Hi Everyone,
I would really appreciate if I could get some sincere opinions/advice in my pursuit for starting up an online custom t-shirt business. Many of you are very experienced and gone through lot of hurdles and roadblocks already, so I just want to learn from you and plan accordingly.
Some Background Information...:
I have a full-time job in the IT field and supporting my family fine with the income. However, to gain a little more financial freedom to do more stuff I want, I am thinking of getting into some sort of business. Therefore, initially it has to be part-time as I cannot dedicate all my time for the business. Additionally, my wife can also spend some time for the business. I am planning to startup an online only shop where customers can customize their t-shirt design(add images, logos etc.) and place orders. I want to start with only few solid colors though and may be add more variety later. This is the basic idea about the business.
Strengths/Things I can handle:
* One of the reasons I am entertaining the idea of this business is because I know the manufacturer very well. They are willing to give me a container worth of t-shirts with deferred payment options. Plus, they are well known and thus good quality stuff. I can get the best quality and the best price.
* I can get a website up and running pretty quickly. Also, can manage the cost related to the site. Moreover, I have lots of cool ideas for the site;-).
Options to consider: 1. Whether to buy one of those expensive printing machines and start it in my own garage? This is High risk because 1) I will have to invest in 12k to 15k machines and if the business doesn't take off that well it won't be good, 2) I get lot of orders and don't have people to do the job, business will suffer. OR 2. Should I outsource the printing to someone else? Would they store and manage my container worth of inventory (can I trust someone else to do that)? Would they directly ship individual orders to my customer? Any idea on approximate cost per t-shirt for light vs. dark colored shirts? With this model of outsourcing the printing is there still a potential to make decent amount of money? (Does anyone know of a place who does this?)
To summarize, I will buy the t-shirts in wholesale directly from the manufacturer and it will be shipped directly to the ScreenPrinters. Then customers will visit my website, choose the T-shirt and then create their design online or upload their images. The system will automatically place the order to the ScreenPrinter and they will process the order and ship the t-shirts to the customer. Is this a good model to start with?
Also, which method of printing is better- Screen Printing or digital garment printing?
If you all can give your opinion/preference for Option 1 vs. Option 2 with reasoning and also answer my questions on those options, I would really appreciate your response.
Thanks,
Reza
Last edited by startup2009; April 11th, 2008 at 09:15 AM.
Reason: typo
I agree with the post above - if you want money quicker i would outsource to a printer - this is probs your best bet as you already have a full-time job and you may get too busy to fulfill all the orders printing them yourself...
Although if you are wanting to go into printing your own t-shirts/products one day full-time maybe investing in machines might not be a bad idea.... hope this helps in someway..
In terms of what avenue to take, I would keep your job, start small and get acquainted with the industry and learn how to print.
Unless you want to take more of a busness/investment approach and dive in, have screen printers make big batches of shirts and you just worry about sales. This probably requires you to leave your current job though, and has no guarantees.
I would buy/build some cheap screen printing equipment, and learn to use it, and you will learn about making successfull prints and designs without realizing it, and learn new methods. I took this route, just practiced, learned what designs worked or did not work (and i learned what did not work on a small scale, so I didn't have 100 shirts that were not successfull and have to throw out those shirts or sell cheap). Plus when starting small, and if you have your own equipment, you can make small orders of a couple shirts if you need to, without having to worry about meeting a print shops 24 count minimums or so etc. 24 doesnt seem like a lot, but lets say you just sold your last Large shirt, and someone wants another large, and orders arent coming in fast enough to justify another 24. knowing how to print you can just print 5 for yourself.
I might not have been clear in explaining my intent. I am not after any 'get rich quick scheme'. I totally understand that if I want to do business, I will have to work hard and have patience for it to pay off and start generating good profit. However, everybody has their own level of risk and work load they can handle. So given my situation, I am just trying to find the best option to get started. So I am trying to use the skills and assets that I have and outsource the rest to avoid the risk of loosing it all, even if that means I will make less money initially . What if I invest 15k through savings and loan and then don't sell more than 10 t-shirts in two years, can I handle the risk of loosing that much money? In my case, the answer is 'no'. But if I pay someone to do the job for me and I pay per order, then I only pay them when I generate revenue. Plus, they can probably handle the load much better than I can initially.
So after much research I found out that PrintMojo does exactly what I was looking for (Warehousing my inventory and fulfillment with a charge of $3.50 per order). Does anyone know of their service and reputation? Any information on them would be appreciated. I will call them today and ask for more details.
One more question. In this kind of business, is there much risk of liability that I should consider LLC over sole proprietorship when setting up my business?
you might also want to go to some seminars put on by Great Garment Graphics as well they might have what you are looking for, screen printing is expensive messy and you can't just do that part time.....however heat pressing with vinyl is another aspect of the bussiness that doesn't require a lot of overhead and can even put some cash in your pocket with 1 or even 100 pieces with outsourcing or even doing it yourself, making profit within that randge is just phenominal.
To summarize, I will buy the t-shirts in wholesale directly from the manufacturer and it will be shipped directly to the ScreenPrinters. Then customers will visit my website, choose the T-shirt and then create their design online or upload their images. The system will automatically place the order to the ScreenPrinter and they will process the order and ship the t-shirts to the customer. Is this a good model to start with?
The screen printer will probably already have wholesale accounts setup with the manufacturer and they will most likely want to order the t-shirts themselves through their existing channels.
If the customers are creating their own design or uploading images, then the customer will need to order more than 1 of the design they created. Screen printing requires a minimum order to be printed (usually 24+ of the same design)
If you aren't providing your own original graphics, and the customer is just taking a design they created or design online just so they can buy one of them, then you are up against some pretty strong competition.
There are dozens of heavily funded sites that provide that exact service CafePress, Zazzle, PrintFection, Spreadshirt (to name a few) all allow the customer to visit their website, upload an image and order one t-shirt printed with their design. These companies usually use Direct to Garment printing (or a heat transfer method depending on the design) to print the orders as they come in. They aren't screen printed.
PrintMojo is a service for people who have a t-shirt design that they want to get screen printed and sell the printed design online -- but they don't want to handle any of the warehousing/ecommerce/printing. They don't do "print on demand".
So it really depends on your actual business model. Are you trying to sell "printing services", or are you trying to sell your own original designs?
You can sell printing services for people who want custom printing done without owning ANY equipment at all. There are screen printers all over that will hire a person to do sales to send them customers for a commission.
If you're trying to sell you're own original designs and start a "clothing line", then there are several ways to accomplish that as well.
So here is a summary of my research ... feel free to correct me if I am wrong (I am still new into this ;-)).
If you want to start an online store where you allow customers to create/upload any design(any colors) and print on demand, the only option is Direct To Garment printing.
I am not worried about the big fishes with better funding for online sites. You always need to start somewhere. I believe as long as you have either something better or something cheaper or something different - you have a chance. I am going to do something that I haven't seen in any of these sites yet.
Business Options:
Either I have to find a DTG printer who is willing to warehouse, print and ship my items as needed (I am willing to pay certain amount of fee per order for all these services in addition to the printing fees).
OR
I have to buy/lease a DTG printer and start printing on my own.
Startup Market Analysis Questions:
If my cost is $6.00 per t-shirt(including printing and all), is that reasonable? Or is that too much to make any money? Is $5.00 profit per shirt good?
What are the most popular light colors? If I want to start with few light colors, which colors should I choose? What sizes?
Again, I would appreciate everyone's response. Thanks.
Risk Analysis and Opinions for Startup 
