[DecadentSavant]

I'm a t-shirt wearing fiend but new to the business side. I'm curioius how all of your sites are doing. How long have you been in business? How/why did you get started? Have you owned other businesses? How long did it take you to turn a profit (hell, break even)? Did you make initial investments or go the free route promoting a store in a site such as cafepress? Are you selling shirts you make at the expense of your own time or outsourcing the work? Who's currently able to do this as a full time job? Who's just making a lucrative hobby out it? Who's failing miserably? Who outsources the graphics vs doing it their own?

I realize these could turn into 2,000 word replys, but I'm curious as to the story behind each of your business ventures and how things are working for you.

 

[Rodney]

You can find a lot of these questions answered by browsing and reading some of the past forum topics (or doing searches on a specific keyword that relates to your question).

It's possible that other members may find the time to answer all those questions lumped into one thread, but from what I've seen, the questions seem to go over better when they are separated out and when it looks like the person posting the question has already tried searching for an answer.

Sometimes its daunting to see so many questions lumped together in one post like that Almost feels like an interregation

:welcome:

 

[DFras]

I'm curioius how all of your sites are doing. How long have you been in business? How/why did you get started? Have you owned other businesses? How long did it take you to turn a profit (hell, break even)? Did you make initial investments or go the free route promoting a store in a site such as cafepress? Are you selling shirts you make at the expense of your own time or outsourcing the work? Who's currently able to do this as a full time job? Who's just making a lucrative hobby out it? Who's failing miserably? Who outsources the graphics vs doing it their own?

OK, here goes!

Getting better. 1 year. Fun/profit. Yes. Still looking for (break even). Both. Make my own. Part-time. Lucrative(not yet), hobby(yes). Not failing. Both.

That's it in a nutshell.

 

[Vtec44]

Here goes...

The site is doing much better than expected, we just opened about a month ago.

I always love art in general, might as well put them on shirts. Right now we're just doing simple stuff but will put on more complicated artwork once the business is stable.

Turn profit? We're preparing to lose a lot of money on the first year because of heavy advertising expenses LOL

Well, I own my own store, not a CafePress store though, and a pretty busy forum. So it works out great since I have a lot of available traffic to advertise in addition to other places.

Right now, it's just a part time hobby. Hopefully, I'll make it fulltime in 5 years.

I try to do all the printing and designing internally, but you never know. At times, it's a lot better to outsource but not yet.

 

[badmouth2006]

Here goes...

The site is doing much better than expected, we just opened about a month ago.

I always love art in general, might as well put them on shirts. Right now we're just doing simple stuff but will put on more complicated artwork once the business is stable.

Turn profit? We're preparing to lose a lot of money on the first year because of heavy advertising expenses LOL

Well, I own my own store, not a CafePress store though, and a pretty busy forum. So it works out great since I have a lot of available traffic to advertise in addition to other places.

Right now, it's just a part time hobby. Hopefully, I'll make it fulltime in 5 years.

I try to do all the printing and designing internally, but you never know. At times, it's a lot better to outsource but not yet.

hi JT,

your site is a gold mine of informations and a bunch of super

member, kep on good work.

Bob, Montrealer

 

[Vtec44]

hi JT,

your site is a gold mine of informations and a bunch of super

member, kep on good work.

Bob, Montrealer

Hi Bob,

Thanks for the compliment, it's my other expensive hobby (I hope we're both refering to Sportbikers.Net ). My actual t-shirt site is not doing as well as my motorcycle site though

 

[Ayres Clothing]

I was able to generate a lot of traffic to my website by posting in forums that allow links to your personal site. I figured out who was my target market and posted in the forums that they typically visit. I started getting anywhere from 30-100 new people a day coming to my site. Problem was that I only have one shirt available right now on my site. So I think because of the lack of options, people were discouraged from buying. But I bought a silk screen and I am about to release several designs in several colors. So I hope that goes well. Thats where I am at.

 

[Aissata]

I was able to generate a lot of traffic to my website by posting in forums that allow links to your personal site. I figured out who was my target market and posted in the forums that they typically visit. I started getting anywhere from 30-100 new people a day coming to my site. Problem was that I only have one shirt available right now on my site. So I think because of the lack of options, people were discouraged from buying. But I bought a silk screen and I am about to release several designs in several colors. So I hope that goes well. Thats where I am at.

Could you share the addresses of those forums? Thanks

 

[Solmu]

Could you share the addresses of those forums? Thanks

I'm pretty sure he was referring to forums relevant to his target audience (i.e. skate forums, etc.), rather than forums that just allow free for all commercial posting.

At any rate, spam is generally better received when it comes from a forum regular rather than someone doing a driveby post - you're more likely to get hits from a sig line in a forum you participate in, than just posting an ad.

 

[TeeShirtSamurai]

I was able to generate a lot of traffic to my website by posting in forums that allow links to your personal site. I figured out who was my target market and posted in the forums that they typically visit. I started getting anywhere from 30-100 new people a day coming to my site. Problem was that I only have one shirt available right now on my site. So I think because of the lack of options, people were discouraged from buying. But I bought a silk screen and I am about to release several designs in several colors. So I hope that goes well. Thats where I am at.

Very very smart. This is exactly what I'm doing. Besides being genuinely interested in the topics and people at these particular forums it doesn't hurt to build a post count and a positive community reputation before inserting a link to your site in your signature.

 

[DecadentSavant]

this thread has gotten just a tad bit off topic.

 

[Rodney]

this thread has gotten just a tad bit off topic.

As I mentioned in my post above

Sometimes its daunting to see so many questions lumped together in one post like that Almost feels like an interregation

Some good information is posted here that is definitely related to your topic (with leads to find more information).

You might fair better separating the questions up, or checking around to see if they have been answered already in other places on the forum.

 

[DecadentSavant]

i guess i'm just used to being authority figure who demands and always gets his answers during an interrogation (i'm the HR manager at work).

 

[Rodney]

No wonder I got all nervous like it was a job interview

 

[toonsign]

Hi,

I'll try to give it a shot.

How long have you been in business? Since 1987

How/why did you get started? Seemed like fun and a chance to start a small business.

Have you owned other businesses? Yes.

How long did it take you to turn a profit (hell, break even)? Still tryting.
Did you make initial investments or go the free route promoting a store in a site such as cafepress? My initial investment (in 1987) was $10,000. Between 1987 and 1992: $35K and a waste of money. With the new technology (computers, inkjet, cutters), it's all changed.

Are you selling shirts you make at the expense of your own time or outsourcing the work? I do not promote retail vigorously. I am currently only doing wholesale for the trade using a POD, bulk and dropship service.

Who's currently able to do this as a full time job? Not me.

Who's just making a lucrative hobby out it? -
Who's failing miserably? -
Who outsources the graphics vs doing it their own? -

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[justal]

Here are my answers for what they are worth:

1. Been in business for 2 days!
2. How/why. Someone asked me to produce a T-shirt they could buy through my website, so I looked into T-shirt fulfillment agencies such as cafepress and spreadshirt.
3. Other businesses - No.
4. No initial investment so made a profit (of £3.29!) on day 1.
5. Free route as this isn't a serious business venture for me (unless it takes off!)
6. Outsource the work
7. Certainly not a full time job.
8. Nor a lucrative hobby
9. I wouldn't say it was a failure either.... Watch this space....

Al.