This section of the forum is for discussing the business and finance issues of the t-shirt industry. Which business structure to use (sole proprietor, LLC, S Corp, etc), how to handle billing, where to register your business and get the proper licensing, etc.
i'm new to t-shirt business or even selling stuff.. i used to work as an IT Manager in a retail company that wrap gifts, but i wasn't really into the retail business itself. so i haven't learned anything.
anyways, i recently resigned due to health (scitica) problem. and i thought i'll be facing the same problem if i join another company, so why not run my own business from home?
i used to be a designer in the past, and i kept that profession aside and went into networking and security, thus my skills in designing faded away gradually (altho i know if i put a little effort, i'd pick up fast).
now to the point of this thread.
i thought i'll start by making my own designs by using free vectors or even buying them, and try to get a local supplier for blanks and printing.
the problem is, i was so excited about the idea and all, and i know i can produce a minimum of 3 designs a day, and getting them printed whenever i get orders or even try to introduce those designs to the retails. but then i thought about the income. i realized that it won't cover my current living expense + my loans.
i used to receive $2300 monthly, and i've been saving some money for the future, but now i haved used them when i resigned.
the t-shirt retailers here usually bring their products and items from overseas for cheap, and sell them for cheap as well. making a small profit from each shirt, but the idea is to sell huge quantities. i thought maybe i can generate at least $10 per tee, but then, even selling 100 tees a month will only produce $1000, and that's really high-expectation and doesn't even cover half of my living expenses.
i don't know why i'm not being optimistic, tho i still love the idea of the t-shirt business and being my own boss.
drop in comments, suggestions, ideas, etc.. i don't know. whatever u think might take me to the next step.
Running your own business from home, can be much harder work than being in employment for someone else. You have the purchasing, product development, designing, marketing, selling, customer relations, financial control, technical support, aftersales and despatch badges attached to you alone. On busy weeks, you can find yourself starting at 5am and working past midnight.
It isn't sadly, the easy option that many people think that it is. It is usually just hard work and more hard work still. Tees are a highly competitive market, in which many people flounder and fail. It takes committment, finance, persistance and even some luck along the way, to succeed.
if you had to leave a job that was probably less demanding because you could not keep up, the owning your own business is probably not the right thing to do. Probably not what you want to hear, but its going to be a LOT more labor intensive.
If you want to work from home, i would contact some companies and see waht they can let you do from home.. Small assemblies for manufacturing companies is usually easy and decent pay. I work at a manufacturing company and we pay some ladies who are house wives to sit home and solder little rivets to the ends of wires. We pay them .17/wire and they do 1500 wires or more per week
just what is it that you want to hear? Sorry, that sounds like an "I don't care response but it isn't . I just don't know what you want to know.
i don't know really what i want to hear.. is it "step away from this kinda work cuz it's tough and u won't be able to do it", or "go ahead and do the job".
i'm just a little bit confused weither to go with this or not.
Running your own business from home, can be much harder work than being in employment for someone else. You have the purchasing, product development, designing, marketing, selling, customer relations, financial control, technical support, aftersales and despatch badges attached to you alone. On busy weeks, you can find yourself starting at 5am and working past midnight.
It isn't sadly, the easy option that many people think that it is. It is usually just hard work and more hard work still. Tees are a highly competitive market, in which many people flounder and fail. It takes committment, finance, persistance and even some luck along the way, to succeed.
thnx for your post..
i'm not really thinking of doing the whole job, but rather supply-on-demand. i get the orders, i take the design and tees to a printer to do the job, then i send em out to the customers. another thing would be, visiting retail stores to sell those printed designs "whenever i get the deal, i print".
i'm really looking to work in this field, yet, i'm stuck somewhere..
owning ANY business is tought and beyond ANY "work" that you will do as an employee.. starting a business is ALWAYS going to be loads more time, effort, and hours..
if you had to leave a job that was probably less demanding because you could not keep up, the owning your own business is probably not the right thing to do. Probably not what you want to hear, but its going to be a LOT more labor intensive.
If you want to work from home, i would contact some companies and see waht they can let you do from home.. Small assemblies for manufacturing companies is usually easy and decent pay. I work at a manufacturing company and we pay some ladies who are house wives to sit home and solder little rivets to the ends of wires. We pay them .17/wire and they do 1500 wires or more per week
as i just mentioned in the previous post, i'm thinking to do supply-on-demand. it's not really much of a labor job.
and unfortunately, we don't have manufacturers in my country.
tho, honestly speaking, if i start the business of printing custom shirts, it could really generate nice income in no time. but i can't do that cuz i'm outta cash..
the thing is, there is still a LOAD of work to do if you are going to outsource your garments. You need to work the logistics of it.. and if you choose to use a drop shipper, you will not be making NEARLY enough money to sustain your life as it is now. The reason being you are basically paying someone to do all the shipping and handling for you AND you are basically buying retail and marking up from there, so you cant markup too high.
The only other way is to order loads of shirts that you want to carry and stock them yourself and ship them out.
The thing is, there are VERY FEW t-shirt selling businesses that can make you enough money to not have another job. The people who ACTUALLY make money print their own and do everything else themselves.
OK everyone has some good suggestions. I'm kind of in the same boat that you are. I have the equipment, but I don't have the talent to design my own stuff, so I'm trying to find customers who want customized things. That way they have to do their own designing. I'm not good at selling, hate cold calling with a passion, and have no idea where to even look for customers. I do sublimation, so I print on more than just tees.
Right now I'm running myself ragged trying to get my accounting software up & running, my website up & running, and getting a catalog together.
As a nurse, I can tell you that trying to print your own shirts would be very painful for you because you would have to stand and bend a lot of the time and you'd be doing some heavy lifting (boxes of shirts and other stuff). Maybe you can find someone in your neighborhood who has the equipment but doesn't have the ability to design things. Partner up with someone if you can.
__________________ - Loretta - "In all thy ways acknowledge the Lord and he shall direct thy paths." Proverbs 3:6 www.DistinctiveImprinting.com
lindsayanng, i know what you mean. but i won't be able to do the labor work and that's what putting me down atm.. cuz the whole idea was to generate a decent amount to pay off my monthly dues.
tho ur idea about stocking tees and selling them seems a bit interesting. can u elaborate a little bit more.?
i'd appreciate it..
thnx again for replying.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lben
As a nurse, I can tell you that trying to print your own shirts would be very painful for you because you would have to stand and bend a lot of the time and you'd be doing some heavy lifting (boxes of shirts and other stuff). Maybe you can find someone in your neighborhood who has the equipment but doesn't have the ability to design things. Partner up with someone if you can.
that's totally true.. that's 1 factor stopping me from starting my own shop atm, cuz i know i won't be able to handle the labor. and about having neighbours with printing equipments, that would be really rare. cuz this kinda business are being taken care off by companies and not individuals.
thnx for replying.
keep up posting ideas, comments, suggestions, etc.. whatever u think might help a bit. i'd really appreciate ur contribution to this thread.
It sounds like you need a partner if you want things to role a little easier. But that means you will have to make more money to cover his share as well.
If you had a partner then you could pump out the designs and the selling know how. Then he could mainly do the more labor intensive stuff.
i meant that you find a few pre-printed/already designed shirts and buy bulk off of the printer and re-sell them online. Again, not the best idea because there are now 3 markups.. the mark up to the printer, then the printer marks up to you, then you mark up to the customer. HOWEVER it definitely works.. how do you think clothing stores do it?? the designers buy from a manufacturer who the sell to retailer who sell to the customer.
But then that would not fullfill your need to design. What if you just got in with a few printers. There are LOADS of people who own clothing companies who need designers. there were a few people posting here who were looking to pay people to just submit designs.. It still probably will not pay the bills.
just get a regular job until you figure it out.. Thats my ONLY advice i can think of
i'm just a little bit confused weither to go with this or not.
If you're confused, don't do it. You'll need to be focused to succeed. You'll need to know what you want.
Self-doubt is natural, so don't let that get you down, but confusion is different to self-doubt, and a much bigger problem.
Maybe if you keep thinking on the problem, reading, researching, etc. you'll work out which niche you want to be in and everything will click into place. But given that labour is a problem, and this is a labour based industry... I'd be careful about getting into something you'll later regret.
i need a little help to start my own business 
