Episode 175 – What You Need to Start a Custom T-Shirt Business (besides a printer)

Custom Apparel Startups

Episode 175 – What You Need to Start a Custom T-Shirt Business (besides a printer)

This Episode

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Mark Stephenson & Marc Vila

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customapparelstartups.com

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CAS Podcast

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ColDesi

You Will Learn

• Accessories and add-ons that you may need
• Business considerations, such as a license or tax ID number
• Accounting considerations, such as accounting software, and methods to accept payments
• Important aspects of your business plan
• Space considerations, both physical and digital, for working, storage, etc.
• Organizing it all

Resources & Links

• Colman and Company Blog
• ColDesi Learning Center
• Leasing Equipment

Episode 175 – What You Need to Start a Custom T-Shirt Business (besides a printer)

Show Notes

Oftentimes when people are shopping to start their t-shirt, embroidery or other customization business, the mind is one track. Which machine do I buy? How do I get the best one? How do I get the best deal? How fast can I get it?

But after this decision, many are left with a ‘what’s next?’ mindset, unsure where to go. Further, others get frustrated that there might be more money to invest because they didn’t get it all with their machine (didn’t want to over spend, or trying to stay within a payment budget.)

So what’s next?

What do you need to start a customization business…besides a printer?

• Accessories & Add ons
  • Finishing Sheets
  • Heat Temp Probe for heat press
  • Teflon Sheets
  • Hat / Mug heat press
  • Scissors, tweezers, knife
  • Vinyl Remover
  • Temp / humidity (so important)
• Business Set up
  • State License
  • EIN
  • Tax certificates
  • Accountant
  • Attorney
• Accounting / Invoice / Credit Cards
  • A way to take credit cards – Stripe, Square, Paypal, local merchant service provider
  • Managing the money – Quickbooks, Freshbooks, etc
  • Business Bank account
  • Business credit card / debit card (checks)
• A Plan
  • What is your niche?
  • Who will you sell to? (and a sales plan)
  • How will you produce goods?
  • How will you price?
  • How will you deliver? (and follow up)
  • What times / days will you work?
  • A ‘Plan B’
  • Have a business email
• Space
  • A place to work (desk / computer)
  • A place to produce (tables, heat press, machines, boxing)
  • Storage (place to keep ink, paper, shirts, mugs) (keep in mind how much that can be
  • Power
• Organization
  • For all of the above!
  • Organize your plan
  • Organize your workspace (digital and physical)
  • Organize your finances
• Help
  • This is simple, and not. But if you need help, who will help you?
    • Assistant?
    • Accounting
    • Production
    • Sales

Overall you need a lot more than just a printer or an embroidery machine. Some of it is going to be an upfront cost, others are going to be a monthly or a down the road cost. Either way, if you are investing upfront (especially financing) get all you need while you are working on budgeting/financing and plan for costs that are today or down the road. Lastly, besides $$ you also need to be mentally and physically prepared to make it happen!

Transcript

Mark Stephenson:
Hey everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Custom Apparel Startups podcast. This is actually take three. This is Mark Stephenson.

Mark Vila:
And this is Mark Vila, and today we’re here to talk about what you need to start a custom T-shirt business besides a printer.

Mark Stephenson:
Yeah, and that’s really important. The besides a printer part is- … I’m just looking forward to sharing this episode when it’s all done because we get so many questions on our advertising and on the website and through chat and everything that people are just asking for the price for the printer. So, how much is the printer? How much is the printer? Just give me the price. I don’t want to talk to a salesperson. I don’t want to go through your pitch or anything. I just want that price.

And the printer can be 3,695 or 7,995 or 14,999 or whatever the printer price is. But that is literally never the only thing that you need. So, I’m looking forward to being able to deliver value here to here people that won’t let us answer that question and maybe we can link to this and they’ll see that there’s kind of a universe of things that you have to accomplish based around the printer when you start a business.

Mark Vila:
That’s a great way to intro this and I also want to be sure that we explain that when we say T-shirt business and printer, we’re also talking about embroidery business and embroidery machine or promotional business and UV printer or whatever it is. This works for anything kind of in the customization business and any kind of production-style business in general. So, but to simplify the title so it wasn’t a paragraph long, we chose T-shirt business and printer. It’s the most common.

Mark Stephenson:
Yeah. It’s true. And that’s something that you might use when you’re talking to people around your business. You might want to simplify it to words that they’re most likely going to be attracted to, like if you primarily do promotional products, you might want to say I’m in the promotional products business. If it’s custom Ts, custom Ts. Rather than something general like I customize things.

Mark Vila:
Yeah. I was telling Mark that when people ask me what I do for a living often times I just say, “I do marketing for a company that sells T-shirt printers.” I keep it short. Everyone gets that.

Mark Stephenson:
Yes.

Mark Vila:
And then usually I’ll follow it up with and anything else that you want to print on. So, if you want to print on a T-shirt to a guitar, we sell a machine that does it including embroidery machines for hats and polos and stuff. And then everyone kind of gets the whole picture. So, I think that’s kind of the title of this podcast is that way, and to Mark’s tip, when you’re talking about what you do, find some interesting things that are short and sweet.

Mark Stephenson:
Okay, thanks everybody. That’s the podcast.

Mark Vila:
So, that’s a good little piece of information that doesn’t have anything to do with this podcast. So, now we should get into it. And to follow up what you were saying, Mark, I sold embroidery machines and T-shirt printers for a long time. You sold other types of equipment in the past as well. So, people typically are asking, what’s the price of the printer? What’s the best one? How do I get the best deal? How fast can I get it? All these things.

And they hyper focus on the one thing not realizing that there’s so much more that you need, some of it costs money, some of it doesn’t, and you can feel a little bit lost after you’ve made or purchased your printer if you didn’t think about all this other stuff.

Mark Stephenson:
Yeah, and honestly if you talk to somebody at ColDesi or Colman and Company, we’ll make sure that you have everything or that at least you have that information. But we’ve got a lot of listeners too that will just buy from what we call a box house, they may just go online to Amazon or someplace, and buy a printer or a cutter or something like that, and they get it in the box. And then they call us and go, “Well, what do I do now? I don’t have a heat press.” I don’t have all the little tools that you’re going to need to successfully produce a product on a regular basis. So, I’m glad we’re going to go through those next.

Mark Vila:
Yeah. And here’s a hard truth, right? I love to just give my honest opinion on things, right? But you’re in sales, not anybody, one person is in sales, and somebody wants the best price on a printer, right? That person who’s trying to find the best price or the lowest payment is probably one of the hardest people to get to buy accessories.

Mark Stephenson:
Yeah.

Mark Vila:
The things they need or spend more money or upgrades and things that they might want because all they’re focused on is the best price and the machine or the lowest payment. And what we try to do at ColDesi is get you the right piece of equipment, right? And everything that goes with it.

So, some of the things here that we’re going to talk about are things that are from ColDesi. Others are just other parts of the business you should be prepared for.

Mark Stephenson:
Yeah, stuff you need to do.

Mark Vila:
Stuff you need to do. And I was on the phones a lot in the supply store for years, answering phone calls, onboarding new customers, talking with them as they purchased. And some people would be very bothered that they needed to buy something else.

Mark Stephenson:
Right.

Mark Vila:
Well, why didn’t I get that in the first place?

Mark Stephenson:
Right. I don’t know. Why didn’t you get that in the first place?

Mark Vila:
I don’t know. Why didn’t you? And it’s typically because that balance and folks not wanting to be upsold naturally. It’s a defense mechanism.

Mark Stephenson:
Right, I get that.

Mark Vila:
Right? You sold cars, right?

Mark Stephenson:
Yup. Yeah.

Mark Vila:
Defense mechanism. I don’t want the undercarriage protection and the window tint for five…

Mark Stephenson:
I do have a little car tidbit because that is one of the pieces of equipment that I used to sell.

Mark Vila:
Right.

Mark Stephenson:
You know my happiest customers, the ones that were most satisfied, were the ones that just came in and bought a car. And the ones that spent three hours going back and forth trying to save as much money as possible and get the lowest payment, things like that, never thought they got the best deal. They were always upset in the end. They were sure that somebody ripped them off.

Mark Vila:
Yeah, yeah. There’s a defense mechanism there because unfortunately the automobile industry ripped so many people off for so long.

Mark Stephenson:
What?

Mark Vila:
For a period of time.

Mark Stephenson:
Don’t know what you’re talking about.

Mark Vila:
And I don’t know if that’s true or not still, but it was a stigma for a reason.

Mark Stephenson:
Was back in the day.

Mark Vila:
And the same with mechanics and the same with mortgage brokers and all these industries where if you’re not an expert you could easily be sold on things you don’t need.

Mark Stephenson:
Right.

Mark Vila:
But besides that, what we’re here to- … So, now that we’ve got that out of the way, we understand where we’re coming from, we’re going to talk about some other things that you’re going to need and we’ll just go through a list. Some of them cost money, some don’t, but all of them are really important. So, write these down and be sure you have them. If you’re already in business and you don’t have this stuff yet, put it on the list.

Mark Stephenson:
You’re going to need it.

Mark Vila:
You’re going to need it. So, why don’t we … Let’s just start off with the first one here is- … I’ll start off with this one, you could go next. We’ll go back and forth maybe. So, the first thing is just what I would describe as machine accessories and add-ons. And this can be anything that goes with or around your equipment and the production to get to your final product.

Mark Stephenson:
Yeah, a lot of these kinds of things are included in the first level kits that you get when you order a package, like an essentials kit or something like that. So, you’ll at least get samples or something along those lines, but some of them are stuff that you’ve got to order extra.

Mark Vila:
Yeah, and not everybody needs all of these things. So, we’ll list a handful of them here in a minute that are common accessories, but there are so many accessories that go along with production that you need to … That’s why ColDesi is a great asset is you speak to somebody about the equipment. By the way, this podcast is sponsored by coldesi.com, and if you’re just running into us that’s why we’re referencing ColDesi. So, if you go to coldesi.com you’ll see all the equipment that we offer and support and train and the accessories we have for those.

But accessories you may or may not need are going to be like things like finishing in Teflon sheets that are heat press accessories, a different type of heat press, like a hat heat press or a mug heat press if you want to produce those. Little tools.

Mark Stephenson:
I would say that finishing sheets are probably one of the most common ones.

Mark Vila:
Yes.

Mark Stephenson:
Right?

Mark Vila:
Yeah, this goes on top of a T-shirt or anything that goes on a heat press, right? It’s when you use parchment paper for baking or aluminum foil for baking, that’s what this is.

Mark Stephenson:
And you’re going to need that for white toner printing like digital heat effects, you’re going to need it for direct to garment printing, you’re going to need it for direct to film printing. Do you need it for sublimation?

Mark Vila:
Yeah, sublimation it’s highly recommended. It’s not the same thing for every machine. There’s different grades and different types. So, you get the right one, but there’s Teflon sheets, there’s reusable ones, disposable ones, but these are little- … Those are small accessories that are part of production, they’re consumable items that you will go through over time. Then there’s a little bit more electronic items like heat presses, like hat or a mug heat press. And there’s little tools, scissors, tweezers.

One thing that you mentioned, Mark, that’s really important is a temperature and humidity gauge to read the room that you work in. Maybe you want to just pitch that for a minute on why that’s important?

Mark Stephenson:
Absolutely. It’s a sleeper and you guys have to remember this because we rarely do in Florida because humidity is inescapable here. But if you are in a dry climate or if you’re up north and you run the heat, if you’re in an area that gets dried out and you’re using any kind of liquid ink, then that liquid ink gets dry. Where it comes out of the heads of your printer gets dry. So, that impacts the quality of the print and whether or not you even get a good print. So, you really need to have a temperature and humidity gauge because you don’t want the ink to freeze, you don’t want your printer to freeze, you don’t want everything to bake because it’s too hot. You don’t want the ink to dry out and clog your print heads. So, those are really simple items that, honestly if you’re in Florida, typically you don’t have to worry about.

So, you guys should make sure that you’re getting one with whatever kind of printer you get.

Mark Vila:
Yeah, it’s one of these little things that’s great, and also the other stuff, all the little other things we mentioned above there are all important accessories, and there’s 100 other things that you could buy for accessories and add-ons. I think the point-

Mark Stephenson:
I want to make sure that you mention the heat temperature probe for a heat press.

Mark Vila:
Oh yeah.

Mark Stephenson:
Because that’s super useful. Especially if you do not buy a heat press as part of your package, if you get a printer, when you have printing issues, one of the first thing that a support person is going to ask is, “Is your heat press giving consistent temperature?” And you’re not going to be able to say yes because you have no idea.

Mark Vila:
Right.

Mark Stephenson:
Could be a manufacturing issue where there’s a cold spot, there’s a lot of things that happen with heat presses and that’s just a way to confirm that when you set the dial in the front it’s the same thing that the heat press is delivering on the inside.

Mark Vila:
Right, right. And no matter what heat press brand you have, no matter how much money you spent, no matter how cheap or expensive it is, the heat press pressure and temperature sometimes need calibration, meaning that it goes out of calibration over time from heat and pressure. Heat and pressure are these things in the universe that change matter over time. If you’re a science person and you watch Discovery shows, you know that, right? From diamonds to stars, heat and pressure are bears on substances. And you have a heat and pressure machine. So, it’s important to make sure that it’s right. And it will, it can be out of calibration quickly for various reasons, especially if it was in a garage where it was hot or freezing cold. So, a gauge for this and if you don’t want to spend 100 bucks on an actual digital gauge, there’s even little throwaway things that you can use to measure temperature.

So, anyway, it’s a really important accessory and it’s one of these things that not everybody will get, but it’s really important over time to own this. And I think the bottom line for the accessories and add-ons is you should be discussing this with whomever you’re working with for your equipment sales or your customer care representative after you’ve purchased a piece of equipment. And honestly really if a salesperson adds a couple hundred bucks to your order, that’s not how they’re getting an extra vacation that year.

Mark Stephenson:
Right, good point. Good point.

Mark Vila:
Oh, they sold you 200 bucks worth of stuff, now they made an extra $500 in commissions. That’s not how this works, right? And it should be obvious for a small dollar amount.

Mark Stephenson:
By the way, these questions go for wherever you buy your equipment – it doesn’t have to be ColDesi. Doesn’t even have to be apparel decorating or promotional products equipment. If you’re going to buy a new kitchen appliance, ask what accessories you should be getting to make sure that it stays up and running properly and that you’re going to need every day.

Mark Vila:
Absolutely. And it’s just a great thing to know and ask, and if you’re speaking with somebody who’s helping you guide you through the process of making a purchase of something like this, you should directly ask them. Say, “If I were to spend a few hundred bucks on accessories, what would I get? What would you recommend I get?” Matter of fact, put 200 bucks worth of stuff on there you know I will need.

Mark Stephenson:
Yeah, I like that.

Mark Vila:
It’s just going to make your life easier and especially if you’re already financing equipment or getting a loan or budgeting out money, if you put in an extra 500 or 1,000 or whatever the dollar amount is of things you know you’re going to need in the future or likely to need in the future, you don’t have to worry about it then.

Mark Stephenson:
Right.

Mark Vila:
And for financing it might be you could add-

Mark Stephenson:
Pennies.

Mark Vila:
Yeah, pennies, a buck more a month.

Mark Stephenson:
I’ll give you the dire scenario is, and it happens all the time, you’ll call in to support with whatever printer that you’ve got and say, “I was making transfers great. It’s been six, eight months, everything’s been absolutely perfect. All of the sudden, the upper left-hand side of all of my transfers, they’re not working right. They’re not sticking properly. It’s coming off the shirt.”

Then the tech support person is going to go, “Okay, cool. So, it’s probably your heat press. Let’s check the temperature on your heat press.”

Okay, can’t do that. I don’t have a temperature gauge. It’s not a good idea to put your hand in there to see if it feels warm or not. So, now the whole process is at a stopping point because you don’t have that tool.

Mark Vila:
Right.

Mark Stephenson:
And the same goes with the temperature and humidity gauge. Hey, I keep having to run head cleanings on my DTG printer. Oh okay, what’s the humidity in your room? Because if it’s too dry then that will cause the heads to clog on a regular basis. I don’t know. Let me run down to Home Depot and get a humidity gauge and I’ll call you back tomorrow.

Mark Vila:
It’s all good points and there’s so many little things that just remember, in general, that there’s two things. One is you’re going to need some stuff right away. And, Mark, you mentioned that when we put packages and bundles together we try to include the very basics at least. And you’re going to need things always forever because you’re in business of production and you’re always going to need a new accessory or add-on or consumable over time. And the point of business is that you sell stuff for a profit that the cost of those things are part of the cost of doing business, and in the end you have a profitable business. But you’re always going to behaving to buy something and get something new or refill something. So, just budget that in when you’re planning.

Mark Stephenson:
Speaking of things you’re probably always going to need, and you need right at the beginning, you’ve got a nice list of business setup things you should probably take care of.

Mark Vila:
Next thing, so that’s the next thing you need is, besides a printer, business setup stuff. So, tell us about that if you don’t mind.

Mark Stephenson:
There are a few things, and these are things that we’re going to say because they’re things that you say about business setup. There could be some things that you elect not to do and you may not need depending on what kind of business you’re starting. And the first one is you might need a state license or if you’re working from home you might need a business license from your county. You might need something from your HOA that says it’s okay for you to do business. The government always wants its couple of bucks, so you need to make sure that you are getting all of your licensing taken care of.

Mark Vila:
Yeah, any tax certificates, if you’re going to pay tax or not, federal, EIN numbers, all your basic business stuff, you want to make sure that you’re prepping for this and planning for it. For one, it’s going to cost a little bit of money, right? So, if you’re trying to run on a shoestring budget, prepare that you’re going to spend some money on that.

And then the other is just it’s frustrating to you’re going to set up to be able to buy something wholesale somewhere, and then that company might say, “Great. We just need to prove you’re in business.” And you’ve got nothing. Now you have-

Mark Stephenson:
Colman and Company doesn’t do that, right? We don’t demand a resell certificate.

Mark Vila:
No, Colman and Company, we don’t. Colmanandcompany.com, we try to be very, very startup and small business friendly. So, as you get going we’re not asking for that type of thing. But if you’re going to buy certain items in bulk from certain companies, they just won’t sell to you for various reasons.

Mark Stephenson:
I remember that’s actually one of the reasons why we put wholesale apparel, we put blank shirts and bags and things like that on colmanandcompany.com is because the bigger … The really big apparel wholesalers require a business license and a reseller certificate and a certain amount of time in business, and a lot of our customers don’t have that. So, we provided that-

Mark Vila:
Yeah, and for some wholesale things, if you have all of those things it still might not be enough.

Mark Stephenson:
Right.

Mark Vila:
Because of various reasons.

Mark Stephenson:
Volume requirements.

Mark Vila:
Volume requirements, things like that. So, one is you want to get all the stuff ready to go in addition to having maybe an accountant, an attorney, anything like that on deck, even if they’re not doing anything yet, right? You want to have that all set up.

Mark Stephenson:
And I would say that when you say an accountant, you should at least have a plan on how you’re going to track incoming money and how you’re going to create invoices. So, whether it’s Freshbooks or Quickbooks or you’ve got a bookkeeper or you know somebody that knows how to do it, you should just know. By the time you get a printer you’re committed to selling stuff. So, you have to also commit to keeping track of what you sell.

Mark Vila:
Yes, and that’s exactly the next thing on the list, right? So, the next thing on the list of what else you need besides a printer is accounting/invoice/credit card, money stuff software and organization in so many words. Anything associated with money. So, yeah, you’ve got to find are you going to accept credit cards? The time-

Mark Stephenson:
And the answer is probably yes.

Mark Vila:
Yes, it’s 2022. If you’re listening to this 100 years from now and you ask what a credit card is, it’s a piece of plastic that you use to buy things and had numbers on it. That was before we did fingerprint scanning of money and things like that.

Mark Stephenson:
Before they put the chip in your palm.

Mark Vila:
Yes, yes. It was a plastic card you had to keep on your person. So, you need a way to process this, like Stripe or Square or PayPal. You may even have a local person who does merchant service, who has a merchant service company that can help connect you with Visa and credit cards or terminals that you do in person or stuff on the internet, right?

Mark Stephenson:
Hey, you know what you don’t want is you don’t want to make it hard for people to buy stuff from you.

Mark Vila:
There you go.

Mark Stephenson:
Right? So, you don’t want to just take PayPal. You don’t want to just accept checks. You want to make sure that you can take people’s money in however they want to give it to you. So, I would do that work before you’re ready to sell your first T-shirt.

Mark Vila:
Right, and then behind all that is the other money stuff, your business bank account, your business credit cards/debit cards, maybe checks depending on the type of business you do and where you are. Deciding if you’re going to let people pay online or in person and preparing for that. All this money stuff is really important.

And when it comes to accounting as well, I thought that I had wrote it down, but I don’t see it in here. It disappeared. But you need some sort of a way to track your money in your invoices.

Mark Stephenson:
Okay.

Mark Vila:
Right? Did I write that down in here?

Mark Stephenson:
No. That’s why I said it.

Mark Vila:
So, yeah, you would need accounting software or invoicing software. So, a way to actually go in and send somebody an invoice, and then to mark the invoice as paid and to keep track of it. Yeah, go ahead.

Mark Stephenson:
I give you all permission to grow into this stuff too. You should have an idea of what you’re going to do, but for example, if I use Stripe on some of my websites, and one of the nice things about it is that I can send people an invoice right from Stripe. They will take credit cards and they give me a little mini accounting suite, so I can keep track of things inside Stripe. You may not need an EIN number right off the bat, you might decide to be a sole proprietor.

The things about all this is you’ve got to at least think about it and know what you’re going to do. Rather than get your printer and now you’re starting to look at I don’t have the right heat press, I don’t have the accessories, I’ve got an order, I don’t know how I’m going to take the money, I don’t know how I’m going to ship my goods, things like that.

Mark Vila:
Yeah, and I think that leads perfectly into next thing you need besides a printer is a plan.

Mark Stephenson:
Yeah, maybe more than one.

Mark Vila:
Yes, and the plan thing, I don’t want us to get overboard because we have an entire podcast that are three-parters that go into plans. So, maybe we just bullet through it, but go back to other episodes and look for where we discuss business plans and niches and things like that. But, right? Who are you going to sell to?

Mark Stephenson:
Yeah, I think you should really find the episode where Mark Vila and I talk about noodling quite a bit for a niche market.

Mark Vila:
It is in there. I think that’s 2019. But, yeah, who are you going to sell to? What’s your plan on selling to them? Do you have a niche market? How are you going to price it? What other things do you have to consider in this, your plan?

Mark Stephenson:
Are you doing business just locally? Are you going to deliver everything in person? Do you need boxes? If you’re doing large orders do you need boxes that you buy in bulk to send stuff out? Are you going to use envelopes? Are you going to use FedEx or regular post? How are you going to get your customers’ product? Are you going to include anything when you send stuff out? Are you going to put in a thank you card or a brochure or a flyer about your business? What does that look like as well?

Mark Vila:
Yeah. I think that’s great. And while you’re planning all of that, you should also plan some other things, like when are you going to do the work? Is this full-time or a side hustle? Do you have dedicated times that you can dedicate to your finances or shoring up your invoices, following up with customers, sending thank you cards like you mentioned maybe? So, all of that, organizing your time, organizing your money as we talked about before, and then organizing your business plan is a necessity.

Mark Stephenson:
One thing that we forgot is you should have an email address at least.

Mark Vila:
Okay, yeah.

Mark Stephenson:
Right? You should have an email address. Sure, if you want to go the easiest way, you can just do a Gmail address that’s [e-mail], but if you’re on the track and you’re going to have a website or do an Etsy store or something you should look at something like a Google suite, which is very inexpensive, where you get your own domain and then you can do [e-mail].

Mark Vila:
Yeah, and Outlook offers a great service like this and then often times your domain service provider, if you use GoDaddy even, will offer this. Wix offers this type of stuff. So, wherever you might be building your website or your domain might already offer this service. Otherwise Google and Microsoft are probably the two big. I think even Apple has stuff for this too.

Mark Stephenson:
Agreed.

Mark Vila:
So, now that we’ve got a plan, one of the next things we put in here, it’s two that kind of go together I think, but you need space and organization.

Mark Stephenson:
Yeah, so it’s funny, since you reminded me of my previous life in the car business, there was a famous world’s greatest car salesman and I read his book and he told me about not asking too many questions at one point. And he told the story about this little old lady, she had saved up her whole life for a Cadillac, and it was back in the days when Cadillacs were 400 feet long. And she’s writing up the paperwork, and he just says, “Ma’am, I think this thing is going to look great in your garage, don’t you?”

And she sat back and she thought about it a minute, and realized that it wouldn’t fit. So, she didn’t buy the car. But imagine if she bought the car or the printer and the heat press, the UV printer, and got it home or that product arrived on your doorstep and you realized you didn’t really have space. You didn’t know where you were going to put it. And the place where you thought it was going to go, it doesn’t fit or it doesn’t work right for some reason.

Mark Vila:
Yeah. And space being physical is important. And digital too, right? So, you have want to have a digital space where you keep things, where you keep your invoices, like we talked about Freshbooks or Quickbooks, where you will store other information, maybe using Microsoft Excel, or you’ve got some sheets for that or an invoicing software or production software. But you want to have a digital space too where you can organize everything. Some folks will use Microsoft One Drive or other folks will use Google Drive, and that’s where you can store a lot of your documents, a calendar, things like that. So, digital and a physical space are both extremely important.

Mark Stephenson:
So, one thing that I’ll put everybody’s mind at ease, if you’re shopping for a custom apparel or promotional products system, then any of our cutters, whether it’s just heat transfer, vinyl, or it’s the BN-20 for full color, all the digital heat FX line and their heat presses and all the supplies and everything, our direct to garment printers, all of our bling machines, those will all operate just fine in a 10-by-10 space. I wouldn’t want to put three or four of those things in the same place, but you can operate most of our equipment in a back bedroom.

What you can’t do is you can’t put some of the bigger- … The UV printers are no fun to put in there and also there might be some venting. And none of our direct to film printers are appropriate for inside the house without proper ventilation and things like that.

Mark Vila:
Right, so you make a great point.

Mark Stephenson:
And all the first ones aren’t noisy either, so you’re fine doing that.

Mark Vila:
Yeah, I think that’s for one backing all the way up to the accessories area. I see you’re drinking a Spindrift?

Mark Stephenson:
I am. Don’t you remember? When you were showing off yours, I had bought my first one. So, advertising, fantastic.

Mark Vila:
Yes. So, if you’re not watching this on YouTube you’re always missing out on something interesting.

Mark Stephenson:
I know. First of all, you get to see me holding up the Spindrift and then Mark Vila does closeup magic on every 15 minutes he does something.

Mark Vila:
Well, back to the magic of information, so you mentioned some power and space. So, you want to make sure you have enough space and you have the power to power your equipment. These are all reasonable questions to talk to somebody in the beginning and plan for that stuff. If you’re going to buy something that’s particularly large, you might need some dedicated power. If you’re going to have multiple heat presses, you might want to have dedicated power, more than one. So, you could discuss that with who you’re working with or maybe even if you have an electrician or something like that, you could discuss that with them too. You could provide them some stats on what you’re going to be running.

And then with the space and the power and all that stuff, you’ve got to have all of it organized pretty well or it turns into a mess really fast.

Mark Stephenson:
Yes. Break out the graph paper for your room design and make sure that you’ve got everything. Download a free app. Get out some blue tape. Just make sure that wherever you are, first of all, physically that everything that you want in there fits. Think about the heat press and where you’re going to want it. Do you have kids? Do you have little ones that might be interested in putting their hands inside the heat press and seeing if they can make a panini? You need to think about all that.

Mark Vila:
Yup, and then there’s plenty of other things to think about within organizing the space and making sure that things make sense. Where you’re going to do your production, is it in the right spot? Where are you going to put your ink? Is it near a window? Does it get really cold in the winter? Could it potentially get close to freezing temperatures near that window? If you don’t have a well insulated- … There’s lots of things to consider.

If you’re going to be doing production, where are you going to fold your shirts? Where are you going to store the mugs? Just kind of think about all of that stuff with space and organization for both digital and physical space because it’s another frustration from folks when they get all set up and ready, and didn’t even consider or think about well, gosh, mugs, every case of mugs-

Mark Stephenson:
Take up a lot of space.

Mark Vila:
Takes up a bunch of space. I didn’t realize I was going to have a palette worth of stuff stored. Where am I going to keep it? And so it’s all worth thinking about.

Mark Stephenson:
Listen, I’m going to do a quick commercial for an embroidery machine because we haven’t talked about those. One of my favorite things about the embroidery machines is they come with wheeled stands, and you can literally roll them into a closet in the bedroom. They fit in a corner. You don’t need an extra heat press or anything like that with those. The supplies can get a little bulky, and the hoops are hard to handle sometimes, but it’s very convenient.

So, if you’re going to use a room for double duty, then you should think about that too. Get carts on wheels so you can move it around. Just make sure that you’re thinking ahead to what you’re going to use the space for.

Mark Vila:
Yeah, and honestly it doesn’t matter if you have a big shop of you’re working out of your house. Space is always an issue. I’ve talked to so many people about it where they’re concerned about the width of the cutter or the width of the printer because the corner that they designated in a big warehouse, it’s also full of stuff. So, no matter how big or small your space is, it’s important.

Mark Stephenson:
And hey, here’s a great question to ask your salesperson. Am I going to need to access the back?

Mark Vila:
Oh okay. Good thought.

Mark Stephenson:
Because I know that with the BN-20A that we’ve got in our showroom, the ink cartridges stick out the side, which is great. But sometimes you need to get to the back to adjust the roller or something like that, and it’s a little bit more difficult because you can’t walk behind it.

Mark Vila:
Yes.

Mark Stephenson:
So, just think about that stuff. That’s why we’re making a plan.

Mark Vila:
You’re talking about our showroom because in our planning we have a printer back there, the BN-20 printer back there, and it’s hard to get behind there and it’s not on a table on wheels.

Mark Stephenson:
Right.

Mark Vila:
It’s a multi-person thing to get behind there when we need to do something and so we’re not perfect.

Mark Stephenson:
And we spent a lot of time designing that showroom.

Mark Vila:
We did. We did. So, it’s also a lot of this stuff is live and learn over time.

Mark Stephenson:
Sure.

Mark Vila:
Well, there’s one more thing you need to start a custom T-shirt business before the printer, and it’s help.

Mark Stephenson:
Yeah, it’s a plan for help at the very least.

Mark Vila:
A plan for help at the very least.

Mark Stephenson:
What are you going to do when fill in the blank?

Mark Vila:
Yeah, and it’s a simple concept. You don’t know, it’s hard to predict, so it’s one of these things that getting help is a simple idea, but help with what, to do what, when and where, gets very complicated. So, I think it’s just worthy of considering ideas. Do I think I’m going to need help in production if I get busy? Do I think I’m going to need help in accounting? Do I think I’m going to need help in selling or customer service? Do I think I’ll just need general help, like an assistant, somebody to fold and box and deliver? But consider all that stuff when you get busy and then who could do it for you.

Mark Stephenson:
I like that. And I would say, for example, about a month ago, the sound on my laptop died. We do a podcast, I edit videos, I do voiceovers, things like that. So, I couldn’t work effectively without a laptop. Well, luckily I called, we’ve got an amazing IT guy, and I called him and we got it taken care of. I got a new laptop in. What are you going to do if you have computer issues with the one that runs your equipment? What will you do if your internet goes out or if your router goes bad? Or if you lose power? You’ve got to just think about these things a little bit. Some of them are very likely. It is very likely that your computer is going to get messed up at some point, right? It is very likely that you’re going to have internet problems. And maybe it won’t affect your business at all or maybe it’ll shut you down for two days.

So, it’s so much easier if you just make a list of here’s who I call when I have computer problems, here’s what I do when the internet goes down, here’s what I do if I have an accounting question, here’s what I’m going to do if I need help with production and I can’t finish something myself. Here’s what happens when I go on vacation. Having this list and just stick it up somewhere, it’s super relaxing. It’s super relaxing because, oh look, it’s problem number three, my internet is down. Here’s the phone of the internet service provider, here’s my account number, let me hop on the phone and see what’s up.

Mark Vila:
Right.

Mark Stephenson:
Rather than what I usually do, which is I’ve got an actual filing cabinet down here with all my bills from 10 years ago. That’s how I look for the phone number and my account number to call somebody.

Mark Vila:
Right.

Mark Stephenson:
Don’t do it that way.

Mark Vila:
It’s great, and all that stuff is really important. And, by the way, I love just thinking about simple things too. Just say, “I have a teenager,” maybe you do, I don’t, but if you did, “who drives.” Hey, planning for the future, would you be down to make a little bit of money delivering stuff to the local businesses over the summer? I’m hoping to get busy enough where we could do that and you could make some cash. Those are little things you could talk about.

You could talk to your husband or wife or friend or partner about, hey, what do you think about as this business gets a little bit busy, do we need accounting stuff? Are you good with that? Or running email customer service. Just throw the ideas around to people who are close to you, who are kind of going to be a part of this family business, if it is a family business, and if it’s not that case and you have something completely different going on, how might you hire somebody? What would be the plan for that?

I think it’s all worthy of having a plan because help is something that is inevitable. The only caveat is if you want your business to stay small where just you run it, and you’re going to work 40 hours and that’s how much work you’re going to do. A friend of mine has a business and that’s what he does. He’s like, “I don’t want it bigger than that. Don’t want the drama.”

Mark Stephenson:
I get it.

Mark Vila:
That’s him. He knows that it limits the money he makes, but that’s him. But even still I know that his wife helps out with some books, helps out with going to the bank even still. Help is always important. So, I think that wraps everything up, Mark. That’s everything. That’s not everything, but it’s a lot of what you need to start a custom T-shirt business or embroidery business or any customization business besides a printer or an embroidery machine or a heat press.

Mark Stephenson:
Yeah, I love that and I hope this gives some clarity to people out there that really are just focused on how much is the machine. And maybe makes you more comfortable in talking to a salesperson or someone that knows. Rather than just trying to figure this stuff out yourself. Because from an equipment standpoint, we as a company, and most companies, put together bundles for a reason, because they’re things that people ask for. So, you should talk to somebody about that. If you are setting up your business, maybe you want to talk to somebody at the Small Business Association about that. If you are looking to improve your finances, maybe you’ve got somebody to talk to about personal finances and you want to run stuff by the business about them. You’ve got a friend that runs a small business, and you can ask them, “Hey, where do you go for help? Where do you get computer services?” Things like that.

Mark Vila:
Yeah. I think my takeaway is be sure when you’re shopping for something you ask the question, “What else will or might I need?” And then take serious consideration on if you will need those things and make a purchase. And it reminds me of when I worked at Best Buy many, many years ago when I was younger and I worked in the camera department. And so many people just wanted the camera, and this was digital camera early days, 2000. You needed a memory card, you probably need a case, you probably want some sort of lens cover, you want a lens cleaner because you don’t want to use your T-shirt, right? These are all things you probably want. And then Best Buy had their things they sold, like protection plans and insurance and all stuff like that. Our job working there was to offer all those things.

There’s a level between the things that are optional, like insurance, and things that are critical, like a memory card. And what is critical for your business is not always going to be the same for everybody else. Some people didn’t need the camera case because they got the little camera and it closed with the lens cover and it could fit in a purse. Case was optional for them. Memory card was not. And I think it’s the same for what we’re purchasing here. Not everybody needs a mug heat press.

Mark Stephenson:
True.

Mark Vila:
Because not everybody does that. But if you’re serious about it, you probably should. And I think it’s really important to ask that question and realize that if somebody is trying to sell you a box of a finishing sheet that costs 1699, that’s not how they’re getting rich to try to upsell you on stuff. They’re recommending something that’s legitimate and you should probably get it.

Mark Stephenson:
Just get it.

Mark Vila:
Yeah, just get it. Especially spending $15,000, and someone’s telling you buy something that costs 20 bucks. What’s 15,000 and 20 in the grand scheme of it all? You’re going to buy it later. So, consider everything. Really think about it and I know that if you wrote this stuff down and you consider it all, you’re much more likely to be successful than somebody who digs their heels in and doesn’t think about it.

Mark Stephenson:
Yup, I agree. Okay, that’s it. This has been Mark Stephenson.

Mark Vila:
And Mark Vila.

Mark Stephenson:
You guys have an amazing, well-rounded, fully stocked, accessory heavy business.

Mark Vila:
Splendid. Thanks, Mark.

The post Episode 175 – What You Need to Start a Custom T-Shirt Business (besides a printer) appeared first on Custom Apparel Startups.