# Things to Know Before Opening a T-Shirt Printing Store



## Yahmed2

The t-shirt printing industry is now an $8billion market. With little to no barriers to entry into this fast growing industry, you can easily set up an online t-shirt printing business from home and earn your way into a million dollars.

Here’s what you need to know to start your very own t-shirt printing business:

*Sourcing blank t-shirts to print on*

A lot of thought must go into the type of t-shirt you want to print on, including it’s compatible with the type of printing method you choose. Of course, you have to do all this within your budget. Buying in bulk might seem like a big investment for a start-up, but you get to enjoy immensely low costs. Unlike fast fashion products, that are costly and more risky to produce as they will not sell much later after the trend is over, t-shirt printing is a relatively safer business as t-shirts will stay in fashion all year round. That means your t-shirts can and will be all sold off eventually. However, if you don’t want to invest as much just yet, you could always just sell your t-shirt designs, the same way you can buy designs for your t-shirts, instead of the whole package.

*Printing your T-Shirts
*
If you want to save on investments and want to minimize work, you can have your t-shirts printed from online sites like CafePress, Teezily, Zazzle, etc. But if you choose on printing from your base of operations, there are many different printing techniques that you should know about. Here are some that are feasible from home:

1. Screen Printing

Screen printing gives you a higher print quality, vibrant colours, and a soft finish. It’s great for mass production, but is fairly time consuming. It can also get messy and takes some time getting used to when done manually.



2.Transfer Paper

This method is basically printing a design on transfer paper and using a heat press to transfer the print onto the t-shirt. Although it is a very simple and easy to use method, and allows for full colour, it can be a little slow and works best on light coloured t-shirts.



3. Vinyl Printing

This method uses a heat press as well. Using a CAD cutter, a design is cut out of a special material, and then pasted onto the t-shirt with a heat press. This is great for one-off designs or even large quantities. The quality is high, and you get vibrant colours with no fading or cracking. However, you will need to invest in special CAD cutters, a heat press and, learning about the softwares and hardwares involved.





4. Direct to Garment (DTG)

The direct-to-garment printing process operates much like an ink-jet printer you would have at home. DTG prints ink directly onto the t-shirt and can produce full color images with accuracy. Just like a Heat Transfer, a DTG printer is great for small orders or one-offs. However, when it comes to volume or larger productions the DTG is not really cost and labor effective. You can only print one t-shirt at a time.

Since there really is no setup cost, the best place for this is a small DIY home printing business.

*Platform to sell your t-shirts on
*
If you don’t want to open up your own site just yet, you can look into either selling your designs or t-shirts on online platforms like shopify, Teespring, CafePress, etc. While they are both easy to use, with shopify you get the added benefit of brand building. You can even use some of these sites for printing and dropshipping. This cuts down even more work for you and helps you learn more for when you decide to expand your business. Most importantly though is that you will get more traffic from these platforms, resulting in more sales.

The T-shirt Printing Industry is a great way and place to start off if you want to get into the fashion industry.


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## Ahmed11

is this enough or should i look for more content ?


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## Teeshirtcountry

Its better to use someone else money to learn than your own.This way if you make mistakes your not paying for them .


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## PhoenixGrafx

How about copyright issues?


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## webtrekker

> 4. Direct to Garment (DTG)
> 
> The direct-to-garment printing process operates much like an ink-jet printer you would have at home. DTG prints ink directly onto the t-shirt and can produce full color images with accuracy. Just like a Heat Transfer, a DTG printer is great for small orders or one-offs. However, when it comes to volume or larger productions the DTG is not really cost and labor effective. You can only print one t-shirt at a time.
> 
> Since there really is no setup cost, the best place for this is a small DIY home printing business.



NO SETUP COST FOR DTG???


What planet are you living on?


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## Designs4Screen

You may want to include a section about designs. What kind of designs do you plan to print on your t-shirts? Do you want to use your own designs? If so, will you have time to create new designs and print them too? Or maybe you should think about sourcing pre-made designs and/or templates to lighten your load. The last thing you want to do is open an online t-shirt shop and then have it go stale because you never add any new and unique products.


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## linneasandel

This is awesome information that you have mentioned in this article. Keep sharing this information with us because I got so much information from your side so thankful for it...


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## DrivingZiggy

Ahmed, I'm struggling with my response here. I don't want to be insulting, but I fear that my reply will come across as harsh. And I don't want to be (harsh), I'm hoping that you welcome my thoughts.

Okay, I see that you have dumbed it down for the masses who have not yet begun to educate themselves. That's good! However, it may go a little too far. Why do I say this? We see new people on the forum every day who have gotten excited about beginning their new career as a garment decorator. Before doing any research, they spend $hundreds--if not $thousands--on the equipment they have decided that they need. It is only then that they find this forum and their question is usually, "Okay, what do I do now?"

So although your article is well-written and informative, I fear that it will also lead to much more of that kind of behavior. It has juuuuuuust enough information to get someone excited about starting a new career making $millions (per your article) in their home to get them to buy some equipment that they are completely ignorant of to begin that new career that they are equally ignorant of at which time they will "stall out."

I guess what I'm saying is that most of us here on the forum are already aware of the processes you've highlighted and will already know which is most appropriate for us. And we'll already be aware of the pitfalls. But the reader you're targeting will most likely use the information you're providing to invest in equipment which will then remain dormant because the new garment decorator will have no idea how to use it. They also will not know what other equipment they'll need to go along with the equipment they've already purchased. They also will not know a thing about marketing and where to find customers.

It kinda reminds me of the old, "Laid off? Drive a truck and become rich!" and the more recent "Learn to code!" While all are somewhat valid, there is much missing information. Information that will take months--if not years--to learn.

Now, I want you to know that I've struggled with this reply as I really don't want to discourage you. I guess it just kinda pressed a button in me.


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