how to start your own t-shirt band

Printing custom t-shirts for almost 30 years, we’ve pretty much seen everything. In more recent years we get more and more calls from people wanting to create their own t-shirt brand. Why not? The opportunities to get your brand in from of the masses with all of the social media channels makes it seem so easy. It is true that you can post a picture of your brand, instantly get people from all over the world to see your tweet or instagram post. However some traditional steps on success haven’t really changed.

We see many people fire and then aim. This never works. If firing is the having the product produced and ready to sell, and then you aim for the customers, you’ve just spent money on a product you aren’t sure you can sell.

The aim part is the most important. Who is your audience. How to start your own t-shirt brand starts with aim. Who are you customers? Who will buy your brand? Where are you going to advertise your brand so the right people see it? Before you ever pull the trigger on having shirts printed up, you need to have the answers to these questions. This is the most single important part of how to start your own t-shirt brand and be successful.

Audience Aiming

You have your aim down, your audience in full view. now what?

You want to get the most bang for your buck. Ordering 12 t-shirts is not going to give you the most value. You have to think bigger. Your sole purpose in creating your own t-shirt brand is to make money. When you’re ordering only 12 shirts and paying $12/shirt and charging $20/shirt. That’s not a lot of room for profit. What’s’ the solution? Order more shirts. The more shirts you order the less they cost you. If it’s $12/shirt for $12 shirts then it’s going to be around $8.50/shirt for 36 shirts and around $6/shirt for 100 shirts. Give or take the shirt you choose and the design, but for example sake, let’s use these numbers.

You have 12 shirts made at $12/shirt – your cost $144. You sell for $20/shirt. You’re gross profit is $96.00.

You have 30 shirts made at $8.30/shirt – your cost is $249. You sell for $20/shirt. Your gross profit is $351.00

Your have 100 shirts made a $6.00/shirt – your cost is $600. you sell fro $20/shirt – your gross profit is $1,400.

I always recommend ordering the smallest order possible so you’re aren’t devastated financially if they don’t sell. But enough to have a good profit margin. If they sell well, great, you can order more shirts.

I’ll tell you the people who order more at first generally succeed more than those who order 12 shirts. How to start your own t-shirt brand. It’s not as hard as you think.