Ray Rast Design

Hello all,

This will be kinda long, but please bear with me.

I'm looking into starting a tee shirt business. I used to be a graphic designer for a tee shirt screen printing company and learned the basics of the biz in the years I worked there. I've loved the idea of having my own shop ever since.

I was actually doing research and writing my business plan based on screen printing. Looked up all the supplies and equipment I thought I would need to get started, put together start up costs and all. Then, I ran across DTG printers and it hit me like a brick. 'This sounds so much more simple, profitable and it would let me offer my business to a much wider array of people. It would let me focus on my designs and style and print for anyone that comes in off the street wanting 1 or 100 shirts. AND, I can build a website storefront.'

I've done a good bit of research, but anything you guys can give me on DTG and starting the business would be great. How durable is the print? How well does it print on darks? What kind of startup costs am I looking at? Monthly costs to replinish ink, etc?

What can I expect to sell if everything is done right and how do I do everything right?

I feel I've struck gold on this idea, as there are no good shops on my side of town, and all of the good shops (20-30 minutes away) are screen printing. I still love screen printing and understand the balance between it and DTG, but I'm pretty sure I would be the only digital printer in town. I also have a new town center mall property that was recently built right down the road. People go to the movies, shopping, dinner, nightlife and just to walk around. The place is NICE and HUGE. I don't know if I can afford a lease there, but that's another thing I'm trying to figure out.

I'm looking to start as soon as possible (without rushing it, I want to nail down the business plan, not the lid to the coffin). At the same time, though, I was laid off a few weeks ago and nothing is panning out. My hope is to use the down-time to plan and hope that my timing coincides with a rise in the economy and maybe even by the time tee season is coming back in.

Again, any and every bit of information you guys can give, I will soak up like a sponge. Feel free to shoot me a message and I greatly appreciate it.

Ray

 

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duca

I think these are good threads.

Things I wish I'd known from the start.

What DTG machine do you own and how did you make your decision on it :)

Succeed or Die: What are you hoping to accomplish in 2009?

Kornit on the way

Pros and Cons of Each T-Shirt Printing Method

Kornit vs Brother vs HM1


Good luck! and May the force be with you!

 

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Ray Rast Design

Thank you... I'll check them all out.

Ray

 

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hotmale4yu

Isnt screen t shirt the industry standard tho for non complex desginns tho no?

 

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HeyJRod

Hi Ray,

I had the idea to start a shirt business last august. You can probably find all the info by doing some searches on these boards but let me give you a quick overview of my experience, especially since i just went through everything you might go through very soon.

I started with looking at the DTGs from the start. I decided on DTG Brand after a lot of research. Just got my machine last week - about 4 - 5 months after I made my final decision to do it. My advice to you is, make sure you contacts with the DTG distributor and loand agency are great. I wasted a lot of time playing phone tag, exchanges multiple proposals etc. from the distributor and I went through 2 different loan agencies because the first loan company was incompetent and cost me 1-2 months of my time. I originally thought I can be up and running in 2 months but i was way wrong. its possible, but not unless you know everything you need to do a lot of time is spent waiting on other people, shipments, messages.

You can do a lot of these things while simultaneously working on getting your business licenses and DBA fictitious name, seller's permit and all that fun stuff.

I think you can get away with a small screen printing business for as little as 2k if you work from your garage. a professional print shop can run up to 15-25k easily. but screen printing is a really messy business.

For DTG, i think about 20k is reasonable. maybe 10k up front if you are going to lease the machine.

I think a DTG is the way to go, personally, with screen printing abilities to come later down the line once you got a handle in the market. just IMO though.

 

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Ray Rast Design

heyJrod,

Sorry I'm getting back so late, but I just haven't been on the site for a couple weeks.

I might need to pick your brain, since you're steps ahead of me.

How difficult was it to find a Small Business Loan with the economy the way it is? Or did you get another type of loan. I'm a little worried about this, as I don't have a college education, much (if any) money to put up, and my credit is just OK. My wife is a recent college grad with a BS in Accounting and she and I are working on the business plan. She will handle finances and advise me on things I don't know as far as business and I will handle the art, printing, and pretty much running everything else.

I don't really know if I want to start from home or a shop. There's a big downside to both. Work out of home and have to spend SO much time letting people know you exist. Get a storefront for people to hopefully just walk in, but have to pay a LOT more overhead.

I would have thought startup would cost WAY more than that though. I figured to be safe, plan for the startup to last through the first year, including keeping in mind that I do need at least a small salary to pay bills and buy groceries for the family.

I'm new to all this though. I've always wanted to own a small business. It's my life's dream ever since I worked summers for my Dad's old business... or to at least give it a shot and know I tried.

If you don't mind, keep me posted on how things work out and what you run across, good and bad. I would GREATLY appreciate it.

Ray

 

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