Things to Consider Before Starting a T-shirt Printing Business

Although modern technology and tools for designing are readily available in the market today, printing, as well as shipping the products, makes starting a small startup shirt designing business pretty simple; the difficult part is making the brand stand out from other companies with the same concept.

Combine the competition with the small margin you can get from this business, building an online tee shirt business becomes quite harder than everyone expected. To be successful in this industry, entrepreneurs have to make the right moves from the get-go.

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Niche

We hear this word tossed around quite often, but nowhere is more important to choose the perfect niche than in the shirt design business. One of the most crucial factors in starting a successful tee business is the ability to stand out. One excellent way to do that is by catering to a particular audience or interested groups of people.

Generally speaking, categories like “shirts who like funny quotes” are going to be too extensive to address in a developed market. Owners are going to want to tighten it up more. For instance, a more specific niche would be “shirts with cool and funny slogans that relate to nurses and doctors, or cat owners.” There are a lot of ways to evaluate and find a good niche, to name a few:

Visit possible niche’s site, social media pages, or subreddits and evaluate its subscriber count, as well as its level of engagement.

Use FB’s Audience Insights feature to gauge the size of the niche you are planning to engage on Facebook.

Scan the list of popular hobbies on websites like Wikipedia for more inspiration.

Consider your interests and communities you are in – sometimes, it is the right move to trust your instincts.

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Design

The last thing visitors need or want is to see in the company’s catalog is a copy of the shirt design found on another company catalog. Designs do not necessarily need to be complicated, as a matter of fact, a lot of best-selling graphic shirts are minimalistic and very simple. But they do need to connect with their audience and have to stand out from other businesses with the same concept.

To make sure the print quality, the design files need to be at least 300 PPI (pixels per inch) or DPI (digital pixels per inch), have a transparent background, as well as large enough to include the print area of the clothing being printed. Remember that exact specifications will differ depending on the printing technique and printer used (more in the printing technique).

Quality

Another relevant factor to the success, as well as the sustainability of this type of business is the quality of the product. Entrepreneurs can disappoint consumers once, but they will not let them disappoint them the second time around. A pattern that cracks and fades or a tee that rips and shrinks will not create raving consumers that repurchase or come back.

Higher quality products might cost more to reproduce, but they can also order a higher price. The final quality of the T-shirt still depends on the material used on the shirt, the printing technique used, as well as the right preparation for the design file.

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Brand

An exciting and reliable brand is very crucial in this industry. The brand is a promise that ties together every choice, including the niche, quality, and designs. Creating a likable and unique brand is very important for a business in an industry that is pretty competitive.

When consumers have a lot of choices, it becomes very crucial for eCommerce businesses to have a distinguished presence to help capture the consumer’s attention. If an entrepreneur has chosen a niche that personifies a specific lifestyle, they can include it into their website and marketing plan to speak to their target market, like what Sugoi Shirts are doing with their streetwear and anime collection.

Inventory

When starting this type of business, a lot of people either buy and hold or opt inventory, benefiting from local printers and bulk pricing. They can also use print-on-demand services to make their shipping and inventory management off their plate or use a little of both. By holding to their inventory, they can easily sell in-person, as well as potentially improve their margin of profits.

Whereas if they use print-on-demand, they take less risk. Entrepreneurs need to weigh the pros and cons before starting a business, and if they are unsure, they can always use print-on-demand, since it is always a low-investment way to help test one of their ideas. Of course, if a company or an individual has the right budget for it, they can always invest their money in a reliable printer and set up an excellent operation base.