[sugarbear]

The Learning Annex in NYC has a seminar "How to make a million dollars selling t-hirts?" This sounds like a rip off. How many people have made a million dollars selling t-shirts? Does this sound as if it is worth attending?

 

[TeeShirtSamurai]

It depends. If it's free, it's worth attending. If the seminar is 4 hours long and mostly useless but you pickup something new in the last five minutes that can increase your sales then I would say attend.

If it's a couple hundred bucks to attend then you need to find out as much information as you can about it and then evaluate whether or not it will be worth it.

For instance, maybe you get absolutely nothing from the seminar but you are packed in a room with 500 other t-shirt sellers or people wanting to get into the t-shirt business. That's a lot of contacts/potential customers. The value may simply be in the networking opportunity. Get some sweet-looking business cards, some glossy sheets to showcase your products and hand them out like candy.

 

[Rodney]

For instance, maybe you get absolutely nothing from the seminar but you are packed in a room with 500 other t-shirt sellers or people wanting to get into the t-shirt business. That's a lot of contacts/potential customers. The value may simply be in the networking opportunity. Get some sweet-looking business cards, some glossy sheets to showcase your products and hand them out like candy.

Sounds like a good place for me to drop some t-shirtforums.com flyers

 

[Aissata]

The Learning Annex in NYC has a seminar "How to make a million dollars selling t-hirts?" This sounds like a rip off. How many people have made a million dollars selling t-shirts? Does this sound as if it is worth attending?

Do you have a link for this seminar?

 

[Rodney]

Do you have a link for this seminar?

A quick google search brought this up:
http://www.learningannex.com/default.taf?sctn=N&_function=detail&cnum=661NNY&cat=

They have to give them tantalizing titles to make people interested in them (The title is an often overlooked, but ver important part of selling: web page titles, classifieds title lines, even forum thread topics )

 

[hostingdiva]

It's $50 for an hour and a half... I don't know, sounds like a scam to me. Anytime I see make millions doing this I automatically assume that it is a scam so I maybe a bit jaded

But, you should find out more information about the type of crowd they usually have attend, how many times they've been to the area - or are they there every weekend, and how many people they have coming. If they only have about 20 people, then it will not really be worth your time even as a networking opportunity (in my opinion anyway) but if there is about a hundred and they're all looking to start their own business... sounds like a great place to drop some cards that say wholesale prices on them .

 

[Rodney]

I've spent $50 on bad dinner

Me personally, I think if I was in NYC I would give it a shot. I don't think I'd go with any realistic idea that it would show me how to make millions, but I think I would probably come out with more information (and hopefully contacts) than I started with.

I'd also use it as an opportunity to drop some cards for my related sites

 

[Solmu]

I think for me it would hinge on the tradeshow angle - if I was thinking about doing that and needed advice, I'd go... if not... probably not. A lot of what it covers seems to be fairly general business information that can be found anywhere, but tradeshows are a slightly more ellusive beast. Of course, that part may end up being 3 minutes, so who knows.

My biggest concern is how short it is - I'd rather pay three times as much for something twice as long.

 

[Solmu]

Scratch that - I thought it was an hour and a half as someone said above.

It's actually two and a half hours at $50. For me that's enough to make all the difference and tip the scales. If it was me I'd find out whatever I could about Tonya Miller, and if she seemed like a hoopy frood (one who knows where her towel/t-shirt is of course) I'd go.

 

[monkeylantern]

I'm guessing something that short could only contain information that could probably be found in the first 4 pages of this forum.

And yes, many, many people have made over $1,000,000 selling tshirts. But I'm betting none of them went to that seminar.

(You'll crack a million in profit in a couple of years if you have reasonable profit margins and sell 50 shirts a day.....not an impossible goal by any means, if you have yourself together)

 

[aokusman]

I attended one of their t-shirt seminars last year when I was in NYC. The speaker was, I think his name is Murray, the C.E.O. of "school of hard knocks" clothing line. It was interesting llearning about his humble beginings and turning his company into a multi-million dollar enterprise. What the seminar did for me was that It let me know I was already in the right direction. It was not detail enough for those aspiring T-shirt lines that wanted a step by step guide on what they should do, but good for those just wanting general directions. A lot of imformation on screen printers, blank tees, labels etc was exchanged.

 

[Solmu]

I'm guessing something that short could only contain information that could probably be found in the first 4 pages of this forum.

Six pages, surely?

(You'll crack a million in profit in a couple of years if you have reasonable profit margins and sell 50 shirts a day.....not an impossible goal by any means, if you have yourself together)

$15 profit per shirt x 50 shirts/day x 2 years = $547,500

$1,000,000 divided by 50 shirts/day over 2 years = $27.40

i.e. in order to achieve one million dollars profit in a couple of years you'd need to make over $27 in clear profit (after all expenses) per shirt. Which I wouldn't really call a reasonable profit margin (some pull it off, but it certainly takes more than just having yourself together for that).

If you want a million in profit (as opposed to turnover) you should probably be looking at either selling 50 a day for five years (that's $12/shirt, and actually about four and a half years), or selling 115/day (at $12/shirt that's about a week shy of 2 years I think)

Still doable, but a lot harder.

I know those were fairly random examples you gave, but I do find it interesting to discuss actual numbers.

 

[monkeylantern]

By "couple" I meant "a few".

Although, 115 a day isn't out of this world if you cosy up to two or three major retailers, in addition solid web sales.

 

[Solmu]

Heh, fair enough.

T-shirts are a bit of a "get rich quick..er than some other things" scheme

 

[monkeylantern]

T-shirts are a bit of a "get rich quick..er than some other things" scheme

On a business to buisiness comparison, they're certainly more get-back-in-the-black-quickly sort of enterprise than most things. Also, on an investment vs. reward front, if you're doing things correctly, they're pretty near the top.

 

[Rodney]

Also, on an investment vs. reward front, if you're doing things correctly, they're pretty near the top.

According to a recent Men's Health magazine article, it was number one

 

[Solmu]

According to a recent Men's Health magazine article, it was number one

And number four was starting a forum

Looks like you've pretty much got your bases covered Rodney... when does the boardgame come out?

 

[Ken Styles]

I'm free next Monday after work.

I think I'm going to give it a shot. Anybody else from the NYC area going?

 

[monkeylantern]

According to a recent Men's Health magazine article, it was number one

I'm not sure I'd agree with your advice to start a business based on a cafepress store.....


Well done on yet another mention!

 

[Ken Styles]

I can't find any information on this Tonya Miller chick?

Nothing is really coming up as far as t-shirts go

There is a Tonya Miller singer/song writer *shrug*