How to Start a T-Shirt Printing Business
T-shirts are undoubtedly the most worn piece of clothing today; everyone owns at least one. The demand for t-shirts is on the rise, and this can be connected to how effortlessly it fits with other pieces of clothing as it never goes out of style or how relatively new technology has allowed for more customization of t-shirts to fit the wearer’s unique personality.
The t-shirt printing business continues to grow, and according to reports, it has an expected valuation of $9.18 Billion in 2030. This presents an excellent opportunity for new entrepreneurs to explore as the industry offers a low barrier to entry with new technologies like direct-to-garment printing and direct-to-film printing, making it possible to start with relatively little capital and a simple learning curve.
As much as the market potential is vast and inviting, new designers and entrepreneurs need to consider a few critical factors as they navigate the industry.
We’ve put together an easy-to-follow guide to help you start and scale your t-shirt printing business successfully. We’ve also found this great webinar titled How to Start and Grow Your DTG Business that is very helpful for new tshirt business owners.
Why Start a T-Shirt Printing Business?
Starting a t-shirt printing business today is like buying bitcoin in 2011. With a current value of 3.9 billion USD, the global t-shirt market is expected to expand at a compound annual growth (CAGR) of 9.9% from 2022 to 2030.
Considering the low barrier of entry that this industry offers, the rapid growth of the market, and the constant increase in demand for printed t-shirts, this makes for a great business opportunity for entrepreneurs with low capital.
Another advantage of running this business is the freedom it presents. You can decide how to run your shirt printing business as a business owner, from setting prices and designs to how many hours you work a week.
How to Start a T-Shirt Printing Business
We’ve put together these easy steps to help you start your t-shirt printing business and increase your chances of winning in this industry.
Make a Business Plan
You need a detailed business plan to stand a chance of winning in any business. However, with the t-shirt printing industry, you must consider the differences in your audience’s demands regarding quality, style, and design.
A major factor to consider is deciding what to sell. Once you decide, you can determine if your company would have your own online store or partner with large companies like Amazon to help run it. These large web stores offer entrepreneurs their own section in a store.
Here are steps for making a business plan:
Pick a Market Niche
You can consider niches like lifestyle, affinity groups, churches, schools, sports teams, workouts, and travel.
If you’re still unsure of your market niche, here are some questions you should ask yourself:
- Are you selling printed t-shirts to toddlers, teens, or young adults?
- Will you accept custom designs or have specific designs for customers to select from?
- Are you targeting a niche within different affinity groups?
- Are you offering quality shirts for the discerning customer or more low cost garments?
Once you’re sure of the niche you’d focus on, you’ll proceed to write a business plan. Here are some things to consider while creating a custom-printed t-shirt plan:
1. Your company’s mission
2. Who is your target customer and what are their needs or desires for custom t-shirts?
3. What is your plan for creating or obtaining designs? Will you be using your own designs or purchasing ready-made designs?
4. How many employees would you need to work with you? Most DTG start up businesses can be started with just the business owner and grow from there.
5. Where will you be getting raw materials from? For example, t-shirts, hats, socks, hoodies, etc.
6. Build marketing ideas through market analysis made on current trends, conventions, social media, fairs, etc.
7. Research your competitors and try to implement tweaks that can make your brand exceptional.
8. Have your supporting documents in one place. E.g., design samples, statistical analysis, vendor agreements, etc.
9. Get licenses relevant to operate that type of business in your location.
Consider your financials
Before you start this type of business, you should try to understand how much it will cost you to launch your shirt printing business successfully.
Your financial strategy answers the following questions:
- How much do you plan to spend
- Cost of initial investment
- Revenue goals
- Monthly profit and loss figures
- Break-even analysis
- Annual gross margin
The main expenses to consider include:
- Equipment
- Ink and other consumable products
- Advertising and Marketing
- Packaging
- Shipping
- Tax
Most t-shirt printer machine companies would be happy to send you a quote upon request, so get as many as possible and compare prices, and functionality. But don’t forget about the company’s support model and their focus on your specific printing technology. You want to pick a printer supplier that has specific experience working with this technology and not just a general reseller who doesn’t know the printer inside and out. Choose a vendor that will be there to help you get the printer up and running, train you and help advise you as you start your new business.
After this, you can easily set prices for your products. Your t-shirt printing business may take time to grow, so you need to know how long you’re willing to stick with it.
If you skip the step of making a detailed business plan, you will not know what to expect in your business or be able to plan for it.
Find the Best Ways to Market the Product
One way to drive demand for your new business is to look at where your competitors are marketing their products. This way, you’ll be able to spot and target new markets that would accept your brand.
In addition, new markets might emerge from exploring personal interests. Focusing on cat-related prints would be great for you if you’re a cat lover. Why not focus on prints that portray your own lifestyle if you love sports and fitness? Bonus if you select a customer interest where you are also interested. This will make your design and marketing ideas seem effortless because you ARE the customer!
Yes, you can start your printing business targeting everyone but your marketing spend will be incredibly inefficient. This reduces your chances in the market because the first step to successful sales is knowing who you’re selling to. Once you know whom you’re selling to, you can continue to tailor your services to their needs.
How to Prepare Graphics for your T-shirt Printing Business
Learning the nuances of creating graphics specifically for garment printing is not difficult but it does have a learning curve. A lot of new DTG printer owners know this, so they turn to DTG graphics expert, MyReadyArt.com, to help with high-quality graphics preparation and manipulation specifically for DTG printing. Sometimes the designs you curate may be below standard and continue to lose quality as you adjust them.
MyReadyArt provides affordable services that improve your graphic before printing it on a shirt. It’s like adding a specialized graphic artist to your team without the headache and high cost of hiring an employee.
Before you decide to use a third-party service, here are some things you can do to improve your graphics.
- PNG files are usually best so you can use transparent backgrounds
- Create your artwork at the actual print size or larger
- Set your image resolution to 300 dpi
- Use vector artwork when possible
- Use PMS colors in your artwork if trying to match specific brand colors
Overview of Direct-to-Garment Printing
Direct-to-garment printing, digital apparel printing, or DTG, as it is popularly known, describes the process of printing graphics directly on fabrics with the use of water-based inkjet technology. The resulting print quality and durability is retail quality and far better than iron on heat transfer prints which tend to flake, crack and peel after a few washes.
DTG is a relatively new technology, introduced about 15 years ago, that produces high resolution, photo quality graphics.
Direct-to-garment printing setup is drastically simplified for each graphic variation compared to screen printing. In screen printing, you may spend up to an hour to set up the graphic, separate the colors and physically prepare screens for each color before even starting a print; this increases the running cost for your business.
In DTG printing, you can print your graphic immediately after you send the graphic to the printer. You get to print high-quality graphics on your textile featuring over 16 million colors. And although it might take more time to print each garment with DTG than screen printing, the final result is a customized, high resolution print your customers will love.
Here’s how to do direct-to-garment printing in simple steps
- Prepare the artwork (use MyReadyArt to make graphics print better)
- Load your garment onto the printer
- Cure the ink using a heat press
Overview of Direct-to-Film Printing Technology
Direct-to-film printing is an amazing, new technology used to print designs onto films before transferring them to garments. This is not the old heat transfer process that has been around before DTG. This is a new technology that is similar in durability to DTG and screen printed garments but gives you the flexibility of heat transfers. The great news is that many DTG printers are also capable of printing DTF without modifying the printer.
Here are some things you should know if you want to do DTF Printing.
1. Ensure you use quality equipment. If you’ve been in the printing industry for some time, you will know that the end product of your work is solely dependent on the quality of the equipment you use. When it comes to DTF, always use quality inks and printers.
2. DTF printing needs PET film; however, some PET films don’t work as expected. To get the best outcome, select a quality DTF transfer film.
3. Choose a quality TPU white powder for DTF to use as your white underbase.
4. With DTF technology, your fabric doesn’t need pre-treatment.
Here are the basic steps to follow for DTF printing.
1. Prepare your Graphic
When printing on transfer paper, you need to reverse the image in your design software to ensure the final product is oriented correctly. You’ll also need to prepare a white only print file as well as a CMYK only print file.
2. Print on Film
Unlike traditional paper, we’ll be using a PET film. After setting the PET film on the printer table, print your CMYK only graphic on the film first. Then print the white file on top of the CMYK ink without moving the paper.
3. Powdering
Apply the dtf powder evenly when the ink is wet, then carefully shake off the excess powder.
4. Curing the Sheet
Now you need to cure the ink and powder on the sheet. Simply set the sheet with ink and powder side up in the heat press and cure for 30 seconds without applying pressure. Most heat presses have a hover setting to apply heat without pressure.
5. Pre-pressing
This is the step right before the actual transfer from film to fabric is done. Press the garment without the film in the heat press for about 5-10 seconds to flatten and de-humidify the fabric.
6. Transfer Graphic to Garment
This is the most important part of the DTF printing process. You then place PET film with the image and melted powder on the fabric. This is done in the heat press to attach the image to the fabric firmly.
7. Cold Peel
Here, you allow the fabric and film to cool down before pulling the film off.
This is a great blog post and video to show the DTF printing process on a DTG printer.
How to Pick a Good Printer
Like every other form of printing, the quality of your printer equals the quality of prints you get. It is important to research many printers before selecting one that fits your needs in terms of size, scale, and quality.
However, nothing will get you farther than picking a good printer. That’s why DTG Connection is the best place to get your printers for your business.
With DTG Connection, you don’t just get a good printer; you partner with experts that have been focused on DTG printers since these printers first hit the market.
By choosing this brand, you get access to the following:
- Training & Advice
- US Based Technical Support
- FREE training, FREE phone support
- Ongoing educationals webinars, classes, and blogs
- Purpose-built vs. modified paper printer
- Dealer focus & expertise
- Experienced staff with hands-on experience in DTG printing
- Inside industry information to help you grow and succeed
- Optional graphics help with MyReadyArt.com starting at only $49.99/mo
Who is DTG Connection?
DTG Connection is a company that prides itself on providing customers with top-quality direct-to-garment products, winning business strategies, hands-on support, and industry connections to help them achieve success in the ever-competitive DTG market.
Founded by DTG industry veterans Karl Tipre, Adam Tipre, and Paul Crocker, DTG Connection continues to lead the DTG printing industry with its amazing line-up of DTG products and support.
The brand is committed to providing quality support for customers from an expert support team with multiple years of experience in the DTG market.
What Sets DTG Connection Apart From Other Competitors?
If you’re starting your business, you need all the support you can get. Now, besides the amazing product line-up, DTG Connection offers top-of-the-line technical support, graphic arts support, as well as business strategies and industry connection for your start-up.
So, with DTG-C, you get more than just products; you get a lifetime partner for your business.
Every business model may require a different approach, as there is no one-size-fits-all strategy. DTG-C gives you one-on-one access to expert advice from seasoned industry workers to help you start and grow your business. In fact, most of the team has also owned and operated a DTG printer of their own in addition to helping 1000s of new t-shirt businesses get started. So they know a thing or two about how to start and grow a business with DTG printers!
Karl and crew always go above and beyond to make sure customers get the best experience while ensuring amazing response times.
Here’s what some customers have to say:
Rachel (BeachGecko)
“I spent a good while researching DTG printers and contacted a few companies that sell them. By FAR, the customer service and accessibility by this company has exceeded my expectations. My rep is Adam, and he is so great at making sure I’m taken care of and have the support I need. From A to Z DTG-C is right there. Highly recommend. I can’t WAIT to get another machine through these guys.”
Albert Hollis
“Karl always goes above and beyond. His response times are exceptional! Customer service is amazing each and every time. Will always have my business!”
Darren Rogers
“I finally invested in my own direct to garment printer and I couldn’t be happier. I can now offer my customers shorter lead times, better quality, and a really good price.”
DTG Products We Recommend
You may have a hard time researching and picking DTG products with a wide range of products on the market. This section features DTG products that will deliver quality products that meet current market trends.
DTG-C Model X DTG Printer + DTF Printer
The Model X takes the top spot on our list of DTG printers because it gives you so much value for the price. If you’re looking to get a printer or offer digital printing services using the latest ink technology, this is definitely the one.
Some premium features of the Model X include:
New White Ink Chemistry
The new ink technology slows down drying around the print head, reducing maintenance time and eliminating clogging.
Auto Table Height
The all-new auto height feature helps you skip the step where you need to ensure the correct table height. And because it is automatic, the prints are excellent.
Premium Quality Images
The Model X’s ability to produce high-resolution prints of up to 1200 x 1200 dpi sets it apart from its competitors. Image quality concerns would be a thing of the past.
Automated Maintenance
Ease of maintenance is one of the specifics that make the Model X stand out. The new technology implements a significant decrease in downtime.
This machine stays in great shape for long periods, so you can hit your printing goals without worrying much.
Epson SureColor F2100 DTG Printer
The Epson F2100 delivers high-quality prints with up to two times the normal speed. The SureColor is specifically designed to cater to all your direct-to-garment needs using advanced technology in printing, like the Epson PrecisionCore TFP printhead.
With the Epson F2100, you get the following:
Premium Quality DTG Printing
Epson inks are great, safe, and last long, so you’re sure to get top-quality printing with vibrant colors.
Up to 2X Speed
You can get top-notch prints at two times the speed of earlier models with improved print modes.
After-Sale Support
The Epson F2100 comes with a 1-year limited on-site warranty and US-based phone support.
Lower Maintenance Cost
This model features a self-cleaning system that helps maintain the printer.
Conclusion
There is no better time to start your t-shirt printing business, as statistics show that the custom t-shirt industry is growing by leaps and bounds.
Starting this business can be tough for new entrepreneurs, but these steps will set the floor for your business to thrive.
A major pivot as to whether you succeed in this industry depends on the partners you pick. If you’re going to get started, there’s no better partner than DTG Connection to help ensure the success of your business!
