# need to start a business to sell tshirts online?



## jebrun (Dec 7, 2011)

I am interested in selling tshirts solely online. I know nothing about starting a business, however, and wonder how much is different from doing something online and out of your home than when you open a shop and sell from there. Is an ecommerce site like Volution or Magento the way to go for this, or is it as easy as getting a domain name, finding a way to process orders, payments and delivery, and going from there?

I know people who sell things on ebay are not all business owners, so what is the difference between them and what I want to do?

Thanks in advance,

Jebrun


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## gruntstyle (Aug 11, 2009)

You first must understand that just because you have an online store, it doesn't mean crowds of people start then you should talk to a professional web deve will just stumble upon it and purchase your products. It still takes a lot of ground work, promoting and time. Our online store is probably one of the more successful ones on this forum and we have been pushing it hard for two years. 

If you're not sure about where to start then you should at least talk to a professional web developer or hire one. Making one your self with little background experience will lead to slow frustrating failure. It would look unprofessional and discourage potential customers.

I used to do this professionally and the internet is littered with corpses of failed commerce websites. 

A professional could get you online and start selling in just weeks.


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## binki (Jul 16, 2006)

good luck on selling even 1 shirt online unless you have a product that will be a hit. There are thousands of online tshirt stores that you will compete with. 

you need to start with a business plan so you can map out your strategy.


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## Austin300 (May 24, 2009)

This is my startup 101 reply to anyone who 
is wanting to start an online store to sell
shirts but is new to it all and wants to feel
the waters. It is a simple way to get your
products to the public and see if you have
what people want to buy.


The first thing I tell people is to buy the domain
name for their new brand. It is JUST the domain
name and costs under $15.00 per year.

Second thing I tell them is that once you OWN
the domain name you can FORWARD that URL/domain name
to any website or blog or even a Facebook page
to begin showing people what you offer.

When you own your brands domain name you are
already saving money with advertising because
you will always have that same. .com to tell people
how to find you from the start. No changes over
time because of a new website or new business
cards with new information. It's YOUR company
and YOUR website.



Third thing is to realize that you can indeed
start selling online in 24 hours with a simple
and FREE Big Cartel website. They give you
a 5 item free website with shopping cart and you take orders
via Paypay and they do the work for you
as far as the money transfers and you can
expand beyond your 5 items for a small monthly fee.

You simply forward your domain name to the
Big Cartel OR other free shopping cart site
like BC an you are in business in a day.


This doesn't cover getting your shirts / printing
or anything else but it IS indeed a quick way
to "feel the waters" for under $20 bucks.

If your grow then you can then grow with
your same brand name and owning that domain
name is extremely important as step one.


Without getting deep into dept and signed contracts
for web shopping carts and merchant accounts for
credit card purchases you are up and running with
Big Cartel and you can spend your time and energy
on making a great product.

I don't work for BC but think they offer an amazing
product for the price. http://bigcartel.com/ 
There are plenty of other options but I have helped
people who started off in this business as a hobby
and they turned it into a business with some hard work.

http://bigcartel.com/buzz


This is the BC website that the woman in the above video
is using to sell here hand made items. http://freshlypicked.bigcartel.com/




Hope that helps.


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## gruntstyle (Aug 11, 2009)

Outside of promoting somebodies paid for store like hero above, there are some free open source applications that will require a little bit of elbow grease but can look fantastic. I run our website on opencart, I've also used oscommerce in the past and know you can use word-press and joomla as well. There are many others. Opensource is free. Plus you have a lot of add-ons you can download usually for free and a lot of support community.


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## Austin300 (May 24, 2009)

gruntstyle said:


> Outside of promoting somebodies paid for store like hero above, there are some free open source applications that will require a little bit of elbow grease but can look fantastic. I run our website on opencart, I've also used oscommerce in the past and know you can use word-press and joomla as well. There are many others. Opensource is free. Plus you have a lot of add-ons you can download usually for free and a lot of support community.


 
LMAO


I don't have anything to do with that site whatsoever.

It's a proven option and many use BC here on this forum
as a stepping stone.

It's FREE... nobody is "promoting" a FREE site.

Most are here to help out the other guy starting out
who have little funds and less knowledge of making a website.

If I was here to "promote" anything I would have
links in my signature and constantly refer to them.


Typical... and disturbing..


/


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## gruntstyle (Aug 11, 2009)

Didn't mean to hurt your feelings there stud. I still talk like a Drill Sergeant some time, but don't take it personal. 

I'd be interested in seeing your website and seeing what you've done if you don't mind posting it.


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## OSSKOBRET (Sep 17, 2011)

the family and i started a little biz from home. i found that i was grafficaly challenged lol, so i went with a company called inksoft. still setting up store but you have alot of options and their customer service is great.i am not promoting them ..... just sharing what i did


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## Austin300 (May 24, 2009)

gruntstyle said:


> Didn't mean to hurt your feelings there stud. I still talk like a Drill Sergeant some time, but don't take it personal.
> 
> I'd be interested in seeing your website and seeing what you've done if you don't mind posting it.


No feelings hurt whatsoever. 

I don't live and breathe on this forum. I only try to
help when somoene asks a question. I gave them
a free alternative. I'm not here to self promote and
never will. It gets in the way of why I come here.

If you feel that helping somebody on this forum
by pointing them to a viable option is somehow
"promoting" it then so be it. 

Have a great day...

Typical.. and disturbing......


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## OSSKOBRET (Sep 17, 2011)

how do you post your web site adress , i tried the user controll panel but changes did not work any advice ?


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## gruntstyle (Aug 11, 2009)

put it in your signature. Its the easiest way. You can add up to two lines or links.


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## OSSKOBRET (Sep 17, 2011)

gruntstyle said:


> put it in your signature. Its the easiest way. You can add up to two lines or links.


 Thanks for the help


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