How to start a T-shirt business: Turn your designs into cash

If you’re a graphic designer or artist, selling T-shirts is a fantastic way to monetize your passion. It’s also one of the easiest businesses to get started.

It may surprise you to learn that you don’t need to keep any inventory or handle any packaging and shipping. In fact, you can successfully run a T-shirt business without ever seeing any of your own products.

On the other hand, maybe you want to create a T-shirt business precisely because you’ve heard how simple it is. It really is a turnkey business that anybody can put together in their spare time.

If you’re an artist bringing your creations to light, that’s fantastic! If you want to create shirts for teams and organizations, that’s another great reason to get started. Or maybe you have an existing brand or community and want to make some money to support it. That’s also an excellent reason to start a T-shirt business.

But if you’re thinking you can just put words on a shirt and become a millionaire overnight, please stop right there.

The world doesn’t need more money-making ventures with no thought or care behind them. And besides, there are already so many people doing the exact same thing that you’ll need to get creative and stand out from the competition.

So if you’re ready to put your heart and soul into a great business, then let’s get started.

Planning appropriately

There are two kinds of creators. There are those who have a very clear and nearly complete picture of what they’re creating before they take the first step. And there are those who have a vague idea and figure it out as they go along.

If you’re carving giant marble statues, you definitely want a solid vision ahead of time. If you’re a cartoonist, you can start with the simplest sketch and redraw it over and over with more details until you get it right.

When it comes to building a business, it’s a good idea to be closer to the marble carver — but not too close. Don’t stress yourself out or overthink it. There’s a lot to learn and you’ll pick up most of it as you go.

Brainstorming

At this point, you probably already have an idea of what you want to create. But it’s important to have a really clear vision of what you want your business to be, so take some time to brainstorm and ask yourself the following questions:

1. What makes my product unique? There are so many T-shirt businesses around. How will yours stand out?
2. What is my brand personality? Your brand is more than your logo and color scheme. It’s the character and general vibe of your business.
3. What do I want to be known for? When people think of your shirts, will they think of mind-bending art, edgy political satire, super silly humor, or something else?

Think about what you’re trying to create and take notes. A stack of index cards works great if you like pen and paper. If you’re more digital, then mind mapping is an excellent technique.

Whatever method you prefer, use a technique that helps you clear out all the ideas bouncing around in your head as fast as possible. That way, you’ll lose less of them.

Developing a business plan

Now that you’ve figured out the creative side, it’s time to focus on the business side. Unless you want to create a business where you do your own screen printing or direct-to-garment (DTG) printing, you can safely skip this section until your business grows a bit.

A business plan is a way of telling investors and advisors what your business is, how you plan to make it successful, and what you need from them. If you’re looking for money to help grow your business, then you’ll definitely need a business plan.

Even if you’re not looking for investors and don’t need any money, a business plan can still be helpful. It’s like a road map that reminds you where you’re going and how you’re planning to get there.

If you know what your business will look like, to help you turn it into a business plan.

Meeting with an SBA advisor

The SBA can also help connect you to advisors. The SBA advisors are retired people who’ve successfully run their own businesses for years. And they’re all invested in helping your business grow.

Putting a name on the thing

We touched on branding and company voice in the last section. And soon, we’ll dive into that more. But for now, let’s just focus on your presence.

Your web presence tells the world that you exist. People expect to see one from any real company. A web presence includes your domain name, your business name, your social media accounts, and more.

Your domain name should come first. You may have an idea for the best company name, but if you can’t get a domain name that matches it, it will seem odd. Here are some important factors to consider while searching for a good domain name:

1. Keep it short and sweet. It should be easy to type, remember, and share verbally.
2. Avoid using numbers and hyphens. The previous tip’s reasons apply here as well.
3. Make it relevant to your business. If you’re selling shirts for local soccer teams, it should be clear. For example,www.soccerjerseys.com would be better thanwww.kickashirt.com.
4. It’s best to use a .com, but it’s not necessary. Other top-level domains (TLDs) include .org, .net, and many newer, plain English ones. Those include .shop, .designs, and .art, among many others. But .com is still lodged in people’s minds. Even if you get a domain like epicshirt.designs, people will still often typeepicshirt.designs.com.
5. Get creative with your domain name. Many famous sites with unique names like Shopify, Airbnb, and even Instagram used creative tricks to get around the problem of limited domain names.

Social media and the rest

Now that you have your domain name, your business name should be obvious.

Next, it’s time to start creating your social media accounts. You don’t need to use them right away, but it’s a good idea to grab your name on all the big platforms. If it’s unique enough, it probably won’t get snapped up, but you never know.

But you don’t need to stress too much about grabbing social media accounts. People expect them to have additional words, and they’re always changeable.

Securing funding

Starting a T-shirt business is not only a safe and turnkey business option, but it’s also one that requires no upfront cash investment.

Once again, the exception is if you’re doing your own printing. Another exception is if a store like Target wants to start selling your designs. That’s a good problem to have and will require you to ramp up quickly. And it’s one where you should have a solid business plan based on your new situation.

Here are some general pointers:

1. Know your numbers. Consider everything. That includes the cost of shirts, printing equipment, facilities, ink, fulfillment, and everything you can think of.
2. Have realistic goals. It’s good to give yourself some wiggle room. But if you followed the previous checkpoint, you should have a precise number. Stay close to that when approaching investors.
3. Get ready for hard questions. Investors aren’t in the business of throwing away money. They’re really going to grill you to make sure your business is a good investment. Be prepared to field their questions with ease. 
4. Have a backup plan. If you’re not able to get funding, what’s your fallback? Can you start with a smaller operation and scale up? Is there someone you can partner with who has deep pockets?
5. Be patient. It takes time to find the right investors — and it takes even more time to get them onboard. Fundraising can be a long and difficult process, so make sure you’re in it for the long haul.

Financing sources

This article was not written by a financial guru. Talk to an accountant or other financial mentor before proceeding with these and any similar suggestions:

1. Bank loans for small businesses: Applying for a bank loan is a standard way of getting funding for a business, but it’s not always easy to qualify, especially if you’re a startup or have no background. If you’re trying to grow an existing successful business, that might help your odds.
2. Bootstrapping: This means using your own personal finances to support your business. As mentioned, starting a T-shirt biz usually costs next to nothing. If you’ve managed your money, you should have enough left over to keep growing.
3. Crowdfunding: Sites like Kickstarter are a good option for starting or growing your business, but you need to provide something truly unique. Teespring (now called Spring) is probably even better since it got its start specifically as a T-shirt crowdfunding company.
4. Friends and family: If you have a grandpa who invested in IBM in the ’50s, you may want to offer him another investment opportunity.

Thinking about legal matters early on

Starting a T-shirt business is so simple that it might not feel like a business. But even if you never see your own product, you’re still profiting from it — and that makes it a business.

Once money starts changing hands, things get tricky. The government will want its piece, and your customers will want to feel safe and secure purchasing from you.

Even if your small business is just a way of making a few bucks on the side, you’ll still need to keep your house in order. Here are a few things to think about:

1. Incorporation: This can protect you from liability. That means that if someone sues you, they can only go after your business assets, not your personal ones. Once again, talk to an advisor or a business lawyer before moving forward, but take care of this early on.
2. Federal and state tax IDs: Even if you don’t hire anyone else, you’ll still need an Employer Identification Number (EIN) from the US government or the equivalent in your country. An EIN works like a Social Security number for your business. You’ll need it to open a bank account, file taxes, and perform other business-related tasks. Your state may also have tax ID requirements.
3. Licenses and permits: Your state or county will probably require permits to sell in a physical location if that’s your intention. They may also have requirements for selling online. Check your state and local government’s websites to learn more.
4. Taxes: Taxes, of course, are a necessary evil. Tools like QuickBooks can help you stay on top of them — but you should probably still talk to an accountant, because even one misstep could cause you problems down the road.
5. Employment law: If you intend to hire someone or open a shop, make sure you’re on top of this as well. There are specialists and online services that can help you out with this too.

You can probably safely put all the legal stuff on the back burner in the very beginning. But as soon as you start making money, you really need to get on top of it. Taxes are the most important consideration, but the other parts will become increasingly vital as your business grows.

Finding your following

Marketing today isn’t like it once was. There was a time when you could put an ad in the Yellow Pages and maybe air a radio commercial, and you were off to the races.

Now, there are studies that say a goldfish can stay focused longer than we can. But even if we can check out an ad in the eight seconds we’re willing to give something, they just don’t pack the same punch they once did. Nowadays, if you want to attract buyers, you need to create a following. 

Thinking like a marketer

At its core, marketing is a social skill. Advanced social skills, like customer service, sales, and diplomacy, all require education and upskilling. Some people have a natural talent, but most people don’t. Here are some things we mere mortals can focus on to build a following:

1. Understanding strategy vs tactics: Strategy is the big picture, and tactics are the steps needed to get there. A good strategy will lay out your overall game plan. Your tactics will be the steps you take to achieve it. For example, tweeting new shirt designs is a tactic. Launching new products with professional models using a service like Teespring is part of a strategy.
2. Getting out on the long tail: Chris Anderson coined this term in his book The Long Tail. It’s the strategy of catering to niche markets using less popular keywords. If you try to compete with “Nike graphic tees,” you’re going to have a long, steep hill to climb. But if you can find a small and underserved niche market — like scratch and sniff T-shirts — your competition will drop to nothing.
3. Finding or creating your community and becoming a leader in it: This goes hand in hand with the long tail concept. Going out on the long tail isn’t just a way to reduce competition; it’s a way to find a small and highly dedicated fan base. They’re the people who’ll know that of the few people doing what you do, you do it better than anyone else.

But wait! There’s more. We’ve only scratched the surface of thinking like a marketer. If you want to dig in, check out Seth Godin’s works. He’s a marketing guru who has currently published20 bestsellers. Specifically, check out This is Marketing. It covers a lot of what he teaches in his other books and courses, and it’s a very quick and easy read. Or if you don’t want to spend anything at all, you can just visit his daily blog.

Getting down to the actual business of selling T-shirts

All right, that’s enough of the technical stuff for now. It’s important to know, but it’s probably not why you’re here.

If you want to print your own shirts by hand, then the technical stuff is more important and there’s tons of resources available to you. Now, let’s go over creating the actual supply chain for a turnkey business.

Direct-to-garment printing vs screen printing

Screen printing is an older and more manually intensive method of printing on shirts. Direct-to-garment (DTG) printing is pretty much just putting a T-shirt through a special printer.

Screen printing works by staining the fabric and adding an image that looks and feels like part of the shirt. You have to physically create and store the screens for each design.

That can mean an upfront cost for each and every design. On top of that, you’re limited to the number of colors you can use in a single design.

DTG printing uses ink to print the image onto the shirt. It slightly affects the texture, and the image may fade over time, depending on the quality of the printer. Also, DTG can be more expensive per print due to the cost of ink and printer maintenance.

Overall, though, DTG printing still feels soft and will almost always look sharp for the life of the shirt.

Picking a printer partner

There are many printers that do print-on-demand shirts. They’ll be your most valuable ally, so pick well. Each of these five stands out by doing something unique:

1. Printful: Printful distinguishes itself by offering an outstanding balance of high quality and affordability. It offers inventory storage and fulfillment and you can get discounts for bulk purchases and sales volume. Its software is also great for managing your design library.
2. Printify: Printify supports local economies and independent businesses by providing a marketplace to let you shop around for the perfect shirt printer. Maybe you’re looking for a deep discount. Or you could want to find a printer local to your area. Perhaps you want a huge selection of shirt colors. Whatever you’re looking for, Printify can help put you in touch with the right printer.
3. Spring: It can be hard to attract customers in the very beginning. Spring, formerly Teespring, helps smooth out the path by offering a service like Kickstarter but for T-shirts.
4. Threadless: Threadless used to mostly sell its own designs that were known for being beautiful and deeply artistic. Now, it’s opened their doors to anyone. But it’s still known for being a place for real artists, so if you have high-quality work, you’ll be in good hands.
5. Zazzle: Zazzle is a combination storefront and print-on-demand service. You won’t have as much control as you would with a regular shop, but getting started is almost as easy as just adding an image.

Picking a storefront

Here’s another area where you have several options that will suit different people’s needs.

1. Jotform Store Builder: This is by far the easiest way to get started in only minutes. Jotform’s Store Builder is free to use until your business scales. It runs in a browser but looks and feels like a native app. There are over 100 templates to help you get started. And then you can customize it as much as you want using intuitive drag-and-drop components.

1. Amazon: You’ve probably heard of this company. It’s the one that owns nearly 40 percent of the online sales market share. Compare that to the next 14 most popular services that only manage about 28 percent of all online sales. Amazon isn’t as nice as having your own personal store, but it’s a way to make at least a little money without a lot of effort.
2. Shopify is the biggest online storefront provider. It makes building an attractive shop fast and easy. And once you’re done, it has a ton of plug-ins  to expand your shop’s capabilities. Plus, it gives you complete control over configuration when you’re ready to grow.

Integrating the services

Integration is the key to making money while you sleep. It lets you connect multiple tools to automate your processes.

Of the printers mentioned above, Printful has the most integrations with online storefronts. Printify works with many, but not Amazon. Spring is more of a promotional tool and doesn’t really integrate with shops, and both Threadless and Zazzle are already storefronts and don’t really have integration available.

Each of the above storefronts have many of their own integrations, but it’s really the job of the printer to connect to shops, not the other way around. But if you go with a shop that your printer of choice doesn’t connect to, you’re not out of luck.

Every printer on this list (except Threadless) all have an application programming interface (API) which allows for seamless integration. That means that with a tool like, you can connect every shop on this list, as well as most others, to almost any printer.

Picking the best business software

In addition to finding the best dropshipping software, the rest of your business will need good software as well. These are some of the best solutions on the market:

1. Google: Google’s cloud-based suite of tools will let you and your team communicate and work together in real time. When your business grows, it offers Workspace, which is designed for companies of every size, from tiny mom-and-pops to massive enterprises.
2. Jotform: Jotform is the premier communication automation tool. Its versatility means that you’ll constantly find places in your business processes where it’s the perfect match.
3. ClickUp is probably the most versatile productivity tool currently available. If all you need is a few checklists, it’s no problem. If you want a huge collection of custom tools designed to manage every aspect of your business, it’s good at that too. The one drawback is that it’s kind of a lot to learn if you wouldn’t describe yourself as a tech-savvy person. But it’s worth the time investment to pick it up.

Now that we’ve met the software, let’s learn how you can use it in all of your business processes.

Minding your own business processes

We’ve touched on this before, but if it’s just you and your laptop sitting in a café, it may take you a while to get into every single business process. But it’s never too early to start thinking about how to run a larger business.

Once you start building up your business, you’re going to find yourself wearing several hats. That’s a good thing. It will give you a chance to learn the many roles of your business. Next, you can streamline each one and create a system to do so. That will make training new hires easier if you decide to go that route.

The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber is an excellent book that will teach you how to work on your business, not just in your business. The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss is another outstanding book that will teach you how to automate and outsource much of your business.

Here are some common processes and some tricks for managing them:

1. Accounting: This involves bookkeeping, payroll, and taxes. is the most popular choice for small businesses and the self-employed.
2. Human resources: This department handles hiring, firing, managing benefits, and more. You can handle most of your HR needs with Jotform. You can use it to receive resumes, fill out legal documents, manage employee lists and information, and much more.
3. Customer service: Keeping your customers happy is probably the most important part of your business. This is another area where Jotform is your friend. You can create forms to collect service requests, return requests, product feedback, and more.
4. Product creation: Even though you can mostly automate the business itself, you’ll still need to be constantly creating new designs to keep customers excited about your brand. You can manage your digital art and files with Google Drive.
5. Marketing: We covered this earlier — Google Docs can help you manage your campaigns. Jotform has many marketing templates that you can use to collect email addresses, do market research, and much more. can help streamline your social media marketing by automating posts. And will help you launch professional email campaigns without them getting flagged as spam.
6. Quality assurance: It’s vitally important to make sure that the products you deliver meet the highest standards possible. You should occasionally acquire samples to make sure your printer is on track. Jotform can help you streamline that process as well with data entry forms. And Jotform Approvals can automate your policies and procedures for decision-making.
7. Shipping and receiving: This won’t be a concern for print-on-demand businesses, but if you’re creating your own shirts, you may want to consider using a fulfillment service to manage this aspect of your business. Hiring people, buying packing supplies, and keeping enough space for inventory can quickly balloon out of control.
8. Manufacturing: If you’re making your own shirts, you’ll need a lot of records and documents to manage your manufacturing. Google Docs should provide everything you need.

Closing the sale

There’s a lot involved in starting a business, but the most important thing is to start! Don’t overplan it. Don’t spend too much time or money, and don’t overthink it. Don’t psych yourself out. Just roll up your sleeves and get to work.

One of the first steps in this guide mentions that you need to do lots of planning up front. And that’s true. But it’s mostly to get the ideas out of your head and somewhere safe. Once you’ve done that, just get back to work.

The information in this guide was a lot to digest. You can safely bookmark it and forget most of what you read for now. But keep it in the back of your mind. When you need more information, come back here to help you figure out your next steps.

Whatever success looks like for you, here’s hoping you’ll see it. And here’s to you for taking the first steps!

Photo by Rachel Claire