Jason's_Place

Ok, I have been very interested in sublimation for about a year, and I think i have a olan that could work. What I need from you pros , is to see if I am overlooking something.

I am wanting to buy a heat press and generic transfers to start. This way I can hit some events and try to recoupe the expense of the press. Once my press is paid for I want to buy the printer and computer and so on.

I don't have the money to take a chance on the whole sublimation kits and all that are out there so this is my way of getting started.

Any ideas? And thanks in advance!!

 

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pwhite20

I'm not a sublimation guy myself, so take this with a grain of salt since it's just my opinion and not really based on any past experience.

To me the power of doing sublimation printing seems to be the ability to quickly turn out customized products for your customers. I'm not sure what the market would be for pre-printed designs, unless of course they're designed with a particular event in mind where there might be a high demand for a particular design. I know sublimation has a relatively low entry cost, so is it possible you might be able to afford a much smaller, but cheaper sublimation printer to start off with?

I would guess that you might be able to pay for all of your equipment with one weekend of work printing mugs, t-shirts and key chains at a craft show, flea market or mall kiosk with the holidays approaching soon. The profit margin can be quite high for customized sublimation - especially with kids buying customized gifts with their pictures on them for mom and dad around Christmas.

Again, I'm definitely no subject matter expert here so hopefully you'll get some better responses to correct me on selling pre-printed designs.

Good luck!

 

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jKipler

Invest a little bit of money. Take out a small loan, but don't get into too much debt.

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muneca

I agree w/Jerika...try not to go into too much debt in this economy. Good luck to you!

 

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HGE

You sound like you are on the right track, that is a good way to get your feet wet without getting into debt.
I'd stick to that plan, see if you can make it in your local area.
GL to you I wish you the best...!

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Big Frog

Howdy,

Find a big event and get a meeting with the event coordinator. These people don't like selling t-shirts because they can easily lose money on the endeavor (rain is a big enemy of events and t-shirt sales). Offer to supply all the event t-shirts at a specific per unit price and cut them in for 25% of the revenue generated on shirt sales and you'll do all the work. Offer to have one of their staff help you work your booth (let's them know your honest about the money). Purchase the event design on transfer paper and press shirts to order as they are purchased. This way you won't run out of any given size shirt and if you have extra transfers it will eat into your profit but not that much... You'll have extra t-shirts left over but you can use those at another event.

That worked for me when I was getting started. We did about 120 events in 18 months but the most profitable were the large venues where they served alcohol. (Parrot Head Party, Bike Night, St. Patty's Day, Cinco de Mayo, etc.) It'll work and if you do it right, event coordinators will hear about your good deeds and start calling you to help them.

Cheers,
Ron

 

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