Discuss the process of getting your t-shirt line into brick and mortar stores and selling offline. Topics include industry tradeshows, events, line sheets, sales reps and other retailing tips and advice.
I'm doing spirit shirts to sell to the parents of the chearleaders in the cheer squads my daughters belong to. I'm working with the Director of the cheer group. I made up the order form and put on it to make checks payable to my company, Sew Hot Threads. They came back and said that they usually have everything paid to them and then they will cut me a check for my share. This is the first order I've done as a fundraiser but I've heard where people give 10%, 20% and so on. My thought was that I would collect the money and pay them a portion of the profit. Right now I don't know what the profit is since I don't know how many shirts will be ordered. Right now with my material costs and what we're selling the shirts for, there should be around $10-$11 profit for each shirt. I know that since I'm doing 95% of the work, I should make most of the money, but is there a typical % to be kept by the organization.
Alot will settle down when you decide if you are going to sell to the director wholesale style, or if you are going to sell direct to the parents retail style.
If you sell wholesale style to the director, you can figure your costs (with waste accounted for) and give them their price per shirt that they would owe you. This let's them handle and deal with order and payment taking for you. You can let them deal with check collecting, any bouncing check issues, late payments, etc. Then, they can set own retail price for the shirts for whatever profit they want to earn. Don't forget to try to slip your card or flyer in with each order.
Unless there is some "fundraising reason/accounting" that has to be shown on their side, it may simply be a control issue at the base of it. If you take the orders and payments, and cut them a slice, they may feel uncomfortable not knowing how many shirts were ordered, and not knowing how much they'll receive at the end of the fundraiser. You will be in complete control of it.
So what did you guys talk about so far? I can tell you that I live in a small town with 6 schools. Each one is run differently, and each is pretty much "fly by the seat of your pants" when it comes to this stuff. I'd be able to set it up however I wish. Not every school district is as unevolved as our's is. Some districts have money and it is big business, alot will depend on any structure already in place prior to your new deal.
__________________ Have a nice day...
Last edited by Girlzndollz; October 9th, 2008 at 09:15 AM.
I give the schools their pricing, and then they handle the order taking, etc. I produce only the goods they commit to ordering - no extras. When I deliver, I pick up the single check.
We did it the other way around for a little league tournament this summer. I ended up with about 300 checks - and an endless nightmare.
I wasn't sure how it worked so I showed them designs and gave a sell price of $17. My cost should be around $6-$7 so there would be plenty of money for everyone. I didn't think about it the other way Kelly. That sounds better with regard to selling wholesale to them and let them set the price. Maybe I'll tell her $12 and she can have the rest. She's now giving me an order for the Team Mom and Coaches shirts. She just needs this price before she can give me that stuff. At least then she would know she'd be making $5-$6 for every shirt sold.
Yep, and $5-$6 bucks a shirt is a great fundraiser for them. Nice money for taking an order and a check. Our PTO works way harder for way less. Good job, Greg, and good luck. Hope it all goes great, and turns into a great relationship for both of you.
Yep, and $5-$6 bucks a shirt is a great fundraiser for them. Nice money for taking an order and a check. Our PTO works way harder for way less. Good job, Greg, and good luck. Hope it all goes great, and turns into a great relationship for both of you.
Thanks. She just gave me the order for 32 more shirts for coaches and Mom's. I have two daughters in the cheer program so it's nice to finally have some money coming back my way. I'm hoping this will get me into some of the other programs in the area. Youth cheerleading is huge money these days.
fundraisers with organizations 
