Things You'll Need:
- Appliques
- Camera
- Iron
- Fabric paint
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Step 1
Start your T-shirt printing business by creating an online store for your wares. Cafe Press is the most prominent online marketplace for custom T-shirts, mugs and other crafts made by individuals nationwide. Your Cafe Press store should feature samples of your T-shirts and a description of your capabilities as a designer.
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Step 2
Promote your T-shirt design skills through social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter. Create a Facebook group that features photos of your T-shirts, a price list and contact information for interested customers. Use Twitter to highlight web links, photos and blog posts about your T-shirts on the Internet.
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Step 3
Compose simple photos featuring your favorite T-shirts to attract attention through your online store. Ask friends to model your T-shirts in various poses to create advertising material for your T-shirt printing business. Add candid photos taken at bars, baseball games and other events where your T-shirts are worn.
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Step 4
Offer volume discounts to your customers to encourage large orders of printed T-shirts. Create a tiered system of volume discounts where the price per T-shirt decreases with every 50 to 100 T-shirts ordered. The guaranteed money from a large order of T-shirts allows you to reduce the per-shirt prices while still earning a profit.
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Step 5
Contact student life departments at local colleges and universities to market your T-shirt printing services. Campus groups ranging from fraternities to club football teams can use your T-shirts to separate their members from competing groups. Work out an arrangement with department heads for discounted T-shirts in exchange for referrals to your business.
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Step 6
Partner with a sneaker or accessory designer like Royalefam to earn more money for your printed T-shirts. Royalefam and other design studios create shoes, T-shirts and fashion accessories with unified themes for stylish consumers. Your partnership may reduce profits initially, but your partner's built-in customers will be introduced to your custom T-shirts.
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Step 7
Capture the excitement of an election season by offering your T-shirt printing services to political candidates and parties. Submit your ideas and samples for campaign T-shirts to local party organizations as well as individual campaigns well ahead of election day. Interested campaigns and parties will either pay for your T-shirts to use as fundraising tools or allow you to sell your T-shirts at election events.
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Step 8
Meet with boutique owners in your community and offer your signature T-shirt line for their racks. Bring samples of your T-shirts, sketches of future designs and pricing information to answer every question raised by shop owners. Contact interested owners after these meetings to determine what store offers the best exposure for your T-shirts.
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Step 9
Develop contacts in the marketing departments of minor league teams in your community interested in T-shirt printing. Teams like the Green Bay Blizzard, an arena football team, print thousands of T-shirts for game promotions and pro shop sales. Your T-shirt printing business can gain exposure among sports fans in your city while earning you money from large production orders.
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Step 10
Generate additional revenue for your T-shirt business by offering to print concert shirts for local bands. Hang around at live music venues in your community and speak with band members about handling their T-shirt printing needs. While local music T-shirts will not produce large revenues, you can create a secondary stream of revenue from sales at shows each week.
