How to flip $2000 ???

6682 Views 35 Replies 14 Participants Last post by crazymike, Apr 13, 2014

MoBetta

Discussion Starter · Apr 8, 2014 (Edited)

I am not trying to cheat the process, I am learning everyday but I cannot afford to waste any money and these forums are great

Hoping I can get some advice if you all think I would be able to flip 2000$ starting off through a t-shirt business. And some simple steps if possible ...
So far I plan on spending the 2000 on a website, production and a business team

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joeshaul

· #2 · Apr 8, 2014

Just saying "I want to make money with money" kind of makes it hard for us to help you figure how to spend it, around here we have these things called slot machines, you can turn that $2000 into millions in a matter of seconds!

What is it you're trying to do? The most basic thing someone is going to tell you to do is work up a business plan and start from there, but just give us some details and we can probably tell you how to break the ice.

IE: Looking at starting a clothing line, providing business to business, selling to individuals? Local, national? Target market? What sort of skills do you already have for these industries? (You can make your own web site, or pay someone to build one, the latter will run you much more than the former, especially if you don't want a templated site)

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crazymike

· #3 · Apr 8, 2014

The way to make most money quickly in the t-shirt business is put
the $2000 in the bank and get a part time job. This business is a
long term business to make anything in it.

Reactions: 2

MoBetta

Discussion Starter · #4 · Apr 8, 2014

joeshaul said:
What is it you're trying to do? The most basic thing someone is going to tell you to do is work up a business plan and start from there, but just give us some details and we can probably tell you how to break the ice.

IE: Looking at starting a clothing line, providing business to business, selling to individuals? Local, national? Target market? What sort of skills do you already have for these industries? (You can make your own web site, or pay someone to build one, the latter will run you much more than the former, especially if you don't want a templated site)

I'm mainly just trying to get my business off the ground and I was wondering if you thought 2000$ would be enough to get started.

I was contemplating whether to save the money through building a website or pay a student to do it. I plan on taking a web design class too. The main skills I plan to bring are leadership and my work ethic, I am not creative or skilled as far as designs and such, I plan to hire those ppl

I have been working on my business plan, I know my target market and many ideas of where I can sell my t-shirts... the problem is just getting started

Do you think [ website, production, and a business team ] are the three main components I should invest in?

DNeeld

· #5 · Apr 8, 2014

Are you wanting to start a business for $2k, then sell said business for a profit? If so, no, you won't be able to do this with a screenprinting business.

Smalzstein

· #6 · Apr 8, 2014

Normaly I would say yes - marketing, website and promotiopn should be first... but are you already familiar with how shirts a printed? Will you be subcontracting printing or printing yourself?

treefox2118

· #7 · Apr 8, 2014

$2000 is fine money to get started in the garment business.

I'd suggest doing the following:

1. Invest in a QUALITY heat press, 15"x15" minimum. Geo Knight, Hix, Hottronix. $1000 or so.
2. Invest in a QUALITY vinyl cutter. Check out the preferred partners on this forum -- there are a few with rave reviews. $500 or so.
3. Create a reasonable, clean, fast website. You can use a free ecommerce package like Wordpress + Woocommerce.

Offer vinyl transfer that you cut yourself in-house, and also offer plastisol transfers made through one of the preferred vendors here.

For $2000, you can just eek into the business. Focus on customer service first, and build a nice savings out of your profits. Use your social network to let people know you do custom t-shirts, and grow slowly and with determination.

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joey1320

· #8 · Apr 8, 2014

Either what Treefox said or instead of a vinyl cutter, I would try plastisol transfers or dye sublimation ones.

A good press is needed, although I would go the used route and find one on the local craigslist. If you can't find a nice one, you can take a gamble on a Chinese one from a REPUTABLE seller. Member ProWorldEd will have some on his site. Don't buy from a faceless person on eBay.

As far as transfers, you can do custom plastisol transfers for cheap and stock up on blank tees.

A website is cheap and easy with bigcartel, shopify and such places. And a WordPress blog is free. Use the free social media sites to your advantage.

$2k is plenty of money to start a nice line, if you play it right and know what you're doing.

Sent from my HTC One X using T-Shirt Forums

Reactions: 1

MoBetta

Discussion Starter · #9 · Apr 9, 2014

Smalzstein said:
Normaly I would say yes - marketing, website and promotiopn should be first... but are you already familiar with how shirts a printed? Will you be subcontracting printing or printing yourself?

"subcontracting printing"! I was looking for this earlier but didn't know the key terms. I'm still a beginner on all the printing processes but I was planning on using subcontractor starting out, skeptical about investing in equipment first

MoBetta

Discussion Starter · #10 · Apr 9, 2014

treefox2118 said:
$2000 is fine money to get started in the garment business.

I'd suggest doing the following:

1. Invest in a QUALITY heat press, 15"x15" minimum. Geo Knight, Hix, Hottronix. $1000 or so.
2. Invest in a QUALITY vinyl cutter. Check out the preferred partners on this forum -- there are a few with rave reviews. $500 or so.
3. Create a reasonable, clean, fast website. You can use a free ecommerce package like Wordpress + Woocommerce.

Offer vinyl transfer that you cut yourself in-house, and also offer plastisol transfers made through one of the preferred vendors here.

For $2000, you can just eek into the business. Focus on customer service first, and build a nice savings out of your profits. Use your social network to let people know you do custom t-shirts, and grow slowly and with determination.

Thank you Brian for such a detailed response ... So you suggest I first invest in equipment???

I recently got some advice not to invest in equipment first because I don't know if I'm going to sell anything. Although I do plan to work on my business until it is successful.

joeshaul

· #11 · Apr 9, 2014

I think all your current questions still go back to the unanswered questions in my first post and people are just going to give you imprecise answers as you still haven't specified:
Are you selling a product ("I sell shirts with gorillas printed on them"), or a service ("I will print you a shirt with your gorilla on it")?
Are you targeting a local market, such as the local Gorilla Love Club in the area, or are you going national with Gorilla Lovers Association?

I don't really care what your market is, if it's Gorillas, it was a lucky guess, but answering those questions reflects what you will need to purchase.

If you're going to offer a service, equipment will be necessary, if you are going to sell a t-shirt line, it isn't. If you offer that service, what you offer might differ depending on your target, IE: dye sub is cheap to break into, as is vinyl, but you need to educate yourself on which better suits you (vinyl cutters can be good for signs as well, dye sub for a variety of promotional products), hell, you could even pick up a small screen print rig. Each method has its perks and disadvantages. If you're targeting local you don't need to worry so much about web presence and can market direct. If you're going national, you will need to spend a lot of time building up interest to your cause, you will also need to have proper shipping in place and proper stock on hand to meet supply, or find someone that will produce for you and quickly. You may also have to invest in some travel for a national brand as you may want to attend shows/etc in the field (IE: many high end tshirt brands will set up booths at Magic, you may want to go and see if you can pick some entrepreneurial brains about how to get started and write it off as an education expense, and so on). If you have a built in local audience, you can take orders and then meet their demands at a later time. If you sell at an event, it's more spur of the moment and you should have stock to sell.

As of right now though, based on the information I gather, you will not be able to break into the industry, because you will probably spend your money on things you don't need while not understanding what it is you actually bought and what it's used for as well as how to use it and someone else will buy your $2000 investment for pennies on the dollar after a few months, or worse, you'd have bought equipment that needs maintenance and self destructs from being idle. The worst investment is an ignorant one, and it's one of the easiest to fall prey to, after all, my town's casino lights are still shining bright tonight!

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djque

· #12 · Apr 9, 2014

MoBetta said:
Thank you Brian for such a detailed response ... So you suggest I first invest in equipment???

I recently got some advice not to invest in equipment first because I don't know if I'm going to sell anything. Although I do plan to work on my business until it is successful.

invest in equipment first. You can purchase premade plastisol transfer and a press and vinyl cutter and make money instantly. $2k will get you started and make money

MoBetta

Discussion Starter · #13 · Apr 9, 2014

joeshaul said:
I think all your current questions still go back to the unanswered questions in my first post and people are just going to give you imprecise answers as you still haven't specified:
Are you selling a product ("I sell shirts with gorillas printed on them"), or a service ("I will print you a shirt with your gorilla on it")?
Are you targeting a local market, such as the local Gorilla Love Club in the area, or are you going national with Gorilla Lovers Association?

I don't really care what your market is, if it's Gorillas, it was a lucky guess, but answering those questions reflects what you will need to purchase.

If you're going to offer a service, equipment will be necessary, if you are going to sell a t-shirt line, it isn't. If you offer that service, what you offer might differ depending on your target, IE: dye sub is cheap to break into, as is vinyl, but you need to educate yourself on which better suits you (vinyl cutters can be good for signs as well, dye sub for a variety of promotional products), hell, you could even pick up a small screen print rig. Each method has its perks and disadvantages. If you're targeting local you don't need to worry so much about web presence and can market direct. If you're going national, you will need to spend a lot of time building up interest to your cause, you will also need to have proper shipping in place and proper stock on hand to meet supply, or find someone that will produce for you and quickly. You may also have to invest in some travel for a national brand as you may want to attend shows/etc in the field (IE: many high end tshirt brands will set up booths at Magic, you may want to go and see if you can pick some entrepreneurial brains about how to get started and write it off as an education expense, and so on). If you have a built in local audience, you can take orders and then meet their demands at a later time. If you sell at an event, it's more spur of the moment and you should have stock to sell.

As of right now though, based on the information I gather, you will not be able to break into the industry, because you will probably spend your money on things you don't need while not understanding what it is you actually bought and what it's used for as well as how to use it and someone else will buy your $2000 investment for pennies on the dollar after a few months, or worse, you'd have bought equipment that needs maintenance and self destructs from being idle. The worst investment is an ignorant one, and it's one of the easiest to fall prey to

Do you feel that an est. 1500$ of equipment is a bad investment if I plan to sell locally at events to make my money back and double it (making tees for whatever event), while building my "brand" at the same time and invest the money I made into my "brand" to really be able to market nationally?

tcrowder

· #14 · Apr 9, 2014

MoBetta said:
I know my target market and many ideas of where I can sell my t-shirts... the problem is just getting started

Well then, have a bunch of your designs (if you have any) printed up and go start selling! Take the profits (if there are any) and invest in more product or whatever you want the next level to be.

elcielo

· #15 · Apr 10, 2014

MoBetta said:
Do you feel that an est. 1500$ of equipment is a bad investment if I plan to sell locally at events to make my money back and double it (making tees for whatever event), while building my "brand" at the same time and invest the money I made into my "brand" to really be able to market nationally?

It really depends on what you're spending $1500 on. You still haven't stated what kind of shirts you want to produce, i.e., let's say you get a heat press. What media are you pressing onto the shirt?

MoBetta

Discussion Starter · #16 · Apr 10, 2014

elcielo said:
It really depends on what you're spending $1500 on. You still haven't stated what kind of shirts you want to produce, i.e., let's say you get a heat press. What media are you pressing onto the shirt?

After doing some research, I'm leaning towards starting off with a used heat press around $500 hopefully ...

As far the media on the shirts, everything from catchy phrases to all types designs I plan to hire a graphic designer or 2 for that all tie into the story of the Brand
Why do you ask?

elcielo

· #17 · Apr 10, 2014

MoBetta said:
After doing some research, I'm leaning towards starting off with a used heat press around $500 hopefully ...

As far the media on the shirts, everything from catchy phrases to all types designs I plan to hire a graphic designer or 2 for that all tie into the story of the Brand
Why do you ask?

By media, I'm asking about the materials you will use as your image on your shirt. Transfer that you print out yourself? Plastisol transfer? Vinyl?

MoBetta

Discussion Starter · #18 · Apr 10, 2014

elcielo said:
By media, I'm asking about the materials you will use as your image on your shirt. Transfer that you print out yourself? Plastisol transfer? Vinyl?

Oh ok, I actually plan on studying all the t- shirt/apparel industry terminology that I don't know because although I'm getting the hang of it, a lot of stuff still sounds foreign

I don't plan on using any special material on my first batch of Tees. I've heard some good things about the plastisol transfers and vinyl...
What have you had the most success with?

Marcdd

· #19 · Apr 10, 2014

MoBetta said:
Oh ok, I actually plan on studying all the t- shirt/apparel industry terminology that I don't know because although I'm getting the hang of it, a lot of stuff still sounds foreign

I don't plan on using any special material on my first batch of Tees. I've heard some good things about the plastisol transfers and vinyl...
What have you had the most success with?

You should make a list with the most important things you think are for ur bussines (what do you beleave in and what do your clients realy want?)

Once this done take a look at all the different types of doing a tshirt from the base to the finishing product. (ofc look all the steps by step nicely, they all have pros but also cons...)

Then you could make a choice between all those different types of creating a T-Shirt (again depending on what you beleave in and what ur clients want)

And yes 2000 is enough to start but ur going to have a hard time to do it well and might not succeed in long term due not having enough monney to invest in quality, marketing, advertising,... (all those things leads to the creation of ur clients and ur bussines name --> Long term)

+ You should read a lot on the forum and keep lurning (you got a lot to lurn), looks easier to ask first but just reading other topics will help you a lot also.

FPF

· #20 · Apr 10, 2014

MoBetta said:
Oh ok, I actually plan on studying all the t- shirt/apparel industry terminology that I don't know because although I'm getting the hang of it, a lot of stuff still sounds foreign

I don't plan on using any special material on my first batch of Tees. I've heard some good things about the plastisol transfers and vinyl...
What have you had the most success with?

First, don't let anyone talk you out of it. Everyone on here seems to want to talk new people out of getting into the business. I'm not sure if they are afraind of even more competition or if they have just been soured on the whole industry. Jump in head first. That being said, here is my advice/warnings. You might as well hear about possible hurdles so you can plan ahead.

Im in the same boat as you. Im just starting with a very limited budget. So take what I say with a grain of salt. However, IMHO if you print on crap tees, you wont have ANY repeat customers. If you are getting into the apparel business then take it serious. Print on quality stuff, and market it as such. I have also found that the difference between a crappy shirt and one of the higher quality ones is only about $1 per shirt from the manufacturer. Just avoid American Apparel. Outrageous price and They really aren't that great anyway despite what everyone says, but that is a discussion for another day. I have already had people comment on the fact that they love the fit of the shirts I chose, and I promise you those people will buy my next design based solely on the fit of the shirts. Is it really worth cutting corners for that little profit margin? If you are really concerned about price try the Alstyle apparel 1701 or 1701R (stands for ringspun) tee. Its a nice fitting shirt that wont break the bank. Trust me, I got samples from nearly every recommended manufacturer.

Second, While I badly want to print my own, with a limited budget I have found that the easiest way to start out is to have someone else print my first batch, or first couple batches. It costs more per shirt yes, but do you really think you will buy equipment and wont have "learning expenses", i.e mistakes? Just get off the ground as cheap as possible and use profit to invest into equipment.

Third, if you are going to be in the apparel biz you will probably want to look legitimate and will either need to order your own care tags with your logo that you/someone else will sew in, or you will need to fork up the cash to have the care instructions screen printed in the neck. That is another added cost, and one that will be $1 higher (assuming someone else removes your tags) if you go with a cheap tee without tearaway tags instead of a more expensive shirt with tear away tags.

Fourth, Im assuming you already have software? if not, that's a HUGE expense when your budget is only 2000. That is one issue I'm running into and will have to fix this week.

Fifth, getting registered and legal with the government will take you a whole day on your computer and will cost nearly 500, plus 375 if you are going to trademark your name. Do this now or you never will. Plus once you have done this it makes you feel like there is no turning back. That makes for a great first step.

Lastly, have fun. If you need motivation during hard points try watching some entrepreneurial movies. If you have Netflix I recommend "Jobs" (about steve jobs of course), "Drift" about guys who start a surfing company, and any of the "bloomberg" documentaries about the billionairs/multi, multi millionairs of our time.

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