Dear Steemians,
Nothing is easier than setting up a shop online. You might think about how am I going to buy the shirts and manage inventory for my company? DO NOT worry there are many places where you just have to upload a design and shop is already set.
These companies are offering on demand printing without any upfront cost. What it means is they will only print the shirt if someone buys it and they will do every step along the process. The handling of the order, printing, shipping, customer service and you get certain percentage from the sale. I think this is a win-win for everybody.
You don't need to sweat about contacting different suppliers and printers about making your shirts while you are trying to minimize your costs. You don't need to think about handling inventory and shipping which can be a painful process. It is also easy for the company because they have the infrastructure and connections to make and ship the shirts and if people are supplying them with designs they don't have to stop producing.
1. Get a design
Now you have different options. You are either talented and have experience in making quality designs or you can hire a professional who will do it for you. For example on Fiver you can get T-Shirt designs for 2-3$ and you can use these for commercial use.
And why would you struggle learning photoshop or any other designing softwares if you don't have to. It's easier to buy designs tailored to your need than making one. And what's the point in spending money and a lot of time on trying to learn something when there are plenty of amazing designers out there. Leave the work for professionals. Check https://www.fiverr.com/
Choosing the design is crucial. You need to make sure it is not protected by copyright and it's free to use. Work smart not hard! You can use the print on demand technique here as well. There are sites like https://www.trackreddit.com where you can track the comments for example for "I want this t-shirt" and make the ones people are desperate for.
You can make the same searches on twitter, instagram and pinterest. Don't be afraid to use them for research. An other way is checking communities, fan clubs on Facebook. Just think about how desperate people for Game of Thrones T-shirts for example. But with these you need to be careful with the copyrighting issues.
2. Set up your business
Depending on where you live you might need to set up a company for taxing purposes if you are planning to sell the T-Shirts in person or on your own website. If you are using the on demand printers it's all right.
You need to think about what your companies profile is going to be. Choose a name according to your profile and stick with it. If it's about Game of Thrones don't start selling shirts for cyclists for example. If you have more ideas start different profiles with different names.
Also think about what your goal is. How can you help others with this company? Do you know any local designers? Great make the logo with them. Always support local people and try to find issues you can donate to. What's the point of having money if you're not helping with it.
3. Protect your own design
It's is as important as checking your work is not violating trademark infringements. Make sure to protect your own designs and slogans by trademark or copyrights.
4. Select the site you want to go with
As I mentioned you have different options when you choose the company. I will list them for you and share my own experience using them as of May, 2018.
- Merch by Amazon (https://merch.amazon.com/landing)
This is probably the biggest one. If you can manage to get a high ranking with one of your design this can net you a nice amount of money. They have their own search engine so you need to spend some time optimizing it. Users usually doesn't go past the 3rd page so that should be your aim.
Sometimes it takes a lot of time to get approved so I would suggest to sign up right away!
Spreadshirt.com (https://www.spreadshirt.com/)
Easy to set up it is quite easy to create your own store and upload your designs. It has many products not just T-shirt and you can showcase them in your store.Teespring (https://teespring.com/)
This is my favorite out of the these companies. It has a minimalist design and easy to use interface. You can have different products with your logo and you can also create your own store.
5. Spread the world about your shirts
Now you have your business but no one knows about it yet. So don't be afraid to share it with the world. Use the major platform like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter etc. Write about them, buy some of them for yourself and make pictures. Don't be afraid to share in community groups on Reddit for example.
So all in all what you need is about 10$ do make 3-4 designs. I wouldn't recommend going with more than 3-4 designs in the beginning. Start marketing your shop and shirts and than you can expand your shop.
