How to Run a T-Shirt Business? 10 Tips to Generate $50k Per month

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How to Run a T-Shirt Business? 10 Tips to Generate $50k Per month

Select a Suitable Location for your Company Have you ever thought about how to start a t-shirt business? And have you ever wondered how to generate $50k per month from your t-shirt business?

Starting a t-shirt business only needs a little investment and some technical knowledge and skills.

T-shirts are not just a staple of informal wear, but articles of clothing that often show our characters, interests, and identities.

And because of this, selling t-shirts has become a popular business choice, especially for entrepreneurs and artists looking to analyze a somewhat low investment business to start.

With the rage of t-shirt businesses, there is no doubt you will be facing some competitors.

But by creating a brand for a specific audience and creating the types of t-shirt designs that your clients want, you can find your success.

So here in this blog we are suggesting you some tips on how to run a t-shirt business successfully.

1. Find the Best Way To Start Your T-shirt Business

The first phase in the process of how to start a t-shirt business is to research to determine what t-shirt printing business is good for you.

Your t-shirt business needs to operate with your mentality, but should also appeal to your customers’ needs and desires.

You may want to run a store focused on a specific group of people, such as company t-shirts, one that caters to everyone, or you may want storage where you focus on e-commerce.

You are not restricted to just one kind, but the type of t-shirts printing business you choose will affect every conclusion you make going forward.

 2. Understanding and Knowing the Skills of t-shirts Business

The following step in starting a t-shirt business is learning and knowing the skills you need to run the t-shirt business. A t-shirt business needs 5 elemental sets of skills to be successful:

  • Technology
  • Design
  • Marketing
  • Business Skills
  • Production/Printing

Let’s explore more in-depth each of these to see how they impact a custom t-shirt company.

Technology

The main skill you need to develop when learning how to start a t-shirt business is familiarity with the technical aspect of the industry.

Paying a developer to make a website selling t-shirts online can be expensive.

We have seen people spend $25k to not get what they want. It is important to understand the technical aspect before you start.

Technical skills that will need to be used in your t-shirt business include:

  • An e-commerce platform.
  • Payment processors.
  • Editing Software.
  • Marketing Software.

This data is really important when trying to figure out how to start a t-shirt business because the prices are much lower to run an e-commerce store with production from a print-on-demand company that manages the t-shirts printing and shipping of the online t-shirt business.

Most tech firms offer a free trial or low-cost tutorials on how to use their software. Be certain to use them. They were built to assist you to make the most of their offerings..

Designing Skills

Before you can sell t-shirts, you need to have t-shirt designs. Shirt designs are typically made by someone having graphic designing skills. Graphic Designer takes the idea for a shirt to design and makes it a reality.

T-shirt designs will generally include several steps in the designing process. The steps of designing your own t-shirts include:

  • Draw t-shirt designs by using digital software, like Photoshop or Illustrator.
  • Hold a pattern maker and cut the patterns for the design.
  • Create a prototype.
  • Create alterations.
  • Form a tech pack. A tech pack is just the design specifications you provide to a clothing manufacturer.
  • Source the materials and start manufacturing.

This process will modify some based on what types of machines you are using. There are a ton of great resources about how to design t-shirts. Here are some helpful resources for t-shirts designs:

  • Best Fashion Design Schools
  • Best Free Online Classes
  • Best Fashion Design Software
  • Best Print on Demand Companies

Marketing

Marketing is about moving where your target audience is to help them become familiar with your t-shirt printing, then turn that awareness into purchasing. Marketing can be done both online and via other channels.

Three of the largest marketing companies desire digital marketing to make up over half of all ad spending in 2021

You will need to be aware of the largest three places where you can promote your t-shirts:

  1. Facebook/Instagram
  2. Google
  3. Amazon

It is important to have social media accounts linked to your online t-shirt business to start an online company that will help you to sell t-shirts online and in person.

Each of these has a ton of resources to familiarize people on how to reach your target market with their marketing tools.

Make sure to introduce yourself to them; otherwise, you will be working in the dark and wasting a lot of time and money.

Business Skills

Business skills cover an expansive field including accounting, pricing, shipping, and handling inventory. To familiarize yourself with all of these would be a lifetime of learning.

In this blog, we have given a list of useful resources for getting more aware of the subject matter.

  • For Accounting – Udemy, EDX
  • For Pricing – Coursera, Udemy
  • For Shipping – Shopify, BigCommerce
  • For Inventory Management – TradeGecko, Unleashed

You can also see YouTube videos to learn almost anything these days.

Production and Printing Skills

Your t-shirt business will need to make t-shirts, which can be done by a manufacturer, or you can print your own t-shirts and other clothing products.

When people search for t-shirt printing near me, your business should appear in the search list of Google search engine.

If you are going to print t-shirts, you will need to know and understand how to make a shirt with different types of machines.

Some of the typical business techniques you will need to learn for running your t-shirt business include:

  • Screen Printing
  • Direct to Garment
  • Transfer Printing
  • Cad Cut Vinyl
  • Embroidery

3. Use Business Templates to manage your business effectively

Several business templates can help you in managing your business effectively. Today there are many business planners available on the internet that help entrepreneurs in managing their business in a proper and efficient manner.

Here we are suggesting you some business planning templates that can help you in managing your t-shirt business effectively.

This t-shirt order form is very helpful for both startup businesses and established businesses. It is super easy to edit in canva and the light color makes this template excellent.

Advantages of Editable T-shirt Order Form

This file is available as an instant download after buying.
⇒When you finish the checkout process, you will automatically get your order form download link.
⇒Then, you can easily have the key to the files.
⇒For verifying, you will also get an email from ETSY containing the download link.
⇒You can access this form any time as your item receipt is contained in the “PURCHASE” area of your account.

How to use this Printable T-Shirt Template

➤Buy this form.
➤ ASAP as you finish your payment process. Etsy will email you a link to download your file or template.
➤Download the file or template ( save in mind the form will download automatically in a zip file).
➤After downloading, drag to UNZIP it ( if you face any problem we are always ready to help you).
➤Unlock the template in Canva and fill/edit your form as you like.
➤To unlock the PDF make sure that you have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer.

This order tracker with navigation links is helpful in managing the order of your business. You can easily keep track of your orders of your business on a daily basis.

This is easily editable with canva.

Template Details

  • This reMarkable 2 T-Shirt Order Form Template screen is available with 1872×1404 resolution.
  • reMarkable 1 and 2 share the same screen resolution, so the files are fully consistent with reMarkable 1.
  • These files are carefully and well designed for right-handed reMarkable settings with therequired margin on the left side for the reMarkabletoolbar.
  • This is to be able to remain always open, without blocking the active page area.

What is included in this Order Tracker Template

Cover the whole Page.
➤ You will get One PDF File.
➤ Index Page.
➤ T-Shirt Order Form & Order Tracker available with Index Page & 100 Content Pages.
➤ Navigation Links available on Each Pages.

Instant Download

This file is available as an instant download after buying.
➤ When you finish the checkout process, you will automatically receive your To-Do List download link.
➤ Then, you can smoothly have access to the files.
➤ For proof, you will also get an email from ETSY containing the download link.
➤ You can access this form any time as your object receipt is contained in the “PURCHASE” area of your account.

How to import this Order Tracker Template

➤The PDF files can be imported into the reMarkable via the official reMarkable APP as any PDF file.

This printable clothing template is helpful for every clothing business. You can easily edit this on canva or pdf.

So in short, this canva template is easily editable in canva or pdf. You won’t face any difficulty in editing it.

What It contains

This order form is available in standard letter size A4.

  • This editable text pdf is editable in Canva and PDF.
  • Smoothly editable.
  • You will gain all the column-related payment methods.

How Does It Functions?

This file is available as an instant download after buying the item. This means NO WAITING!

⇒When you complete the checkout process, you will automatically gain your order form download link.

⇒Then, you can smoothly have access to the files.

⇒For verifying, you will also get an email from ETSY containing the download link.

⇒You can access this form any time as your product receipt is contained in the “PURCHASE” area of your account.

How to Use this Order Tracker

➤ Buy this editable t-shirt order tracker form.

➤ ASAP as you end your payment process. Etsy will send you an email link to download your file.

➤Download the file ( save this in mind that the form will be automatically downloaded in a zip file).

➤After downloading, drag to UNZIP it ( if you face any problem we are always ready to help you).

➤Open the template in Canva and fill/edit your form as you like.

➤To open the PDF make sure that you have Adobe Acrobat Reader downloaded on your computer.

This canva t shirt order tracker form will help you in managing your orders from your customer in an effective way.
It will lessen your work pressure and you will be able to do quality work.
With the help of this printable t-shirt order form you can easily manage and track your orders in an efficient and effective way.

What does this product contain?

  • This order tracker form is available in standard letter size A4.
  • This is smoothly editable in Canva and PDF.
  • Smoothly editable.
  • You will gain all the column-related payment approaches.

How Does It Perform?
⇒This editable t-shirt order tracker form is available as an instant download after purchasing. That signifies NO WAITING!
⇒When you complete the checkout procedure, you will automatically gain your order form download link.
⇒Then, you can effortlessly have access to the files.
⇒For affirmation, you will also get an email from ETSY having the download link.
⇒You can access this form any time as your item receipt is included in the “PURCHASE” area of your account.

How to use this Order Tracker Template?

 

➤Buy this canva t-shirt order tracker form.
➤ ASAP as you finish your payment process. Etsy will instantly email you a link to download your file.
➤Download the file ( hold this in mind that the form will be automatically installed in a zip file).
➤After installing, pull to UNZIP it ( if you face any kind of problem we are always ready to help you).
➤Unlock the template in Canva and fill/edit your form as you desire.
➤To unlock the PDF, always be sure that you have Adobe Acrobat Reader downloaded on your computer.

4. Decide the Name of your T-Shirt Business

We can not highlight enough the importance of the name you will give your t-shirt company.

The Name of your business will communicate what the company is all about. Hold on to reading for best practices when naming your clothing line business.

Does the name of your t-shirt company explain your business?

The name of the company clearly states what is the work of the company: make custom T-shirts. In addition, it is unique. There are not many companies with the same names.

The more effortless it is to identify what the company is focused on, the more effortless it is for your target audience to find it while controlling wasted spending on industries that use the same wording.

Does the name of your t-shirt business be easy to spell?

Make sure that the name of your t-shirt company is easy to remember when using a search engine.

A crazy name like Onomatopoeia Tees makes searching for your business difficult because it is already hard to spell.

Because individuals tend to type fast, it can be helpful to enlist domain names for typical misspellings of your t-shirt business name and forward them to your website to make it more effortless for buyers to find you.

Region or Location of your business

Including your region, state, county, or city recognizes you as a local business. For example, California Tees would obviously be focused on t-shirts.

Branding of your t-shirt business

Does the name of your t-shirt company fit your branding? Some business owners concentrate on visual ideas for a logo before a name.

The logo definitely tells people everything they need to know about what type of work the company does.

Register a Domain Name (.com) for your t-shirt Business

Find a suitable name for your t-shirt company for which the .com domain is easily available. It is the most recognizable for your business.

 5. Make a suitable plan for your business

You need a suitable business plan to help define your vision for the t-shirt company’s goals and strategy.

Its objective is to drive the focus of your t-shirt business by guiding decisions, securing financing, and creating partnerships with other companies.

One of the advantages of starting a t-shirt printing company as a franchise is that many of the decisions are made for you, simplifying the strategy.

The franchise will generally specify or help you with:

  • Suppliers
  • Location preference and lease negotiation
  • Design and structure of the store
  • Training
  • Marketing
  • Recruitment

Having a stretchy business plan that is constantly evolving is the best approach to the process and allows for businesses to pivot when required.

6. Create a Legal Structure

You have created a name and business plan. Now you need to establish the legal system for your t-shirt business.

For best results, hire legal representation that has knowledge and experience for starting a business, like a lawyer, accountant, or tax specialist.

They will help you in getting your business started quickly so you can start selling t-shirts faster.

7. Getting Ready for Buyers

After giving a name to your business and establishing a legal entity, Your t-shirt business is now an entity, but there is more.

The order you do the rest of the steps will rely on the resources you have, your skill sets, and the type of t-shirt business you are running.

There are six regions of business you will require to focus on to get you running:

  • Location of your Business – Where will you be functioning?
  • Inventory or Stock – What will you have in your store and how will you pay for it?
  • Employees – Will you have workers or employees and how will you make sure it is a safe working environment?
  • Finances – How will you keep a record of your transactions and financial records?
  • Insurance – How can you save what you are building?
  • Marketing – How will you find buyers for your business?

8. Select a Suitable Location for your Company

Searching for a suitable location for your t-shirt business will change based on the type of t-shirt business you are handling.

For example, if there are specific major buyers you are trying to target, being located around them can be beneficial.

Or else, you may want to pick the location based on the wealth distribution of the region, based on the price of space, or select a central location that is suitable for more people.

When choosing to rent a space for a clothing line business, consider:

  • How will I store my equipment and inventory for my company?
  • Is there any space for a home-based office?
  • Will clients be coming to my location?
  • How much stock or inventory will I have?
  • How much display area do I need?
  • How much area is required to store inventory?
  • Am I going to be having popup stores?

When opening a t-shirt business, you will probably need to lease a suitable space in your area.

Whether the space is a storehouse or a storefront, you will be required to plan ahead to make sure you have the proper setup for your t-shirt business.

Franchises will normally help new business owners in finding a spot that works based on their past experience.

This can make a huge contrast as every town seems to have areas that are just cursed to process through businesses.

To find spaces to lease in your area, contact a local retail real estate agent.

9. Inventory, T-shirt Printing Machines, and Product Displays for your t-shirt business

new t-shirt business needs inventory or stock

You will require the shirts you will be selling, product display stands, registers or notebooks, computers for t-shirts’ graphic designing, and machines for adding designs.

You will need the machines based on the different kinds and styles of t-shirts. These can vary from heat presses to DTG printers to embroidery stations.

Use second hand Printing Machines to print your t-shirts and used product displays for your company

Printing machines and product displays can usually be found at huge discounts if you buy them second-hand.

You can easily find t-shirt printing companies and product displays that sell used printers via most online markets, pawnshops, going-out-of-business sales, and other areas.

When buying a printing machine from a shop that sells used products, the sales representatives may specify the exact machines you use.

10. Efficiently manage Finance of Your T-shirt Business

A vital portion of successfully starting a small business is handling the financial element of the clothing brand.

You may also need some additional funds to start your clothing brand.
Let’s see some tricks that you can use to help your clothing line business grow and become profitable.

Budget for your business

A budget is the most important tool you can use in your business. Without it, your clothing line business might not drive it through the first few years.

There are many ways to make sure you are paying attention to finances and budgeting while removing the tendency for mistakes. Using automated rules is the best way to prevent budgeting errors.

If you are running other kinds of t-shirt businesses, such as print on orders from home, you will need to make less, but you need to routinely check your costs to make sure that you are making the exact revenue you expect to make.

Make a Pricing Structure for your t-shirt Business

How you price your clothing brand will affect how people view it. If your prices are too high, they will obviously go elsewhere. Also too low, you will lose your money.

Increase Prices every year of your Product

Inflation happens every year. To maintain your business running, boost your prices by 5% per year.
It provides you room to increase wages and to make some extra money. It is easier to raise prices when your buyers anticipate it.
If you send out an email in November letting your buyers know that prices will be going up at the beginning of the next year, you may be able to book enough custom printing jobs to keep you busy through the slow months at the start of the year.

Wrapping Up!

To recap this whole guide on how to start a new t-shirt business, ask yourself these subsequent questions.

  • Do I even know how to start a clothing line? Or Am I really aware of how to start a new t-shirt business?
  • Is it worth it for me to start a new business clothing brand?
  • Will I be comfortable speaking to buyers or clients?
  • Am I going to start a new business in the clothing line this year?
  • Why am I even starting a new clothing business?
  • Do I need employees or advice for starting a new business?
  • What will I need to feel successful in my business?

Now that you know how to start a t-shirt business or a business in the clothing line, take the following step. Start your own!

The fact is, all it takes is a great idea, some excellent skills in designing, and a stellar marketing strategy to get started your business.

Don’t think too much and just read this whole guide and start your own t-shirt business and by following these steps you can definitely generate $50k per month.