I want to open a point selling T-shirts. Business plan: T-shirt printing. Necessary equipment for printing on T-shirts. Algorithm for working with Teespring

Everyone has T-shirts in their wardrobe; they have long become an integral part of everyday life. The demand for goods cannot be called seasonal, since people are constantly interested in them. Organizing a business selling T-shirts is a profitable business that often does not require large expenses.

Format selection

First of all, you need to decide on the format of the store. For example, this could be a store selling women's T-shirts of various types: sports, everyday, polo.

T-shirt example #1

And in terms of development, we can include the issue of printing on T-shirts. It all depends on the starting capital and the end consumer. To do this, it is worth analyzing the market in advance.

When it comes to purchasing goods, there are several options. Some entrepreneurs take the simplest route - they buy goods in China and sell them in Russia at a premium.

But there are also Russian brands from which you can purchase goods at reasonable prices, and we are sure that the quality in this case will be better.

For example, women's T-shirts can be purchased wholesale here: https://www.shilco.ru/catalog/futbolki_i_mayki/. These are trusted partners who always have a wide range and large size range of products.

Market analysis

If you approach the matter correctly and develop your strategy, then you can ignore your competitors. Consumers are attracted to unique and high-quality products. And if you succeed, a small interested audience will appear in the first months.

First, check out the range of competitors, pay attention to prices and other features. Try to understand what is missing or what is superfluous and come up with a unique product.

Also, marketing research will not be superfluous to make it easier to determine the price segment of the audience and needs. This is all an important part of opening a t-shirt store.

Product range

Most stores sell generic T-shirts, so if you decide to go this route, be prepared for a lot of competition.

The best option is to sell branded products or independently produce goods with interesting prints or other designs.

T-shirt example No. 2

The popularity of a store directly depends on the unusual and unique assortment.

To set up your own production of original T-shirts, you will need skills in the field of graphic design.

You can also hire an employee to handle this, but this will incur additional costs.

It is better to create a catalog of images and provide it to the consumer.

This way, a person can choose the color of the T-shirt, the picture and its size. It is important to find a wholesale supplier of plain t-shirts.

Don’t forget that opening a store that specializes in selling T-shirts alone will require creating a wide range of models and sizes. A poor assortment will not interest buyers. Most often, retail outlets sell other clothing in addition to T-shirts.

Retail or Internet?

There is a significant difference between regular retail and selling through an online store.

If necessary, both options can be combined.

T-shirt example No. 3

For a regular store, you will need to find a favorable location and hire qualified employees.

The indoor environment and traffic flow also play a big role.

Among the disadvantages of such trading are the costs of rent, maintenance and repairs, as well as employee wages.

If you sell T-shirts in an online store, there are many more advantages.

You won’t need to spend money on rent, you can also not hire anyone and carry out the implementation yourself. Another plus is the wide geography.

Orders can be easily sent by mail to any corner of the world.

Income

Profit directly depends on what store format is chosen. Many people buy T-shirts in bulk and sell them at a 100% markup. When selling goods with your own print, the markup increases significantly.

A T-shirt without any designs costs on average 100-200 rubles. After applying the print, the price can increase 5 times or more. But such a store will initially require a certain budget for equipment and printing supplies.

Therefore, if you have a small start-up capital, you can first sell finished products and, if you wish, over time, apply the design to T-shirts yourself.

Conclusion

For any aspiring entrepreneur, such a business is a great start. You can immediately do without the huge costs of equipment, rent and personnel and open a store with minimal investment.

Over time, it is easy to organize the sale of T-shirts with prints and earn much more income. Just keep in mind that the costs of doing business will also increase, since the equipment will require maintenance costs. It all depends on your desire, approach and capabilities.

Hello, dear readers. This article will be devoted to one of the proven and profitable ideas for small businesses, namely, applying images to T-shirts (printing). Of course, I’m not going to claim originality; after all, this direction has been developing in our market for more than five years. I will only say that there are prospects for development, including in terms of profit growth.

T-shirt printing - how it became popular

Perhaps those who are older will remember how, back in the early 90s, the youth of that time used “foreign” fashionable designs, which were applied to a T-shirt using an iron. Some even got involved in commercial activities for the first time by selling them in schools. The quality of the “print” at that time left much to be desired, and the very first wash destroyed all the results of the work. Of course, even this fact could not stop people wanting to show their individuality, and the demand for the products only grew.

Now, technological progress has radically changed the situation, and images of dubious quality have been replaced by high-quality thermal film with various effects, special inks, the iron has been replaced by a high-pressure press, and many other “bells and whistles” have been introduced, which will be mentioned throughout the article. Advertising also had a positive effect on the increase in the number of clients. T-shirt printing began to be ordered not only by individuals, but also by corporate clients, and the matter is no longer limited to T-shirts alone: ​​the image can now be applied to hats, dishes, ceramic, glass and metal surfaces, which has made printing an integral part of the gift industry.

T-shirt printing as a business

Let's assume that I managed to convince you, and you no longer doubt the relevance of the proposed idea. Now is the time to look at the process of making and selling T-shirt printing.

First of all, you will need to get a computer and install a functional graphics editor on it. I would advise you to first pay attention to CorelDraw and Adobe Photoshop. Then (here it all depends on the image transfer technology that you intend to use) you need to purchase suitable equipment: a printer for direct printing on fabric - the best option would be an inkjet with the ability to refill cartridges, a cutting plotter and a heat press. A small printing station can easily be operated by one person with imaging skills. Professional skills, except perhaps the learned simple safety rules, will not be needed. To make sure of this, let’s look at the two most common methods of applying drawings.

Thermal decal

The film of the desired color is cut using a plotter, the remainder is removed by hand. Then the multi-colored images are assembled as an appliqué. The prepared design is glued to the product under pressure from a heat press. That's it, the T-shirt with the “print” is ready. The main advantage of this method is the ability to use materials of absolutely any color. The disadvantages are the labor-intensive process of assembling and cleaning images. It is recommended to use thermal decal when printing simple pictures.

Sublimation

First, the design is printed with sublimation ink on special paper, after which it is pressed to the product under high temperatures. As a result, the paint transfers into the fabric. You can no longer feel such a picture with your hand, since the fibers are directly colored. The resulting design is much less susceptible to wear and tear; the T-shirt can be easily spun in the washing machine, without fear that cracks will appear in the image or it will suddenly fade. On the other hand, sublimation technology imposes restrictions on the material used - the product must be made of polyester.

The whole process in both cases will take no more than half an hour, even if you spend a long time selecting a picture and fiddling with the settings of the graphic editor. And for “experienced” workers, printing will take much less time. Once everything is ready, you can immediately transfer the finished product to the client and receive your money. It is not surprising that this and a number of other features have made T-shirt printing a popular business.

Printing on T-shirts - why is it profitable?

Firstly, to organize a workplace, you will need only 20-30 square meters (and that’s with a margin). That is, there will still be a lot of free space to place mannequins on which finished samples will be hung, and other additional “devices”.

Secondly, printing images on T-shirts, from a technological point of view, is very simple. Even an inexperienced worker will be able to master all the subtleties of this art in just a couple of days.

The third thing to mention is high margins. If you add up the cost of the drawing itself (average prices will be given below) - about 2 dollars, the wholesale price of one T-shirt - 2-3 dollars, then it turns out that production costs are two, or even more, times less than the profit from the sale. Clients are willing to pay from 10 to 15 dollars for a good “print”. As you can see, even the lowest markup allows you to ensure 100-150% profit.

And the fourth point, last on the list, but not least important, is business diversification. All the main components that you use when applying designs to T-shirts: a computer, a plotter, your own knowledge in the field of graphic design, all this opens up a bunch of additional opportunities for you. You can print cups, banners and billboards. In general, there are plenty of options.

Cons of business

There is a fly in the ointment in every barrel of honey - there is no escape from it. This type of income, like all others, has its drawbacks. I will list three of them, so to speak, in contrast to the above advantages.

The most obvious thing that can scare away novice entrepreneurs is the need for significant initial investments. Just one heat press coupled with a printer will cost you $1000, but don’t forget about consumables, rent for the premises (you can, of course, install the equipment at home, and instead of a point of sale, create and promote your own online store, but then difficulties will arise with its promotion, and the income will be several times less) and other mandatory components of the T-shirt business.

The second point is quite serious competition. Now everyone who is not too lazy is using this simple and profitable idea. Just go to any photocopier/printing machine and with a 95% probability you will see an advertisement for this service there. In general, if you are not able to organize a competent advertising campaign to attract customers, then the idea will not work.

The third disadvantage is that high profitability is negated by small sales. Some people are simply not interested in the images on T-shirts, others decided to order from competitors, and so on. If you serve two or three people a week, you will make a ridiculous profit.

Conclusion

T-shirt printing is a great start for entrepreneurs with a small budget. To organize such a business, you will need an average of 2-4 thousand dollars (how much or little this is, everyone decides for themselves). In any case, thanks to the high profitability, the initial investment will pay off very quickly - in just a couple of months. Of course, for this you will need to try: to choose a good location for the point of sale, to include additional services in the price list.

Reviews

I offer an option for making money on T-shirts, which will be even cheaper than described in the article: create an online store website with all the necessary gadgets - accepting online payments and so on, fill it with content (in our case, these will be samples of printing on mugs, T-shirts, posters, etc. further), promote the site and start accepting orders from users. Then you go to the nearest copy center that has a printing service and print out your orders. You send finished products to clients. Then, if things go well, buy additional equipment and print yourself.
Of course, prices need to be raised by 20 percent so as not to remain at a loss.

The payback period for this business is a little confusing: About 3,000 bucks must be invested (and this is not counting the rental of staff and hiring an employee), while the net profit from a T-shirt will not exceed 4-5 dollars (let’s be realistic, for 15 bucks no one will buy a T-shirt will buy it, no matter how unique it is! And they are unlikely to order more than 10 T-shirts a day, even in the most “pass-through” place (again, let’s face it, if we think about the calculations, it turns out that the profit is quite small, and). doesn't come right away!

Another disadvantage of this business is the seasonality, a couple of months in winter and summer holidays...

Seasonality does not have as much of an impact here as, for example, in the ice cream trade. In addition, there is a link to dates and occasions (birthdays, etc.) that occur throughout the year, gifts are often bought “for future use”, sometimes vice versa, the deadline for ordering a print is “burning” - there are many nuances that need to be calculated very difficult!

The disadvantages of this technology are the unjustified high cost of equipment, a high percentage of defects, the inability to work with all sizes of T-shirts, the high cost of printing, Printing technologies - heat transfer and sublimation will be better and higher quality than the method of direct printing on fabric

I think that this idea has long since become a thing of the past; it would only be suitable for fans, if sold at concerts, but of course they would be suitable for football fans. Any other sporting competition, but en masse it is no longer very popular.

And I want to support this idea, but with some reservations. We need to focus on rhinestones! Aunties love it when everything sparkles and shines. They are ready to pay money for it.
The main thing is to promote these T-shirts as exclusive. Make articles with photos of show business stars wearing T-shirts with rhinestones and sparkles. By the way, you can print not only on T-shirts, but also on pajamas, baseball caps, handbags, bandanas, etc.
The main thing is that it is bright and original.

Polina,
Well, what glitters is sold ready-made from China and especially from Turkey. We must try to make it shine very beautifully and original. And it’s very noticeable, but tasteful, that is, it needs to compete with the Chinese and Turks in originality.

Tatyana, the fun is in the uniqueness and exclusivity. Imagine if you created a service “a photo of your dog in rhinestones.” This is chic! Few glamorous aunts can resist such temptation.
True, the clientele will be specific; we know who loves everything shiny and flashy. But these are details, the main thing is that the product is sold.

Yes, this niche has been occupied for a long time, I think everywhere. There are several people doing this in my city. Some people opened a print shop for mugs and T-shirts. others print and sell their products on the market under the guise of the most unusual and cool T-shirts

In my city there are also several salons with such services. The first is a store of T-shirts with cool inscriptions and, accordingly, they make T-shirts to order and also in the Fujifilm salon they make such inscriptions, as well as on cups and other surfaces.

Well, you know, again, such a business shouldn’t exist in itself; here we should be talking not only about printing on T-shirts, but about printing in general, maybe on mugs and other accessories. But printing on T-shirts is simply too narrow; I print on T-shirts for myself at home using thermal transfer paper.

Starover, after all, T-shirts are the most popular product, and the technique of applying the design differs from applying, say, to mugs. I think that this circumstance forces entrepreneurs to deliberately “narrow down” their business: it’s better to do what happens quickly and is always in demand!

There may be a lot of competition, but I personally haven’t seen many T-shirts with really cool and original inscriptions, so everything is in your hands, if you have good taste and imagination knows no bounds, then you can print something on them that people will like, then I think they will tear you away, people like to stand out and be original, they are willing to pay a lot for it.

Well, of course this is good, but someone has to do it too :) Do you mean that you would buy ready-made ones? Or would you order it with your own invented inscriptions? If the latter, then this more or less makes sense, but if the former, then it would simply be mediation.

Yes, this is undoubtedly a good business idea, but is it worth it? How many buyers do you think can be found in this area? In my opinion, very little. Even if they are found, they will not place orders for large quantities and, of course, this business does not justify itself.

Many people think that starting your own T-shirt business these days no longer makes sense. The number of such companies in almost every region is off the charts, and each of them strives to offer the maximum range of products - T-shirts with beautiful prints, funny inscriptions, recognizable logos and images.

However, such an idea should not be considered unconditionally utopian. It is no more utopian than the appearance, for example, of a new artist or the opening of another store. There is always a need for a new, original and unique design (you can’t do this without the talent of an artist) and you will always need a place to buy clothes with this design (maybe your store will be this place?)

The clothing printing industry has been developing for almost a hundred years; these days it is a million-dollar business, despite the fact that sublimation equipment is becoming more accessible every year. So is it worth postponing?

History of T-shirt printing

It is believed that the first T-shirts appeared during the First World War and were used by soldiers as light underwear. Their more widespread distribution began in the United States several decades later - in the 40s.

However, the age of clothing printing technology is much more respectful. It all started in the 1700s, when screen printing technology migrated to Western Europe from Asia. The term “silk-screen printing” appeared at the beginning of the 20th century, but at first this process was not used for clothing at all, but for the production of wallpaper and interior items for rich people.

As early as 1910, three chemists Roy Beck, Charles Peter and Edward Owens revolutionized commercial screen printing by introducing the first photo-imaging stencils for industry.

The technology gained particular popularity in the 30s, then the artist Andy Warhol contributed his share, presenting his famous silk-screen painting of Marilyn Monroe in 1962.

Along with screen printing, thermal transfer technology began to develop in the mid-20th century, first used by SATO to create color images on paper. The first sublimation printer appeared back in 1957, the first thermal printer - 1972, and ultimately, technical “evolution” led to the emergence of versatile equipment used for commercial purposes: automatic screen machines, heat presses for sublimation, universal printers.

Why should you start printing on T-shirts?

Even before you start studying the technical features of production, wanting to find out what is better: buying a flat-plate heat press or ordering the first batch of T-shirts from a printing house, you should decide on your goals and build a business plan.

Almost half the success of any enterprise lies in confidence, determination and a clear understanding of your desires. So, putting your doubts aside for a moment, think about the following:

# People really love t-shirts

It is both an effective advertising product and comfortable clothing. It is most in demand, of course, in the summer, but there are always people who wear T-shirts all the time. Moreover, each person has several T-shirts in his wardrobe, which he willingly changes depending on his mood.

In some cases, a T-shirt is the main element of a uniform or corporate identity - in retail chains, logistics organizations, advertising agencies, they are often used at informal corporate events.

In a word, there will definitely be no shortage of clients: organizations will buy T-shirts for sublimation in bulk, ordinary clients will buy t-shirts for sublimation to diversify their collection of outfits.

# This is one of the most attractive types of business from a financial point of view

Moreover, both for you and for buyers. The T-shirt is inexpensive - cheaper than a shirt or sweatshirt. It is not fussy about washing, and if the design is made of really high quality, then it will not be afraid of water or cleaning products.

Using fewer colors can provide additional savings. Yes, your products may not be so bright and catchy, but this can also become a kind of corporate identity.

Among the artists, there are those who paint with watercolors, and there are those who use only pencil or charcoal. Both of them have their fans. So, why don't you start with original black and white graphics?

# Be original

This is one of the guaranteed keys to future success. If you take “pictures from the Internet” as the basis for your prints, your products are unlikely to be in demand. Most likely, you won’t even be able to print high-quality prints - the recommended image resolution for thermal transfer should be at least 300 dpi, which is very rare among these same “pictures” that are freely available.

Professional quality is achieved through the use of vector graphics, where the layout is verified with extreme precision in scale and color. It is worth soberly assessing your skills in CorelDRAW and Adobe Photoshop editors, as well as whether you can create an individual T-shirt design with their help.

# What specialists should you hire?

If the previous point about originality causes you serious doubts, consider engaging third-party designers. Nowadays, finding those who know how to use graphics programs is not so difficult - both for one-time orders and on an ongoing basis.

In addition, you may need the services of technical specialists. It depends on what equipment you are going to use:

You can find out additional information about this product, receive professional recommendations on selection, and also buy products for sublimation by contacting our specialists for advice.

If you want to start a business related to printing on T-shirts and producing other original products with minimal investment, we recommend that you first pay attention to the Economy equipment set. It includes a Vicsign VS330 cutting plotter and a Grafalex 38x38 flat heat press - these two devices will be enough to get started immediately.

Vicsign VS330 will allow you to create high-quality thermal transfer blanks without any difficulty. Automatic contour detection using a positioning sensor and independent work without a computer will allow you to cut out a logo, inscription or design with high accuracy in a matter of minutes. The high power of the plotter will make it possible to cut reflective film of a high strength class. By using a digital and intelligent engine, exceptional segmentation accuracy is achieved, saving you from time-consuming tedious settings.

Having prepared the desired design, all you have to do is transfer it using the Grafalex 38x38 flat heat press. The top heating plate of the heat transfer press is Teflon coated and is ideal for sublimation. Grafalex 38×38 is equipped with an electronic temperature and time regulation and control system. The countdown of the time set on the timer begins automatically after closing the press.

The Economy set is available for order at a special discounted price - don't miss out!

You can open a business selling T-shirts with up to 100 thousand rubles. According to experienced businessmen, you won’t be able to make a fortune from T-shirts, but you won’t have to live in poverty either - minus salaries and rent, you can count on a net income of 20-40 thousand rubles per month...

Business profitability

There are actually several options for building a T-shirt business. You can simply buy ready-made T-shirts, mark them up 100-150% and trade for your health. There is another method that is practiced by some entrepreneurs - buying blank T-shirts without inscriptions, printing jokes and images on them yourself, and then selling them at retail. In this case, the initial investment in the business (purchase of a printer) increases somewhat, but the end result is completely different. Let's figure it out.

The wholesale price of one “clean” T-shirt is about 100 rubles (maybe less, depending on the volume of purchase). After applying an image or logo to it, the price increases to at least 400 rubles per piece. In online stores you can find prices of 700, even 1000 rubles per T-shirt! So much for the 400% markup. Yes, you will have to deduct some of the printing costs, but they are not significant (30-50 rubles per unit maximum). Here, for example, are the prices for T-shirts with jokes on one of the online stores:

To confirm the profitability of the business, here is an example from one of the specialized forums about business:

The scheme for opening a store is extremely simple. We rent a retail department in a public place: shopping center, market, metro, bus station. Any place with a lot of young people will do (although it's not just young people who buy T-shirts). 8 - 10 m2 is enough, plus some space for storage. In shopping centers, you can generally stand under the stairs, the rental price is lower there and T-shirts in such places, oddly enough, are readily sold.

The main thing in this case is to lure the buyer. To do this, choose T-shirts with cool inscriptions and images. Something like that:

We place them in the most visible place (on the shop window) so that they catch the eye of every passerby. In this case, people will at least stop and read the inscription, and lo and behold, they will want to buy it for themselves or for a friend as a gift.

Assortment - what else can be sold in the T-shirt department

"You can't go far on T-shirts alone." Therefore, if square meters allow, the range of goods can include the sale of sweatshirts, T-shirts, caps and mugs. Moreover, any images can also be freely applied to these products. Thus, we can exclude the influence of the seasonality factor and make any month profitable: in the summer we focus on T-shirts and caps, in the winter - on sweatshirts and mugs.

Yes, and more. For popular holidays, you need to increase the range of products suitable for the theme. For the New Year - we hang out T-shirts with New Year's jokes, for Valentine's Day - more "love and tenderness" and so on. And it’s better to open a business closer to such holidays in order to recoup the lion’s share of the costs incurred at the start.

Documentation

When registering business activities, the application indicates OKVED 52.42.1 “retail trade in men's, women's, and children's clothing.” If, in addition to trading, you also plan to print on T-shirts (applying images), then write down the following code in the application: 22.22 “printing activities not included in other groups.”

It is most reasonable to use UTII (imputation) as a taxation system. This is the most optimal tax regime for a small department selling T-shirts and related items. The tax turns out to be “penny” since it is calculated based on the area of ​​the retail facility, and in our case it is only 10-20 m2, or even less. Plus, UTII exempts you from the obligation to install a cash register.

Internet - new business opportunities

There is another, perhaps the cheapest option for starting a business selling T-shirts. We are talking about opening an online store. The advantages of online trading are obvious - there is no need to rent premises, hire sellers, and with low turnover you can even do without registering an individual entrepreneur (oh, what am I teaching you). And if there are no such expenses, then the cost is lower, which means more emissions!

And it is not necessary to create a serious online store right away; its creation and promotion also requires at least 50-70 thousand rubles. Some novice entrepreneurs start small - they open a group on social networks and begin to quietly trade. Yes, there is a lot of competition, but with the right approach, the business will pay a pretty penny. Taste all the delights of the business, and you’ll soon grow into a full-fledged online store. And add a real store to it in some popular shopping center in your city.

For anyone who has decided to make money by selling T-shirts with original designs, there are several wonderful ways to organize such a business. In talking about them, we decided to start with the simplest: by selling designs for T-shirts, which can be done by anyone who is at least a little familiar with Photoshop and who is capable of performing image optimization.
And you should start such a business with the fact that you must imagine what exactly the design should be so that a person wants to buy a T-shirt on which it is applied. That is, you must be at least a little familiar with the latest fashion trends in order to create truly custom T-shirts.
When the drawing is ready, you must save it as a file of the largest possible size, and it will be sent to one of the world's freelance exchanges that sell such drawings. Here are their addresses:
99designs - 99designs.com
Themeforest - themeforest.net
Spreadshirt - www.spreadshirt.com
By registering there, and registration there is free, you get the opportunity to create your own store - your own page, on which you display your drawing, which those who produce and sell designer T-shirts will buy from you. Settlement with the exchange will occur during the sale of your drawing - from 10 to 20% of the transaction amount will be withdrawn from your account.
The second option to sell T-shirts with original designs is to register on the Printdirect website - printdirect.ru (by the way, it is the only site where you can sell or buy a T-shirt in Russian). So on this site, if you have a specific product, you can order the production of a T-shirt with original designs, which you will sell, again paying the exchange by paying commissions.
But the best way to make money is to make designer T-shirts yourself. And with this you will be helped by both modern fabric dyes and countless workshops that will literally produce T-shirts with original designs in any quantity for just a couple of rubles. Having made 5 or 6 (or maybe much more) product items, you exhibit your designer T-shirts on the following exchanges: Zazzle - zazzle.com and Printfection - printfection.com, where all those who want to buy a T-shirt gather, and where designer T-shirts are sold users from all over the world.
A person who wants to buy a T-shirt comes to such a site, selects your product, and, having paid for it, waits for you to send it by mail. Payment can be made either via PayPal or by transfer to a credit card - we advise you to choose the second option. By the way, find out in advance the price of postage around the world in order to invest it in the cost of your product, since the person who wants to buy the T-shirt pays for the postage. Well, how much you will earn in the end depends only on how original your drawings will be, and how high-quality your entire product will be.
And finally, a few words about what qualities a designer T-shirt should have in order for it to be sold quickly and profitably:

The inscriptions on them should not be quotes from films or songs, as this is a violation of copyright;
- you cannot sell T-shirts with photographic images of people who have not given you their written consent;
- stills from cartoons, films, music videos and comics are also considered plagiarism;
- T-shirts sell best in primary colors, from white and black to red and orange;
- you should always monitor the quality of your product, since once you start selling T-shirts that will fade when washed, and within an hour the entire Internet will know about it;
- and it is best to sell large size T-shirts - in Russian equivalent from 48 and more.
What's left to say? Good luck to you!