Can a college student start their own t-shirt business? -

I have wanted to start my own t-shirt line for over two years now. When I was a junior in high school I read an article about the guy who started Johnny Cupcakes, and it completely inspired me. Ever since then it s been an idea in the back of my mind, but I never had the time or knowledge to materialize it.Now I m in college. I have a good chunk of money saved in my bank account from a job I ve had for this past semester. I m really considering making this a full-time project now. I have the money. I have the knowledge of design. I just need to know the business side of it. Is it realistic to think that I would make money off of selling t-shirts? Would I do the screen printing myself? Or would I send my designs to a manufacturer (i.e. American Apparel) and have them do it for me? How much money would it cost to get me started? Would I make my own website? How would I get the word out about my designs? I mean, because I can make a website. I can set the whole thing up. But at the end of the day people have to know about it. How do businesses advertise themselves? Especially when its just a college student? I just need EVERY tidbit of information you can give me. Even if I didn t ask it. Please, if you have experience or insight or knowledge, please help me out here.

Of course you can!The key for you is to find someone who can manufacture them for you. Check out: http://www.wearlane.com/shopshirt.html - College students.You need a concept and an approach to good design. You need a hook that will move the shirts. YOU DO NOT need to manufacture them. Check out http://www.broken-arrow.com/ as an example. I don t know the best ones but I did a search and this company is an example. You can get an online quote for a number of shirts, choose the material, kind of process (Silkscreen embroider, etc) the colors etc and then upload your design. You get the shirts and resell em. It s about that easy except that it s all about people wanting your design.Anyway, yes you can do it. Given your questions, though, I d STRONGLY suggest before you start that you look around campus to see if there s a business club for people wanting to do their own businesses, or something in the community. You need to be able to understand how to design, promote and operate an on-line presence before you get much further. It s not hard but you could use some time with people who have done it to get their advice first hand as Answers won t help that much. If you can t find anybody, then go to the business school at your college and start asking professors! You ll find someone, I guarantee it.Hope that helps.

CafePress.com has an excellent program that can help you out. $5/month. Seriously. They re the biggest on the net when it comes to t-shirts. They even started running tv ads recently. If your designs are more than just a slogan or scree-printing, then the previous answer is a good one.