# How do I.....Start?



## unho1y (Jun 21, 2010)

Hi, my friend and I are wanting to start a website to make and sell our t-shirt designs. My questions since I'm only 18 years old and my friend is 16 have to do with what we need exactly.

We have t-shirt designs that we've written down and drawn over the past week. I've always wanted to start a t-shirt company but had no clue where to start.

I know I need a website, I need software, and I need ideas. (this is all I think I need, if I need more remember I'm clueless and you guys are the professionals.)

My questions are: 

What software do I need? (I have photoshop but is there a t-shirt making program that's easier?)

What web hosting company would be best to get my website to do national sales?

And I am not very "pro" at photoshop so is there a specific person or company that can make a logo for us?


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## Optiq (Oct 13, 2009)

Only you can answer those questions..... you'll understand what that means and why it's true one day..... but until then you need to just go out here and start doing what you do and see what works for you and what doesn't. As far as graphics software, photoshop is a damn good start, but people use all sorts of different programs, it's not that one is better than the other for t-shirts, different people feel comfortable with different things. Look at using graphics software the same way you look at manual art supplies, some people prefer markers, some prefer color pencils, some prefer acrylic paint, some prefer oil based, it's all about your own style. There is no definite right or wrong way to use photoshop, you create your own formulas and methods for doing what you do. As far as your t-shirts all you technically need to start selling them is a seller's permit for your city, I can't say how to go about doing it because I don't know what you do and who you're targeting. You have to think to yourself "who do these designs identify with?" In the future create artwork targeted towards a specific market. For example, say you have a lot of women between the ages of 15-25 who love Unicorns..... do a bunch of different unicorn designs and advertise to those particular chicks in whatever ways are best to reach them. Say you have a population of death metal fans, draw a bunch of skulls, grim reapers, smokey evil looking stuff and market to them. Never pull stuff out of your *** and put it up to see who gets it, you're just a needle in the hay stack. Don't try to keep your business open to everyone in terms of targeted customers, start with one niche and add on as you go and have the means of focusing on them one by one. Keep your niches separate so that as your different types of customers come to your site, store, whatever, there is a way for them to be placed into an atmosphere of things that are all of their vibe, otherwise everything gets cluttered and they have to spend too much time searching through other things that don't identify with them which will turn them away. As far as the medium you want to use for your shirts...... it's up to you and what you can afford. If you need to outsource starting off do so. I hope this helps some.


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## rhilferding (Jun 18, 2010)

I think you will also need some method of fulfillment. Answer these questions:
1. If someone buys a shirt - how do I get it to them?
2. How do I get paid?
3. How do I make sure I am following all the laws?

Cool designs are only 1 part of the equation. You also need to understand marketing, finance, and business. 

Good luck with your endeavor!


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## chica729 (Apr 30, 2010)

If you are just starting us and unsure about this I would suggest just uploading your deigns to a site like cafepress. Its free and all you have to do is upload your deigns. CF does the printing, supplies the blanks, ships and customer service. Now they take a % of your sales but, use that to start. If your sales do well then you might want to consider starting your own site, getting in blanks and purchasing a heat press and transfers paper and making it your own full time business.


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## yodude711 (Feb 20, 2010)

This is an article I wrote a few months ago that seems to apply here. I've removed all the links. 

*How to Sell T-Shirts Online for Less than $5/month*

Alright, it’s no big secret, I mean all these services are readily available to anyone online. But sometimes people just don’t want to take the time to do the research to find the best option. That’s why people still use ecommerce solutions like a Yahoo! Store, and overpay through the nose for the service. But hey, to each his own.
Anyway, here is the best way I’ve found to sell t-shirts online, or any product for that matter. This is coming from my 8 years experience with my own t-shirt company, started back before cafepress became popular.

*Web Hosting*

First of all, web hosting. Web hosting does not have to cost you an arm and a leg. If you’re paying more than $10/month, you’re paying too much, unless you’ve got some dedicated server or something fancy like that. I’m talking about your basic hosting plan on a shared server.
Personally I use GoDaddy.com for hosting, but that’s because I didn’t know any better when I first started doing websites. If I knew then what I know now, I’d definitely be using HostGator.com. Why? Ease of use. Plus, I have heard from other website owners that GoDaddy is the only webhost out there that will actually TAKE your domain from you if they suspect anything fishy with your account, like for example if you do a big advertising campaign and one day you get a lot more hits to your site than usual, they might freeze your account.
As far as ease of use, I much prefer HostGator because they use the popular “CPanel” administration for your hosting and domain. Everything you need is in one place, and you don’t have to go to their site to login to your hosting control panel. With GoDaddy, you have to login to their site and navigate several pages just to get to the one you want.
On top of all that, HostGator has a great hosting plan that will allow you to host an unlimited number of websites, unlimited storage space, and unlimited monthly bandwidth (no limit on the amount of people that can view your site). GoDaddy has limits on space and badwidth.
The cheapest plan you can get on HostGator will run you less than $5/month.

*Domain Names*

A lot of people don’t realize this, but you do not have to register your domain name with the same provider from which you get your web hosting. Granted, it is easier to get them from the same provider, but it is not necessary. Actually, some webmasters will tell you that it is wise to get them from separate companies. That way if one company’s data center goes down, the other is still up and running and you haven’t lost EVERYTHING, just one or the other.
Here’s a little trick, though, if you do decide to use GoDaddy for anything, don’t go straight to their website to register a domain name. Instead, do a google search for something like “cheap domains”, then click the sponsored ad from GoDaddy.com that says $6.99 domain names. If you do it this way, you’ll save $3/year on your domain name registration. How about that! Just keep in mind what I mentioned earlier – GoDaddy is the only company I’ve heard of that will actually TAKE your domain name from you if they suspect any illegal activity. They’ll shut you down so fast you won’t know what happened until you’ve lost tons of business.
If I were starting out, I would go to NameCheap.com to register my domain names. You’ll pay $9.99/year instead of $6.99, but they include free WhoIs privacy, which GoDaddy does not include for free. WhoIs privacy will keep private your personal information in the public WhoIs database listing for your domain name. If you don’t want people to know your name, address, phone, and email address just by looking up who owns your domain name, then you’ll want this privacy feature.

*Web Design*

Unless you want a totally custom website, web design is FREE nowadays. Have you heard of WordPress? Most people think it’s just for blogs, but you can actually make very nice looking websites with it. Almost all of my websites are now built in WordPress, including this one. I prefer this setup because,
it’s free,
it’s easy to use
I can access and administrate my sites from any computer because it’s all web-based, and
it looks good.
You want to know the best part? WordPress can be installed on your webhosting plan with the click of a button. In the past you had to do a lot of legwork to install it on your domain. Nowadays, though, in the CPanel of your web hosting plan with HostGator.com, there’s a little feature called “Fantastico” that will install it for you with the click of a button.
They have a ton of free “themes” to change the look of your site. Pick one that doesn’t look like a “blog” if you don’t want it to look like a blog. Then you’ll have to tweak a couple settings to set it up as a website rather than a blog. It’s super easy though, and there is a ton of documentation and help files online.
Anyway, you can get really fancy with WordPress if you want, but you can also keep it really simple. Either way, this is not a guide on how to design a website, so we’ll leave it at that. (Maybe I’ll write a more extensive guide about all this someday…)

*Online Payment Processing*

Let me just set one thing straight: PayPal is NOT the only only payment processor out there. In fact, I would not even say it is the best, but you may disagree. I got tired of the Paypal routine as soon as a viable alternative came around: Google Checkout. Google has a really fine payment processing service, and their fees are relatively comparable to Paypal. What I prefer about Google Checkout, though, is that they do not hold your money in some “online bank account” like Paypal does, but rather they simply process the payment and the deposit it directly to your bank checking account as soon as the next business day. With this arrangement, I have better control of my money. I’ve heard plenty of horror stories about Paypal freezing peoples’ accounts, seizing funds, etc, as soon as their fraud detection triggers are tripped, even if you’re not committing any fraud or doing anything wrong!
Google Checkout is FREE to signup. And I don’t know if they’re doing this anymore, but at one point they would give you something like $10 in free payment processing transactions for every $1 you spent on Google Adwords. Or was it the other way around? Either way, it’s a great deal for you.

*E-Commerce Shopping Cart*

If you want a free shopping cart, Google Checkout and Paypal both have decent built-in shopping cart functionality with their service. Actually, the built-in shopping cart with Google Checkout is pretty darn slick compared to Paypal’s. As another free option, I would highly recommend FatFreeCart.com. This is the free version of the pro shopping cart I use on my sites. It is a great shopping cart because there are no pop-up windows for customers to deal with, the shopping cart pages simply popup right inside a cool little fadebox overlay right inside your own site. Of course, because it is free, there are some drawbacks. For instance, you can only have flat, pre-determined shipping charges calculated, there is no discount code functionality, and you can’t keep inventory records, or anything else like that. That’s why I use the Pro version of the fatfreecart, which is a service provided by E-Junkie.com.
E-Junkie.com is the BEST shopping cart service I’ve found. Don’t let the name throw you, it’s not for junkies or losers like my first impression told me from their domain name. This is a totally legit service and I use it for ALL of my ecommerce sites. I have three or four different accounts with E-Junkie for several reasons…
It’s CHEAP. Like $5/month flat fee for up to 10 products.
The admin panel is easy to use.
The code is easy to implement – copy and paste.
You can do some pretty advanced coupon codes and discounts.
You can sell downloadable goods in addition to tangible goods.
You can keep inventory with it if you want.
Advanced shipping calculations.
Comprehensive transaction logs.
Supports product variants that tell more about the product ordered, and can affect their price. e.g. charge $2 extra for XXL shirts.
It has a BUILT-IN AFFILIATE PROGRAM (this is huge – you’ll pay $99/month for other affiliate programs).
You can offer customers multiple payment methods all within the one shopping cart – from Paypal and Google Checkout to Authorize.net and others.
It can be easily integrated with Google Analytics and many other 3rd party providers.
And finally, eventually you will be able to integrate your own E-Junkie seller account with our order processing system here on OnDemandScreenPrinting.com to automate your entire business. (We’re working on it!)
There is no question about it. If you can afford an EXTRA $5/month for this service, I would HIGHLY recommend it. They have a free 7-day trial. Signup here: E-Junkie.com.

*Email Marketing*

While email marketing is not necessarily required to sell t-shirts online, I will tell you it is an important part of any internet business. When they say, “the power is in the list,” they’re talking about your list of subscribers, and they’re not kidding! Having a list of people that know you and trust you that you can send emails to is how you really make money online. And the only way to do that is with a professional email marketing service.
I’ve used a couple of them out there, researched a lot more of them, and the overwhelming opinion of internet marketers out there is that Aweber is the BEST. I use it for all my websites, which is one of the reasons I like it so much – you pay a flat fee per month determined by how many subscribers you have, not how many different lists, or how many emails you send per month. That way, you can have an unlimited number of “lists” to which you can send emails, and you won’t pay anymore per month as long as you’re within the limits of the number of total subscribers you have across all your lists combined.
On top of that, the features are great. You can schedule an unlimited number of followup emails that will be AUTOMATICALLY sent to your subscribers. You write the emails once, and your people get them at just the right time. Someone signs up for your email list, they’ll get the first followup email immediately, then you can tell the system how many days to wait before sending the next followup, and the next followup, and so on. I would not be in business without Aweber if I were you.

*Conclusion*

Alright, if you signed up for all the services I mentioned above, you’d be paying more than $5/month for your website. But if you just wanted the bare minimum, you could definitely do it for about $5/month.
$6.99/year for the domain name
$4.24/month for the web hosting
Free web design
Free payment processing
Free shopping cart
That’s $4.82/month plus payment processing transaction fees. Even if you add on all the other options, you’re looking at $28.82/month, while a Yahoo! Store will run you $39.95/month plus transaction fees, and that’s just for the online store which doesn’t include the email marketing and domain name.
I hope I’ve helped you see how easy and inexpensive it is to run an online business. Anymore it’s the only kind of business I want to run because it’s the only kind of business that makes sense to me – minimal risk, huge potential profits.


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## Exoul (Jun 25, 2010)

You definitely need a business license. It's not hard to get one, you can fill one out online. But before you do that, read the guidelines and stuff first.


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## Leg cramps (Feb 9, 2009)

Look in your community newspaper sometimes they have classes for photoshop.most designers charge 25-35 an hour to do art so if you are serious about getting into this Id start there.


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## bigluelok (Aug 10, 2007)

yodude711 thats great info


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## leib (Nov 7, 2010)

Sorry no helpful info from me, I just wanted to say good luck from one newbie to another and thanks to all your replies as they are helpful to me


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## ejdowse (Oct 13, 2010)

At the suggestion of other T-shirt forum members, I downloaded Inkscape (Inkscape. Draw Freely.), a free, open-source. vector graphics editor. According to what I've read (and tried to do with my copy of photoshop), photoshop cannot produce vector graphics and vector graphics are what you need to send to printers. (Do some searching on the forums to find out why - I'm not going to try to explain it - but it's been said enough times that I believe the posters).

Anyway, Inkscape has been pretty easy to learn (much easier than photoshop, but it's functionality is more limited than photoshop, which is fine with me) and it's free (did I mention that?). You can use it to start learning how to do graphic design and step up to one of the better, more expensive programs later.


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## jasonj03 (Aug 23, 2010)

Yodude711 very helpful info. 
Unho1y where are you from? I am in Alberta Canada and I just recently got my biz licence. It was quick and painless. Just visit any registries agent and tell them you need to register a trade name. It cost me under $50 dollars and took about 10 minutes if that to fill out the required forms.

As for trademarking, I am not there yet. I have looked around though and apparently it is better to wait before you trademark your name. Start your business and see how it does before you go through that process. It sounds to me like a headache that takes quite a bit of time and effort. 

For programs I highly recommend Adobe Illustrator. Photoshop is great, I use that for my t-shirt templates, but use designs from Illustrator. Photoshop is raster based, so images you create can become pixelated when you resize them. The beauty of Illustrator is that you create vector based images, (Which basically means the artwork is based on x and y scales and the program does the math for you as it is resized, rather than a certain amount of pixels which distort when you resize them.) I am not that advanced with photoshop yet so I may be wrong as to what it is capable of. There are also numerous tutorial sites where you can figure out how to use these programs. You'll mainly need the pen tool in Illustrator and it is a bit tricky at first so I would recommend checking out some tuts on this one. It's a big help though if you draw your designs then you can scan them and trace with your pen tool. Hope some of this helps, good luck!


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## ejdowse (Oct 13, 2010)

My first post didn't make it through so I'm trying again. Everything I've read here says Photoshop is not the tools of choice. We have it and despite the fact that it says you can export a file in Illustrator format, it doesn't appear to actually work.

A number of posters here recommended Inkscape - which is a free, open source vector graphic program. I have been using it and have been pretty happy with it, considering it's free that is, It has been pretty easy to learn (a little easier than the Adobe products I've used) and there are plenty of tutorials. For a tight budget I recommend it.

You've got a good start - good luck!


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## jasonj03 (Aug 23, 2010)

The thing I like about photoshop though is that you can use clipping masks to easily change the color of your t-shirt. You can find some very realistic looking t-shirt templates on google and upload them to photoshop. From there add a clipping mask and simply change the colour to whatever you want your shirt to be. Then you can place your vector graphics onto it so you have a very good idea of what the shirt will look like. I can't say I have printed any shirts yet as I am in school and can't afford to at the moment. Once I can though, I will use the photoshop template to bring a preview to the print shop, along with my vector graphics which will be saved in illustrator. That is a good point however, that free programs are good if you are strapped for cash. Illustrator is by far the best program I have used for vectors, but it was quite a bit to learn. I absolutely love the program now though but it does run you quite a bit of cash. I haven't used inkscape though so I don't know anything about it. If it does the trick might as well have a go at it.

Also another thing I have learned about the printing process is source out a good printshop in your area. Find an experienced printer and ask them if you can view some of there samples. Let them know you are looking around to compare prices and quality etc. etc. If you wan't to learn how to do it yourself (Would recommend not spending the time and money buying your own equipment and learning on your own.) Find a screenprinting class in your area, if available. I heard you can take these classes which will teach you how everything works, and you can also rent out the equipment. I like this idea because I would like to learn how to screen print and possibly one day own my own equipment as well.


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## tiredew (Mar 11, 2009)

ejdowse said:


> At the suggestion of other T-shirt forum members, I downloaded Inkscape (Inkscape. Draw Freely.), a free, open-source. vector graphics editor. According to what I've read (and tried to do with my copy of photoshop), photoshop cannot produce vector graphics and vector graphics are what you need to send to printers.



This is not true.

While it is true that vectors are fantastic for screen printing, Photoshop, when used correctly, can 100% be used for screen printing and produce great results. A lot of screen printers prefer vector graphics because there is no possibility of having a low-quality image that is unusable (such as a 32kb pixely image). If you use PS be sure to keep each color on a separate layer. Lots of really high end work gets done on PS, a good t-shirt designer will know how to use PS and a vector program - I use both regularly.


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## asim (Sep 26, 2010)

yodude711 said:


> This is an article I wrote a few months ago that seems to apply here. I've removed all the links.
> 
> *How to Sell T-Shirts Online for Less than $5/month*
> 
> ...


Excellent post. great article.


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## teezecrost (May 9, 2007)

unho1y - If you want to print your own shirts, you'll need:

A heat press and a printer/cutter if you're going to do heat press transfers (Roland Wide-Format Eco-Solvent and Pigment Inkjet Printers)

or

A heat press and a place that will create plastisol transfers for you

or, if you want to learn to screen print

a press, exposure unit, dryer, screens, ink, squeegees, and a printer to print films on. This will take some time and research to learn, but when in doubt, don't cheap out. Get a press with micro registration and 6 colors unless you know you're sticking to the simplest of designs. Get retensionable screens and keep them tight.

For a site, you may want to start with a wordpress blog, and just use paypal's cart system on it. And then upgrade as you make money, or see fit. Hope that helps!


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## LODclothing (Aug 5, 2010)

I think it's important not to let your design momentum slow down with all the details. Right now I'd focus on 
1. Do your best to get your design ideas to photoshop. Even if it's not finished, you'll learn bit by bit. It's like a video game. You can sit and read the manual, strategy guide, read the entire legal disclaimer... And then lose interest in playing the game. My suggestion, get in and play.
2. Google Photoshop tutorials - if you have design ideas that you can't execute on Photoshop, look it up and take it step by step.
3. Clip and rip - if you run across pictures that you like, clip them from the magazine or save them to your desktop. These will be great to keep the "designer's block" from setting in.

As mentioned earlier, sites like cafepress or zazzle are a great way to get a feel for what works. So enjoy the creative process and sweat the details later.

Chris


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