I hope this isn't out of line or anything - I just wanted to post a request for a bit of advice on the steps I should be taking next.
I'm a cartoonist, and I want to start manufacturing my own shirts/apparel with my work on them. Well, that is to say, I want to start doing it properly.
I had a partner last year, and we did a run of 10 designs in black and white. We were selling at markets, and started to generate a lot of real interest in our work. Unfortunately, that relationship disintegrated quite dramatically, and I'm going to go it on my own. The fact, though, that we had interest has kind of kept me encouraged.
I have 28 adult designs, 26 children's designs, and 15 'naughty' designs. I'm in the process of having a website built, which will be an e-commerce hub for everything I'm doing - but, obviously, I'd like to move into brick and mortar shops in the Melbourne area.
I have $10,000 to inject into the business in operating capital , and at the moment I am sourcing shirts and printers (with thanks to forum member Tania at Vapor), and trying to work out the most cost effective way to get the best quality in the product.
It's all so overwhelming - there's so much to consider and work out - and, I guess I'm asking you, forum readers, what should I be doing next? Is there something I've missed? Does anyone have any advice for where I should go from this point?
Anything that would help point me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated!
You should probably make a wholesale catalogue up, make a few samples & take them round to all the shops that suit your market.
You could also try a market stall to help build awareness.
The quality of the shirts should suit the graphic - there's little point doing novelty slogans on very expensive garments, by the time a shop has doubled your wholesale price to sell them they'd be a lot more expensive than people will pay for that stuff. If your designs are a bit classier then people will pay more, which affords a better quality shirt.
$10,000 is ok money, print maybe 30 ea of your best 5 to 10 designs. Bring more in when you've sold some. A t-shirt label is a tricky thing to promote & takes some different ways of thinking. A Myspace page can be a great help.
Firstly, congrats on setting up and running your own t-shirt label
It seems you have already started in pursuing the e-commerce/online route. $10k is a very good budget that you could use in promoting your label and marketing. I would invest heavily in Google Ads and other forms of marketing. Since you have an e-commerce solution, your overheads should be very low allowing you to concentrate on the marketing and selling aspects more.
re your designs. Since you are just starting you might not want to go and screenprint all your designs in one go. That would suck up your $10k capital very very quickly. I've worked with a lot of startup designers before and they like to use Direct to Garment printing initially while they build their brands. It basically means you don’t need to keep inventory or stock, you print t-shirts as required (i.e., fulfillment). Another route is to do dye sub or plastisol transfers.
I think once you've established your e-commerce side of thins then you can start pursuing retail and wholesale sales. It's hard to juggle everything at once.
I would be cautious of going in to a brick and mortar store with $10K, I only say that as it really isn't much when you start looking at paying rent etc, regardless of sales!
You also then limit yourself initially to 1 location. Have you considered working more on a wholesale basis? There is nothing to stop you building up your sales then opening a store once you have an established business case.
You mention Black on white if that is the case have you considered screen printing them yourself? That's how I started (we had a baby store and I did it in the stockroom when it was quiet!)
There are easy and cheap alternatives to making screens (multicolour would get a bit more tricky), you don't need a press just a benchtop and an iron. (although with your capital I would personally look at a basic press and dryer)
Thanks so much for all of your advice - I've been thinking about everything you've said, and I thought I'd throw down some thoughts about where I'm at, to get some feedback and see if you guys think I'm headed in the right direction.
I think I'm probably going to go with screenprinting - the quality looks the best, and I can work on blacks.
One major decision I've made is with regard to my initial range. When I decided to do this, I'd been working on designs for a while - like I mentioned in my original email - and I had roughly 40 prints. Which, in retrospect, is FAR too many to start with. So..
I've decided to focus, initially, on children's stuff. My geeky manchild art style lends itself fairly well to kid's clothing - and it seems smarter to go with a narrower focus, rather than attacking a market under the broad banner of 'funny shirts'. This way, I can work on a far more specific market, and can tailor the individual lines in a way that painting in broader strokes might prohibit.
So, I have pruned it down to the best 16 prints. I had to go back to the original pen and ink masters and rebuild all the images as vectorized Illustrator files - which was a huge amount of work, but has been amazingly satisfying since I've had to learn Illustrator to a far higher level than I ever had before. Of course, having to FIND all of the original elements proved that I am a genuine slob - my girlfriend helped me, and her thoughts can be summed up thusly: "Stop being such a PIG."
She's probably got a point.
A brick and mortar shop is certainly further in the future - as cookiesa said, I'm probably going to focus on an online/wholesale mix. I'm also thinking of going to places like St. Andrews market once in a while to help consolidate my brand identity and to get a bit 'one on one' with the marketplace.
So, as it stands, my website is being put together, I'm finishing up the 16 designs, and trying to work out all of the figures to go to print - which is, let me tell you, a bloody headache. I'm no businessman - I was an art student. But I'm having to turn into Gordon Gekko. It's actually been a lot of fun - I'm not as awful as I thought I would be, and I have been learning in leaps and bounds.
Do you guys have any thoughts on LWReid shirts? Are they a reputable brand?
Thanks so much for all your feedback and advice. You've really been invaluable - and I hope that, eventually, I'm able to give back to the community as much as you've been giving me.
I'll post my web address here as soon as it is online - I can't wait to show you all what I've been working on, and to see what you think.
Wow! Sounds like you have given this a lot of thought! You say you're no businessman, but you sound very switched on! Keep moving forward with this kind of enthusiasm and you'll grow leaps and bounds.
Good choice to go with screen printing. Most local printers in Australia will charge you an initial Screen Setup fee but will keep the screens for your next order. This is great if they have low minimums as it means you can get 10 done at a time at low cost. I would recommend starting off small, then as demand grows, print larger quantities and benefit from the lower cost.
Also, make sure that you vigorously look over samples of previous work before deciding on a printer!
Are you going to be doing the screen printing yourself? If so and you don't want to do the screens let me know, there are cheap solutions. (not as cheap as doing them yourself of course!)
Just a side thought, whilst limiting to children designs is a good focus it also limits your customer base (and also to one where the competition is fairly high and more and more pressure on the budget. Do you have designs that can be used on both children and adult? As you don't need to hold stock for an online store (you can print, set and send same day anyway for small orders) if you can cross over a little it will widen your appeal. Also with screens you can also look at multiple designs on a single screen.
Anyway keep at it! you sound like your getting ready to give it a shot!
Advice on where to go next... 
