# I need to sell 109 shirts a month, is it doable?



## Chunder Tunt (Jul 29, 2013)

Hey there so I did a rough math exercise and I need to sell a 109 shirts a month in order to replace my current 9 - 5 job. How likely is this to happen? From past experiences I'd say its doable. So long as I watch my margins. Does this sound like a lot or a little to a typical low tier brand?


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## tshirtjac (Apr 18, 2015)

Chunder Tunt said:


> Hey there so I did a rough math exercise and I need to sell a 109 shirts a month in order to replace my current 9 - 5 job. How likely is this to happen? From past experiences I'd say its doable. So long as I watch my margins. Does this sound like a lot or a little to a typical low tier brand?


Yes, to me it sound doable but this question really pertains to you as a individual. I can say, yes it doable, but if you sit on the couch eating potato chips, it's not going to happen. I assume this is for your own brand, have considered making shirts for others as well?


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## Viper Graphics (Mar 28, 2009)

Chunder Tunt said:


> Hey there so I did a rough math exercise and I need to sell a 109 shirts a month in order to replace my current 9 - 5 job. How likely is this to happen? From past experiences I'd say its doable. So long as I watch my margins. Does this sound like a lot or a little to a typical low tier brand?


What's a low tier brand? What kind of money are you talking about? You work at McDonalds or J.P. Morgan? I sold 140 shirts today...not enough to replace my 9-5 for a month....seriously. These shirts have a 70 dollar profit margin each? Then maybe....


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## cfree (Oct 26, 2010)

If you can print, start printing for others while trying to build your own brand. Hit up your circle first. Places and people you know. Customer service is Key. If you put in some effort 109 shirt should be easy.
Plan out your weeks and month ahead of time for who you will talk to about shirts. But to sell 109 shirts of our own start up brand a month could be tough. So sell to others as well.

Also since you are just starting out and most likely super excited, read and learn as much as you can. Watch hours and hours of youtube videos and keep browsing these boards.

Good Luck!


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## Chunder Tunt (Jul 29, 2013)

Viper Graphics said:


> What's a low tier brand? What kind of money are you talking about? You work at McDonalds or J.P. Morgan? I sold 140 shirts today...not enough to replace my 9-5 for a month....seriously. These shirts have a 70 dollar profit margin each? Then maybe....


I net 9.60$ at my 9-5 (after taxes). Low tier as in I have my own press, supplies, designs, and have my cost figured out ectaa.. but I'm not pushing into retail stores just yet, nor am I doing trade shows. As of right now Im doing around 4$ - 7$ product cost, that includes everything. and the calculations were for a 10$ profit. So I sell them for 15$-20$ I make 10 =/- dollars. 

Your overhead is probably much greater then mine with a much smaller profit margin, if you doing a 140 shirts on a good day and not banking. Are you talking service? Or damn near whole sale. What do you sell your shirt at if you arnt service? 

I plan on pushing them for (as stated) 15-20$ ea. With a price break with multiple purchases. Read 5 or more, to one buyer.

More or less I wasnt sure if saying a 109 shirts a month is a high number to shoot for. but i guess its around 27 shirts a week. or just about 4 a day.


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## Chunder Tunt (Jul 29, 2013)

cfree said:


> If you can print, start printing for others while trying to build your own brand. Hit up your circle first. Places and people you know. Customer service is Key. If you put in some effort 109 shirt should be easy.
> Plan out your weeks and month ahead of time for who you will talk to about shirts. But to sell 109 shirts of our own start up brand a month could be tough. So sell to others as well.
> 
> Also since you are just starting out and most likely super excited, read and learn as much as you can. Watch hours and hours of youtube videos and keep browsing these boards.
> ...



Thanks! Yes I plan to offer services when needed. But I also know my limitations. This isnt my first company however my last one was legally disbanded and we did about 2000+/- shirts in a span of 2 years-ish. However I wasnt on the selling end so I'm not to confident. Thank you for the well wishes tho.


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## BadPanda (Apr 20, 2016)

It is absolutely possible, but it takes some work.. Social media will be your best friend, especially Instagram.. Instragam tripped my sales.. Use good pictures of your products and cost them on there using high volume tags.. 

I use 

http://top-hashtags.com/instagram

I see what's popular and try and add as many of those tags as I can into my posts.. Always mention where to get it in the post and maybe even a coupon code or something.

It takes a few days but you will start to see tons of likes on your posts and traffic through your site.. I followed this method and within 2 weeks we have close to 6k followers and we saw a nice bump in sales from it..


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## NoXid (Apr 4, 2011)

Well, my advice is not to quit your day job ;-)
... until such time as the business requires it and justifies it.

I sell my own designs online (Etsy, eBay, my own URL). Etsy, and the like, is a good place for people to discover you, and people go there looking to buy stuff. Getting people to your own URL is harder, and can be expensive. YMMV.

I've yet to sell 100 in a month, maybe about 65 in March, my best month so far. My profit is about $13 each, but that is pretty theoretical, as one tends to invest in a larger stock of blanks, better equipment, etc for a while. Point being, don't plan to pull any money out of the business for a while.

The easiest way to get customers is to be where they are looking (Esty, etc) and have what they are looking for (election shirts have been good). It will take much more social media/advertising effort and TIME to get established selling into other less Thing-Of-The-Moment niches. But, hey, if you figure out how to speed that up, let me know!

As others mentioned, doing a little custom work can bring in some cash. You earn much less per shirt, but banging out 50 of the same thing is quick work compared to printing a dozen different designs for your line. It's not something I do much of, as I am in this to work for myself and get my own designs into the world. If it were just about money, I could go back to the previous career and make more money than I have any use for. 

I know someone who does the same sort of stuff as me, but is a few years further along. They quit their day job when their business warranted that step. Were doing well. Then one of the online venues they sell through started to sputter and stall in a major way, and that venue accounted for a LOT of their sales. After months and months of this not getting better, they got another day job. 

Oh, for context, since my Join Date may give you the wrong idea. I first started trying to sell my own line almost a year ago. But I quickly learned that I wasn't really ready and did a reboot over the summer and launched again in the fall. By February of this year, I actually had most of my ducks in a row and started getting some traction. Still lots more to do and learn, but a world ahead of where I was a year ago.


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## williekid (Apr 22, 2009)

Chunder Tunt said:


> Hey there so I did a rough math exercise and I need to sell a 109 shirts a month in order to replace my current 9 - 5 job. How likely is this to happen? From past experiences I'd say its doable. So long as I watch my margins. Does this sound like a lot or a little to a typical low tier brand?




Are you retail or contracting?

There are levels to this.
If retailing, it may be more difficult
If contracting, 109 shirts is nothing.
Not everyone hits as fast as others
Some do not hit at all
Some take off faster than others.

I would not quit the job unless you are absolutely secure or willing to grind 18hrs a day, take no as a option and make it happen and even then I still would not quit. LOL 

If you are unsuccessful you will be without a job, no income and this world has no mercy. Especially if you have been with a company for some good time. May be best to keep on the side.


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## jleampark (Sep 6, 2007)

I would say it's possible but not everyone (and, in fact, most people do not) has/have what it takes to do it.

I think -- at least in the beginning -- you would be working almost 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Most of what you would have to be doing is your marketing... constantly, consistently marketing. Until you build a solid customer base -- and even then you will be marketing to fill in.

I would guess that 75% - 80% of your time would be spent marketing, 15% - 20% of your time would be spent making the tees, and the remainder would be doing the admin work on building your web site, paying your bills, and doing all the other stuff that eats up your time.

Not living/breathing/eating your brand, I think you would have some months where you do 109 tees or more but more months than not where you do less (to none). 

If your brand oozes out of your pores and every waking moment is spent working your business and every sleeping minute is spent dreaming about your business, then I think it can be done.

Then, you have no life.

...just my opinion


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## collinsiegel (Apr 8, 2014)

These are all very relative opinions, and mine is going to be as well.

I'm in a similar situation if that helps. We started business (technically speaking) two years ago selling graphics design services and subbing out textile work (such as embroidery and screen printing). As a side gig it was awesome, not a whole lot of maintenance, and good profit margins when we would get a job. However, at the beginning of this year we re-evaluated where we were vs where we wanted to be.

Our biggest client in January of this year was a local dealership that has ordered all of their embroidered Nike Polo's through us for over a year (we had been subbing out the work). I did the math and realized if we could find a good deal on a used four head embroidery machine we'd be making more money then we were at the time subbing the work out (plus we would own the embroidery machine as an asset), this was a huge discovery. Fast forward to the end of January, we did it. We purchased a used four head Brother embroidery machine, and our only real intent at the time was to use this machine to service our small client base and maybe pickup a new job here and there... We were in for a surprise.

It's the end of May now, it's been about 4 months. Embroidery has become our cash cow to a degree we didn't anticipate. My business partner and I are leaving our day jobs July, 1st to pursue our dreams and grow the business. We aren't quite making money "hand over fist", but it feels like it compared to our numbers just 3 months ago. We just closed an embroidery gig worth $11,000 profit to us (and it wasn't from our biggest client). 

My advice - *DO IT.* The point of that long winded story was to tell you that you will exceed your expectations if you bust your ***. When we go full time we will be launching sales and marketing strategies that we anticipate will grow our business by leaps and bounds more.

You said you're making less than $10 an hour? If that's the case you really need to do it.


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## SomethngOriginal (Mar 29, 2016)

Great story! Inspired me and should do the same for everyone reading as well as the OP. I mean this is what we're in it for right?! To leave our crap jobs, follow our dreams, and leave our mark and legacy. The money is always nice too haha


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## collinsiegel (Apr 8, 2014)

I mean of course everyone wants to replace their income before leaping - but it's not that simple. Even once you "replace your income", what you've really done is doubled it.. That doesn't make it any easier to leave the job.

Risks are necessary in business - that's the reason the owner takes home the check. While everyone else draws payroll the owner(s) took the risks and liability to get to that point, they should be compensated accordingly. If you're smart, work hard, and learn from your mistakes you'll come across success eventually. One sure fire way to keep yourself from success is to stay in a situation that's not getting you there.

Take calculated risks, plan, execute, and repeat... Be a sniper. That's the name of the game in this industry or any other.


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## NoXid (Apr 4, 2011)

collinsiegel said:


> ... and learn from your mistakes you'll come across success eventually...


And here is the point of FAIL for many. You will make mistakes! You will invent entirely new mistakes as well as repeat age old ones 
Plan for it! If your entire future depends on turning a profit the first month, or even the first year, you have already made a HUGE mistake! 

You don't know what you don't know, as the story above illustrates. Expect to _evolve_ your business. As in war, no plan survives first contact with the enemy, so no all or nothing gambles. You need to live to fight another day in order to use what you learn from today's mistakes.


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## collinsiegel (Apr 8, 2014)

NoXid said:


> And here is the point of FAIL for many. You will make mistakes! You will invent entirely new mistakes as well as repeat age old ones
> Plan for it! If your entire future depends on turning a profit the first month, or even the first year, you have already made a HUGE mistake!
> 
> You don't know what you don't know, as the story above illustrates. Expect to _evolve_ your business. As in war, no plan survives first contact with the enemy, so no all or nothing gambles. You need to live to fight another day in order to use what you learn from today's mistakes.


Excellently explained, NoXis.


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## STPG Press (Jul 6, 2015)

My advice. Get a better 9-5 that pays more and start saving money. Work your business from 6-10p and on Saturdays and Sundays and Holidays.

Using your own numbers, a $10 profit margin will only yield you net profits of roughly $13,000 a year. But you'll still have unexpected costs such as loss and shrinkage, taxes (which I don't think you have accounted for), and a whole lot of miscellaneous expenses that will sneak up on you.

The $13,000 number also accounts for 104 shirts a month without ever failing badly. It will be extremely difficult to hit that number consistently for a while. I've been in sales most of my life, in a number of different markets and the one constant through it all is that nothing is guaranteed and you are slave to the economy; especially when you have a product that is not a necessity for living.

Someone else said, don't quit your day job until it's absolutely necessary. I hope you can do that and I hope your business is generating more than $13,000 a year before that happens.

Good luck.


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