HELP! Newbie and totally GREEN!

I've had a t-shirt press for several years. I ordered transfers and did about 100 shirts (oh, my aching back). I had no idea what I was doing and some of them worked out well, others did not. It seems that the ones that didn't work were puffy and usually the same print. I am now getting ready to open a store, where we plan to do custom items and I don't have a clue what to buy. I've been looking at the sawgrass 400 (we can't afford the expensive stuff at the moment)......... Any suggestions where to buy it for the BEST price? What about paper and other supplies? Our store will be doing this as a sideline, so we're going to be building it slowly. My head is spinning...... Thanks in advance for your help!