[lawdog]

Well thats it for me. Its been a little over a year and for the most part I'm wrapping it up. I went into screen printing, DTG, sign making to embroidery. If I took my shoes off I still wouldn't be able to count my mistakes. But here are the ones that I can think of: I should have gone to a trade show if not two before I purchased the equipment, learn one thing well before starting another (spreading myself out), have a PLAN, pay cash ( our eyes and dreams get bigger than our wallets), dont drag family into it, and for GOD's sake, be ORGANIZED!
Getting customers wasn't the real problem, making shirts wasn't the big problem, although don't get me wrong, major growing pains their. It was the business part that really threw me. This was only a part-time job so there will still be plenty of food on the table. This sight and the people on it have been OUTSTANDING! I'll be posting my DTG Kiosk and some software on the classified page, goodluck and GOD bless.
Jason

 

[queerrep]

Thanks for sharing, Jason. Sorry it didn't work out for you, but you can still come back and visit you know!

 

[SBEMedia]

Well, good luck to you. From my past experiences, I've learned many a thousand, if not hundreds of thousand dollar lessons, but it most certainly makes you wiser and all the better for having had the experience, although I don't usually feel that way at the time.

 

[EnzyOne]

Best of luck for the future, mate.

Take care. Don't be a stranger now.

 

[martinwoods]

You are always welcome here to share and talk but why not take the lessons learned and apply them and make some money with all that equipment you have?

Good luck in whatever you do.

 

[CUSTOM UK]

Hi Jason. I too diversified my business interests, but my problem is lack of operating space some days.

You essentially have two routes with a part time business. Use it to supplement your income and pay for a few treats in life, or use it as a launch pad to develop a full time venture. There is nothing to stop you retaining some of your equipment and just focus on the one avenue.

With any venture, its success is going to be limited by the amount of sales you can generate. Buying equipment simply involves clicking a button on a web site, if only finding customers were quite that simple.

At least you have given it a shot, which is more than many other people will ever do.

 

[Mistewoods]

Well, good luck to you. From my past experiences, I've learned many a thousand, if not hundreds of thousand dollar lessons, but it most certainly makes you wiser and all the better for having had the experience, although I don't usually feel that way at the time.

My father taught me to call this tuition in the school of life. I like that as it makes it seem a valuable asset rather than a mistake.

Best of luck to you in whatever endeavor you try next.

 

[stuffnthingz]

Take what you have learned, sell the equipment that you don't own, keep a few fun pieces for making your own goodies later, heck even if you must sell it all now, you can purchase what you want later KNOWING you need to pay cash up front and perhaps you can start fresh with a low key part time venture. I am sure you learned a ton and can put it to good use.

I am also thankful for your words as I am growing my part time venture as well. I am thinking of involving family because I am so busy. I will likely heed your advice and keep things small enough for me to handle. I love the business side of things and never have enough time to do a good job and I have been thinking I need to focus more on that aspect. Luckily I have paid cash for all equipment, staying away from the very expensive complicated options. I will stay away from the shiny toys! Yes I will.. and I wish you luck!

 

[Harison]

Are you sure you won't reconsider Lawdog? I mean by the way you put it, you know what you did wrong and all those 'mistakes' might make you stronger in the future? More educated, more wise, more likely to succeed now that those particular mistakes are behind you?

I was reading an interview with Richard Branson recently and he talked about the huge mistakes he made, but look where he is now! Those mistakes were what taught him what 'not' to do in business.

I'm in a position right now where I'm just about to get started and I know I have loads of huge mistakes ahead of me! I'm kind of assuming that I'll make lots of mistakes and bad decisions (though obviously I'll try not to!) but I assume I'm going to make all kinds of mistakes before I end up where I want to be.

Like, the difference between me and Richard Branson, is that he's made more bad business decisions than I have. The difference between me and a champion boxer is that he's been knocked down more times than I have...

My ex.partner was a martial arts expert, he had a 6th Dan in Karate and one day when I was feeling sorry for myself because I'd lost a fight, he reminded me that he'd lost far more fights than I had... He meant it in a nice way and I knew what he was saying.

My favourite example is of Eddison when he invented the lightbulb (after about 2000 attempts) and someone asked him how it felt to have 'failed' 200 times. He replied that he didn't fail at all... he invented the light bulb and it just happened to be a 2000 step process!

I hope you'll think about keeping going, especially since you say it wasn't your main source of income, but if you do decide to let it go, then I hope you'll hang around and keep posting.

This is a great, friendly place I think!

 

[ezilla]

Keep ypur stuff, keep it part time and learn the business part of it. You spent the time learning how to print, now spend the time learning how to be a business. If it's part time, you're not out anything. Seems like a lot of time and $$ to give up. Just my opinion.

 

[TeddyRocky]

You have to remember it's only been a year for you. The first year, or even longer, will be the hardest times of your business. We've been through hell and back several times but now it's smooth.

If you are trying to do everything but find yourself not being able to, reduce your services. Quality over quantity plays a big role in business as well.

If you still want to continue providing services which are aren't able to do, find an outsource company to them for you.

Even if you still decide to quit, best wishes!