I set a goal for myself to become location independent by Jan 1st, so I've been experimenting lately with a variety of income-producing businesses. I currently run a B2B service-selling business when I'm not at my day job, but t-shirt selling was the most recent experiment I conducted.
I've been selling t-shirts for just under two-weeks, and I have (as of today) just crossed the $1000 profit mark. It's not a boatload of money, but for a side business that has consumed a grand total of 10-hours of my time, it's a great way to make some extra money.
While I'm no professional at this, I know enough that I can give you a general guideline. It's a good business model, and fairly simple to get set up. If you have any other questions, just shoot me a PM.
Steps
1 - Find a niche. Look for a niche that you're interested in exploiting. For myself, it was gym shirts. Gym-goers will buy literally anything, so they're incredibly easy to sell to. Other examples are cat-freaks, and pug lovers...it's important not to be too broad (i.e dogs), make it more specific - pugs.
2 - Create your brand. This is simple. Just pick a catchy name, and follow step three to create a logo. Something simple as "I Love My Pug" has worked for pug shirts.
3 - Once you've found your niche, and have created your brand, you'll need to hire a cheap designer (UpWork is fine), who can whip up some designs relatively fast for your shirts, and logo. Based on what I've read during my research-phase, three designs is ideal. Consumer psychology apparently suggests that any more than three shirt designs in the same niche-store creates indecision. I used UpWork and spent $100 for three designs.
4 - Create a facebook page using your brand name. Set your audience to your target niche..i.e pugs, target people who like specifically pugs. Upload a few memes, so that when people visit your page they see some content.
5 - Create a shopify store. Shopify has a ready-made template for ecommerce with a plugin for the t-shirt provider(which I'll mention next). While you can pay someone to set up your shopify, you can do it yourself in a couple of hours (out of the 10-hours I spent on this, the store took the most time). The cost is fairly low for a basic package.
6 - Find a t-shirt provider. I use ThreadMeUp(TMU). You simply copy/paste your designs onto their shirts. They do the printing, and yes, they do take a cut of the profits. Set your movement to three days, this is the optimal length. Use the shopify plugin to link the TMU designs to your site.
7 - Use Placeit.net to put your t-shirts on models. Fairly cheap service, but it makes a massive difference.
8 - Advertise. If you have three designs, split test them. 5$ a day for each design, over a couple of days. By then, you'll know which are working and which aren't. This is all on facebook, by the way. Another option, is to target instagram influencers, and in my case, this was just babes who run fitness pages. Offer them a 15% affiliate fee, and watch the money roll in!
This takes trial and error, and some initial capital. My initial investment was $200, which includes the t-shirt designs, advertising, hosting costs (shopify) and the placeit.net fees. While my B2B business is where I see myself making most of my future income, several people (Justin Cener, is the most prominent) has made millions selling t-shirts...I believe Cener had over five niche stores rolling at one time. Low overhead costs make it a good business model. I just wish TMU didn't take such a large cut!
I've been selling t-shirts for just under two-weeks, and I have (as of today) just crossed the $1000 profit mark. It's not a boatload of money, but for a side business that has consumed a grand total of 10-hours of my time, it's a great way to make some extra money.
While I'm no professional at this, I know enough that I can give you a general guideline. It's a good business model, and fairly simple to get set up. If you have any other questions, just shoot me a PM.
Steps
1 - Find a niche. Look for a niche that you're interested in exploiting. For myself, it was gym shirts. Gym-goers will buy literally anything, so they're incredibly easy to sell to. Other examples are cat-freaks, and pug lovers...it's important not to be too broad (i.e dogs), make it more specific - pugs.
2 - Create your brand. This is simple. Just pick a catchy name, and follow step three to create a logo. Something simple as "I Love My Pug" has worked for pug shirts.
3 - Once you've found your niche, and have created your brand, you'll need to hire a cheap designer (UpWork is fine), who can whip up some designs relatively fast for your shirts, and logo. Based on what I've read during my research-phase, three designs is ideal. Consumer psychology apparently suggests that any more than three shirt designs in the same niche-store creates indecision. I used UpWork and spent $100 for three designs.
4 - Create a facebook page using your brand name. Set your audience to your target niche..i.e pugs, target people who like specifically pugs. Upload a few memes, so that when people visit your page they see some content.
5 - Create a shopify store. Shopify has a ready-made template for ecommerce with a plugin for the t-shirt provider(which I'll mention next). While you can pay someone to set up your shopify, you can do it yourself in a couple of hours (out of the 10-hours I spent on this, the store took the most time). The cost is fairly low for a basic package.
6 - Find a t-shirt provider. I use ThreadMeUp(TMU). You simply copy/paste your designs onto their shirts. They do the printing, and yes, they do take a cut of the profits. Set your movement to three days, this is the optimal length. Use the shopify plugin to link the TMU designs to your site.
7 - Use Placeit.net to put your t-shirts on models. Fairly cheap service, but it makes a massive difference.
8 - Advertise. If you have three designs, split test them. 5$ a day for each design, over a couple of days. By then, you'll know which are working and which aren't. This is all on facebook, by the way. Another option, is to target instagram influencers, and in my case, this was just babes who run fitness pages. Offer them a 15% affiliate fee, and watch the money roll in!
This takes trial and error, and some initial capital. My initial investment was $200, which includes the t-shirt designs, advertising, hosting costs (shopify) and the placeit.net fees. While my B2B business is where I see myself making most of my future income, several people (Justin Cener, is the most prominent) has made millions selling t-shirts...I believe Cener had over five niche stores rolling at one time. Low overhead costs make it a good business model. I just wish TMU didn't take such a large cut!
