New business, how to draw customers?

to further expand on the internet idea... a website really needs to be able to be found. keyword and search results optimization help as would using pay per click advertising to get you preference over competitors.

don't just count on a website though. do the social media thing... get on facebook, twitter and youtube etc. there's some extra free marketing. sell on ebay! it's it's own market. ditto that for amazon.

as mentioned, giveaways can draw customers, though that can get expensive with little guarantee of gaining a customer.

don't forget the phone book! having a nice ad in the book works! i just hired a locksmith because they had an ad. as you're doing shirts, you might even want to spring for a slick four color ad you design yourself to be really eye popping. most phone book ads aren't exactly eye catching.

it's really cheesy, and i don't know just how well it works, but you could try hiring a "sign waver" to spin a corrugated plastic sign advertising your shop on the sidewalk or even get someone to dress up as a character.

i hate to give my own take on that away before i ever try it, but i thought about standing at an intersection with one of those "front & back" signs people used to wear, i forgot what they're called, with some eye catching graphics and text like "will do graphics for customers"

here's a dirty little secret...
if you can come up with something novel to make it newsworthy, you can actually hire news stations to do a story about your shop. when you see news stories about businesses, they're really paid advertising. sad, but true.

another venue, literally, for advertising is movie theaters. it might be a cheap way to market to a captive audience.

events where you rent a booth are a good wayu to show your wares and hand out business cards. oh... speaking of that... you could make the rounds at other local shops, especially laundromats (great tie in, no?) where people leave their business cards and laundromats almost always have bulliten boards. colleges do to, like in libraries.