How to start a t-shirt business

Before you start your t-shirt business

Careful planning is the key when starting any business however here's some considerations before starting your t-shirt and/or garment printing project. Lots of people think this is a great idea, they think they have some cool looking t-shirt designs that will sell hundreds, they see other people doing it and it looks easy!
Wrong!
It takes a lot of hard work, al lot of time, patience and help off everyone around you. Having some great designs is one thing the actual running of the business tends to get forgotten. Be sure to research the ins and outs of running a business to name a few: accounts, marketing, funds, cash flow...
There are lots of free business advice places out there and they will be able to help you in these areas.

Ask yourself the following questions:
Are you self motivated?
Can you speak to customers and solve any complaints?
When stressed of under pressure are you still able to rise to the occasion?
Are you willing to work every minute of your spare time to make this work?
Are you quick to give in when the going gets tough?
Do you look to the positive?

You can probably tell what the correct answers to the above questions are and you will need to answer them honestly. I take a lot of pride in any job I do however since running my own t-shirt business I can honestly say it's the best job I have ever had. There are many times when I think if I should quit, I think how easy a life in a 9-5 job would be, knowing every month I have a set wage coming in that will guarantee that my bills get paid.

I worked part time in a clothing shop as well as doing my online t-shirt business. The products we sold in the shop where £60 upwards and made in China. I knew the sort of prices they would be buying these items in at and every time I put a sale through the till I was thinking:
"That could have been one of my t-shirts, that money could have been going straight in my pocket, instead I'm getting paid about 10p to run it through a till"
I worked out I needed to sell 3-4 t-shirts on average a day and I would make enough money to pay myself a full-time wage. That sounds easy...doesn't it?
Back to the top

Be Different

I can't emphasise this fact enough and this is key with any business. You must have a least two things that sets you apart from your competitors whether that be better customer service or maybe you use a higher quality t-shirt.
Do research on your competitors, research your market and look for gaps in the market. There are a lot of t-shirt companies out there and lots of printers ask yourself why would a customer choose to buy your product over someone else's?
Back to the top

Suppliers

The main thing you need to look for when choosing a supplier is reliability. Most of the t-shirt suppliers I have used have never let me down, most will deliver next day and offer a wide range of different brands. You might be able to get a better price at another supplier however price isn't everything. I would rather pay a little more per t-shirt knowing that they will be delivered on time.
The most common t-shirts brands for bulk/custom printing are Gildan or Fruit Of The Loom, these are both good quality t-shirts at a low price. You can pay more for your t-shirts and get softer, better fitting and even tag less t-shirts so you can add your own branding. All these reasons for paying a more for your t-shirts all come back to "Be different" think of how you can add value to your product. I know I would prefer a nice fitting t-shirt that washes well and will last longer than a cheaper brand.
A good way of locating a supplier is by looking for the brand itself for example when you search for Gildan you will see on their site a list of suppliers, these suppliers will probably stock other brands as well. Finding suppliers with the thought of branding is a bit trickier. You will probably be thinking tag less or maybe putting your own branded tag in, you might have a specific fit or quality in mind. Some companies/t-shirt manufacturers offer a bespoke service so you can get a t-shirt exactly to your specification including labels and branding. The only downside is there will most likely be a minimum order quantity, a typical order could be anything from 500 t-shirts one size, one colour. You can image how much it would cost to get a full size run in a few different colours. Depending on your revenue, if your wanting to do branded t-shirts, I would recommend a tag less t-shirt that you can either print a logo into the neck line or stitch your own label into.

Vinyl Vs Screen Printing

In this section I will try to tell you the pros and cons of each technique, what can be achieved from each process and the costs of each. To start off I'll tell you about the setup we have and what lead me to it.
We have both Vinyl and a four colour screen printing carousel. At college I learnt various printing techniques and screen printing can be done on a small scale and with very little cost. If you intend on making a business out of it I would recommend investing in a proper screen printing press of some sort. At first I made my own screens on a hinge mechanism this was great for Art work and to practice with but there were limitations especially with a business in mind. I had a one colour set up and found the quality to be not as great also some orders required 2 colours.

Having shopped round watched various second hand listings on ebay we finally bought a basic screen printing carousel setup four colours. We haven't actually printed more than two colours and not really been asked either.
For runs of 10 upwards our carousel is ideal and we have done orders up to 500 t-shirts before.

The setup process with screen printing is the most time and costly part of the screen printing process and the main reason why it is not the best process to use on smaller print runs. We tend to not charge a setup fee however it is common to charge £25 per screen and artwork so get some quotes off other companies to give you a better idea of what you should be charging.
For smaller print runs vinyl is much better, it works out quicker, cost effective, less messy and great for a business with a tight cash flow.
A lot of our own designs are printed as and when the order comes in using this process. This means we don't have thousands of pounds worth of t-shirt stock ready printed that we need to sell. The machinery is cheaper to buy than most screen equipment and the techniques tend to be easier to learn. Software and designs can be tricky although there are plenty of online videos that can help. Your image or design will need to be a vector (no shading, block colour) It is possible to do larger orders depending on the design however "weeding" can be time consuming. Vinyl itself can be costly and if you make mistakes from cutting the design wrong or other wastage you will need to factor these into your costs. Screen inks on the other hand work out much better again its the initial setup that costs.

Ask yourself what your business will be doing most of?
Custom t-shirt orders such as hen and stag or promotional events?
Large custom orders?
Your own branded designs?
Slogan t-shirts?

For small custom orders I would always recommend a vinyl plotter and heat press machine especially for those with no screen printing experience (the process can be hard to get the hang of). For larger custom orders of 500+ I would say that you are already an established printer wanting to expand and probably wouldn't be reading this. Larger print runs would require very expensive machinery such as a tunnel dryer and automatic presses.

For your designs it depends on a few factors:
-Complexness of your designs?
-How many colours?
-Print run quantity

For example:
Your designs are three colours; both print techniques would work for this type of order. Maybe your designs are more detailed and have shaded areas? Screen printing would definitely be the best option here. Your working to a slim budget so print runs will have to be small to minimise stock, then vinyl works best for you.

Just a few things to consider and trust me the difference between each technique and the print job can be the difference between a huge headache and an easy printing life.

Make sure you read our section on what t-shirts and garments actually sell on the internet. Graphic tees are not one of the best sellers however if like me it's not just about making money then you might be eager to put your ideas and brand out there. Don't get me wrong you need to be different and having a unique product helps but slogan t-shirts sell.
You might have to start small doing some basic t-shirt prints to get established, a foot in the market place and some capital behind you. Don' forget you can always launch your brand later, make sure you do lots of planning.
Back to the top

To Print or not to Print (In-house printing Vs Professional printing firm)

There are lots of web sites out there that offer print services, you simply put your designs up on their site (under your own name sometimes) they take all the hassle out of it, print and ship your designs printed onto t-shirts sound good? I am not convinced; firstly the profit you will get is tiny, second you have no say over quality or uniqueness other than the design itself. You will put time and effort into promoting what you think is your brand when in fact your just sending customers to their site. Don't get me wrong this is great for a hobby designer or someone wanting to earn a spare bit of cash but I cannot see someone making a decent wage from doing this.

That aside the main subject is to print in-house or through a printing company; Money is the key thing here and both are not cheap however just like with the affiliate web site idea above getting a company to print your t-shirts and garments might take a little more off of your profits. Another down side is that you will have to buy a bulk lot to get a decent price, this will be of the same design for example: say you have 10 designs your wanting 50 of each design on different sizes your looking at a very rough price of around £2,500 that stock will sit in boxes at your business or home and you will need to sell 166 t-shirts to break even. If you sell all of them at say £14.95 each that's a great profit but it will take a long while to sell them, you might not even sell them.

Get your own equipment and you have control over the quality of the print and garment, the amount you print of each design and you don't have to put in another order of £2,500 worth of t-shirts when your running low. The downside is you need to factor in cost of time to print, miss-prints will come straight out of your pocket and you might not be able to get as professional print. You also need to buy the machinery and stock but you can decide what scale to do this on.
If you have the money then buying the stock in ready printed will take a lot of stress and hassle out of it however we had our own equipment from the start and was able to test the market with our designs. We could put a design up and if it got sales print them straight away, ones that didn't we just took the item down from our web site and had no stock to try and get rid of.

It all depends on your own ability and confidence with each, it will be down to you to decide but hopefully I've given you some things to help you decide.
Back to the top

Branding and what designs actually sells on the internet

Coming Soon!

Boot Strapping

Coming Soon!

Web sites Design or Outsource and SEO/promoting

Here are a few options:
Pay for a web designer
Buy software that allows you to set up your own web site with little or no knowledge of web site programming.
Set up your own web site if you know how to code or learn how too.
Use an affiliate web site

I actually spent 6 months teaching myself php with the help from Adam at developphp.com It did take a lot of time and effort but what I learnt means I am able to have full control over my business web site, how it looks and feels. I am also able to expand the web site as the business grows. The main downside to doing one of the other ways is your tied into or limited and room for expansion could be costly.
Time is a major factor with teaching yourself and you will find you spend more time working on the web site and SEO then the actual running of the business. For me this is a minor issue as I will admit I love web site coding and design, I can however totally understand why some people might not enjoy it.

The more I have learnt with web design the more I enjoy it, I have even dome some web sites for clients and if you don't feel like you could do what I did then the next thing I would suggest is defiantly hiring someone to design your site for you.
My web site is a CMS or content management site which means anyone with login details can access the web site and make changes/update without having to know coding. This also makes it easier in the general running of the web site and alterations (such as adding an item to sell) can be done quickly and easily.

Back to the top

Vinyl printing step by step guide:

The Design
Cutting the vinyl
Weeding the design
Prepping the t-shirt and heat press
Pressing the t-shirt and applying additional colours
Back to the top

Screen printing step by step guide:

The Design
Setting the screen
Setting the carousel for printing
Printing onto the garment and curing
Back to the top

Date updated: 20/08/2013
Author: Simon Stamp

Before you start your t-shirt business. Be Different. Suppliers. Vinyl Vs Screen Printing. To Print or not to Print. Branding & What sells. Boot Strapping Web site Design Or Outsourcing Vinyl Printing Guide. Screen Printing Guide.

	How to start a t-shirt business Before you start your t-shirt business Careful planning is the key when starting any business however here's some considerations before starting your t-shirt and/or garment printing project. Lots of people think this is a great idea, they think they have some cool looking t-shirt designs that will sell hundreds, they see other people doing it and it looks easy! Wrong! It takes a lot of hard work, al lot of time, patience and help off everyone around you. Having some great designs is one thing the actual running of the business tends to get forgotten. Be sure to research the ins and outs of running a business to name a few: accounts, marketing, funds, cash flow... There are lots of free business advice places out there and they will be able to help you in these areas. Ask yourself the following questions: Are you self motivated? Can you speak to customers and solve any complaints? When stressed of under pressure are you still able to rise to the occasion? Are you willing to work every minute of your spare time to make this work? Are you quick to give in when the going gets tough? Do you look to the positive? You can probably tell what the correct answers to the above questions are and you will need to answer them honestly. I take a lot of pride in any job I do however since running my own t-shirt business I can honestly say it's the best job I have ever had. There are many times when I think if I should quit, I think how easy a life in a 9-5 job would be, knowing every month I have a set wage coming in that will guarantee that my bills get paid. I worked part time in a clothing shop as well as doing my online t-shirt business. The products we sold in the shop where £60 upwards and made in China. I knew the sort of prices they would be buying these items in at and every time I put a sale through the till I was thinking: "That could have been one of my t-shirts, that money could have been going straight in my pocket, instead I'm getting paid about 10p to run it through a till" I worked out I needed to sell 3-4 t-shirts on average a day and I would make enough money to pay myself a full-time wage. That sounds easy...doesn't it? Back to the top Be Different I can't emphasise this fact enough and this is key with any business. You must have a least two things that sets you apart from your competitors whether that be better customer service or maybe you use a higher quality t-shirt. Do research on your competitors, research your market and look for gaps in the market. There are a lot of t-shirt companies out there and lots of printers ask yourself why would a customer choose to buy your product over someone else's? Back to the top Suppliers The main thing you need to look for when choosing a supplier is reliability. Most of the t-shirt suppliers I have used have never let me down, most will deliver next day and offer a wide range of different brands. You might be able to get a better price at another supplier however price isn't everything. I would rather pay a little more per t-shirt knowing that they will be delivered on time. The most common t-shirts brands for bulk/custom printing are Gildan or Fruit Of The Loom, these are both good quality t-shirts at a low price. You can pay more for your t-shirts and get softer, better fitting and even tag less t-shirts so you can add your own branding. All these reasons for paying a more for your t-shirts all come back to "Be different" think of how you can add value to your product. I know I would prefer a nice fitting t-shirt that washes well and will last longer than a cheaper brand. A good way of locating a supplier is by looking for the brand itself for example when you search for Gildan you will see on their site a list of suppliers, these suppliers will probably stock other brands as well. Finding suppliers with the thought of branding is a bit trickier. You will probably be thinking tag less or maybe putting your own branded tag in, you might have a specific fit or quality in mind. Some companies/t-shirt manufacturers offer a bespoke service so you can get a t-shirt exactly to your specification including labels and branding. The only downside is there will most likely be a minimum order quantity, a typical order could be anything from 500 t-shirts one size, one colour. You can image how much it would cost to get a full size run in a few different colours. Depending on your revenue, if your wanting to do branded t-shirts, I would recommend a tag less t-shirt that you can either print a logo into the neck line or stitch your own label into. Vinyl Vs Screen Printing In this section I will try to tell you the pros and cons of each technique, what can be achieved from each process and the costs of each. To start off I'll tell you about the setup we have and what lead me to it. We have both Vinyl and a four colour screen printing carousel. At college I learnt various printing techniques and screen printing can be done on a small scale and with very little cost. If you intend on making a business out of it I would recommend investing in a proper screen printing press of some sort. At first I made my own screens on a hinge mechanism this was great for Art work and to practice with but there were limitations especially with a business in mind. I had a one colour set up and found the quality to be not as great also some orders required 2 colours. Having shopped round watched various second hand listings on ebay we finally bought a basic screen printing carousel setup four colours. We haven't actually printed more than two colours and not really been asked either. For runs of 10 upwards our carousel is ideal and we have done orders up to 500 t-shirts before. The setup process with screen printing is the most time and costly part of the screen printing process and the main reason why it is not the best process to use on smaller print runs. We tend to not charge a setup fee however it is common to charge £25 per screen and artwork so get some quotes off other companies to give you a better idea of what you should be charging. For smaller print runs vinyl is much better, it works out quicker, cost effective, less messy and great for a business with a tight cash flow. A lot of our own designs are printed as and when the order comes in using this process. This means we don't have thousands of pounds worth of t-shirt stock ready printed that we need to sell. The machinery is cheaper to buy than most screen equipment and the techniques tend to be easier to learn. Software and designs can be tricky although there are plenty of online videos that can help. Your image or design will need to be a vector (no shading, block colour) It is possible to do larger orders depending on the design however "weeding" can be time consuming. Vinyl itself can be costly and if you make mistakes from cutting the design wrong or other wastage you will need to factor these into your costs. Screen inks on the other hand work out much better again its the initial setup that costs. Ask yourself what your business will be doing most of? Custom t-shirt orders such as hen and stag or promotional events? Large custom orders? Your own branded designs? Slogan t-shirts? For small custom orders I would always recommend a vinyl plotter and heat press machine especially for those with no screen printing experience (the process can be hard to get the hang of). For larger custom orders of 500+ I would say that you are already an established printer wanting to expand and probably wouldn't be reading this. Larger print runs would require very expensive machinery such as a tunnel dryer and automatic presses. For your designs it depends on a few factors: -Complexness of your designs? -How many colours? -Print run quantity For example: Your designs are three colours; both print techniques would work for this type of order. Maybe your designs are more detailed and have shaded areas? Screen printing would definitely be the best option here. Your working to a slim budget so print runs will have to be small to minimise stock, then vinyl works best for you. Just a few things to consider and trust me the difference between each technique and the print job can be the difference between a huge headache and an easy printing life. Make sure you read our section on what t-shirts and garments actually sell on the internet. Graphic tees are not one of the best sellers however if like me it's not just about making money then you might be eager to put your ideas and brand out there. Don't get me wrong you need to be different and having a unique product helps but slogan t-shirts sell. You might have to start small doing some basic t-shirt prints to get established, a foot in the market place and some capital behind you. Don' forget you can always launch your brand later, make sure you do lots of planning. Back to the top To Print or not to Print (In-house printing Vs Professional printing firm) There are lots of web sites out there that offer print services, you simply put your designs up on their site (under your own name sometimes) they take all the hassle out of it, print and ship your designs printed onto t-shirts sound good? I am not convinced; firstly the profit you will get is tiny, second you have no say over quality or uniqueness other than the design itself. You will put time and effort into promoting what you think is your brand when in fact your just sending customers to their site. Don't get me wrong this is great for a hobby designer or someone wanting to earn a spare bit of cash but I cannot see someone making a decent wage from doing this. That aside the main subject is to print in-house or through a printing company; Money is the key thing here and both are not cheap however just like with the affiliate web site idea above getting a company to print your t-shirts and garments might take a little more off of your profits. Another down side is that you will have to buy a bulk lot to get a decent price, this will be of the same design for example: say you have 10 designs your wanting 50 of each design on different sizes your looking at a very rough price of around £2,500 that stock will sit in boxes at your business or home and you will need to sell 166 t-shirts to break even. If you sell all of them at say £14.95 each that's a great profit but it will take a long while to sell them, you might not even sell them. Get your own equipment and you have control over the quality of the print and garment, the amount you print of each design and you don't have to put in another order of £2,500 worth of t-shirts when your running low. The downside is you need to factor in cost of time to print, miss-prints will come straight out of your pocket and you might not be able to get as professional print. You also need to buy the machinery and stock but you can decide what scale to do this on. If you have the money then buying the stock in ready printed will take a lot of stress and hassle out of it however we had our own equipment from the start and was able to test the market with our designs. We could put a design up and if it got sales print them straight away, ones that didn't we just took the item down from our web site and had no stock to try and get rid of. It all depends on your own ability and confidence with each, it will be down to you to decide but hopefully I've given you some things to help you decide. Back to the top Branding and what designs actually sells on the internet Coming Soon! Boot Strapping Coming Soon! Web sites Design or Outsource and SEO/promoting Here are a few options: Pay for a web designer Buy software that allows you to set up your own web site with little or no knowledge of web site programming. Set up your own web site if you know how to code or learn how too. Use an affiliate web site I actually spent 6 months teaching myself php with the help from Adam at developphp.com It did take a lot of time and effort but what I learnt means I am able to have full control over my business web site, how it looks and feels. I am also able to expand the web site as the business grows. The main downside to doing one of the other ways is your tied into or limited and room for expansion could be costly. Time is a major factor with teaching yourself and you will find you spend more time working on the web site and SEO then the actual running of the business. For me this is a minor issue as I will admit I love web site coding and design, I can however totally understand why some people might not enjoy it. The more I have learnt with web design the more I enjoy it, I have even dome some web sites for clients and if you don't feel like you could do what I did then the next thing I would suggest is defiantly hiring someone to design your site for you. My web site is a CMS or content management site which means anyone with login details can access the web site and make changes/update without having to know coding. This also makes it easier in the general running of the web site and alterations (such as adding an item to sell) can be done quickly and easily. Back to the top Vinyl printing step by step guide: The Design Cutting the vinyl Weeding the design Prepping the t-shirt and heat press Pressing the t-shirt and applying additional colours Back to the top Screen printing step by step guide: The Design Setting the screen Setting the carousel for printing Printing onto the garment and curing Back to the top Date updated: 20/08/2013 Author: Simon Stamp