Manufacturing

90% of success is having the balls to start a business.

I'm starting a screen printing operation in my garage, Jow Forums. Wish me luck!

Attached: screenprintlocal-700x300.jpg (700x300, 111K)

>le custom tshirt business

Make a design of a giant green dildo fucking bubs.

90% of startup businesses fail. how are you going to compete with chinamen who can pump out 1000x quantity at 10% your price

This would be my 3rd income stream and my 2nd startup. I'm already pretty tied into the printing business in my area, so scrounging free equipment is no problem, and my garage is already paid for. My labor costs are just me and my partner. We already have a niche of clientele and a brand - now we just need to print it.

Every successful shop I've seen is either a huge contract printer that lives on financial voodoo or a shop that prints its own brand for its own niche. I intend to be the second kind.

why dont you just make the brand and order the shirts in a chink factory for pennies?

good luck man keep up the hustle bro

Good luck getting clothing manufacturers to let you in the door for direct ordering as a garagecuck.

Are you going to do custom? You should do something like six dollar shirts does but less corny.

>t. has never had a business
Protip: not all business is retail, most businesses are in business to sell supplies to other businesses.

Thanks, user!

Because remote proofing and importing from foreign countries is a huge pain in the ass. Last thing I want is 2000 pcs done in Chinglish.

We're doing a brand that we've been selling for $20/shirt and are currently paying $10/shirt for, which is silly. I'd rather print for $3/shirt and sell for $20 and have 100% control over the process.

Will you print some shit for me? What's your email? I can pay in btc, xmr, ltc, etc.

No, sorry. I'm not after that kind of work. I've seen too many guys go prematurely grey trying to chase down fun runs, schools, tribute bands, etc. for a living. Try Cafepress.

dude screen printing fucking sucks
hopefully youre successful so you can hire a mexican to do all the work

I'm 2 months away of doing the same thing. Can I ask you a few questions?

>screen printing fucking sucks
Elaborate please

Sure, go ahead.

If you don't already have friends/contacts that either:
>a)own a shirt shop that makes in-house designs that need printing
>b)owns an independent record label, and needs merch printed
>c)haven't already been contacting people who organize charity events like runs
>d)any other business owners that want a uniform or shirts to sell for free advertising
then you've already failed. This is like trying to open up a restaurant without actually getting your sources set up.

What software you use to make the designs? What size should the canvas be? Is it better to use a vectorial software (i.e Illustrator) or bitmap? How much time does it take to print, let's say, 10 shirts with the same design? How do you pick tshirts sizes? As in, how many small, medium, large and so.

dude it’s easy as fuck to get business as a screenprinter unless you’re a friendless basement fag

>screen printing fucking sucks
Probably something about labor intensive and takes place in a literal sweatshop where you literally sweat all day
What makes me glad is that everyone thinks that but there are other niches than b), c), and d).

Like I said, we've already started selling shirts, the only change is we're going to start printing them.

The art questions are my partner's domain. I haven't learned that from him yet. He needs to teach me that. I'll in turn show him how to make screens and print, so we both know 100% of the operation.

Right now we do single color shirts, but with designs on front, back and sleeves. Manually, they take about 5 minutes per shirt to do, not including setup. Sizes are picked based on clientele's previous orders. We know what we did with the last batch and how well each size sold, next run we consider that and go forward.

If you were to graph it, it would look a lot like a bell curve with 2X being the peak. We start at M and end up at 4X.

IKR? I started this thread and literally had someone asking me to print a batch within an hour here .

Thanks for answering.
Do you think I should attend a screen printing course? There are local places here that teach, but also there's a ton of YouTube material that does the same thing. Are online tutorials good for learning how to do this? Or should I spend the money and pay the teacher?
Do you use a custom wrapping/package for the shirts? I had the idea of buying tote bags in bulk, screen print them with the logo and use them as packaging. Do you think this is a good idea?

I'll add this question: how did you get your first clients? Was it word of mouth, social media, friends?

make things people need
screen printing becomes less and less relevant with each day

Taking a course is worth it because hands-on is going to be better than watching videos. You could teach yourself, but your fuckups are going to cost you more than just paying a teacher ahead of time.

We bag the shirts with a tag. Clear plastic, heat sealed. IDK if fancy packaging is going to get your customers excited unless you're selling something luxurious. Totes could be nice, but how often do you see people using tote bags anyway?

We were taking orders from people we knew who are part of a larger group who got interested in what we could print for them. It wasn't something we were looking for, but since we're known as guys who know printers, these people came to us looking for a printer. Pure luck.

Great advice, I was thinking the same thing about taking classes vs cost of fucking up.
As for the other question, I was thinking about doing a clothing line in parallel with printing on demand. A product + a service. So, the tote bag would be for giving it some identity I guess. Maybe it could be a regular bag, I don't know yet.
Thanks again for the answers and good luck. Jow Forums needs more threads like this one.