Online T-Shirt Company
 

I want to start my own online tshirt company. I need as much information as possible on this subject. I want to provide the best possible product with the best possible service; I'm not out just to make a quick buck. I plan to use American Apparel as the main shirt, and just add my own spice.

If anyone has any information on what it takes, please let me know.

I know I need to find a printing company (can't find one on google).

I hope I explained this in a good enough detail.



-Chris

First you need a store front...there's plenty of places that'll do web hosting and most of them are "turn key" setups.

As far as finding someone to print your shirts, you might want to check around locally.

Something you didn't mention...are you doing to handle shipping? Or are you outsourcing this as well? Do you plan on sending orders that come to you to the company making the shirts and having them send the product directly to your consumer?

I think you may need to lay out a little more of your business plan for more detailed responses.

Thats what I need; information...

Drop shipping sounds nice though...

Take a look at homestarrunner.com's store site. All they sell is apparel (sp), and do fairly well at it as well.

I guess your level of involvement will constitue what information you need. Since you mentioned that drop shipping sounded nice, that's less direct involvement for you. Remember the less direct involvement usually relates to less overall control. You'll be dependent on other businesses doing the work right. It **may** also mean less profits as well.

OMG - hahaha - Homestarrunner is great.
damn it - now I may just have to buy one of these shirts..

my advice... start small and try to grow organically - maybe start off selling through all online auction sites and supporting that with your own site. Like anything that is a gamble, dont stake more than you can realistically afford to lose, customer service is important in a crowded industry like this (in a supply orientated industry it doesnt matter at all) and it can make a big different to be personable and give customers the impression you'll go that extra mile for them. Have a good product, draw up a lot of designs and test them on people before you go, get a good idea of what the market wants. Definitely sell on ebay, big size shirts sell well, work in small batches until you are sure you can sell something or you have enough wins to cover a few losses.

And more than ANYTHING, and I may be speaking as someone who has worked a few years in finace, KEEP ACCURATE MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTS!!!! Obviosuly your end of year financial accounts will be designed to give an accurate reflection of your trading -in compliance with the law - but favourable to you. It is important to month by month, week by week if you can, have a clear and accurate picture yourself of how you are doing.

You have to be prepared to make a loss at the start maybe, depending on what terms you write off fixed assets of your trading entity, but you also need to have a clear and realistic idea of when to pull the plug and draw the line

And last of all, good luck to you... I would be doing the same sort of thing (maybe not tee shirts, but prolly books) if I had the balls!!!

I'm thinking of starting a similar type or business. If you design your own logo's, would you need to copyright it or anything? I mean when you start out small, I dont think you would need to do that, do you? And are there any tips other people would give when just starting out?

the best idea for shirts is copying other shirt makers... If your shirts are differnt no one will ever know.. kinda like nike and hurley both same comp almost no one knows

this makes no sense- don't copy other shirts (plaigarism = lawsuit = bust)
in fact carving your own niche and having a strong style which differentiates you from the crowd is a much better plan

As in copying other shirt makers, do you mean in design of the shirt itself, or the design that is printed on them? Also, how would I find out if say a name is already copyrighted by another company? And one last question, does anyone know any places/stores that I should try contacting for mass shirt printing? :thumbsup: