Essential Tips For Running a Successful T-Shirt Business
The t-shirt business has recently made a resurgence as more people want fun and funny t-shirts with their favorite sayings and graphics that tell the world what they are about. It is a great time to start your own t-shirt business, whether you do the designing yourself or pay someone to do it for you. Here are some tips for starting and running a successful t-shirt business.
Come Up With a Unique Niche or Design
Before you even think about funding your business or deciding how to print the shirts, you need to come up with a solid plan. Generic t-shirt businesses don't do as well as those that have a very specific target market. This allows you to fit within a narrow niche where you might not have quite as much competition, ultimately helping you to improve your business potential. To find your niche, figure out who you want to sell the t-shirts to. Whether you are looking at selling them to teenagers, moms, or doctors, you need to find a single group of people that often wear t-shirts and that you can market to easily.
Once you have your niche narrowed down, it is easier to come up with the designs. Here is where you can either be creative and design them yourself or you can come up with the ideas, but have a professional graphic designer actually create the finished product for you.
Get the Right Printing Equipment
Now that the designing process is underway, you need to think about how you will print the t-shirts. Your two main options are to go with screen printing or digital printing. While screen printing has been around for longer and is undoubtedly a great way to print t-shirts, digital printing also has many advantages. When you choose digital printing, the computer will process your designs, then print it onto the surface of the t-shirt. You can pay a digital printing company to handle the printing for you, or if you plan to do the manufacturing on our own, you will need to purchase the printing equipment.
Decide Between Retail and Wholesale
With t-shirts, you can also decide between selling retail or wholesale, or both. With retail sales, you sell the t-shirts directly to the customers, such as having a local retail store or selling them online then shipping them to the customer. With wholesale, you are selling the t-shirts to the retailers, who will then turn a profit by charging more than you charged to the distributor. It is not uncommon to do both, further increasing your potential profits.
Develop a Strong Marketing Strategy
Your final step is to work on your marketing strategy. Try to branch out and not stick to just one form of marketing. This includes advertising locally, as well as online. Look at advertising through a website and blog, social media sites, and ad campaigns. Also advertise locally, attending trade shows and street fairs with some of your most popular t-shirt designs.
