# Anyone know where I can post online my campaign link to help raise $ for my Apparel business I'm starting up?



## Momentsetc (Apr 19, 2013)

I'm starting my own custom garment online business and I currently have a fundraiser link where I'm trying to raise money to help with the start up costs. I just don't know how to bring awareness to it? I don't spend a lot of time online so I really don't know what ways are out there were I can get traffic to my link. Any thoughts, ideas or even useful information would be wonderful!!!!!! (I've already been posting it to my FB page)


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## johnnyb57 (May 26, 2012)

Have you tried those cloud funding sites ?


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## charles95405 (Feb 1, 2007)

who in their right mind would venture into a start up in a business where the failure rate is so high. you really need to have some sort of track record before any serious investor will jump in. hate to be a wet blanket buff I have been in this since 1997.I have seen many start and then stumble. don't know of it was location, designs, marketing or.....I would suggest you look into local investors so there can be face to face discussions.


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## headfirst (Jun 29, 2011)

Why not sell product and fund yourself? Get deposits from customers that will cover your upfront costs and SELL. You'll never make it unless you can sell anyways, no matter what you get in funding so you might as well get out and sell and make some money you can put back into the business.


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## ganjaloco (Apr 11, 2012)

Momentsetc said:


> I'm starting my own custom garment online business and I currently have a fundraiser link where I'm trying to raise money to help with the start up costs. I just don't know how to bring awareness to it? I don't spend a lot of time online so I really don't know what ways are out there were I can get traffic to my link. Any thoughts, ideas or even useful information would be wonderful!!!!!! (I've already been posting it to my FB page)


So what you want is to become successful and rich on this idea of yours and you want it to magically appear simply by people liking you because you want to, and since you don't have time to invest much into making it happen you want a button or something on the Internet which you can click once and it all come as a gift?

Good luck. I can't wait to buy a truckload from someone with that kind of commitment.


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## selanac (Jan 8, 2007)

People usually don't invest unless you're already selling. 

If you have designs, find out the price to produce them. Then go try to sell them. Tell your customers you'll deliver in two weeks. 

If you don't have designs you could sell to businesses. Tell them you'll produce their t-shirts and logo. You'll need to know what you're going to pay to print them. The customer will tell you how many, how many of each size, how many colors, etc. You tell them you'll come back with a price.


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## mmoguls (Mar 9, 2009)

R U Kidding Me? Watched your video, looked at your site, it just mad me sad, not excited.(and it went much too slowly). 

If you want money to start a business, then go out and find a way to make it happen- earn some money, trade some stuff, rep for an established screener. Don't just stand there with your hand out, get to work! The only way your dream will become real is if you make it real. It's all up to you!

For penance of my sin of venting, I will now go and make a direct contribution to Austism Speaks.


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## Viper Graphics (Mar 28, 2009)

mmoguls said:


> For penance of my sin of venting, I will now go and make a direct contribution to Austism Speaks.


 
WoW ...if venting is a sin then I am Doomed! now if I have to make contributions for all my past venting then I am Broke!!....Doomed and Broke! AAAGGHH!  Geeez...life isn't fair! Ummm..I just vented some more....I am hopeless


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## charles95405 (Feb 1, 2007)

looks like the campaign is not going well...as of today..zero contributions...and with only 8 days left they have to get over $2,200 a day to reach their goal.


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## ChristFollower (Oct 4, 2012)

I don't want to bash anyone, but I am just perplexed. I cannot figure out (from the video) what I'd be investing in... apparently a keychain? So, I give you $1,000, and your dream comes true. And I get a keychain.

I'm really not trying to be harsh, but I think you might need to realize that your entire approach sounds more like panhandling than a business plan. You speak of "taking charge" and "being an example" and then essentially ask people to hand you free money.

Lots of people here, myself included, have clawed their way into this industry because you can replace much of the capital with elbow grease. Scott Fresner, who wrote "the book" on screen printing apparel, started on a homemade wooden press with homemade wooden screens. You're asking strangers to buy you a DTG.


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## andromat (Feb 20, 2007)

You blew up my mind!

Janet... Typical.


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## andromat (Feb 20, 2007)

Well, on the second thought, you can post it right here!


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## Hegemone (Oct 18, 2011)

Build a solid business plan. Outline your market, your costs, your potential but realistic profit potential. Go to your local small business development center. Review all of these materials in light of the new information learned. Get a mentor in you area who has started up a small family business. Get used to the idea that no one will willing want to help you. You have to fight for this. You have to risk a lot for this. $18,000 is one years salary for an alarming amount of people in this country. Making donations to a cause doesnt make your plan feasible or even attractive. I can donate directly to a cause and have a greater impact then funding a business that will take years to generate the same type of donation to a cause.

Let me be honest with you for a second . I had the same idea, I thought I could get my friends and family to invest and pre-order some custom limited edition tees. I was just trying to generate pre-orders, thats it. They were solid good designs and generated lots of interest. I was looking for 3,000 for a press and basic equipment. Massive failure. I realized I would have to do this differently. 

I kept my full time job. Lived like I was jobless and squirreled the money away. I spent all my time seething and being pissed off at the world because I was being forced to work for other people. I vowed to win and bootstrap my company and owe no one. I worked on a marketing campaign and got all my ducks in a row. I saved enough for the basics. Purchased them. Learned to print and printed my first design and hit the craft shows (I learned there is more money to be had at fairs and craft shows then selling to people looking for dirt cheap crap at a flea market). I made some money. I asked my family for refferals and not cash. I sweated away in the dead of night after my day job learning my craft and learning to be a professional printer. I learned that in order to be legit I had to sound legit. So I learned some more. I landed a 200 piece corporate job and because I had all my ducks in a row I recouped all my startup costs. I learned how to do client purchase based supply orders and never had money tied up in stock that wasn't being used. New jobs started coming and I am in an area with good solid competition. I got the jobs because I WANTED the jobs and did what it took to be the customers printer not a printer with customers.

I am still working part time to cover normal living expenses so all my shops income goes back into growing. Its slow and painful but rewarding knowing that I owe no one. I am gaining ground and growing. I now have a steady inflow of unsolicited inquiries. I work like a mad man to beat out the competition. I pound the streets to get my name out there. I learned the areas my competition is failing to reach and I am filling that void to the point where I can now get some of the work they cant get to failures in customer service.

So with that said. If you really want to go into debt to start this then you HAVE to polish your image, prove you are better then everyone else and that people are missing out by not being a part of the next great idea. Fail and banks will own you. Let customers down and you will fail and destroy your reputation. Fail to learn the ins and outs of pricing, purchasing, and making a profit and you will not only be owned by the bank you will be spending money to do it.

I am by no means an expert but I do know what its like to start from the ground up and scrape and fight for everything so take what I have said for what its worth. If your feeling hurt by what everyone else has said so far then you need to re-evaluate what you're doing here because these people are being relatively gentle and you have a lot more feedback, some good, some bad, and some really ugly stuff to listen to on your way off the ground floor.

My two cents. Toss them in a well and make a wish.


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## ganjaloco (Apr 11, 2012)

ChristFollower said:


> I don't want to bash anyone, but I am just perplexed. I cannot figure out (from the video) what I'd be investing in... apparently a keychain? So, I give you $1,000, and your dream comes true. And I get a keychain.
> 
> I'm really not trying to be harsh, but I think you might need to realize that your entire approach sounds more like panhandling than a business plan. You speak of "taking charge" and "being an example" and then essentially ask people to hand you free money.
> 
> Lots of people here, myself included, have clawed their way into this industry because you can replace much of the capital with elbow grease. Scott Fresner, who wrote "the book" on screen printing apparel, started on a homemade wooden press with homemade wooden screens. You're asking strangers to buy you a DTG.


Everything he said. If this was on Shark Tank it would either be one half a second segment where they say "you've wasted our time", or 5min really burying the whole thing.
Even if the whole game plan was changed and I'd be offered to get more than a key ring now, I'd not invest because if the approach to opening the business is like this, then I can only imagine how running it would work. Orders dropping from the sky or something. Even one of those Nigeria letters promising a billion if you "only" send ten thousand is more compelling.


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## Susan Scott (Mar 23, 2011)

OMG! REALY! REALY! lololo if we all got our money to start our business this way we would all me millonairs lololo. Do we all have SUCKER ON OUR FOR HEADS lolo.


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## gruntstyle (Aug 11, 2009)

Bout strapping your new venture will teach you the discipline you will need to be successful. Grants and loans will dilute your understanding of cash flow, especially if you're new to the business. 

Sent from my SGH-T889 using T-Shirt Forums


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