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$2500 To Start With....

1418 Views 8 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  Tshirtwarriors, 
T
If you had $2500 dollars to invest in a heat transfer business, what equipment would you buy to get you started... Heat press, cutter, tshirts...etc.

I haven't purchased anything yet but am looking at opening a small home based business selling tshirts with my designs online and at local events.

Any thoughts would be wonderful...

Thank you.
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binki
That is not enough to start but if you get a us cutter (or similar priced one) and a 15x15 heat press you can do shirts, banners, windows, vehicles and pay for all that equipment in just a few orders.

Or you can lease a printer/cutter like a summa dc4 and do printed material as well.
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Nick Horvath
The GCC Expert 24 is a great entry level cutter, and sells for $395. It is very easy to use and would be a good cutter to use to start up your business.

As for a heat press, I would begin on this forum. Try and stay away from "Ebay presses".
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T
Good advice so far, thanks for your input!
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Twanabee
Whatever you decide, make sure you have a direction that you want to go. A heat press, cutter and printer will allow you to do a lot of different things as Binki said above. As small as you want, you should have some sort of a business plan.
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J
GCC Expert 24 $395
A Quality Heat Press from Stahls', Hix, Insta or George Knight (16 x 20") $1000
1 yard or 1 foot pieces of heat applied vinyl in various colors for samples $100
Free online design software (Free)
Accessories such as a weeding tool, teflon pillows and kraft paper for cover sheets ($100)
T-Shirt, Sweatshirt & Hoodies in various colors for samples ($100)
Total: $1700

Gas money to make sales calls with your samples in hand:) (TBD)

Save the $800 to order the blank garments and heat applied vinyl you need when you land your first round of orders!

Good luck!
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S
stay away from a cheap heat press... i had one and would not so it again i wasted so many blanks because of setting and other techniques
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S
You could do a lot with $2500. if you buy a quality used heat press (Insta, Geo Knight, etc) even if it's on ebay. Who care's where it comes from as long as it's a quality brand and you actually get the item.

I would buy a 24" cutter with optical eye - just bought one on sale for $1260. (CE-5000 60 - awesome machine): This will allow you even use inkjet transfers to cut around (contour cut) if you need to do full color on darks (has it's limitations - dark inkjet opaque transfers) as well as vinyl lettering and t-shirt transfers with minute details (weeding is only hassle).

Figure 700-1300 for a cutter, 400-700 for a quality heat press and what's left for material and misc. you'll have a professional set-up and resale-ability because of quality brands. The option for when you make more profit will be to purchase a color inkjet for full color transfers in the future if you choose which might run another 200-700 bucks depending on the print size (use pigment inks).

Hope this helps.
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T
*** UPDATE ***

I went with a Sunie Heat Press Brand New from Sunie.com 6 in 1 commercial press.

Purchased the GCC Expert 24 Cutter (thanks for the reccomendations guys)

Ordered 5 Yards of Vinyl in both black & white

Purchased some Jetpro Sofstretch paper (100 sheets for white)

Purchased 100 piece 3G Jet Opaque Paper as well.

Ordered 150 Plastisol Transfers online of there "hottest sellers"

ordered 150 t shirts to start practicing on and selling online (eBay) so I can start getting the swing of things...

Have a next to new Lexmark X5650 es inkjet printer (not sure what ink is currently in there, looking to see if I can buy pigmented inks for it)...

SOLD my first order of 7 shirts to a vollyball womens league... Just name on front and numbers on back, should be easy enough...

So far All is going well I would say, equipment should be here in the next week or two so thanks for the input thus far and if anyone else has any reccomendations I am all ears!

Appreciate the info guys & girls!

Scott
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