Sell custom designed tshirts

Most everyone loves to get a tshirt, especially if there’s a unique design or saying plastered on it.  Heck, college kids will put their name on a credit card application just for the sole purpose of scoring a free tshirt.  If you have skills as an artist, coming up with your own designs won’t be too much trouble.  Create some of your favorite, unique sayings or statements – short and simple works really well, remember Sh** Happens and how huge that was?

Pick a niche to design around that you like – motorcyclists, college students, mountain bikers, political, seniors, people wanting to lose weight, the options pretty much never end.  Funny, dog & cat related, and political are usually the big sellers.

What if you don’t have artistic skills?  Maybe you have some artistic friends that would do some designs for free or offer them around $50 – $100 per design.

You could also use 99Designs website, which uses crowdsourcing to generate ideas, then you select and pay the winning artist for the design you like.  Can also use services for web design if you’d like to get your own tshirt website built.

Once you have about 5-8 original designs to start, you can take them over to your favorite printing shop, which might require a minimum amount of a few dozen or few hundred.  Cafepress.com doesn’t require minimums.

How to Sell

• Open a store on Yahoo and/or eBay, sell individually on eBay, set up shop at flea markets, Craigslist.
• Some areas will allow individuals to hold a sale from the trunk of their car on weekends in old parking lots.
• If you decide to hire others to draw your designs, offer them a flat rate for the drawing (around $50-100) or a deal along the lines of $20 up front, then $1 per shirt sold with their design.  Gives you an opportunity not to put up a lot of cash up front and they can earn more based on sales.  A good opportunity for them to make some decent money too if they have multiple designs with you.
• Build your own website using a WordPress theme to point customers during your marketing efforts.  I recommend Hostgator as a hosting site as I’ve been using them for my sites and have been very happy with their service.
• Build a free webpage at Squidoo to sell and create a backlink to your existing website
• Visit apparel shops around town to form a partnership to sell your shirts
• Have some business cards with your website printed up for free using VistaPrint.
• Another option is to sell on Cafepress.com with a free store and will print as you sell.  Can also put your design on other items like mugs and jackets with this option.
• Have tshirt printed up for yourself to wear around with your website address
• Sell wholesale – give people an option to buy a minimum from you at a reduced price so they can resell themselves