If you have a computer, a color inkjet printer and a lot of desire to work, then you are ready to start your New business!
What is the business
Basically the custom t-shirt printing business consists of offering your customers t-shirts with their favorite prints of their choice. For example, you can imagine a t-shirt with a photo of your children and a personalized message, or how about your favorite car or the logo of your organization. Or just anything.
For your part, the work is summarized in 2 activities:
- Prepare the design according to customer requirements
- Print it on the t-shirt using the Digital Transfer technique
Digital Transfer Technique
Of all the techniques that exist for fabric printing, the most common and well-known are screen printing and embroidery. Both offer the best quality and versatility but with the drawback that they are cost-effective only with runs in large quantities of prints and therefore limit customization.
Advantage that can be perfectly exploited with the Digital Transfer technique that allows easy and economical transfer of images to fabric using a special plastic paper called the same way and a thermal plate. And the best thing is that it can be done by printing by unit or small quantities.
The stamping technique is as simple as:
- Print the image on Transfer paper with a home printer (color inkjet)
- Transfer the image onto the fabric by hot ironing (with a conventional iron)
How the business is marketed
- Basically you should start by printing some samples of t-shirts, better if they are of various colors and with very attractive and colorful designs in such a way that your potential clients can appreciate the final product and be interested.
- You can offer the product to your friends, family, neighbors and acquaintances with the advantage that they can bring you their own photos or indicate what kind of image they want on their t-shirts.
- Can you do alliances with third party businesses such as neighborhood stores, stationery stores, Internet cafes, mini-supermarkets, etc., bringing some samples of the product to them along with some agreement on prices and commissions in exchange for them being intermediaries to get you customers.
- You should clearly establish your rates and offer better prices for more impressions. Regularly a printed t-shirt can cost an average of US $ 15 to US $ 20 depending on the quality of the shirt.
- You will also have to establish delivery times where speed is convenient. The sooner the better. Remember that the customer is demanding and the sooner you deliver their product, the better they will recommend you.
About Costs.
Basically the costs that you should consider for your t shirt printing business son.
- Initial investment costs: personal computer, printer, iron and ironer (if you don’t already have them),an estimated $ 450
- Investment costs in raw materials: 3 dozen T-shirts of different sizes ($ 100), a 25-sheet pack of Digital Transfer ($ 20), replacement inks for bulk printing ($ 20). Total: us$ 140.00 mensuales
- Other variable costs (monthly): Electricity, promotion and advertising, paper bags for delivery, flyers, etc. Approximately $ 50
Sales projection
If we consider that the cost per t-shirt printing is around US $ 5 and the sale price we are projecting it at $ 15, then the profit margin per printed t-shirt is US $ 10.
If you set a goal of selling 25 t-shirts in a month (less than 1 a day), then you would be making an approximate profit of US $ 250 a month, not bad for a small business, easy and practical.
Of course, the secret as in any business is in manage costs very well, look for distributors of t-shirts at a good price, as well as paper and inks. On the other hand, there are ways to professionalize the technique and offer a higher quality in the final product, but this can represent higher costs and higher prices to the customer.
Finally, remember that you will need to practice a little and refine the technique before offering the service to your acquaintances, especially due to the variety that exists in terms of quality of Transfer Paper and other supplies.
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