Complete Guide on How to Start a T-Shirt Printing Business

If you want to start a t-shirt printing business then it is the right choice. It is one of the profitable business ideas available out there.

Today, with the internet and digital printing services, starting a t-shirt business is easier and less expensive than ever. In fact, some resources allow you to design a t-shirt of different to attract more customers.

Creating a T-shirt that speaks to resources and sells it still requires a plan, equipment, and other things. In this article, we will talk about the following things about the t-shirt printing business:

How to start a t-shirt printing business
Business plan for t-shirt printing business
Investment Required

Equipment for t-shirt printing business
Profit estimation
Marketing strategy for increasing sales

Table of Contents

Start T-Shirt Printing Business

Here are steps for starting a t-shirt printing business:

1. Design T-Shirts

It can be difficult to know what kind of t-shirts do well with the community, so you may need to test different ideas. In addition, you need to make sure that you do not use copyrighted or trademarked material in your articles.

Make sure you create the highest quality design that will look right on the size you want on your t-shirt. While the design may look good on your computer, it may not look good on a T-shirt. You could consider hiring a designer to create a high-quality image.

A good design will attract more customers and will also increase profit.

2. Check your design

Before you start investing, research to find out if your T-shirt will attract buyers.

In the beginning, decide who the ideal buyer of your t-shirt idea will be and then seek out members in that market to get their feedback on your idea.

You not only want to know when they will buy your t-shirt but also, how much they will pay.

3. Select a Unique Business Name

You can create and start selling t-shirts online in minutes, but if you are planning to make money from it, you need to build a legitimate business. Starting a business starts with coming up with a business name.

Your name should reflect your t-shirt business, but don’t limit your ability to stretch on your t-shirt line.

After you choose a name for a business, do some research regarding that maybe someone already might have used the name and also check the domain name that should be available for that business name.

4. Write a business plan

Although selling t-shirts sounds straightforward, like every business, but without a plan, you will spend more time and money.

Your business plan sets out your product, good market, financial forecasts, and sales goals.

5. Make your business legal in your country

Along with the business name, you need to determine the structure of your business and obtain the necessary licenses and permits. Business licenses are issued by your local city or local business office.

If you are using an online t-shirt service and selling your shirt through its online portal, you may not need a sales tax permit.

However, if you sell your shirts through your website or by yourself (e.g. factories or markets), then you may need to apply for a sales tax permit with your district office.

6. Decide the Price of T-Shirts

Review the various options for creating t-shirts (e.g. online resources and local t-shirt printers) to find the price you can buy.

The price you pay will depend on the size and number of colors of the design, the type of print you choose, and the quality of the t-shirt you choose.

Depending on your cost, buy your T-shirt so you can cover your expenses (not just the cost of a t-shirt, but other business expenses like sales and more). Remember that you don’t want to keep up with the price people won’t pay.

7. Printer Selection

Choose the right printer that fits your needs and gives the best result. For that, you need a consultation and do online research and buy one based on reviews.

8. Protect your design rights

Just as you don’t want to violate another company’s trademark, you do not want others to make a profit from your invention.

Look to protect your design, logo, and/or slogan with copyright or trademark.

9. Advertise and Promote Your T-Shirts

There are many ways to promote your new t-shirt, but they all start with knowing the best buyer of your t-shirt (age, gender, etc.), where to find him, and placing your T-shirt in front of them.

You can promote your products which include Facebook or other PPC advertising, handicrafts or bazaars, Etsy, and eCommerce sites.

Advantages of T-Shirt Printing Business

Unlike a digital printing business that requires machine assistance at a fairly expensive price, you can also run a manual t-shirt printing business using simple equipment and can start with a business capital that is not too large. But digital printers may give you the best results.
In addition, the high level of public love for t-shirts makes this t-shirt printing business have very good market prospects.

It is not surprising that nowadays many people consider the prospect of this t-shirt printing business as one of the long-term businesses that will still be needed to support the development of the fashion business in USA, Canada, ad many other countries.

Disadvantages of T-Shirt Printing Business

The tight competition in the market often presents an obstacle for the t-shirt printing business.
It can even be said that currently, the competition that is faced is not only from fellow manual t-shirt printing business players but also from the onslaught of business competition from digital t-shirt-printing business owners who have recently started offering innovations to potential consumers.

For that, as a manual t-shirt printing business, of course, you have to be smart in choosing a marketing strategy and try to provide more value to your customers.

Marketing Strategy for T-Shirt Printing Business

Marketing strategy certainly plays an important role in developing a t-shirt printing business. Therefore, expand the business relationships you have and promote the advantages of the products you produce.

For example, collaborating with boutique owners to entrust the t-shirts that you produce, offering your services to several companies, event organizers, or student and general organizations who are interested in making a uniform t-shirt.

Here is a video that a famous YouTuber and motivational speaker has uploaded on how you can increases sales:

In addition to targeting mass consumers, you can also attract individual consumers by offering screen printing services for individual t-shirts and couple t-shirts, which have recently become popular among young people.

Next, introduce your screen printing business to the general public. You can use online and offline promotion strategies to inform the business to the wider community.

For example, by creating a website in cyberspace, promoting your t-shirt products on social networking sites, opening connections in well-known online forums, and opening a trading booth in buying and selling forums (FJB) to promote your business in the global market.

As for offline promotions, you can start by distributing brochures to the surrounding community, and you can also make neon boxes or large banners bearing the name of your business and the t-shirt printing services you offer, then installed them in front of your business location.

T-Shirt Printing Business Equipment and Cost Estimation

EQUIPMENT	PRICE (USD)	PRICE (INR)
T-shirt Printing Machine	$402.15	₹30,000
Any Good Colour Inkjet Printer	$335.13	₹25,000
Custom Plain T-Shirt	$1 to $5	₹70 – ₹350
Sublimation Paper	$13.41	₹1000
Sublimation Tape	$6.70	₹500
Teflon Sheets	$9.38	₹500

Prices for the equipment and machines may vary from time to time and country to country. But you can buy equipment from anywhere, even in online stores.

Profit from T-Shirt Printing Business

Let’s suppose you set the price of one t-shirt at $10 and the cost for making that t-shirt will be $7 then your profit will be $3.

It is a rough example, several expenses in business should be included in the cost and for an instance, we take it as $1. Then your profit will be $2.

It has a great potential to earn profits. Taking the above example, I will show you how much you earn if you sell 500 t-shirts in a month.

Profit on 1 piece = $2
Profit on 500 pieces = 500×2 = $1000 in a month

Conclusion

Now you are aware of how you can start a t-shirt printing business and its business plan, t-shirt printing business equipment, and machines requirements, and market strategy. Many people all around the world are earning good profits from this business and you can too be successful in this business.

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If you have any questions about reading the t-shirt printing business, feel free to contact us.

Complete Guide on How to Start a T-Shirt Printing Business