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selling T-Shirts has become big business and it’s a growing
industry on the Internet where there are already thousands of shops and websites
where you can purchase almost any design or T-Shirt style imaginable. Thanks to
the many T-Shirt companies that now print and create the T-Shirts for you, with
no risk involved, many people have been able to start their own T-Shirt business
without having to invest any money. This however, has turned the T-Shirt
business online into a fierce, competitive battle against all T-Shirt
shop/website owners. There are now millions of T-Shirt websites online for
customers to choose from and this is why starting your own online T-Shirt
business can be stressful, disappointing, and very difficult to attract
customers and make the sales that you are expecting. Now, I’m not saying it’s
impossible, I’m just saying it’s going to take a lot of time, effort, and maybe
even some money for you to get started and get customers visiting your
shop/website.
There are many things you need to consider when starting your
own online T-Shirt business. Simply creating a design, putting it on a blank
T-Shirt, and expecting it to be a big seller isn’t going to do the trick and
bring you many sales, unless of course, you are a very lucky person, whom I can
assure you, there aren’t very many of them around. If you want to start a
T-Shirt business just to make easy money fast like many other schemes on the
Internet claim, then you’re looking at the wrong business. There is no such
thing as easily making money fast and you’re always going to have to put in the
effort to get the results you are looking for, especially for a T-Shirt
business.
Now, I’m not trying to scare you from owning your own T-Shirt
business, as there are many successful individuals who have started their
business in the T-Shirt industry and are doing very well. I just want to give
you the facts of reality so that you’re not disappointed when your business
isn’t doing as well as you thought it would. You may succeed at one aspect of
the business, but fail in another, or you just might be that person who is
successful at all the aspects of the business, which will obviously make your
business a success. Either way, you’re still going to have to spend the time and
work very hard to achieve success.
Below I’ve listed some of the things you need to consider
before you setup or start your own T-Shirt business:
Business Goals
Before you start your own T-Shirt business, you need to think of your business
goals. These goals should be realistic and they should point you in the
direction you would like your business to go and what you hope to accomplish. An
example of a goal would be to have 100 visitors visiting your shop/website a day
or to create two new designs a week and put them up on your website. Whatever
the goals may be that you have set for yourself, you then need to strive for
them and once you have accomplished your goals, then you know you’re on the
right track.
Passion
You have to have an interest in what you are doing or you’re not going to enjoy
spending the time and effort your business requires. Everybody has a passion in
one thing or another whether it is creating the designs, promoting, or any other
aspect of the business, but you should have an interest in it. If you’re not
passionate about a certain subject, then you need to think of another theme that
you would be more interested in doing. Remember, you are going to spend a lot of
time on the subject/theme that you choose, so if you aren’t passionate about it,
then you’re going to get bored very fast and it’s not going to be enjoyable.
Subject/Theme
This is very important in the T-Shirt industry as some subjects/themes do much
better than others and receive more customers, but like all styles, they come
and go. It’s possible to have a general subject/theme, but it makes it harder
for you to market/promote your shop/website. I suggest choosing just one
subject/theme to begin with as you can start adding other subjects/themes later
when you are established. You should by all means choose a subject/theme that
you are knowledgeable about and have a passion for, like I mentioned under the
passion paragraph.
Target Audience
Who are you targeting? Will you be targeting a certain age group, occupation,
style, general public, etc. Finding out who your primary target audience will be
or is, will help you with marketing/promotion. This will also help you with
creating and designing your T-Shirts and shop/website to suit your target
audience. Once again you can choose to go for a general audience, but this will
only make it harder for you to market/promote your shop/website.
Research
You need to always do your research and find out what’s new, what’s not, what’s
in style, what kind of designs people are looking for, etc. You also need to
keep up-to-date with your subject/theme as some change on a regular basis
(Example: Politics). Keeping informed and up-to-date will give you the leading
edge over your competitors, bring back customers time after time, and most
importantly it will make sales.
Third Party shops Vs. Your Own Website
Should I invest in my own website or use a third party website to host my
T-Shirt designs? If you are thinking about doing every aspect of the T-Shirt
business yourself (including making the T-Shirts), then I suggest you invest in
a website (not a free website hosting service), but first try out a third party
website that makes the T-Shirts for you (no risk involved or investment needed)
to see if you can make your business a success. Once you’re confident in your
business, then you can upgrade to making and owning your own website.
There are many online third party websites available on the
Internet that you can choose from that will create and ship the T-Shirts to your
customers (risk free with no money invested) and therefore, save you the hassle
of actually having to deal with the customer aspect of your T-Shirt business.
There are as many cons as there are pros when using a third party service. Some
of the cons are: You don’t get your own website and you are in some way
connected to them, you don’t make as much profit (you have to pay them to do all
the work, like printing the T-Shirts and shipping), and they make all the rules
(Example: not providing you with the E-mail address of your customers or
refusing any designs that you create). When you sign up with one of these third
party services, you are actually working for them and that includes promoting
their site. The customers that purchase your T-Shirts are actually their
customers meaning they have full control and every time you make a sale, they
make a profit. In other words, these third parties depend on your success and if
your business goes under, theirs doesn’t because there’ll always be someone else
to take your place.
Marketing/Promoting
This will be your biggest enemy in the T-Shirt business and
many businesses fail because of this. I suggest you do your
research on the web for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and
about how the basic search engines works, as there is a lot
of information about them. Do not just resort to search
engines as being your source for traffic as there are many
other websites that can help bring in quality targeted
traffic to your website like T-Shirt ranking sites (Example:
www.T-ShirtShowdown.com).
The major search engines (Example: Google) are complicated in
how they work and many people have been trying to figure out how they work for
years. The search engines change their algorithms on how pages are ranked every
once in a while so you’re better off not focusing your attention on just getting
to the top in the search engines.
If you do manage to make it to the top and are very
successful, then your marketing/promotion shouldn’t stop there. You have to
always be marketing/promoting your site one way or another because it won’t take
long before someone else over takes you, simply because links can die and you
need incoming links from other websites to get traffic.
T-Shirt Ranking Websites
Do ranking sites work? Yes, ranking websites are a great way to market/promote
your T-Shirt designs and shops/websites. Many people don’t want to waste their
time searching all over the web trying to locate websites that sell specific
designs that they are looking for. This is where T-Shirt ranking websites come
in handy and allow customers to view thousands of different T-Shirt designs and
styles from many different websites. Ranking sites are a great way of bringing
many unique and different T-Shirt websites/designs together and help to bring
the buyers to the sellers. www.T-ShirtShowdown.com is a great example and offers
many different categories to choose from including: Animal, Artistic, Attitude,
Automobile, Biker, Computer, Floral, Funny, Holiday, Kids, Logo, Misc., Movie,
Music, Novelty, Occupation, Offensive, Patriotic, Pets, Political, Religious,
Sports, Unusual, Vintage, and Western.
Many T-Shirt business owners think that they can just upload
their T-Shirt designs to a ranking website and expect to receive sales. This is
a myth and it’s not true. Ranking sites, like www.T-ShirtShowdown.com, bring
high quality targeted traffic to your website, but it’s your T-Shirt designs in
the end that have to convince the customer to buy/purchase the product. T-Shirt
ranking websites only make it easier for you to market/promote your site/designs
and to get the high quality targeted traffic that every business wants.
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there are many successful individuals who
have started their business in the T-Shirt industry and are doing very well,
Below I’ve included some advice, problems, and
solutions from other T-Shirt businesses that they encountered when they
were starting their own T-Shirt business.
For MindTrix the hardest part for starting out, besides
money, was finding a "nitch". Our first line of T-Shirts was all over the map,
so starting your own clothing company can be hard. I had to do and learn
everything on my own. I over came this obstacle by going to tradeshows, surfing
the Internet, and reading magazines like Sport and Street, etc.
MindTrix has grown beyond just T-Shirts due to the fact
that everyone including their moms have a T-Shirt company. When I would go into
stores trying to sell my T-Shirts, I would always get feedback, like what makes
these any better than the other 90,000 brands we have in here, which most of
these other brands people have heard of, and that is why we graduated to cut and
sew as well as any higher end T-Shirts.
You have to stay ahead of the pack to survive.
www.myspace.com/mindtrix
Advice for Promotion: Don't be afraid to advertise. Create
buttons, stickers, give them out and be sure people remember you. Tell people
about it, you'd be surprised how many people would be willing to help you out.
Advice for Designing: When designing A T-Shirt, there are
many points to keep in mind, but the following factors are some technical stuff
overlooked by companies starting off: The Number of colors used & what material
will be used. Most screen printers charge in the $10-$40 range for every
different color you use. It can get really expensive for someone (Example: music
bands) to get several T-Shirts printed. They then have to sell the fans $36
dollar T-Shirts just to cover the costs and make some profit.
The Material used: Usually each material/brand/size comes
with a set of colors that they’re printed on. There isn’t one that provides you
with every single color in existence. It would be a great idea to ask the client
what material they can afford and then research it, or familiarize yourself with
the more popular brands that are being printed on (Examples: American Apparel,
Fruit Of the Loom and Hanes). I've had several problems with this when I began,
so don’t just go creating something that only looks good on a red background
that you can’t easily fix, or something that looks good on a T-Shirt color
that’s almost impossible to find. This will save you so much time and trouble.
Lastly, but most importantly, just be original. Keep the
designs more personalized, deeper and more meaningful.
www.myspace.com/deathby_santiago_
1. Vision. You need to know who you are, what you're
doing, why, etc. This will define how you market your product, how it looks over
all, and all the little details within that you need to do. Yep, so figure that
out and then go nuts because you can't go wrong with a big idea, as long as you
know what the big idea is.
2. Marketing. It’s essential in today’s design world. You
might have a good product but if its weak on branding, labeling, packaging,
shelf appeal, matching coat hangers, etc., it'll look bad. Consistency also
needs to be achieved across the spectrum including same font, same style, etc.
Designing is totally open to new creations and ideas, so anything goes, but
there are some boundaries that you don't want to cross, while others you need to
break through.
3. E-commerce. Yes, it’s fully possible! It will take some
setting up though, but I’ve recently realized how I can just pick up the phone
and order a set of hoodies, wait four days until they're on the doorstep, pay
for them a month later online, etc. Also, I can call up the fabric company down
the road, or one in wellington, get them to send me samples of denim, call them
back and order a set amount of denim to be sent to my garment manufacturer, and
then call him and tell him how many of what I want right from my rocking chair
at home.
4. Online selling. Totally possible if you use ebay or
know how to set up an E-commerce website yourself, but getting the credit card
system sorted out is a major cost. Lots of girls shop online now, you just need
to know how to market it right and get your products noticed.
5. Promo. Get it out there! Make sure your friends buy
your products or you could give out freebies. Put stickers, advertising your
shop, wherever you can. Be shameless because designers are really admired (as
opposed to being a 'salesperson'), especially if your product is favorable.
6. Don't waste your time on silly details. I'll let you
figure out what those are.
7. Get your accounts sorted out now. Segregate your
personal and business spending, so you can claim back GST with no problems. Make
sure every transaction (sales, purchasing, spending, etc.) goes through your
account, so you can see how well you’re doing by looking at your bank statement.
Use the ATM machine for petty cash; your accountant will love you one day for
this.
8. Have fun! It’s not the end of the world if it doesn't
work out. I was just thinking how involved my life is at the moment with my
T-Shirt business. My life revolves around it, which is crazy, but if it all fell
apart and closed down tomorrow I’d be the same person and I’d find something
else to do! I make sure I take one day off during the week to do what I love
that doesn’t involve my work. I love doing my work, so I’m very lucky in that
aspect, but sometimes it gets boring or tedious so I make sure I stay fresh and
focused.
9. Work hard. I still do after three years. I work my butt
off and hardly make any money off it, but I know it’s worth it in the long run
and the things you learn along the way are invaluable.
10. Give away free stuff! People love free T-Shirts and
sponsorship goes a long way. It’s also your duty, being in business and
generating wealth, to share that with society in some way (Example: Old stock
goes in recycle clothing bins, etc.).
Check the story out at involved... choice!
www.involved.co.nz
If you’d like to copy this article and place it on your
website or pass it around, then you are FREE to do so as long as you copy the
article in it’s entirety, keep the links intact, and don’t make any
modifications whatsoever.
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