How to Start Your Own T-shirt Business
by Leeia Ladipoh on January 31st, 2008
If you’ve ever found yourself at festivals and malls, looking at the quirky t-shirt designs and thinking you could do a better job, owning a T-shirt business may be in your future.
Many people do well with their own T-shirt business, but the key is in knowing how to do it right, and making sure you’re ready before jumping into the fray.
As you think of taking on this venture, remember – there are a lot of t-shirt businesses out there, especially online. If you’ve looked at the array of online t-shirt businesses, there aren’t many shirt styles that don’t exist, especially with companies that will allow users to create their own design and have it printed.
With that said, you shouldn’t immediately rule out starting your own t-shirt business -just make sure you know what you’re getting into.
First, you need to create your business plan.
Getting Started
Begin with what you would like to achieve with your company. There are a number of ways to set your goals. You could have a personal goal of listing at least five new shirt designs a week and offering them on your site, or it could be reaching a certain number of visitors and generating inquiries. When setting goals, they should be both realistic and achievable.
Part of this will depend on your target audience. Who are you trying to sell shirts to? Do you want to sell in bulk? If so, you should be gearing towards companies or conventions. If you are going to create shirts for the public, what market are you aiming for? Sure, you can start a t-shirt company with a number of shirts in different styles, but it’s harder to get on the radar that way.
If you have a niche market that you are gearing your business towards, you will have a better chance of being noticed by that crowd.
When it comes to delivering the product, there are two ways to go about this – make the shirts personally or hire a third-party shirt maker.
Making the Shirts Yourself
Making the decision to create all the merchandise in your t-shirt business gives you more overall control in terms of creativity and the quality of the items that are being sold – but you’ll also bear more of the cost.
In order to go this route, you will have a lot of start-up costs – you’ll need to pay for the press, shirts, screens and paints to create your designs. This is well and good if you’re experienced with using t-shirt making equipment; but if you aren’t, then a good deal of time, effort, and most importantly money will go into learning.
Using a Third-Party Shirt Maker
If you don’t want to lay out all of the initial cash for the supplies to make the shirts, you can always bring in a third-party shirt maker. In this case, you’ll be able to send an art design to the maker and they will create the shirts for you. Many third-party shirt makers will require a minimum order for good pricing, or charge more and cut your profit on individual printings.
Finally, create a marketing plan to get the attention of your potential customers. Go to festivals, street parties, or chamber of commerce events and hand out information about your company. Go where your target audience is – if you’re marketing to college students, post flyers on campuses. Grassroots marketing works very well for t-shirt businesses. If you have a website, you may want to consider some form of online advertising – paid search, banners on popular blogs, or even social media marketing. The more inquiries and responses to your pitches that you receive, the more potential customers you will have.
I have my own t-shirt business and the article is good for start ups and a reminder for myself in trying to get our product out there. What information do you know that ties into the new regulations for governing products produced for kids under 12 years old. I know this process has been delayed for 1 year, but how does that affect the small business owner in t-shirts?
Thank you,
Donya
March 19th, 2009
at 2:00 pm
i am starting a business selling online but i am selling other labels atm, i have had so much trouble finding a manufacturer that will do my designs!! i have been on thousands of sites i am sure any ideas on how to find a good manufacturer that wont rip me off or give b grade quality?
Im from australia but will source from overseas
Thanks hun
christielee
March 25th, 2009
at 4:42 am
Great article by the way. To followup, I recently saw a Great video here on using a heat press machine to make t-shirts:
http://vimeo.com/5699741
Karla
July 27th, 2009
at 1:37 pm