that search.

Check it yourself: search "custom leather patch hats" on your phone.

Google would still reject the store today. To list products for free in Google Shopping, a store needs a refund policy, a shipping policy and contact details Google can find. Your refund and shipping pages still come up empty, and the store runs on a myshopify.com address instead of its own domain. Connecting it as-is risks a suspension that's hard to undo.

Check it yourself: patriotprosapparel.myshopify.com/policies/refund-policy

The hats are named for the warehouse, not the buyer. 43 of your hats are titled like "Richardson 112 Kryptek Typhon/ Black." Nobody searches that. People search "camo trucker hat" or "gift for a carpenter," so those listings won't show up even after Google approves the store.

The model photos are AI-made, including the new hoodies and shirts. Buyers of a trades brand want to see real tradesmen, and Facebook and Instagram can label AI-made people in ads. Real photos of you and a few trade friends will earn more trust than any model.

2. Where the money is

Crew hats in Jacksonville

Companies buy hats with their logo for the whole crew, and none of the 13 Jacksonville embroidery and print shops I checked sells leather patch hats. You're a tradesman selling to tradesmen. You can hand a foreman a sample and deliver locally, which beats a shop 400 miles away.

642construction businesses in Duval with 10 or more employees: plumbing, HVAC, electrical, roofing and more (U.S. Census, 2023)
~$600profit on one 48-hat crew order at about $24 a hat, if your costs land where I expect. That's 40 to 50 single online sales.
$40what local shops charge for a single custom hat. You fit between that and the national bulk shops, which take 3 to 4 weeks.

The Christmas gift window

A hat and a camo hoodie make an easy gift for the guy who builds things. The gift window runs from Thanksgiving week to mid-December, and USPS recommends shipping ground orders by December 17. Almost nobody searches Google for gifts like this, so these sales come from your Instagram, your past buyers and the people you already know. That needs a plan, not just a listing.

Why I'm not starting with ads

After free shipping, a single hat leaves you about $12–15. The typical cost to win one buyer with Facebook ads in apparel is around $37. Ads for single hats lose money until you have reviews, real photos and repeat buyers. Crew orders and gifts come first. Ads come once the numbers work.

3. Two ways to start

Plan 1 · Get found

$149 / month

I get the store approved and listed. You keep selling the way you are now.

  • Connect your own domain.
  • Refund, shipping, terms and contact pages, written to pass Google's review.
  • Google Shopping free listings and Google Merchant Center set up.
  • Every product renamed for what buyers search.
  • Photo reviews, email signup and an abandoned-cart reminder (free apps).
  • Monthly upkeep and a monthly check-in.

Guarantee: your store passes Google's review and shows up in free Google Shopping listings within 30 days of getting your domain and store access, or you don't pay me until it does.

What I'd pick

Plan 2 · Get sales

$449 / month

Everything in Plan 1, plus I go get the crew orders and run the Christmas launch for you.

  • A Custom Crew Hats page with quantity pricing and a logo-upload quote form.
  • A one-page sample sheet to hand foremen.
  • I build a list of Jacksonville contractors and reach out to them for you. I'll also tell you which builder and chamber meetings are worth your morning (the next Arlington Chamber one is October 28) and what to bring.
  • The Christmas gift launch: hat + hoodie gift bundles, an "order by December 14" banner, and emails to everyone who's bought or signed up.
  • A monthly growth meeting where we look at what sold and pick the next move.

Guarantee: at least 5 crew-hat quote requests (a business asking you to price 24 or more hats) in your first 90 days. If not, billing pauses and I keep working until they come in.

Why Plan 2: Plan 1 makes you findable, but Google search alone won't fill a crew order. The money is in crew orders and the Christmas window, and both take someone actively going after them. You told me you wear many hats. Plan 2 means you're not the one doing the chasing. At my estimate (about $600 profit on a 48-hat order), one crew order a month pays for Plan 2. Your answer to question 1 confirms it.

Both plans: month to month, cancel any time, no setup fee. Not included: Shopify's own fee (about $29–39 a month), your domain (about $15 a year), and any ad spend later. The guarantees depend on you buying the domain, giving me store access, and sending real photos and your return terms in the first week. For Plan 2, they also depend on you answering quote requests within one business day, and on crew pricing set from your three answers. Google makes the final call on listings. If it asks for something I can fix, I fix it at no charge until you're listed.

4. No call needed: text me three answers

These set your crew-hat pricing and turnaround, and #3 lets me write your refund page.

  1. What does one finished hat cost you? The blank plus the patch, roughly.
  2. Who makes the patches, and how many hats can you finish in a week? So I never promise a crew more than you can deliver.
  3. Your return terms. For example: unworn, within 30 days.

5. Your part, week 1

Next step

Reply "1" or "2" and I'll start this week, so the store is ready before Thanksgiving. Send the three answers whenever you have them.

Text me at the number I texted you from · steve@riselocalgrowth.com