How To Start A T Shirt Business

Starting a fashion business is a huge enterprise and one that can be hard to do when you target every clothing item. Therefore, one of the best options is to start with a smaller catalog and expand. One of the best items is the T-shirt niche because nearly half of all clothing sales are for this item. Therefore, in this article, we discuss how to start a t-shirt business.

Why Start a T Shirt Business?

There are numerous reasons why you should start a t shirt business. Some of the top reasons are below.

1. Custom T Shirts are a Popular Industry

There is a huge demand for t-shirts with slogans or logos of movies, games, and TV series printed on them. There is also an increase in demand for t shirts from small brands and influencers online. Custom t shirts are easy to create with print-on-demand services like Printful and Printify. Customers are also willing to spend a little more for them.

According to statistics, the growth rate for the industry is about 9.7% annually.

2. T Shirts are a Great Revenue Stream for Existing Businesses

Whether you’ve got an existing business or not, a t shirt business can help you to add extra revenue or income. Therefore, you can improve revenues without doing much work. Those that use dropshipping or print on demand services can offer services without having to invest too much.

3. Low-cost and Low-Risk

One of the big problems with most retail businesses is that it can be expensive to start. The average business costs about $40,000 in the first year. However, with dropshipping and print-on-demand, the costs are really low. You don’t make a payment for any goods until after a sale has been made.

4. No Need for High Levels of Skills

There is no real need for lots of skills to create a series of customized t shirts. Numerous people can create what they need just with just a simple online image editing tool. Some print on demand companies include their own design tools as well, which can include clip art and other features. Though there are ways that you can learn the skills to improve upon designs.

5. You Can Adjust Your Products Easily

If you’re using print on demand, you can make changes to your products very easily. For example, you can discontinue products that aren’t selling well and make changes to the designs to make them better without having lots of stock to sell at a discounted price.

How to Start a T Shirt Business

So here is the instruction on how to start a t shirt business that you need to know.

Step 1 – Choose a Niche

The first thing that you need to do is to choose the niche for your clothing line. Are you going to aim for the adult market, female market, male market, children’s, custom, and more? Choosing a niche and a business model is vital. For example, you might prefer to dropship and not have any customized products.

Or you could choose to be print on demand and have your own fashion label with your own designs. Alternatively, you could try to create your own store using physical goods. You might want a high-street business or one that is based from home.

Step 2 – Name Your Store

Now you need to name your store. You should choose a name that is unique and has some relevance to your business. You can use a t shirt business name generator to help you name your store. And you should conduct a business name search to ensure that the name is unique.

Names need to be unique for practical and legal reasons. If your name is the same as another business you can be taken to court. And customers can also be confused between your brand and another brand.

Step 3 – Register Everything

To protect your brand and build a strong business, you need to make sure that you register your business name. Register your name in any state that you would like to sell to. This can be expensive, but you can sometimes get help by using services like ZenBusiness and Bizee.

You should also look at registering your domain, social media, and any other elements that you might need. Domains can go quickly, so be sure to do this fast. A domain only costs $10 a year, so it isn’t a huge expense.

Step 4 – Choose Suppliers/Products

Now you need to start preparing your business. Choose a supplier, whether it is dropshipping, print on demand, or traditional sales. Look at the products, come up with some designs, and start seeing what you need to do to ensure that your business has a good start.

Step 5 – Build a Website

Now build your website. There are numerous different platforms that you can use to build your website. For eCommerce, it is recommended to use Shopify, Wix, Squarespace or WooCommerce. These are simple platforms that don’t require a huge amount of website design skills. Most people can build a website on these platforms within just a few hours.

Step 6 – Marketing

Next, you need to start marketing. Numerous people rely on social media. While some people can make it big on social media, it is much better that you attempt to get your SEO, email marketing, and referral marketing going. These can be much more cost-effective and yield better results.

All of these marketing avenues can be learned from online tutorials and other materials. Therefore, the tactics are accessible to everyone, for free. And there are also low-cost options to help you build a following.

Step 7 – Continue with Development

Now you need to continue with development. Start learning more marketing tactics, assess product sales, remove products that don’t sell, and bring in new products regularly. Collect reviews from past customers and continue to spread the word about your business. Being in business can be a long, hard journey, but it can also be worth it.

Final Word: How to Start a T Shirt Business

It is vitally important that you learn how to start a t shirt business if you want to make a success in this niche. There are lots of potential steps that can wrong and you could earn less than you would otherwise think. But with the right mentality and some hard work, you can make a success out of any t shirt brand. Consider using a t shirt business name generator before you start.