Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

A few years ago I volunteered to create a t-shirt for a non profit fund-raiser without having any prior experience creating t-shirt designs. The project was a success and it gave me the idea of designing and selling screen-printed clothing for profit.

I made a list of all  the things that interest me to try and find a direction to go with creating my very own shirts.  My list consisted of 20 things that I have passion for such as excercise, military, police, florida & the ocean, kids, politics, etc.  I then came up with ideas for shirt designs for each of the categories. 

I then used Guru.com to hire artists to illustrate the first 3 designs. Each design cost me $300.00 on Guru.com.  I was excited to be able to hire professional artists who provided me with artwork that looks 100 times better than I could have imagined.   My 1st 3 designs were cartoon style shirts depicitng funny scenes with alot of action going on in the scenes.  The 3 shirt designs were a florida theme, a swat raid, and  a military scene.

I tested the shirts on Ebay and they sold well but the profit margin was low due to the cost of the shirts.During this time I also created an embroidered kid`s baseball cap with a cute design that sold well. I would like to market these products to retail and online stores and possibly Walmart and Target but I feel overwhelmed trying to get it going. I would even be willing to sell the rights to the designs if I could find a buyer.

I  have the product line started ,now I need to learn how to market the product which is what lead me to this informative site.

Barry

Barry,

I am definately not an expert at artistic design and have no experience in the field you are speaking about, but let me ask a few questions.

Did people purchase the shirts through the non profit fund raiser because of the shirts  or  because of the find raiser? They may have made the purchases because of a feeling of civic duty...  ( which is an idea in itself)

How much are the designs worth?

And Why are they worth that much?

In the last five years  I have met a half a dozen or so artists (people who are very very good but work in a different type of job because of a lack of demand for such a skill  or is it because there is to large a supply)  that really impressed me with there designs and skills.  Some really good stuff that I felt in the right situation could build a career upon.  Which brings me to my next question.

What branding have you developed?  Is there a market out there that is willing to purchase your designs at a premium.  To me,  Ebay mostly sells only when the buyer feels he is getting a value for his money, usually not at a premium, meaning not much profit.

What makes your designs worth anything more than what someone could purchase new designs, uniquely developed from another artist at Guru.com>????

In an effort to show that I can come up with programs to make businesses better ( which I feel there are many people here who can also) I will give you a suggestion.

Lets work with the non profit angle. But many others are available...

There is always some organization that is looking to do a fundraiser.   A way for them to gather moneys for its cause.

If you like the idea of the  T-shirt market,  you will need to choose a niche market  or Better yet multiple markets.

Market to the (what seems to be millins of) non profit and fund raising organizations.   For each organization that you gain, you will instantly gain from a few to several dozen salespeople pushing your products and services.   If set up right they will help you create your brand.

Now dont get me wrong there is already a huge market going after them so you will have competition but in all fairness, I can not mention any industries or services where the market is wide open.

You will have to differentiate yourself from your competition.  I personally don`t know any t-shirt design companies doing this at the moment  but I`m not inside the fund raising industry to be aware of all the ins and outs.

Just some food for thought

Mike