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Discussion Starter · #1 ·
hi. my name is Ray and i am thinking about starting up a t-shirt business. well more of a cottage industry really as i am disabled and only able to do so much per day. i only have 1 heat press, but i am excited about what i am able to do with it.and looking forward to asking a lot of questions and hopefully getting a lot of answers.
 

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Welcome to the forum. There is a section here on heat transfers that you should dig through. You might want to check out sublimation too. And plastisol transfers, and foil transfers. And vinyl transfers. And rhinestones..

Yes there is a LOT you can do with a heat press.
 

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Discussion Starter · #3 ·
thank you for the welcome to the forum. you gave me a lot of information but no links though. if i had any questions right now they would be ...

1: where can i get celebrity photos i can use on t-shirts? and up to date funny quotes and pictures? using heat press transfer paper or/and iron on transfer paper. without me being in breach of copyright or any other law.

2: as i am just a single guy with only one heat press, i cannot afford to pay to put a stall up at a trade fair or the like. and was wondering of alternative venues where i could sell my t-shirts on a small basis without having to pay an up front fee? as i have said i am disabled and im looking for a way to come off disability but need to start very small. and because i am on disability have very limited funds, and i mean very limited funds.
 

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Tell me about it. I'm glad I started collecting equipment before I got disabled. Now I'm struggling to keep my head above the water and it isn't easy. I, too want off disability.

Now as far as celeb pics & such.. you can't unless you have their permission. Anything copyrighted you can't touch either unless you have a license to use them.

Now you can get preprinted transfers from places like proworld and transfer express. You will have to have a business license - have to keep it legal.

You can get a website for pretty cheap and sell there. If you get an e-commerce website you will have to pay, or you can get a free website, but they usually put annoying banner ads on your page.

Do you have a printer and computer graphics program like coreldraw or adobe illustrator? You can get coreldraw pretty cheap on ebay, just make sure you get a full version not an educational or upgrade one. Are you going to be printing your own things to press or no?

You will need an epson workforce 1100 printer with pigment inks (I suggest getting bulk ink and refillable carts from cobraink.com). It might take several months of saving pennies to get what you need, but hang in there.
 

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Discussion Starter · #5 ·
what is a business licence, and where would i get that from? how much will that cost? is that like a business name?

i have over 100 ecommerce wp sites i can use, so thats almost good. as i cannot afford the domain name and hosting or postage to send the client their goods.

i have a website that sells t-shirt transfers, but have the same problem as with the wordpress site above.

i have 20 transfer paper for light t-shirts
i have 5 xl t-shirts, i will be getting another 10 in 2 weeks time.

i have an inkjet printer

i have over 100 transfers to be going on with

i don't have coreldraw or the like in regard software

as for the ink their is a cartridgeworld locally where i can get the ink but it will cost a little over $100 for both black and white and a colour cartridges.
 

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You will need a printer that has pigment ink in it. Epson printers are the best for making transfers. An epson workforce 1100 or an epson C88+ both have pigment ink. Any other kind of ink will wash off the shirts. If you want to stay in business you have to produce a quality product. If you can't do that, don't bother because negative word of mouth travels a lot faster than happy customers bragging about your product. I would test that ink to make sure it won't wash out.

To be legal you need at least a reseller license to collect sales tax in your state. Go to your states website and look up what you need to know. Every state is different.

What kind of printer do you have? Most don't have white ink. They have black, cyan, magenta, and yellow or some have a light magenta and light cyan.

What program are you going to be making your transfers in?

What country are you in? Some of my information only applies to the USA. If you can't afford to mail your customers orders to them, how are you planning on sending them to them?
 

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Discussion Starter · #7 ·
firstly thank you for the heads up on which printer and ink to use. you have saved me a lot of money and embarrasment right there. although i cannot find either of the printers you mentioned on ebay. but you better believe i will hunt one down.

im not in the US so state law doesn't apply to me.

as for the printer that i do have ... i have a Pixma MP280 inkjet printer.

as for "What program are you going to be making your transfers in?" as i said i have over 100 transfers ready to go. unless you mean how am i going to reverse them for a t-shirt in that case i will just use paint.

sorry i should have been more specific about where in the world i am. i am in England (part of the UK). as for posting customers their tees as i said i just cannot afford to do that right now. my only option is to come up with places where i can sell a few tees and then with that money set up a website and be able to send a customer their tees.
 

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Well that certainly answered a lot. Forget everything I said except for the printer. I have never heard of the kind of printer you have there, but you should ask them if it uses pigment or dye ink. You want pigment. Does Amazon.com ship to UK? I got mine from epson.com, but I don't know if they ship your way or not. I would imagine the electrical connection is a bit different. I've heard our stuff doesn't work over there. There are free online vector software but I don't know what they're called. I guess I can't help you much more than that. Your suppliers will all be different from mine. I wish you the best of luck though. It's not easy trying to start a business on thin air.
 

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Discussion Starter · #9 ·
sorry i should have said the printer is a canon pixma MP280

yeah you use 120volts and we use 240volts as far as electrical stuff goes. so your stuff won't work over here.

as for vector software i just downloaded a free one from serif.com that is free. i will check it out later.

yeah both amazon and epson ship to England.

yeah tell me about trying to fly with no wings. but i will not give up.

it's a shame i cannot send you a word doc to show you what i have done trying to raise money and get a business plan put togther. and how government say one thing and then do everything to stop you getting there ya know? but thats another story.

oh i almost forgot. i gave my mam (mom) a t -
shirt i did for her. she phoned me last night and i asked her if she had washed the t-shirt yet. she had, she had hand washed it and then hung it out to dry and everything was fine. so maybe the printer i have will do fine?
 

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Discussion Starter · #13 ·
yeah it is a bit strange but nothing to worry about. when the ink that i have runs out and i have to refresh the inks. i can always ask them to give me both black and white and colour in pigment rather than dye can't i, so no biggy.

thank you again for the heads up regarding that again

i have found 3 websites where i can get some up to date transfers which are great.
 
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