Plastisol Transfers / How hard is it?

if you want to do your own original work along with custom work your customer might give you you need the computer equipment and graphics software to produce it (computer, monitor, scanner, printer and heat press to apply to garment). depending on whether or not you want to get into the designing end you could always throw a drawing tablet into the mix.

you could skip all of that and just offer stock transfers. alot of people set up kiosks at malls and events and just bring stock transfers and a heat press and make their money that way. what do i mean by stock transfers? take a look at one of the preferred vendors of this forum and what they have to offer:

Iron-On Transfers, Heat Press Machines, T-Shirt Printing Supplies - Pro World

the paper, printer and heat press have to be good quality or you'll have problems after the fact.......i.e. transfer peeling off, fading and cracking way too early), customers mad etc. but that being said knowing how to use your graphics programs to make good looking designs is important as well. i bought an epson large format 2200 years ago for printing out comps of my graphics and it works fine for inkjet transfers. the ink can be a little expensive though. check the old threads using the search function here on this forum for "what printers" and you should find a ton of threads.

i use jpss (jet pro soft stretch) paper for light colored shirts. i won't commonly do inkjet transfers for dark color clothes because they come out feeling like you are wearing a hefty bag, very plasticky. but if the customer only wants one or two shirts i'll tell them up front that that is what they'll get and most the time they don't care anyways.

for large custom orders i'll break it down price-wise to either go with plastisol transfers or screenprinting. be aware that screen printers are bombarded with people looking for prices for their 'new t shirt line' etc. and if you are just fishing around for info they probably won't call you back. that being said i tried using one of the people that post on this forum on my last job of 80 shirts and i got an answering machine. that's a no no in my book. if you don't answer the phone are you even there?
also tried a local printer and she thought i was someone who i had mentioned above. that's funny though because i had sent her the .jpgs of the designs, the brand and sizes of the shirts etc. funny business i guess. if i ever can get my own space to do screen printing i guarantee you my customer service would be top notch. if you need the link to the printer i found online (who did fast awesome work at a great price with free shipping) let me know and i'll send you an email or pm. -good luck.