Start A T Shirts Business - Business Ideas
Starting a t-shirt business is simple and anyone can do it. It's also a great way to make money on the side or even start out as a full-time business.
If you are someone who enjoys creating beautiful designs and has a sense of humor, then starting a t-shirt business might be the perfect venture for you. It's also a great way to make extra money on the side while working on a hobby.
Starting a t-shirts business requires a great deal of effort, dedication, and most importantly passion.
If you're interested in how to sell t shirts, or selling t shirts online, you can use this page as a guide for everything you'll need to know.
Key Stats
Startup Costs
| Min Startup Costs | Max Startup Costs | |
|---|---|---|
| Office Space Expenses | $0 | $7,000 |
| Employee & Freelancer Expenses | $151 | $352 |
| Website Costs | $223 | $7,215 |
| Business Formation Fees | $5,600 | $20,400 |
| Equipment & Supply Expenses | $63 | $200 |
| Retail Business Expenses | $1,250 | $11,650 |
| Inventory Expenses | $350 | $14,750 |
| Software Expenses | $162 | $3,094 |
| Advertising & Marketing Costs | $75 | $4,786 |
| Total Startup Costs | $7,874 | $69,447 |
Case Studies
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$185K/mo
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$12K/mo
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$5K/mo
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$26K/mo
Successful Businesses
| Business | URL | Rank | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Goober Prints | etsy.com/shop/GooberPrints | #77 |
|
Nike | nike.com/ | #389 |
|
Design By Humans | designbyhumans.com | #32,572 |
|
TeeShirtPalace | teeshirtpalace.com | #39,706 |
|
AllDayShirts | alldayshirts.com | #42,151 |
|
sporty's pilot shop | sportys.com | #45,328 |
|
T-Shirt Forums | t-shirtforums.com | #57,614 |
|
Spreadshirt | spreadshirt.co.uk | #72,087 |
|
Peter England | peterengland.com | #74,483 |
|
Fresh Clean Tees | freshcleantees.com | #78,572 |
|
Everpress | everpress.com | #78,679 |
Pros & Cons
| Pros | Description |
|---|---|
| Flexibility | You can put as much time into the business as you'd like. If you like the work and have some initial experience, you can start small and manage all aspects of the business on your own. |
| Scalable | With businesses and processes changing daily, there will always be demand for new features, products and services for your business. Additionally, there are several different business models and pricing tiers you can implement that will allow you to reach all types of customers. |
| Meaningful business connections | You never know who you will meet as a t-shirts business. This could be the start of an incredible business opportunity! |
| High customer retention rates | Once a customer invests in your product, they've invested their time and energy to utilize your product/service which is highly valuable to them. Typically, your product or service becomes indispensable to your customer. |
| High margins | The gross margins for your t-shirts business are typically around 50%, which is considerably high and allows you to grow your business and manage costs easily. |
| Easy to encourage "impulse buy" | In the t-shirts business, you have a much higher chance of encouraging your customers to buy on impulse - you can easily alter the price, placement, packaging, and promotional value to influence the decision of your buyer. |
| Cons | Description |
|---|---|
| Motivation of employees | If you plan to have a sales/content team on board, finding creative ways to motivate them can be a challenge. It's important that you're able to offer great incentives and a good work environment for your employees. |
| Longer Sales Process | A t-shirts business can be a big time and money investment for your customer, so it's important you plan and predict a longer conversion funnel and stay in communication with potential customers. |
| High employee turnover | In the t-shirts business, employee turnover is often high, which can be quite costly and time consuming for your business. It's important to try and avoid this as much as possible by offering competitive pay, benefits, and a positive work environment. |
| Taxes | As a t-shirts business, you typically pay self-employment taxes which can be quite high. It's important to understand what you will be paying in taxes each year so you can determine if the work you're taking on is worth it. |
| Niche Market | A niche business is not necessarily a bad thing, in fact, it can be the key to your success. However, it can be more challenging and time consuming to find the perfect niche market and target audience. |
| High overhead expenses | With starting a t-shirts business, there are overhead expenses that come with selling a physical product. You will want to make sure you strategically budget for these overhead costs. We discuss this more in the startup costs section below. |
Marketing Ideas
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1
Affiliate Program
Affiliate marketing is a great way to bring in a new revenue stream, especially when you don't sell products or services.
Simply put, an affiliate program is an agreement where a business pays another business or influencer ("the affiliate") a commission for sending traffic and/or sales their way.
The affiliate typically gets a unique link where clicks and conversions can be tracked.
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2
Direct Sales
Direct sales strategy implies a direct contact between a seller and a consumer without the involvement of any third party. Direct selling is popular in sectors where sellers communicate with their clientele personally. The sales technique occurs at non-store locations which include at home, work, or online.
For direct selling to succeed, hire a few (or many) salespeople to support the sales conversion process. It's critical that you assign them specific roles and responsibilities to nurture the client and provide excellent support.
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3
Word of mouth
Word of mouth is when a consumers reflects their interest in a company’s product or service in their daily dialogues.
Therefore, word of mouth advertising is essentially a free advertising triggered by the customers experience.
According to Nielsen, 92% of people trust recommendations from friends and family.
Therefore, in today’s hyper-connected world, a single recommendation through a word of mouth can have a huge impact to your business.
Hey! 👋 I'm Pat Walls, the founder of Starter Story.
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