This is what I did in my area to get some of the local work. I bought a ton of cheap white tees, and made samples for our local restaurants, churches, non profits such as the Alano clubs, marine animal rescue. I took them samples and most of the ones I provided samples have ordered at least once, many of them are repeat customers now. The reason I printed samples for these places was that I knew they did many events such as for fund raising, and also sports events such as baseball games.
They order anywhere from 24 to 100 shirts at a time for each event. During the summer they have alot of events and the holidays are a good time to offer them items they can sell to raise money. Getting work locally will open many doors for you, and word of mouth spreads between local business's quite a bit. Go out in your community and talk to people. Contact your local chamber of commerce and see if you can get a list of events that happen in your area. Contact the vendors of those events to see if you can provide any items they may need for the event, and make sure to talk to them face to face so that it is a personal connection, and not just someone on the phone.
We have an event called The Taste of San Pedro, where there are over 200 restaurants that participate with sample booths of their foods they serve. I went there and talked to all the vendors and landed many jobs with them. It was great because they were all in one place at the same time
You just really need to concentrate on where is the best place to make contact, and sell yourself.
I also do referrals with local screen print, embroidery and sign shops in the area. We have a verbal deal that we will refer work to each other, if it is not a job we can do. This is a great system if you really take the time to know the other business's in your area, and keep your word of referrals. I have gotten alot of work this way as well.
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