Thanks that is some great info..... I have found one hard thing about this business is getting your product out there. After the start up costs of web design, materials/printing, advertising, web marketing, shipping costs, promo items, events and sponsorships. There is so much that goes into it. You can have the coolest shirts in the world but if no one knows you have them then they might as well not exist.
valid point skinnybuddha. you can bust your butt on promotion/marketing, but that doesn't necessarily translate into shirt sales. here's the thing i wish i had known from the start...i wish i had known how much fun i was going to have. i mean hell, i knew it would be a good time, but i've had a blast. my friend and i started the company...enlisted the help of a few computer dork friends we knew from college, and have built something we're proud of. are we organized and all professional when it comes to the legal stuff? sure. do we take everything else seriously? absolutely not. our meetings consisted of us sitting at a bar, with several pitchers of whatever beer was on special that night, talking about shirts...what else could you ask for?
I wish I had used my time more wisely and ordered blanks from all over the place in advance before I got my transfers. Instead of just rushing out and buying whatever was close to me and cheap.
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Vijayraj
Last edited by Solmu; August 26th, 2008 at 06:31 AM.
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Location: from detroit... now in lodi, jersey for a bit....pick me up
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Re: Things I wish I'd known from the start.
if you want to save a few bucks..... barter with some people that can help you build up your image.... have some brainstorming sessions and go from there...... find people that will help you out in the beginning and donate a few hours of help.
b
__________________ www.237am.com with featured artists in the blog and other creative things that happens in my life like breakdancing, robottin', welding stuff and supporting the detroit cultures in hip hop, techno, electro, house, etc..........
things i wish we had of known from the start
-That our screen printer was up to the task. The 3 supplied strikeoffs were decent but the final runs were below average and after court battles and many angry emails we ended up with a $6K loss but ended up with a screen printer we are more than happy with.
Choose your printer wisely and like was said before take your estimated startup costs and add say 40%.
After 2 years of planning we finally launched our site but encounted many hurdles along the way
all this information is so usefull, another thing though, dont be afraid to ask questions!! i've learned so much just by calling companies already in bussiness and picking there brains!!
I did things the hard way. We started the business by buying a single head commercial embroidery machine and a DTG.
We then learned how to get customers. We also learned about all the different markets within the business, and how to market them.
If I had to do it over again, I would intern somewhere, and buy books/ebooks on the subject, take seminar type classes both free and paid, and also view DVD's. Each person learns differently, so all these different ways to learn will help you especially if you're a mixture of the learning models (Visual LearnersAuditory LearnersKinesthetic Learners)
I have a book by, Scott Fresener, How to Print t-shirts... for fun and profit, and Photoshop 7.0 for screen printers by, Joli Ballew. These are great books and will help you make a bunch of money over the value of the books.
All these are great sources, but if you lack the confidence to market your products whether you create them or outsource them, your dead in the water. My thought is, if I have to tell one person about my products, why not tell several at one time. This way I don't have to keep motivating myself to speak up. Do it once, and have several people hear you.
The way to do this, and one of the cheapest is to joing several Chamber of Commerce groups. If you can't afford to join them which are normally about $300 per year each, take on a part time job or charge less for your products to bring in some quick cash.
Hi its been a while. I have been flat out starting my business. So far so good but i don't want to speak to soon. Starting to make some good sales. Still learning every day but really enjoying it. I have had a fantastic response to my shirts. Just keeping it simple. Thanks again to all for helpful info.
Re: Things I wish I'd known from the start. 
Re: Things I wish I'd known from the start. 
