Starting a new business is both exciting and terrifying at the same time.
You have the opportunity to finally run things your way.
You can work as long and as hard as you want and reap all the rewards that come from that hard work and commitment.
Along with the reward though comes the responsibility of all aspects of your new business.
You take out the trash and write the checks and everything in between.
The t-shirt design industry is exploding right now with amazing designs and talented newcomers that will shape the industry for the next several years.
I have been in this industry awhile now and have seen shops open and close, seen online sites explode and implode, and watched as others tinkered with their own online shops through print on demand companies.
There is amazing opportunity right now to get involved in this highly creative and competitive field.
One design, like the smiley face, can literally make you a brand name overnight and propel your company to the heights you could only dream of before.
Imagine checking your website and seeing 500 orders for that one killer design and your heart races with excitement and the dollar signs fill your eyes.
Wait a minute, though! You now have 500 t-shirts to print, process, and ship.
It's like a dream and a nightmare all rolled in to one roller coaster of emotion.
It's what you wanted, but all that work is going to be time-consuming and you still have to design the next great shirt.
It's a delicate balancing act that can make you feel like you are literally walking a tight rope, but it's so worth it in the long run.
So what exactly do you need to get started at home with your new business.
You can apply these same principles to a store front if you are going that route, but for the sake of this article I'm assuming you want to start small.
Obviously you need a space to work.
You are going to need a computer with a software program to create your designs, such as Adobe Illustrator or the free program Gimp.
You will need a supply of blank shirts which you can get for around $1 to $1.
25 per shirt depending upon the bulk you purchase in.
There are three main methods for printing your designs: 1.
Silk Screen Printing - which is a method of burning an image with light on to a nylon screen and then applying dye ink to the shirt through the screen to arrive at your desired image.
For many years this was considered the only professional way to create shirts.
The start-up cost for this is in the neighborhood of $1200.
2.
Heat Press with transfers - A heat press is exactly what the name implies, it is a machine with two Teflon plates that press together over a shirt to transfer an inked image from a special transfer paper, thereby leaving that image on the shirt.
This is the most affordable method starting as low as a $600 investment.
3.
Direct To Garment (DTG) - This is a relatively new entrance in to the t-shirt design business and is simply a printer that puts your image directly to the garment instead of going through a transfer paper.
Cafe Press uses DTG printers for their shirts and the quality is great.
This is the least affordable option, however, with some printers being around $25,000.
You could possibly get going for under $10,000, but that's still a large investment to earn back.
Have a look at some more comparisons between these methods.
You have the opportunity to finally run things your way.
You can work as long and as hard as you want and reap all the rewards that come from that hard work and commitment.
Along with the reward though comes the responsibility of all aspects of your new business.
You take out the trash and write the checks and everything in between.
The t-shirt design industry is exploding right now with amazing designs and talented newcomers that will shape the industry for the next several years.
I have been in this industry awhile now and have seen shops open and close, seen online sites explode and implode, and watched as others tinkered with their own online shops through print on demand companies.
There is amazing opportunity right now to get involved in this highly creative and competitive field.
One design, like the smiley face, can literally make you a brand name overnight and propel your company to the heights you could only dream of before.
Imagine checking your website and seeing 500 orders for that one killer design and your heart races with excitement and the dollar signs fill your eyes.
Wait a minute, though! You now have 500 t-shirts to print, process, and ship.
It's like a dream and a nightmare all rolled in to one roller coaster of emotion.
It's what you wanted, but all that work is going to be time-consuming and you still have to design the next great shirt.
It's a delicate balancing act that can make you feel like you are literally walking a tight rope, but it's so worth it in the long run.
So what exactly do you need to get started at home with your new business.
You can apply these same principles to a store front if you are going that route, but for the sake of this article I'm assuming you want to start small.
Obviously you need a space to work.
You are going to need a computer with a software program to create your designs, such as Adobe Illustrator or the free program Gimp.
You will need a supply of blank shirts which you can get for around $1 to $1.
25 per shirt depending upon the bulk you purchase in.
There are three main methods for printing your designs: 1.
Silk Screen Printing - which is a method of burning an image with light on to a nylon screen and then applying dye ink to the shirt through the screen to arrive at your desired image.
For many years this was considered the only professional way to create shirts.
The start-up cost for this is in the neighborhood of $1200.
2.
Heat Press with transfers - A heat press is exactly what the name implies, it is a machine with two Teflon plates that press together over a shirt to transfer an inked image from a special transfer paper, thereby leaving that image on the shirt.
This is the most affordable method starting as low as a $600 investment.
3.
Direct To Garment (DTG) - This is a relatively new entrance in to the t-shirt design business and is simply a printer that puts your image directly to the garment instead of going through a transfer paper.
Cafe Press uses DTG printers for their shirts and the quality is great.
This is the least affordable option, however, with some printers being around $25,000.
You could possibly get going for under $10,000, but that's still a large investment to earn back.
Have a look at some more comparisons between these methods.