How to Start a T-Shirt Business

How to Start a T-Shirt Business

Want to see your designs worn around the world? Then it might be time to start a t-shirt business. Here's a quick article on how to do it.

In the past 10 years, the market for online original design t-shirt sales has almost doubled! In the United States alone, people spend more than $612 million on these t-shirts every year. Although the industry took a hit in the early days of the pandemic, it is now growing at a rate of between 2% and 4% every year.

This kind of growth means that there is plenty of room in the market for another t-shirt business. With the right designs and marketing, you can reach customers in new ways and differentiate yourself from your competitors. However, you will first need to figure out how to start a t-shirt business.

Although that may seem daunting, it does not have to be. With the right techniques, you can get your business up and running as soon as possible.

Read on to learn about the most important steps to take as you are starting a t-shirt business!

Find Out What Customers Are Missing

One of the most essential principles in business is finding out what your customers want. You may not have customers right now, so you can focus on finding out what your future customers want.

Think about who you will appeal to once your business is up and running. In many cases, this will be determined by your marketing strategy. Think about where you will be sharing information about your business and who will be looking at it.

Then, get in touch with people from the relevant audience in advance. Ask them about what problems they have with the t-shirt companies already out there.

You can also float some of your ideas past them and ask if they would buy them. Keep in mind that many people may say yes if what they really mean is that they think that your designs are good.

Consider asking your question in such a way that makes their answer more definitive. Ask them if they would like to buy one of your specific t-shirt designs if you can provide the actual t-shirt to them.

The more customers from your target market you can speak with, the better understanding you will have of which of your products will be most likely to drive your business to succeed.

In the course of speaking with potential customers, you may also discover that there are unsolved problems in the t-shirt business space. If you listen to your potential customers, they may tell you exactly what you need to know to turn them from potential customers to actual customers. That will also help you decide how to design your business.

Get Ready to Sell Online

One of the most amazing things about modern business is that you can start selling products before you even have them. For example, you can set up a website that shows your shirt designs and a price.

If someone indicates they would like to buy one of your t-shirts, then you can arrange to create and send that shirt to them and give them an estimated arrival time. This is possible because there are companies that can print out custom t-shirt designs on demand and send them to your customers.

This way, you do not have to invest in expensive inventory and risk no one wanting to buy it from you. Instead, you can display your future inventory and then only order the t-shirts that customers end up wanting to buy.

It is hard to overestimate how much this simplifies starting a t-shirt business. This strategy can allow almost anyone to start a business and see if their designs appeal to customers, even if they do not have much startup capital or experience in the business.

Try Out Many Designs

One of the most important things for designers to remember is that they have to be willing to "kill their babies." In other words, they have to be willing to abandon the designs that they personally love but that others are not interested in.

Don't make the mistake of putting up only your favorite t-shirt designs. Instead, put up a wide variety of designs that appeal to a variety of target markets.

Then, double down on the options that customers respond to the most. This is another example of listening to your customers to help you figure out how to design your business.

Find a Garment Printing Partner

Before you start offering to sell your t-shirts online, it is a good idea to know which company you will order t-shirts from if you get a customer. There are many options out there, so you may benefit from sorting through them by looking at their overall ratings.

You will probably want to avoid any garment printing companies that have poor ratings. Among the options with acceptable ratings, you can also read through their written reviews. Then, make a list of whichever options seem like good choices to you.

You can then reach out to your top choice and see if things work out. If they do not, then you will already have some backup options ready to go.

As you read through reviews, you might want to look for phrases like DTF supplies. Companies that offer DTF supplies can also sell you the materials you need to make t-shirts on your own

Understand How to Start a T-Shirt Business

We hope that learning about how to start a t-shirt business has been helpful to you. Starting a business does not require huge amounts of startup capital or assuming large amounts of risk. With the right techniques, you can start a t-shirt business with minimum risk and maximum potential.

To learn more about how to start and succeed with your t-shirt business, take a loot at our other pages!