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victorm · November 2nd, 2009

Starting a new business selling political parody t-shirts. Will be launching 3 designs. I am wondering if its worth it to handle everything myself (website,using a local silkscreener, shipping etc) or using a fullfillment center (Zazzle, cafepress etc) ? Any advice on fullfillment centers a little nervous that I may be giving up a lot of control and profit?

Optiq · November 2nd, 2009

I've learned that even though I may know how to do a brilliant job at virtually every aspect of running things doesn't mean I can do ALLLL of them in a timely enough manner. There is a lot that goes into running a business that needs to be consistent. Advertising and sales has to be done alllllllllll day every day, marketing has to be done allllllllll day everyday, customer service, if all is going well, has to be done allllllllllll day everyday. Then you have your books to keep up with, you have to take time to analyze things and think about your next move, you may have to make changes to your advertising and marketing after you've discovered something in your analasys, you can't do it by yourself because you would have to put the rest of the business on hold while you do that. You need to think about who you need and HOW you can sustain paying them. Like a sales person, you could offer a percentage of each sale as payment so you only pay them when they make a sell. It will be a little more difficult to work something out like that with a marketing firm so you may want to focus your attention on marketing tactics. The artwork is done, you have someone else for production, so those are two things you don't need to worry about at the moment. Find a place to dig your fingers in and start climbing there.

victorm · November 2nd, 2009

Thanks for replying so quickly! I have thought about what you are saying. I am the one curious about fullfillment centers because I feel they will take care of the headaches. My girlfriend feels stronger about us doing it all so we are in control. I mean we have the time and the money to do this ourselves. She feels we will give up a lot of potential profit and quality control going with a fullfillment center. I am not sure? One place I talked to (logoshirts.com?) basically said we would make 15% commission on each sale. Anyway, just looking into our options and was curious about the pro's and cons to both.

Rodney · November 2nd, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by victorm


	Thanks for replying so quickly! I have thought about what you are saying. I am the one curious about fullfillment centers because I feel they will take care of the headaches. My girlfriend feels stronger about us doing it all so we are in control. I mean we have the time and the money to do this ourselves. She feels we will give up a lot of potential profit and quality control going with a fullfillment center. I am not sure? One place I talked to (logoshirts.com?) basically said we would make 15% commission on each sale. Anyway, just looking into our options and was curious about the pro's and cons to both.

I think you've got the pros and cons pretty well worked out

I think there is profit to be made both ways.

People make good money using print on demand fulfillment (or fulfillment with screen printing).

People also make good money doing it all themselves.

Choosing one way over the other won't guarantee success or failure.

How you implement and promote your designs once you've made the choice is what will ultimately decide whether you see profits or not.

I've personally done it both ways. I started out selling my own t-shirts online in 1996. I went to a local screen printer, got some t-shirts printed up, built a website, got a merchant account, marketed the website, sold t-shirts, shipped them myself, handled customer service, etc. There's more risk (inventory, etc) and there's more reward if it happens to work (bigger profits). Generally speaking, the more risks you take on, the more potential profits you can gain. Conversely, the more you can lose if your business idea doesn't work out. I started small and grew gradually as sales came in, so I never worried about losing my shirt. It was nice to have control and see every single order, but it's also a lot of work as the volume of orders increases.

Over the years, I've also outsourced more and more of the work. I've used Print on Demand services like CafePress, SpreadShirt, Zazzle. I just came up with t-shirt design ideas, uploaded the designs, marketed the designs. One of the biggest benefits of outsourcing to me was that it freed up my TIME. That's something that has one of the highest values to me. If I'm packing t-shirts or processing orders, I can't be spending time with my family, going on vacation, or sitting in the backyard eating BBQ

By outsourcing, I get to still make sales while I'm sleeping, while I'm taking the kids to school, while I'm on vacation. For me, it became worth giving up that little bit of control for the increased TIME profit.

I've made good money doing it all myself and with fulfillment. It just depends on where your priorities are and what fits best for your business.

muneca · November 2nd, 2009

I like the whole idea of someone else doing all of the work. However, I'm afraid of the quality of the merchandise (shirts, etc.) and they have all of my customer contacts, etc. But, I do see your point Rodney. And I agree, the time if the best & most valuable commodity. You can NEVER get it back...especially w/the family & kids! Something for you & your girlfriend to think about, Victor.

muneca · November 2nd, 2009

I mentioned the quality of merchandise, because I too am fairly new to the industry. Although, I know what I like...I need to see, touch & feel the shirts prior to ordering/printing. Because, I'm not well versed in the weight & ounces, and 50/50, etc. thing yet. I do know the brands and style...but, I still gotta do the touchy/feel-y, see-y thing for a little while longer. Hopefully, one day in the near future I will learn & improve in that area.

shirtster · November 3rd, 2009

the other thing i think you should take into account is the quality of the product. I've never worked with Zazzle, but I know that cafepress and many of the others are really poor quality.

If you're selling a shirt at a higher price because of their base prices, you should be able to assure your customers that they will be getting a quality product.

The only way to do that is to actually get them printed yourself (I can help with that, as I'm sure many people on here can).

Finally, while the advice given by others in this thread is really good, I would decide what to do now based on how much work you'll have to do. For example, if you're only shipping 1 or 2 shirts a day, it may be worth it for you to pull and bag and ship your own because it doesn't take much time, however, as you grow, you may want to move to a REAL fulfillment company... one that can stock your screenprinted shirts and pull and ship when orders come in for a small fee.

Anyways, just my 2cents... If you need printing or fulfillment help, I would be glad to chat more with ya.

Good Luck!!

Reeko · December 1st, 2009

It is very convenient to let Zazzle and Cafepress do the grunt work, but there is a serious trade off. My main concern with them is their base price cost. Your shirts can become quite expensive when you configure on your percent profit per shirt, and then on top of that the shipping. I fear some people may be turned of by the final price. For example, one womans dark color shirt could quite easily cost over thirty dollars. When you do your own fullfillment you have quite a bit more flexability with the final cost. Just something to think about.

victorm · December 3rd, 2009

Hey Guys sorry for the delay in my reply have been busy with the business. Read all of the responses and appreciate the great advice! We have decided on a local silkscreener who can not only print but will store inventory and ship for us. We decided to go this route because our shirts are very high quality and have a lot of color and detail so we like to have the conrol of quality being shipped these are great t-shirts at a fair price. Thanks again fot taking the time to reply to my questions.

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if its worth it to handle everything myself (website,using a local silkscreener, shipping etc) or using a fullfillment center (Zazzle, cafepress etc)