Start Up for New Business

Wish I could give you advise but I'm in the same boat. ... I'm a tshirt designer, freelancing in right now, and Ive always wanted to do screen printing, so I'm looking to start my own screen printing shop and have a retail shop as well to sell shirts I make..... I wish you all the luck in the world tho.

I never looked into cafe press because I always felt it wasn't worth it. They reap all the benefits.
But, I could be wrong.

Heat presses can be very finicky if you don't buy a good one. First, the area of the machine where all the heat is should be consistent. On the cheaper ones, you'll most likely have patches of areas on the top heating area that will not heat consistently. Also, the cheaper heat presses don't have some of the bells and whistles that actually save you time and money. We have three heat presses. Two have pull out shelves and one is just a cheap one with no pullout. I did a time analysis on running the pullout against the cheaper one and the time was cut in half. We only use the cheaper one when in dire nead and only for runs of 24 and less. So, the upfront cost may be more ($1000-$1500) but well worth it in the end.

Thanks for the advice.

What about heat transfers? Is it better to get the kind where you have to cut out the image or the full sheet that strips off without any cutting?

I fear that I will cut it wrong and it won't come out straight and it will be a lot of money wasted.

swing away or draw press 16x20 to start. Will have for years. We buy used swingaways cheap and fix any issues. never ended up over a grand in any and the new fusion is 16-1700.

Get a cutter/plotter. Will be happy in the long run.