# Profit in Selling shirts: What should I expect?



## TheAtomicSoul (Feb 6, 2009)

I'm a simple design artists with a flair for branding and I'm considering starting my own business making and selling shirts and other branded products. I like the ease of going through an existing online shirt store however I feel I may be able to make a better profit margin (and provide a better shirt) if I make them myself. 

The thing I'm wondering however is if it's worth the time and financial investment to start making the shirts myself or if I am better off to continue selling them through other companies and focus on a better website to sell them through. 


If possible, could I get some feedback on what you all have experienced? 

Material cost, Sale price, and Profit per shirt?
Minimum income you accept for a one off, max you ever get? Any info will help. 


My inquiry falls into two categories: single color shirts or multi-color shirts. If you can give feedback on the multicolor option, please let me know what kind of process you're using as well!


Thanks for any feedback you can provide!


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## treefox2118 (Sep 23, 2010)

I've had 3 different print businesses in almost 20 years:

1. Wholesale (warehouse) -- no retail front,
2. Online (garage/home) -- no retail front,
3. Retail/wholesale -- retail store front.

I would never do #1 or #2 again. Retail walk-ins (both DTG and screen print) are a huge profit machine. While they wait for their same day tee (DTG), we can upsell them on stickers (solvent), business cards (offset) or a personal website (web design team).

If you're just starting out, your best bet is to contract it out until you feel confident that orders are coming in regularly. There is more money to be made calling previous customers during any moment of slowness than there is to be printing yourself at the start. Yes, your margins will be smaller, but if you're printing yourself, you can't be selling.

There are many markets that are oversaturated with printers, but few sellers. Get yourself a nice small store front in an active part of town and sell, sell, sell. Sub it out to a local contract shop until you can afford to hire a part time printer to work for you.


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## TheAtomicSoul (Feb 6, 2009)

treefox2118 said:


> ... we can upsell them ...
> 
> If you're just starting out, your best bet is to contract it out ...
> 
> Get yourself a nice small store front in an active part of town and sell, sell, sell.


Thanks for the reply Treefox!

If I may inquire, whats the average you get for each shirt you sell, minus material cost? I'm currently paying $9 per single color transfer shirt and selling for $12, so just a $3 profit. I'm also paying $10.50 for a full color DTG and selling them for $15, a slightly better profit. (These are being printed on Gildan basic t-shirts.)


I have little desire to start a store front in my area; we've already got several in the area and I honestly don't want to join the Frey. My main intent (for now) is to raise funds to get out of debt rather then create a full time job, so I'd rather save the cash it'd cost to rent a spot (despite all the empty buildings the area I'm in is overpriced for rental space.) 
Only minor possibility of opening one would be around Christmas time, and even then it'd only be a tiny kiosk to sell premade items on.

I have a vinyl plotter and plan to get a heat press to do some transfer/ flex print (term?) shirts and am considering getting a kit for dye sub.
Up-selling is a concept I'm familiar with to tie related products I create together but direct promotion confuses me; figuring out how to advertise them to the first item is where I'm at a loss. 
I am planning some guerrilla advertising to spread the word; namely slipping ads into unusual places. 
I'm looking through all the words of wisdom on this site, though doing it at 12AM isn't the best time (though it's the only time I have.)


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## treefox2118 (Sep 23, 2010)

For us it depends highly on the department. We've got a few different departments in our shop (screen press, laser engraving, wide format, stickers-decals, web design, DTG and offset brokerage) and the ebbs and flows of the seasons really have a strong effect on our profit margin per department, but we track these things very closely and try to maintain a consistent growth.

For T-shirts, even that is hard to say. We're currently doing a 1400 impression screen job today, and the profit margin is pretty weak because it's a big contract job. We're also doing some smaller 80 shirt jobs (1-3 screens each) and of course the profit margin is much higher.

I don't really price jobs as "per shirt profit" so I have no idea what we're making per shirt. A job last week probably netted $15 a shirt profit, and a job 2 weeks ago netted around $0.16 per shirt profit. But on an hourly basis, they weren't that far apart.

If you're going to focus on this gig as a side business, you should immediately create a spreadsheet to track each job and the true time you invest in it.

Create just a few rows for each job: design hours, printing hours, marketing hours, sales fulfillment hours, customer service hours. Total up how much everything really costs you (don't forget electricity), and then see if you're making enough per hour for it to be worth it.

We're in Chicago, so our per-hour profit has to be more than someone who might be in the sticks. If we get a slow period, I have 5 figures a month to pay in overhead, so we need to charge more when we're busy to weather the slow times. A one-man shop can get by with much less, but you also can't make as much as a larger shop can during the busy times.

Since it's a side gig for you, it's more important to make just a FEW items (designs?) and build a base of fans -- Facebook, Twitter, a nice simple website -- and slowly add to the product line.


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## mygivingtee (Dec 18, 2009)

Do it for love!
It's a mom and pop business and there's usually someone who will do it cheaper.
The easier entry into a business is the tougher it is to get the requisite margins unless you find a niche.


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