Source:- (Google.com.pk)
Personal Social Networks - Post
some of your designs to Facebook, Twitter and other social networks your
friends and potential customers are a part of. Be careful asking friends
however, their opinions will usually be tainted with an over-positive tint.
Reddit - Reddit is huge and we
have discussed it thoroughly in past posts. With the massive number of
subreddits it’s possible to easily find a highly targeted niche of potential
customers and ask them first hand their thoughts on your designs before
launching.
Kickstarter - Kickstarter and
other crowd-funding websites have made it much easier to test, validate, and
collect money upfront for your new business idea. Launching a crowdfunding
campaign can be time consuming and requires a good deal of preparation,
however, the benefits can be huge, which include fully funding your project
before you have spent a dime.
Open Test Store - Finally, with
ecommerce platforms like Shopify, it’s never been easier to set up a fully
functional online store in the matter of few hours to validate your business
idea. Sign up for a free 14-day trial and check out some of the free themes to
get started.
It will always be tempting to
sacrifice on quality for higher profit margins but you need to consider how the
quality will affect customer’s decisions to share your brand and repurchase in
the long run.
Quality t-shirts encompass
several factors, including fit, sizing, material, softness, and weight. A great
start point for determining which blank t-shirt to use is to check out T-Shirt
Magazine Online’s review of some of the most popular blank t-shirts for
printing.
Once you narrow down your
choices, it’s strongly encouraged to order each of the t-shirts yourself to
make an informed final decision.
T-Shirt Printing Quality
In this day in age, there are
three popular methods for printing onto t-shirts. Each method has its pros and
cons, and will partially depend on how much time you want to invest into the
product creation, as well as the printing partner you choose.
Now that you have your t-shirt designs,
made your mockups and validated your idea, it’s time to build your store. As
mentioned in the validation section, getting set up on Shopify is quick and
easy.
There are a handful of t-shirt
print-on-demand dropshippers that directly integrate with your Shopify store,
allowing you to get up and running in no time. These printer/dropshippers will
print and ship your t-shirts to your customers on your behalf every time you
receive an order, automatically.
Once you have some final designs,
your next step will be to get some mockup images of them on actual t-shirts.
Your customers are going to want to actually see what the final design will
look like printed on a shirt.
There are a few ways you can get
images of your final designs on t-shirts including ordering samples and taking
product photography yourself, or with the abundance of t-shirt templates
online, you can opt to create a 100% digital mockup like the one below.
Adobe Photoshop (Free Trial)
t-shirt templates are the most common types of mockup files. They allow you to
quickly preview how your designs will look printed on a t-shirt. Most Photoshop
templates comes with multiple layers that allow you to change the colour of the
shirt and apply your own design that will blend with the creases, folds and
contours of the shirt
Below, we have compiled several
resources to help you find the best possible mockup file for your next project:
If Adobe Photoshop isn't right
for you, you can also use web-based mockup software that will allow you to do
the same thing without having to download and figure out Photoshop.
Another great options for tasks
like this is to enlist help from someone on Fiverr for $5. Just search for
t-shirt mockups.
Validating Your Designs
Before you spend a lot of money
on your new business idea, you should first verify that there is a market and
interest for your designs. There are many ways you can go about validating the
market for your design ideas.
T-Shirt Factory
You may also want to check out
general graphic design marketplaces but keep in mind if you plan to sell your
t-shirts, you’ll need to purchase a commercial license.
Buy Designs
If you’re stuck for a designer,
there are also options to purchase pre-made designs. You’ll want to keep in
mind that if you choose to go this route, there’s high likelihood that other
people are already selling the design, making it harder for you and your brand
to stand out.
There are a wide variety of tools
and market places you can use to find a suitable graphic designer to help you
with your designs.
Once you have an idea for some
t-shirt designs. You’re going to have to get your ideas actually designed. If
you have Adobe Photoshop or similar programs you can likely produce some simple
designs by yourself. However, if you’re like most people, you will likely need
to enlist some help.