Running Your T-shirt Design Business
The first step to take in order to launch a printing business on the right track is quite obviously to purchase the equipment. While another section already touched on the expenses of certain cogs in the system, the overall price has not really been considered.
A starting business need to seriously consider the idea of purchasing a “starter pack”. They can be found across many websites, although once again, XPres provide a great solution for UK based clients.
For around £2500, one can get a basic package with all the equipment necessary to launch a printing business. The package includes a printer, a digital cutter, weeder, silicon paper, and an extensive support program to aid those first few weeks. Free installation advice is also included in the deal.
In the local market, this option may also be available, but Filipino would-be entrepreneurs need to scour the market carefully and on foot to ascertain the best package.
Naturally, depending on the equipment considered to build the business around, it may be critical to also invest on a complementary package. For example, those looking to take the vinyl approach will need to obtain a special vinyl cutter, and the price range for this is very expensive. It should be noted that the more expensive machines may be priced higher than that special vinyl cutter!
All of the equipment discussed so far is relatively lasting in its life span. Heat presses will not be replaced every month, nor printers will be re-ordered on an annual basis.
An important point to consider is the actual pricing strategy that will be employed once the business is off the ground. The focus is naturally to generate profit, but it can be a little tricky to find the right price quota if the business is just getting started.
This is where evaluating the business approach of rivals is going to be so crucial. Depending on whether the business entered the market with high end related T-shirts, or the cheaper novelty set – it needs to get the price right.
How much money is expected to be received in return for putting up the business venture? Is the owner more interested in increased sales than the money in being plowed back to their pockets? The owner’s personal situation is once again crucial to establishing a pricing strategy for the business. The owner should not lose sight of their original intentions.
Getting your T-shirt Design Business to Succeed
Where would a T-shirt printing business be if it did not have any customers? Nowhere, is the answer. Without selling the products, a business will not be getting anywhere too soon. So where should the focus of marketing be to increase sales?
Following the boom of user generated content, MySpace has developed in to a hot spot of niche business activity. A brief search will provide dozens of T-shirt trading businesses, all seeking to gain the attention of a growing audience.
You can look at this in two ways. Either it is a saturated market and already exploited, or it is offering something rewarding and exists for a reason.
EBay, on the other hand, does just that. By creating a store on the world’s number one auction site, one can plunge straight in to a market where customers are visiting with the mind to part with their hard earned cash. Be prepared to face competition – and eBay charges. There is a cost to advertise the products and a commission to eBay when each T-shirt is sold.
Another option is to build a commerce store. This provides full creative license to present products as the seller wish, but it also involves a greater depth of involvement on the site maintenance side.
Selling to friends. Hey, if they are friends, they better help to get an aspiring enterprise off the ground!
Not every sales transaction has to be initiated by the customer. If the seller is absolutely certain that their T-shirt design is a success story waiting to happen, they will not dwell on it. They will just approach a proper retail outlet and pitch the idea of selling them their products. In most cases, this will lead to rejection – although not necessarily down to lack of quality. A good way to do this is to find an outlet which specializes in the field that the T-shirt is catered to. Maybe the design of a shirt should be done with a company in mind to increase its marketability.
It should not be ruled out the wonderfully profitable business of acting as a provider to T-shirt requests. It is one area when the seller can really inflate their prices and make maximum gain. The attractiveness of basketball games and boxing matches among Filipinos can create a huge demand for customized and personalized T-shirts.
Protecting Your T-shirt Design
So you’ve perfected your latest T-shirt through painstaking hours of endless adjustments…and somebody’s stolen it. That can’t be fair, can it? No, it can’t be.
Protecting your work is one of those steps which many businesses will completely ignore through inconvenience. But those very same businesses could eventually be left to resent the decision. How do you protect your designs?
It’s possible to trademark your designs, but ultimately, a huge deficit in your budget. A more viable option is to copyright them. If you notice anybody stealing your work – most commonly practiced on sites such as CafePress where they don’t have to own their own equipment – it’s possible to send a C&D (Cease and Desist) to the support team of the website. This should invite an investigation in to the activity and providing that you can prove that the design has been unlawfully stolen, you’ll be entitled to every last penny back.
Copywriting is protective in the sense that it stops people taking your work and re-distributing it directly. But it can’t be relied on for issues where somebody has modified it significantly.
These are murky waters for your T-shirt design business, but the lenience is partly down to the fact that many designs are unknowingly similar. We all take inspiration from somewhere, and unless a design is clearly and obviously stolen, it can be very hard to prove in the legal sense – and expensive too.
Getting advice for your T-shirt Design Business
It is a lonely world when one starts up their business and cannot get it up and running. That is why the Internet can be so beneficial for getting useful insight from the people who are already successful.
Be sure to check out T-ShirtForums.com for an active range of tips, support and general advice.
Conclusion
Running any business, through commercial or hobbyist intentions, is going to take a lot of hard work and a lengthy display of commitment.
If one is setting out on the road to become the next T-shirt printing guru, they have to look around at what their rivals are producing. One should use their creative talents and ask themselves how they can do it better. With the inspiration driving and the determination to make a success present, there is no reason why this writer will not be wearing a newly-designed T-shirt sometime soon.
Equipment
http://www.xpres.co.uk/
http://www.targettransfers.com/
Cutters
http://www.rolanddg.co.uk/
T-shirt Suppliers
http://www.polo-shirts.co.uk/
Reference:
Thinking of starting a T-Shirt Design Business
The first step to take in order to launch a printing business on the right track is quite obviously to purchase the equipment. While another section already touched on the expenses of certain cogs in the system, the overall price has not really been considered.
A starting business need to seriously consider the idea of purchasing a “starter pack”. They can be found across many websites, although once again, XPres provide a great solution for UK based clients.
For around £2500, one can get a basic package with all the equipment necessary to launch a printing business. The package includes a printer, a digital cutter, weeder, silicon paper, and an extensive support program to aid those first few weeks. Free installation advice is also included in the deal.
In the local market, this option may also be available, but Filipino would-be entrepreneurs need to scour the market carefully and on foot to ascertain the best package.
Naturally, depending on the equipment considered to build the business around, it may be critical to also invest on a complementary package. For example, those looking to take the vinyl approach will need to obtain a special vinyl cutter, and the price range for this is very expensive. It should be noted that the more expensive machines may be priced higher than that special vinyl cutter!
All of the equipment discussed so far is relatively lasting in its life span. Heat presses will not be replaced every month, nor printers will be re-ordered on an annual basis.An important point to consider is the actual pricing strategy that will be employed once the business is off the ground. The focus is naturally to generate profit, but it can be a little tricky to find the right price quota if the business is just getting started.
This is where evaluating the business approach of rivals is going to be so crucial. Depending on whether the business entered the market with high end related T-shirts, or the cheaper novelty set – it needs to get the price right.
How much money is expected to be received in return for putting up the business venture? Is the owner more interested in increased sales than the money in being plowed back to their pockets? The owner’s personal situation is once again crucial to establishing a pricing strategy for the business. The owner should not lose sight of their original intentions.
Getting your T-shirt Design Business to Succeed
Where would a T-shirt printing business be if it did not have any customers? Nowhere, is the answer. Without selling the products, a business will not be getting anywhere too soon. So where should the focus of marketing be to increase sales?
Following the boom of user generated content, MySpace has developed in to a hot spot of niche business activity. A brief search will provide dozens of T-shirt trading businesses, all seeking to gain the attention of a growing audience.You can look at this in two ways. Either it is a saturated market and already exploited, or it is offering something rewarding and exists for a reason.
EBay, on the other hand, does just that. By creating a store on the world’s number one auction site, one can plunge straight in to a market where customers are visiting with the mind to part with their hard earned cash. Be prepared to face competition – and eBay charges. There is a cost to advertise the products and a commission to eBay when each T-shirt is sold.
Another option is to build a commerce store. This provides full creative license to present products as the seller wish, but it also involves a greater depth of involvement on the site maintenance side.
Selling to friends. Hey, if they are friends, they better help to get an aspiring enterprise off the ground!
Not every sales transaction has to be initiated by the customer. If the seller is absolutely certain that their T-shirt design is a success story waiting to happen, they will not dwell on it. They will just approach a proper retail outlet and pitch the idea of selling them their products. In most cases, this will lead to rejection – although not necessarily down to lack of quality. A good way to do this is to find an outlet which specializes in the field that the T-shirt is catered to. Maybe the design of a shirt should be done with a company in mind to increase its marketability.
It should not be ruled out the wonderfully profitable business of acting as a provider to T-shirt requests. It is one area when the seller can really inflate their prices and make maximum gain. The attractiveness of basketball games and boxing matches among Filipinos can create a huge demand for customized and personalized T-shirts.Protecting Your T-shirt Design
So you’ve perfected your latest T-shirt through painstaking hours of endless adjustments…and somebody’s stolen it. That can’t be fair, can it? No, it can’t be.
Protecting your work is one of those steps which many businesses will completely ignore through inconvenience. But those very same businesses could eventually be left to resent the decision. How do you protect your designs?
It’s possible to trademark your designs, but ultimately, a huge deficit in your budget. A more viable option is to copyright them. If you notice anybody stealing your work – most commonly practiced on sites such as CafePress where they don’t have to own their own equipment – it’s possible to send a C&D (Cease and Desist) to the support team of the website. This should invite an investigation in to the activity and providing that you can prove that the design has been unlawfully stolen, you’ll be entitled to every last penny back.
Copywriting is protective in the sense that it stops people taking your work and re-distributing it directly. But it can’t be relied on for issues where somebody has modified it significantly.
These are murky waters for your T-shirt design business, but the lenience is partly down to the fact that many designs are unknowingly similar. We all take inspiration from somewhere, and unless a design is clearly and obviously stolen, it can be very hard to prove in the legal sense – and expensive too.Getting advice for your T-shirt Design Business
It is a lonely world when one starts up their business and cannot get it up and running. That is why the Internet can be so beneficial for getting useful insight from the people who are already successful.
Be sure to check out T-ShirtForums.com for an active range of tips, support and general advice.
Conclusion
Running any business, through commercial or hobbyist intentions, is going to take a lot of hard work and a lengthy display of commitment.
If one is setting out on the road to become the next T-shirt printing guru, they have to look around at what their rivals are producing. One should use their creative talents and ask themselves how they can do it better. With the inspiration driving and the determination to make a success present, there is no reason why this writer will not be wearing a newly-designed T-shirt sometime soon.
Equipment
http://www.xpres.co.uk/
http://www.targettransfers.com/
Cutters
http://www.rolanddg.co.uk/
T-shirt Suppliers
http://www.polo-shirts.co.uk/
Reference:
Thinking of starting a T-Shirt Design Business
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