PcFlyer77

Hello,
I've been putting a lot of thought into starting up my own t-shirt business, but I'm not too confident in my plans so I figured that I would run it by everyone.
My ideas is to buy a DTG printer and sell shirts online. I like the idea of a DTG printer because you can print custom orders much easier than other options such as screen printing. I was thinking of having a large list of designs on the website with the option for people to have custom orders kind of like on cafepress or zazzle.
I haven't put too much thought into actually financing this yet because I'm trying to decide if this idea is even valid. I know marketing plays a key factor into any business's success. If I went ahead with this business, I was thinking of giving free t-shirts and business cards to local business and ask them to spread the word to their clients.
I realize that there is an overwhelming amount of variables and I know the information I provided is spotty, but I thought throwing out the basic concept would be a good way to get the ball rolling to see if anyone thinks this idea would be successful. I'm really excited about starting up this business, but I just want to make sure that I'm not being foolishly optimistic. Thanks in advance for any feedback.

 

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Dennis Graves

I would recommend starting using a contract printer to see if you are going to be as successful and you think you are. You will make a little less per shirt but it might save you a huge DTG machine purchase.

I was in your exact same shoes over the summer and decided to buy a DTG. It's a lot harder trying to sell them than I thought it was going to be. If I had tried to sell them before I had the machine and contracted out the printing, and have the slow sales I have, I don't know if I would have bought the machine. There is TONS of online competition. The largest part of my success so far has been contract printing for local advertising specialty companies, and none of them found me online, I joined a couple of local business meeting clubs.

Just a thought,

Dennis

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PcFlyer77

Thanks for the response Dennis, I appreciate your feedback. After crunching the numbers, I suppose a DTG printer is a fairly steep investment for just a start up business.

Essentially what I'd like to do is to be able to create custom products for people and sell them at a reasonable price. Space is very limited for me right now (Limited to my parent basement) so I'm trying to stay away from any sort of large production such as screen printing.

How about dye sublimation. The start up capital for a sublimation printer seems to be remarkably cheaper than a DTG printer. From what I've read sublimation creates some decent results too. Think it could be possible to create a small business with a sublimation printer and expand (if all goes well) from there?

I was also looking at the epson 4880 printer with ChromaBlast ink and paper. I'm estimating the start up cost with that would be around $3k which is considerably better than $12k.

 

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hostingdiva

I agree with what Dennis said - start with a contract printer. You can still do what you want (i.e., provide custom designs) and just have someone else do the printing.

You said that you primarily want to sell online right? Well, you'll need to get a website together. You're not going to be able to afford Zazzle because that system is all about custom programming... which is going to be much more than 12k So, you'll need to look to other options.

You're entering a market that is pretty saturated... this means you'll need to put more money into marketing. Don't invest in equipment yet unless you must - spend the money where you must: advertising.

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PcFlyer77

Maybe a full ecommerce business is a bit foolishly optimistic. I still do want to set up a way to create decent looking t-shirts. Maybe I'll just try selling them to friends and other places on the side as a hobby. I'm not trying to make shirts for the money, (although I'll gladly accept the cash) I just want to be able to create something that other people get enjoyment out of.

 

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