[mixelplik]

Hello DTGers!

I'm wondering how many of you are using an online/offline combination business plan out there???

Which one would you consider your "primary" plan and which one would you consider your "secondary" source of business?

Would you say it is the best of both worlds, or double the headaches?

I am writing my business plan and I'm going to use my printer for both online/offline ventures. For online I'm using it to run my own designs and sell them on a few select sites including my own, while offline I am going for B2B and Contract options with small businesses and local churches (plenty of them around here).

Sound solid to you? Comments and criticisms welcome and appreciated.

 

[csquared]

I use online and offline with offline being what makes me the most money, with the flood of these sort of sites it is really hard to get your name out there and recognized but locally there may not be another DTG printer for 100 miles so you can corner that market.

 

[mixelplik]

I use online and offline with offline being what makes me the most money, with the flood of these sort of sites it is really hard to get your name out there and recognized but locally there may not be another DTG printer for 100 miles so you can corner that market.

Would you care to share some of your offline strategies with me?

 

[sunnydayz]

Hi Mike,

I myself find that the majority of my business is local contract printing. When I first bought my machine I planned on making the majority of my money from my website, and found really quickly that the money was in local printing and doing multiples versus ones and twos. If you market yourself properly to local business you can do really well, especially if there are a lot of small business's in your area.

I will list a few things that have worked for me. I contacted local screen printing, embroidery and sign shops and let them know that if they had small orders that they could not print I would be happy to print them, and in return I would also send jobs that I was not capable of doing to them. It has built a great relationship I also contacted local schools, churches, restaurants and many other small business's that might need shirts for events and such.

Its really funny because I didn't really purposely get into doing local work but it happened because there was a high demand where I live. I have now added a vinyl cutter to be able to do banners and decals and such. I will also use my cutter to do one color jobs on darks to save money on my costs If you have any specific questions please feel free to ask, but I think your plan is a perfect situation for dtg with looking at adding the local business to the Internet.