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Writing a Business Plan

While it may be tempting to put off, creating a business plan is an essential part of starting your own business. Plans and proposals should be put in a clear format making it easy for potential investors to understand. Because every company has a different goal and product or service to offer, there are business plan templates readily available to help you get on the right track. Many of these templates can be adapted for any company. In general, a business plan writing guide will recommend that the following sections be incorporated into your plan.

Executive Summary

The executive summary is the first section that business plans open with, but is often the last section to actually be written as it’s the most difficult to write. The executive summary is a summary of the overall plan that highlights the key points and gives the reader an idea of what lies ahead in the document. It should include areas such as the business opportunity, target market, marketing and sales strategy, competition, the summary of the financial plan, staff members and a summary of how the plan will be implemented. This section needs to be extremely clear, concise and engaging as you don’t want the reader to push your hard work aside.

Company Description

The company description follows the executive summary and should cover all the details about the company itself. For example, if you are writing a business plan for an internet café, you would want to include the name of the company, where the café would be located, who the main team members involved are and why, how large the company is, who the target market for the internet cafe is, what type of business structure the café is, such as LLC, sole proprietorship, partnership, or corporation, what the internet café business mission and vision statements are, and what the business’s short-term objectives are.

Services and Products

This is the exciting part of the plan where you get to explain what new and improved services or products you are offering. On top of describing the product or service itself, include in the plan what is currently in the market in this area, what problems there are in this area and how your product is the solution. For example, in a business plan for a food truck, perhaps there are numerous other food trucks in the area, but they are all fast –food style and unhealthy so, you want to introduce fast food that serves only organic and fresh ingredients every day. This is where you can also list your price points and future products or services you anticipate.

Market Analysis

The market analysis section will take time to write and research as a lot of effort and research need to go into it. Here is where you have the opportunity to describe what trends are showing up, what the growth rate in this sector looks like, what the current size of this industry is and who your target audience is. A cleaning business plan, for example, may include how this sector has been growing by 10% every year due to an increase in large businesses being built in the city.

Organization and Management

Marketing and sales are the part of the business plan where you explain how you will attract and retain clients. How are you reaching your target customers and what incentives do you offer that will keep them coming back? For a dry cleaner business plan, perhaps if they refer customers, they will get 10% off their next visit. In addition, you may want to explain what needs to be done in order for the business to be profitable. This is a great way of showing that you are conscious about what clear steps need to be taken to make a business successful.

Financial Projections & Appendix

The financial business plan section can be a tricky one to write as it is based on projections. Usually what is included is the short-term projection, which is a year broken down by month and should include start-up permits, equipment, and licenses that are required. This is followed by a three-year projection broken down by year and many often write a five-year projection, but this does not need to be included in the business plan.

The appendix is the last section and contains all the supporting documents and/or required material. This often includes resumes of those involved in the company, letters of reference, product pictures and credit histories. Keep in mind that your business plan is always in development and should be adjusted regularly as your business grows and changes.

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T-Shirt Business Plan Template

T-shirt business plan.

Over the past 20+ years, we have helped over 5,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans to start and grow their t-shirt businesses.

Get our t-shirt business plan template and step-by-step instructions below to quickly and easily create your own t-shirt business plan today.

How to Write a T-Shirt Business Plan

Use the links below to learn more about each key component of a business plan and what to include in each section of your plan:

Next Section: Executive Summary >

T-Shirt Business Plan FAQs

What is the easiest way to complete my t-shirt business plan.

Growthink's Ultimate T-shirt Business Plan Template allows you to quickly and easily complete your T-Shirt Company Business Plan.

Where Can I Download a T-Shirt Business Plan PDF?

You can download our t-shirt business plan PDF template here . This is a business plan template you can use in PDF format.

What Is a T-Shirt Business Plan?

A business plan provides a snapshot of your t-shirt business as it stands today, and lays out your growth plan for the next five years. It explains your business goals and your strategy for reaching them. It also includes research into the t-shirt industry to support your plans.

Why Do You Need a T-Shirt Business Plan?

If you’re looking to start a t-shirt business or grow your existing t-shirt business you need a business plan. A business plan will help you raise funding, if needed, and plan out the growth of your t-shirt business in order to improve your chances of success. Your t-shirt business plan is a living document that should be updated annually as your company grows and changes.

What Are the Sources of Funding for T-Shirt Businesses?

With regards to funding, the main sources of funding for a t-shirt business are personal savings, credit cards, bank loans and angel investors. With regards to bank loans, banks will want to review your business plan and gain confidence that you will be able to repay your loan and interest. To acquire this confidence, the loan officer will not only want to confirm that your financials are reasonable. But they will want to see a professional plan. Such a plan will give them the confidence that you can successfully and professionally operate a business.

Angel investors might also fund a t-shirt business. Angel investors are wealthy individuals who will write you a check. They will either take equity in return for their funding, or, like a bank, they will give you a loan. Venture capitalists will not fund a t-shirt business. 

What is the Best T-Shirt Business to Start?

• What are my passions?
• What do I enjoy doing?
• Do I have funny slogans to share?
• Who do I want to serve?
• How will what I'm doing help someone else?

If you don't have a specific passion, then consider starting a t-shirt business that is related to your current job or another business that you have been thinking of starting.

What Are Some Examples of a T-Shirt Company's Business Goals?

Your goals for starting a t-shirt company will depend on what your long-term plans are for the company. A successful t-shirt company should always have its next steps planned out so that it is achieving its short-term goals while also working toward its long-term targets.

Before starting a t-shirt company, you should have a solid idea of what kind of t-shirt designs you would like to sell. Then determine whether there is demand in the market for your product. You can conduct this research by speaking with potential customers or reviewing existing online stores selling similar products.

A t-shirt company will typically have some combination of the following goals. These include:

• Increase revenue
• Grow market share by acquiring new customers or increasing customer spending
• Reduce overhead costs
• Improve gross margin
• Decrease operating expenses
• Achieve profitability
• Grow employment, expand capacity to fulfill orders, and/or increase output

In addition to these goals, a t-shirt company wants to maintain cash flow. The cash flow from the t-shirt company will help it continue operations and grow.

When creating your business plan, include all aspects of how you will operate your t-shirt business. At the minimum, include information on how much money it will cost to start your company, what equipment you'll need to get started, and how many shirts you'll need to sell each month or year in order to become profitable.

When Should I Update My T-Shirt Business Plan?

Your tshirt business plan should be updated whenever your company experiences significant changes. These might include:

• A change in leadership
• The introduction of a new product line
• Changes to manufacturing or distribution methods
• Changes to products or services offered
• Changes to pricing structures
• Changes in cash flow or revenue projections

If this is your first business plan, then it should be updated annually. After your t-shirt business has been operating for one year or more, then the business plan should be updated every two to three years.

How Do I Start a T-Shirt Business?

Starting a t-shirt business is easier than you might think. You can start your t-shirt business part-time while working another job, or you can quit the job now and work on the t-shirt company full time.

To get started, conduct market research to determine whether there is demand for your t-shirt business idea. You can conduct this research by:

• Talking to customers and potential customers about their t-shirt needs
• Asking friends and family members what kind of t-shirts they would buy
• Surveying your friends and other acquaintances to determine various sizes that should be available
• Checking existing online t-shirt stores for products similar to yours

You should also create a t shirt printing business plan that has the goals and information of how you will operate your t-shirt company before you get started. You can either create a business plan or use an online template to get the job done.

Learn More : How to Start a T-Shirt Company

What are the Different Methods for T-Shirt Printing?

The two most common methods for t-shirt printing are called screen printing and direct to garment (DTG).

Famous brands of screen printing presses include Gerber, Wohlenberg, Heidelberg, DMLS. You can also rent a screen printing machine or purchase used equipment.

A DTG printer is more expensive than a screen print press, but it has cost savings associated with it. The average price of a DTG printer ranges between $10,000 to $25,000. 

How Do I Make My T-Shirt Business Successful?

The most important aspect of starting a t-shirt business is ensuring that you have demand for your t-shirts. You must be able to sell your t-shirts at a price that you can make a profit on each shirt.

Your other major concern should be selling directly to the customer, rather than through distributors. The more hands between you and the end consumer, the less money you will make per t-shirt sold.

Is a T-Shirt Business Profitable?

A t-shirt business can make a lot of money if you have the ability to design, market, establish a quality t-shirt brand, and sell t-shirts. Generally speaking, it's best to start small by selling locally or regionally before expanding your efforts further afield or internationally. Some businesses have grown to be worth millions of dollars by selling t-shirts online, in retail stores, and through sports clubs.

A successful t-shirt business requires little initial capital to start, although your t-shirt company will need to secure funding before becoming profitable. Depending on the size of your t-shirt business, it could take between one month and several months to break even.

T-SHIRT BUSINESS PLAN OUTLINE

• T-Shirt Business Plan Home
• 1. Executive Summary
• 2. Company Overview
• 3. Industry Analysis
• 4. Customer Analysis
• 5. Competitive Analysis
• 6. Marketing Plan
• 7. Operations Plan
• 8. Management Team
• 9. Financial Plan
• 10. Appendix
• T-Shirt Business Plan Summary

Other Helpful Business Plan Articles & Templates

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Custom Printed T-Shirts Business Plan

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Your T-Shirt!

Executive summary executive summary is a brief introduction to your business plan. it describes your business, the problem that it solves, your target market, and financial highlights.">, opportunity.

Imagine the ability to create a totally custom shirt. You choose the material and style of the shirt, and then the image or graphic you want on the front and/or back. This is the ultimate form of expression. There are no limits to what you can communicate. Some people might show their fanaticism for a particular sports team, others a musician. Or you might have a social message or cause on your shirt. Whatever you may decide, you can print any image on your shirt. 

Your T-Shirt! is an exciting new business that allows people to custom design a shirt (specifically the design on the front or back) any way that they would like. By intelligently leveraging cutting edge technology, Your T-Shirt! will harness the power of computer sublimation to allow custom shirt printing in production runs as small as one unit.

Your T-Shirt! has segmented the market into two groups, organized by the type of product that they purchase. The first group is customers that desire an already created graphic image to be placed on the their shirt. The second group are those that prefer custom artwork to be placed on their shirt. Your T-Shirt! has decided to divide the market by the products that they purchase because it offers an intuitive, easy method of targeting the two different groups. An additional reason for segmenting the market based on the two products is because the demographics for the buyers of the two products are distinct enough to group them separately.

Competition

Your T-Shirt! has identified three competitors, two are local companies, the third is an Internet-based shirt designer.

• T-shirt World  — This local competitor specializes in silk-screening. 70% of their business is silk-screening with the remaining 30% sublimation. They require a minimum order of 10 with a 2-3 week lead time. This company only uses pre-existing designs for their silk-screening and for sublimations you must use their artist.
• Shirt Shack  — This local retailer is geared toward organizations or teams with production runs of 20 or more. They do fairly good work but are rigid regarding custom work.
• Design House  — This is an Internet-based retailer that primarily offers computer sublimations. Design House has a catalog of approximately 200 images for the customer to choose from. They do allow customers to use their own graphic. The quality of the sublimations is mediocre at best because they can only use off the shelf technology.

Our mission is to offer the finest in custom shirt sublimation production. We will offer customers the best product at the best price. Customer’s expectations will always be exceeded.

Expectations

We are going to grow our business to start making a modest profit in year 3. Our name will become synonymous with high quality fashion forward T-Shirts. Everyone will come to us when they want to wear something custom made. We will be able to pay off friends and family by year 5. 

Financial Highlights by Year

Financing needed.

We will be getting a total of $84,500. David will be contributing $19,500 of his own money. We have a loan of $65,000 which will be fully paid by year 5. We will make a small profit starting year 3 and will consider taking on more staff by year 4 or 5 after we pay off the loan completely. 

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How to write the business plan for a t-shirt company

Starting a t-shirt company or growing an existing one requires more than just a great idea. It requires careful planning and the right resources to ensure success.

In this guide, we will cover why you need to write a business plan for your t-shirt company, what information should be included in the plan, what tools can help you create your business plan and finally, what the final document should look like.

By following these steps you’ll have all the tools necessary to make sure that your new t-shirt venture has everything it needs to succeed!

On the menu:

Why write a business plan for a t-shirt company?

Information needed to create a business plan for a t-shirt company, how do i build a financial forecast for a t-shirt company, the written part of a t-shirt business plan, what tool should i use to write my t-shirt company's business plan.

There are several reasons to write a t-shirt business plan. Below, we cover some of the most important ones!

To draw up a roadmap

Writing a business plan for a t-shirt company can be an invaluable tool for entrepreneurs looking to launch or grow their businesses. It provides the ability to set objectives and goals that can help guide decision-making over the next 3 to 5 years, which is essential for success.

This type of planning is especially important in today’s competitive market, where businesses must continually adapt and innovate to stay ahead of the competition.

A well-crafted business plan can provide existing t-shirt companies with an opportunity to review their current strategies and make adjustments as needed, while also helping new startups get off on the right foot from day one.

To compare forecasted and actual financial performance

Business planning also enables you to compare financial performance against what was initially expected in the financial forecast of your t-shirt company business plan, giving you the ability to make adjustments if needed and recalibrate financial forecasts in the future.

This kind of foresight helps mitigate risks associated with running the t-shirt company and sets it up for success in the long run.

To help secure financing from investors and banks

Writing a business plan for a t-shirt company is essential when looking to secure financing from an equity investor (or a bank).

An attractive business plan will demonstrate the potential of your t-shirt company and its ability to generate returns on investment.

Investors (and lenders) need to see evidence that the company can achieve healthy growth, profitability, and cash generation for them to invest in it. They will also use figures to compute key ratios and metrics.

Therefore, having a well-written business plan with a comprehensive financial forecast is key to attracting investors and ensuring you have access to much-needed capital.

Now that we have discussed why it is important to write a business plan for a t-shirt company, let's move on to the information needed to create one.

Create your t-shirt business plan online!

Think your t-shirt business could be profitable? Find out how with a business plan!

Writing a t-shirt business plan requires research so that you can project sales, investments and cost accurately in your financial forecast.

In this section, we cover three key pieces of information you should gather before drafting your plan!

Carrying out market research for a t-shirt company

Conducting market research is essential before writing a t-shirt company business plan.

It provides you with an opportunity to understand your target market and gain valuable insights into customer needs and preferences.

This information can then be used to accurately forecast revenues in the business plan, giving investors confidence in the viability of the venture.

Moreover, having a thorough understanding of the competitive landscape helps you develop strategies that will give you an edge over competitors.

Ultimately, carrying out market research before writing a business plan for a t-shirt company can help ensure success down the line.

Developing the marketing plan for a t-shirt company

Creating a well-defined marketing plan for a t-shirt company is a crucial step in writing a business plan.

It is essential to determine the right budget for both sales and marketing expenditures (such as promotions and advertising), as this will be included in the overall financial forecast.

As such, it is important to thoroughly assess the resources available and allocate funds accordingly.

The staffing and equipment needs of a t-shirt company

It is essential to think about the recruitment and investment plans before drafting your business plan, as this will ensure that the actions planned are realistic and achievable.

The exact number of people and equipment required to deliver your business plan will depend on whether you are manufacturing the t-shirts yourself or outsourcing production to suppliers, how you handle the logistic (do you own a fleet of trucks and warehouses, or do you outsource this part of the value chain), and how you intend to distribute your goods (owned stores, online sales, network of retailers, etc.).

Be sure to factor the costs associated with hiring staff, such as salaries, health benefits, recruitment and training costs, etc. And the multiple options available to you to secure equipment (buy vs. lease or rent, etc.).

Additionally, funds will need to be allocated for the t-shirt business setup and other capital expenses.

Now, let's look at how the financial forecast for a t-shirt company would look like.

A financial forecast for a t-shirt company usually includes a P&L (profit and loss) statement, a balance sheet, a cash flow statement, and sources and uses table.

Let's take a look at these in more detail!

The projected P&L statement

The projected P&L statement of a t-shirt company shows forecasted revenues, expenses and estimates how profitable the business will be in the future.

The projected balance sheet of your t-shirt company

A balance sheet is a financial report that summarizes the assets, liabilities, and equity of a business at a specific point in time.

This document provides lenders, investors, and business owners an insight into the company's financial health and overall solvency.

It allows you regularly assess your balance sheet to ensure that your company is not overleveraged, identify levers to optimize working capital, and help plan for future investments.

The balance sheet also allows lenders to review the company's assets, to assess what could be used as collateral for any loans taken out and to help assess your company's borrowing capacity.

The projected cash flow statement

A projected cash flow statement for a t-shirt company shows how much money the company will generate, and how much it will consume.

This give you the visibility required to you ensure that the business has enough cash on balance sheet to honour your financial commitments.

The cash flow forecast also helps you decide whether or not to you have the cash and cash flow required to plan the expansion of the business.

For a t-shirt company, expansion could be new distribution channels, locations (new markets) and/or expanding the product line (different types of t-shirts or clothes) or manufacturing capabilities.

The initial financing plan

An initial financing plan, also known as a sources and uses table, is a helpful tool which shows how you will finance the creation (or expansion) of your t-shirt company.

Knowing exactly where the money will go helps investors or lenders assess how the risk is split between financiers and the founding team.

Now that you understand the financial forecast of a t-shirt company, it is important to consider how these figures are reflected in the written part of your business plan.

The written part of a t-shirt company plan covers everything from the executive summary to the financial plan.

There are seven key sections that every good business plan should have. In the following sections, we cover them in detail.

1. The executive summary

When writing the executive summary of a t-shirt company business plan, it is important to include a comprehensive overview of the business venture and its goals.

This should include a description of the company’s core products, its target market, and any competitive advantages that the business may have.

Additionally, providing a market overview that details industry trends, customer needs and preferences, and competition is also essential for investors to understand the context in which your t-shirt company operates.

Key financial information such as projected revenues, expenses, and profits should also be included in the executive summary to give investors an idea of the potential return on their investment.

Finally, it is important to include a clear call-to-action that explains what type of help you are looking for from potential investors so they can make an informed decision about your company.

2. The presentation of the t-shirt company

A detailed business plan for a t-shirt company should include an overview of the company's structure and ownership, its location, and its management team.

Regarding structure and ownership, it is important to detail the legal entity of the company (for example, partnership or limited liability corporation). You should also explain who owns the company, including their background, experience, and any connections to the industry or customer base.

For the location section, pinpoint where the t-shirt company is based and why this location was chosen. Address any advantages of the particular area such as easy access to suppliers or customers.

Finally, describe the management team of your t-shirt company. This should include the expertise and background of each member, as well as their respective roles in the business. It is important to also outline any plans for growth or expansion of the team if that is part of your strategy.

3. The products and services section

When writing the products and services section, you should start by summarising the types of t-shirts that you offer.

This should include descriptions of different designs or styles, as well as details about fabrics used and any other features that make your t-shirts unique.

Additionally, explain how these products will be produced, whether it is through in-house production or outsourcing to a third-party manufacturer.

Lastly, you should provide details about customer service policies such as return policies and warranties offered on each product sold.

4. The market analysis

When presenting the conclusion of your market analysis in your business plan, you should include key information about demographics and segmentation, target market, competition, barriers at entry and regulation.

This information is essential for any bank or investor who will be reading the plan as it provides insight into the viability and the size of the market opportunity.

Demographics and segmentation provide important data on who is buying t-shirts and what motivates them to do so. The target market section should outline which segments are being targeted by your products.

Competition should also be addressed, with an analysis of direct competitors as well as potential indirect competitors.

Finally, regulations must be taken into account when laying out all aspects of operations including production methods, labelling requirements, etc.

5. The strategy section

The strategy section of a business plan must be comprehensive and should include details on pricing, marketing plan, milestones, risks and mitigants.

When explaining the pricing strategy for a t-shirt company, it is important to consider the cost of production, the competitive environment and market research to determine an appropriate price point that will attract customers and generate a sufficient gross profit.

The marketing plan should include a detailed strategy on how to effectively reach the target market such as through a network of owned physical stores, selected retailers, online sales.

Additionally, milestones and timelines that show a clear path of growth should be outlined (launch your business in 3 months and reach our break-even level of output in 6 months for example), as well as details on any risks and mitigants that might arise along the way.

6. The operations section

The operations section of a t-shirt company business plan should include comprehensive and detailed information about the staffing team, roles of staff members, recruitment plan, storage and logistics and key assets and intellectual property that the business needs to operate.

You should outline the roles and responsibilities of each employee in this section as well, including qualifications, experience and skill sets needed for each role. It is also important to include a recruitment plan that outlines how you will find new staff members if necessary.

Lastly, include a list of key assets and intellectual property that are necessary for the operation of the t-shirt company. These could include any assets that are owned or leased by the business, such as premises, machines, software, or trademarks.

7. The presentation of the financial plan

This is where you will present the financial forecast that we talked about earlier in this guide.

Now that you have a better understanding of what should be included in the content of your t-shirt business plan, it’s time to look at the tools that can help you create one.

You could create a t-shirt business plan using applications such as Excel or Word, hire a consultant or accountant to write it for you, or use online business plan software.

Let's look at the benefits and drawbacks of each solution.

Create your t-shirt company's business plan using Word or Excel

Using Excel and Word to create a business plan for a t-shirt company can be an attractive option because of its low cost.

However, without expert knowledge of accounting and financial modelling, it can be difficult for the business owner to accurately create a financial forecast using Excel.

Additionally, most financiers or investors would likely distrust such a forecast because it wouldn’t have been created by a professional software or individual with the relevant financial modelling skills.

Using Excel can also be time-consuming and tedious, while updates to the financial forecast are also difficult. And using Word requires starting from a blank page and spending hours formatting the document once written.

Overall, while using Excel and Word may seem like an attractive option due to their low cost, it is usually not the best solution for creating a t-shirt business plan.

Hire a consultant to write your t-shirt company's business plan

Outsourcing a t-shirt company plan to a consultant or accountant can be a smart idea for business owners, but it isn’t without its drawbacks.

One of the main benefits of outsourcing this task is that consultants and accountants are experienced in writing business plans.

This means they have the skills and knowledge to create accurate financial forecasts without errors.

However, there are some cons when it comes to outsourcing this task. Accountants may lack the industry expertise and insight necessary to forecast sales accurately, for example.

By outsourcing the business plan, entrepreneurs may also find they have less control over the end product than if they had written it themselves.

Hiring consultants or accountants to write a business plan is also expensive, and there may be additional unexpected costs if changes need to be made to your forecast later.

Use an online business plan software for your t-shirt company's business plan

Another alternative is to use online business plan software .

There are several advantages to using specialised software:

• You are guided through the writing process by detailed instructions and examples for each part of the plan 
• You can be inspired by already-written business plan templates and examples
• You can easily make your financial forecast by letting the software take care of the financial calculations for you
• You get a professional document, formatted and ready to be sent to your bank or investors
• You can easily compare your forecast against your accounting data to make sure you are on track to deliver your plan, or make adjustments if needed

If you're interested in using this type of solution, you can try our software for free by signing up here . 

We hope that this article has helped you to better understand how to write the business plan for your t-shirt company. Do not hesitate to contact us if you still have questions!

Also on The Business Plan Shop

• How to do market research for a clothing line
• How to create a financial forecast for a clothing line
• Clothes shop business plan template

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TShirt Business Plan

T-shirts are the go-to casual outfit for the majority of people out there. Apart from that, with the growing impact of social media and celebrity culture, printed merchandise like t-shirts with quotes and logos are in vogue.

The market for custom-made t-shirts is growing steadily too. And if you are creative and can print t-shirts that can help people stand out you might have thought of having your own t-shirt business.

If you are planning to start a new printed T-shirt Business, the first thing you will need is a business plan. Use our sample Print your t-shirt business plan created using Upmetrics business plan software to start writing your business plan in no time.

Before you start writing your business plan for your new t-shirt business, spend as much time as you can reading through some samples of Retail and Online Store Business Plans .

Industry Overview

The t-shirt industry stood at a market size of 3.64 billion dollars in 2020 and is expected to grow at a rapid rate.

The main reason for the growth in the t-shirt market is the use of t-shirts for branding by various businesses. It is also very popular with movie and web series enthusiasts who like to get t-shirts with their favorite dialogues and characters printed on them.

Apart from that, a few other trends in the t-shirt market show that the market is the biggest in the clothing industry.

Things to Consider Before Writing a T-shirt Business Plan

Pick a niche.

T-shirts are used for multiple purposes today. From branding to social awareness campaigns, to reflect the individual style, t-shirts serve multiple purposes.

Have a source of materials

People prefer quality over prices when it comes to buying specific merchandise. Also, forever t-shirts have had a connection with comfort. So, people want quality fabric t-shirts and can spot the quality decline almost instantly.

Create unique designs

Designer and printed t-shirts are in demand due to their unique and creative designs. Hence, it is essential to create designs that stand out for your business to flourish.

Keep your target audience in mind

T-shirt businesses are becoming more and more target-oriented and customer-focused these days. For your brand to work it is important to know who you are catering to.

Are you catering to marvel fans, fashionistas influenced by celebrity culture, fans of pop bands, people behind social causes, or even to an audience belonging to a specific personality type? You might have come across several “anti-social ain’t I so cool” t-shirts.

Chalking Out Your Business Plan

Reading sample business plans will give you a good idea of what you’re aiming for. It will also show you the different sections that different entrepreneurs include and the language they use to write about themselves and their business plans.

We have created this sample t-shirt Business Plan for you to get a good idea of what a perfect t-shirt business plan should look like and what details you need to include in your stunning business plan.

T-shirt Business Plan Outline

This is the standard t-shirt business plan outline which will cover all important sections that you should include in your business plan.

• Problem Definition & Validation
• Short-Term (1 -3 Years)
• Long Term (3-5 years)
• Mission Statement
• Keys to Success
• 3 Year profit forecast
• Company Ownership/Legal Entity
• Interior Operating Facilities & Equipment
• Hours of Operation
• Start-up Summary
• Range of Products
• Market Analysis
• Business Target
• Product Pricing
• Competitive Advantage
• SWOT analysis
• Distribution Strategy
• Marketing and Promotions Strategy
• Positioning Statement
• Pricing Strategy
• Online Channels
• Offline Channels
• Organization chart
• Management Team
• Hiring plan
• Print Your Tee
• Important Assumptions
• Brake-even Analysis
• Projected Profit and Loss
• Profit Yearly
• Projected Cash Flow
• Projected Balance Sheet
• Business Ratios

After getting started with Upmetrics , you can copy this sample t-shirt business plan into your business plan and modify the required information and  download your t-shirt business plan pdf or doc file.

It’s the fastest and easiest way to start writing your business plan.

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We have plenty of  free business planning resources  available to help you with your planning. You can download our resources to learn all about business planning.

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T-Shirt Business Plan Template

T-shirt business plan.

You’ve come to the right place to create your T-shirt business plan.

We have helped over 10,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans and many have used them to start or grow their t-shirt companies.

Below is a template to help you create each section of your T-shirt business plan.

Executive Summary

Business overview.

Comfy Style Tees is a startup T-shirt company located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The company is founded by Scott Smith and Mike Anderson. Scott Smith is an established graphic artist who will be creating the designs for the company’s T-shirts. Mike Anderson is a graduate of Pennsylvania University with a Master’s degree in Marketing. Together, the pair is ready to open their own T-Shirt business, Comfy Style Tees. Scott has been creating unique graphic art for over a decade and has gained a substantial following as an artist on social media. Mike has been a marketing director for another T-shirt business for over five years. He is confident that his marketing and sales skills will allow the company to quickly gain new customers who are interested in purchasing apparel featuring Scott’s artwork. The duo plans to hire a small team of professionals to manage the day-to-day complexities of running a retail business including accounting, customer service, sales, and inventory management.

Comfy Style Tees will offer comfortable T-shirts made from premium 100% cotton. Each T-shirt will feature artwork printed using a direct-to-garment (DTG) printing method that allows for Scott’s detailed and colorful designs to come to life. Comfy Style Tees will create and sell limited edition T-Shirts in small batches.

Product Offering

The following are the products that Comfy Style Tees will provide:

• Men’s T-shirts
• Women’s T-shirts
• Children’s T-shirts
• Toddler’s T-shirts
• Pet T-shirts for dogs and cats

Customer Focus

Comfy Style Tees will target people of all ages and genders who value wearing unique T-shirt designs that can’t be found off the rack. The company will target men, women, children, and people with dogs and cats. Comfy Style Tees will target fans of Scott’s artwork as well as individuals that are unfamiliar with it. No matter the customer, Comfy Style Tees will deliver the best communication, service, and high quality products.

Management Team

Comfy Style Tees will be owned and operated by Scott Smith and Mike Anderson. Scott Smith is an established graphic artist who will be creating the designs for the company’s T-shirts. Mike Anderson is a graduate of Pennsylvania University with a Master’s degree in Marketing.

Scott Smith has been creating unique graphic art for over a decade and has gained a substantial following as an artist on social media. Mike Anderson has been a marketing director for another T-shirt business for over five years. He is confident that his marketing and sales skills will allow the company to quickly gain new customers who are interested in purchasing apparel featuring Scott’s artwork.

Success Factors

Comfy Style Tees will be able to achieve success by offering the following competitive advantages:

• The most flexibility in the customers’ shopping experience: customers can order online for delivery or in-store pickup, come into the physical store and shop, and return items through the mail or in-store no matter which method they purchased them through.
• All tees are carefully printed using the latest DTG printing machines and meticulously inspected to ensure quality.
• Comfy Style Tees doesn’t sell to other retailers or white label its products, so if a customer wants an authentic Comfy Styles Tees product, they know they will be able to get it exclusively from the shop or the online store.

Financial Highlights

Comfy Style Tees is seeking $120,000 in debt financing to launch its T-shirt business. The funding will be dedicated towards securing the retail space and purchasing DTG printing equipment and supplies. Funding will also be dedicated towards three months of overhead costs to include payroll, rent, and marketing expenses. The breakout of the funding is below:

• Retail space build-out: $30,000
• DTG printing equipment, supplies, and materials: $30,000
• Three months of overhead expenses (payroll, rent, utilities): $40,000
• Marketing costs: $10,000
• Working capital: $10,000

The following graph below outlines the pro forma financial projections for Comfy Style Tees.

Company Overview

Who is comfy style tees.

Comfy Style Tees is a newly established boutique T-shirt shop in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Comfy Style Tees will offer the most fun, unique, and stylish tees around. Comfy Style Tees will provide a wide range of sizes for adults, children, and pets. Customers can purchase the one-of-a-kind Scott Smith designs online or in-store. T-shirts are DTG printed in small batches and each unique design is offered for a limited time only, so customers who want a particular design will need to act fast before they are sold out.

Comfy Style Tees will be able to provide the best customer service through its friendly and knowledgeable in-store associates and its use of the latest AI technology for online support. The management team is composed of professionals who are highly qualified and experienced in customer service, marketing, and operations. This strong management team allows Comfy Style Tees to serve all customers with attention and care, removing all headaches from the shopping experience.

Comfy Style Tees History

Comfy Style Tees is owned and operated by Scott Smith and Mike Anderson. Scott has been creating unique graphic art for over a decade and has gained a substantial following as an artist on social media. Mike has been a marketing director for another T-shirt business for over five years. He is confident that his marketing and sales skills will allow the company to quickly gain new customers.

Since incorporation, Comfy Style Tees has achieved the following milestones:

• Registered Comfy Style Tees, LLC to transact business in the state of Pennsylvania.
• Has a contract in place to lease the retail space.
• Reached out to numerous potential suppliers to get samples and quotes for their wholesale garments that will become the company’s DTG printed T-shirts.
• Began recruiting a staff of accountants, marketers, and sales associates to work at Comfy Style Tees.

Comfy Style Tees Services

Industry analysis.

The global T-shirt market size was an estimated $206B in 2018 and is anticipated to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.0% by 2027. In the United States, the T-shirt market reached an estimated $43.47B in 2022 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 3.9% by 2026. The market for T-shirts can be segmented by materials and printing techniques. Most T-shirts that sell well are made from cotton, polyester, linen, rayon, lycra, or a blend of these fabrics. Two of the most popular printing techniques are screen-printing (estimated revenue share of 56% in 2021) and digital printing, which is expected to grow by 10.9% by 2030.

Over the years, the T-shirt industry has evolved from practical, plain white tees to designer labels, custom designs, and graphic prints. The market outlook for the T-shirt industry is positive with increased ecommerce and more people looking for unique styles. Although online shopping is increasing, more revenue is still currently being generated through physical retail. The top five countries generating the most revenue from T-shirt sales are China, the United States, India, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

Customer Analysis

Demographic profile of target market.

Comfy Style Tees will target people of all ages and genders who value wearing unique T-shirt designs that can’t be found off the rack. The company will target men, women, children, and people with dogs and cats.

The precise demographics for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania are:

Customer Segmentation

Comfy Style Tees will primarily target the following customer profiles:

• Young adults (ages 18-29)
• Men and women (ages 30-45)
• Men and women (ages 46+)
• Children (ages 4-17)
• Toddlers (ages 0-3)
• People looking for stylish T-shirts for their dogs and cats

Competitive Analysis

Direct and indirect competitors.

Comfy Style Tees will face competition from other companies with similar business profiles. A description of each competitor company is below.

Simple Tee, LLC

Simple Tee, LLC provides comfortable T-shirts at affordable prices. Located in Philadelphia, the Simple Tee retail shop is able to provide a wide selection of custom tees for its customers. The company makes form-fitting T-shirts for men, women, and children using 100% premium cotton and cotton blends. Simple Tee, LLC uses screen-printing technology to produce quality T-shirts to suit any style.

Simple Tee, LLC’s promise is to deliver top notch customer service, quality products, and great prices. The company’s team checks each T-shirt to ensure the highest quality before placing it on the sales floor. Simple Tee also sells its tees online and wholesale to other retailers.

Cool Trends T-Shirts

Cool Trends T-Shirts is an Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based apparel company that provides outstanding customer service and fun art prints on all of its T-shirts. Cool Trends T-Shirts uses screen-printing and digital printing technology to make its one-of-a-kind tees. The company makes tees for young adults, children, and toddlers. You can buy Cool Trends T-Shirts through its online Shopify store. Cool Trends T-Shirts does not have a physical store, which saves the company money. These savings are passed on to the customers in the form of deep discounts on all Cool Trends products.

Dezyned T-Shirt Co.

Dezyned T-Shirt Co. is a trusted Philadelphia T-shirt company that provides superior service to customers at all three of its retail locations in Pennsylvania. The company makes its own DTG printed tees for the whole family. Dezyned T-Shirt Co. is able to provide unique tees designed by its founder and artist in residence, Alice Johnson. The company’s tees are priced in the high-end because they are made from premium cotton and printed in small batches, with Alice’s unique designs feature on each one.

Competitive Advantage

Comfy Style Tees will be able to offer the following advantages over their competition:

Marketing Plan

Brand & value proposition.

Comfy Style Tees will offer the unique value proposition to its clientele:

• All tees are made from 100% premium cotton, carefully printed using the latest DTG printing machines, and meticulously inspected to ensure quality.
• Comfy Style Tees offers unique pieces that can’t be found anywhere else.

Promotions Strategy

The promotions strategy for Comfy Style Tees is as follows:

Social Media/Referrals

Scott Smith has built up an extensive social media following of fans that love his artwork. Once Scott advised them he is going to be creating his own T-shirt business, many have signed up to receive updates on the new line and have opted to refer a friend for a promotional discount. As more friends are referred, the potential customer base continues to grow.

Print Advertising

Comfy Style Tees will invest in professionally designed print ads to display in magazines, flyers, and direct mailers.

Website/SEO Marketing

Comfy Style Tees will use an online platform like Shopify for its website and  ecommerce store. The website will be well organized, informative, and list all the products available. As marketing director, Mike Anderson will also manage Comfy Style Tees’s website presence with SEO marketing tactics so that when  someone types in the search engine “unique T-shirts in Philadelphia” or “T-shirt store near me”, Comfy Style Tees will be listed at the top of the search results.

The pricing of Comfy Style Tees will be competitive to premium, so customers feel they receive value when purchasing the high quality T-shirts.

Operations Plan

The following will be the operations plan for Comfy Style Tees.

Operation Functions:

• Scott Smith will be the Owner and Designer. He will oversee the design and printing process and manage all supplier relations. Scott has spent the past year recruiting the following staff:
• Mike Anderson – Marketing Director who will provide all marketing and sales initiatives for the company including managing the website, social media, and online marketing.
• Kate Johnson – Bookkeeper who will provide all budgeting, accounting, tax payments, and monthly financial reporting.
• Sam Lee – Lead Sales Manager who will manage all sales associates activities and schedules as well as oversee the day-to-day operations of the sales floor.

Milestones:

Comfy Style Tees will have the following milestones complete in the next six months.

9/1/2022 – Finalize contract to lease the retail space.

9/15/2022 – Finalize personnel and staff employment contracts for the management team.

10/1/2022 – Finalize contracts for suppliers.

10/15/2022 – Begin the marketing campaign.

10/22/2022 – Begin printing the first limited edition batch of tees.

11/1/2022 – Comfy Style Tees opens its store for business.

Comfy Style Tees will be owned and operated by Scott Smith and Mike Anderson. Scott Smith is a graphic artist who will be creating the designs for the company’s T-shirts. Mike Anderson is a graduate of Pennsylvania University with a Master’s degree in Marketing.

Scott Smith has been creating unique graphic artwork for over a decade and has gained a substantial following on social media. Mike Anderson has been a marketing director for another T-shirt business for over five years. He is confident that his marketing and sales skills will allow the company to quickly gain new customers who are interested in purchasing apparel featuring Scott’s artwork.

Financial Plan

Key revenue & costs.

The revenue drivers for Comfy Style Tees are the fees the company will charge customers for the T-shirts. The price range for Comfy Style Tees is $35-$375.

The cost drivers will be the payroll cost, DTG printing cost, and the cost of the T-shirts themselves. Other expenses will be rent, utilities, supplies, and marketing materials.

Funding Requirements and Use of Funds

Key assumptions.

The following outlines the key assumptions required in order to achieve the revenue and cost numbers in the financials and in order to pay off the startup business loan.

• Average number of T-shirts sold per month: 750
• Average revenue per month: $10,000
• Retail space lease per year: $60,000

Financial Projections

Income statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement, t-shirt business plan faqs, what is a t-shirt business plan.

A t-shirt business plan is a plan to start and/or grow your t-shirt business. Among other things, it outlines your business concept, identifies your target customers, presents your marketing plan and details your financial projections.

You can  easily complete your t-shirt business plan using our T-Shirt Business Plan Template here .

What are the Main Types of T-Shirt Businesses?

There are a number of different kinds of t-shirt businesses, some examples include: Women’s T-Shirt Business, Men’s T-Shirt Business, Unisex T-Shirt Business, and Children’s T-Shirt Business.

How Do You Get Funding for Your T-Shirt Business Plan?

T-Shirt businesses are often funded through small business loans. Personal savings, credit card financing and angel investors are also popular forms of funding.

What are the Steps To Start a T-Shirt Business?

Starting a T-shirt business can be an exciting endeavor. Having a clear roadmap of the steps to start a business will help you stay focused on your goals and get started faster.

1. Develop A T-Shirt Business Plan - The first step in starting a business is to create a detailed T-shirt business plan that outlines all aspects of the venture. This should include potential market size and target customers, the services or products you will offer, pricing strategies and a detailed financial forecast.  

2. Choose Your Legal Structure - It's important to select an appropriate legal entity for your T-shirt business. This could be a limited liability company (LLC), corporation, partnership, or sole proprietorship. Each type has its own benefits and drawbacks so it’s important to do research and choose wisely so that your T-shirt business is in compliance with local laws.

3. Register Your T-Shirt Business - Once you have chosen a legal structure, the next step is to register your T-shirt business with the government or state where you’re operating from. This includes obtaining licenses and permits as required by federal, state, and local laws. 

4. Identify Financing Options - It’s likely that you’ll need some capital to start your T-shirt business, so take some time to identify what financing options are available such as bank loans, investor funding, grants, or crowdfunding platforms. 

5. Choose a Location - Whether you plan on operating out of a physical location or not, you should always have an idea of where you’ll be based should it become necessary in the future as well as what kind of space would be suitable for your operations. 

6. Hire Employees - There are several ways to find qualified employees including job boards like LinkedIn or Indeed as well as hiring agencies if needed – depending on what type of employees you need it might also be more effective to reach out directly through networking events. 

7. Acquire Necessary T-Shirt Equipment & Supplies - In order to start your T-shirt business, you'll need to purchase all of the necessary equipment and supplies to run a successful operation. 

8. Market & Promote Your Business - Once you have all the necessary pieces in place, it’s time to start promoting and marketing your T-shirt business. This includes creating a website, utilizing social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter, and having an effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy. You should also consider traditional marketing techniques such as radio or print advertising. 

Learn more about how to start a successful T-shirt business:

• How to Start a T-Shirt Business

Other Helpful Business Plan Templates

Ecommerce Business Plan Template Clothing Store Business Plan Template Retail Business Plan Template

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Printing Business Guide

How to Start Custom Tshirt Printing Business – Step-by-Step Guide

Maulik shah, table of content, step 1: create a business plan, step 2: decide on the ecommerce solution for your web store, step 3: purchase an online product designer tool, step 4: make your design tool feature-rich, step 5: select the t-shirt printing method you will use, step 6: select the right t-shirt supplier, step 7. set up the printing infrastructure, step 8: set up logistics infrastructure, step 9: launch your store, step 10: marketing your store, to conclude.

Did you know?

The custom t-shirt printing market is booming!

The market was worth US$ 3,579.1 Mn in 2022 and is projected to grow even more, exceeding US$ 9,009.3 Mn by 2031.

That’s a massive compound annual growth rate of almost 7% from 2020 to 2025!

What’s even more impressive is that the global custom t-shirt printing market was valued at $4,867.35 million in 2021, and it’s estimated to generate a revenue of $10,366.26 million by 2030.

That’s a remarkable CAGR of 9.12% .

It’s clear that more and more people are getting into the trend of custom t-shirts, and businesses are taking notice.

This also indicates that there is a lot of money to be made in this industry.

But with so many factors to consider, such as choosing the right equipment, finding the perfect niche, and setting up your online store, getting started can be overwhelming.

That’s why we’ve put together this step-by-step guide on how to start t-shirt printing business with confidence and ease.

So, let’s dive in!

To become successful with any business, it is important to have a robust business plan for t-shirt business. when it comes to the t-shirt printing industry, you must remember that it has a wide range of audiences based on their choice of quality, design, and style.

A. Identify the market niche

There are two major ways to segment the market

• Based on the needs of the customers
• Based on the age of the customers. if you want to cater a wider audience you need to target multilingual audience and for that you can learn different Duolingo languages and print on the t-shirts in different languages

Niche Market Ideas for Your T-shirt Store

In order to identify the market niche, make sure you ask yourself the following questions:

• Will you sell printed t-shirts to infants and toddlers or youth, teens and adults?
• Will your customers have the liberty to design their own t-shirts or you will have a fixed range of designs to choose from?
• Will you be targeting a niche within different age groups? For eg, Printed rock band t-shirts for teens or printed sport t-shirts for adults.
• Will the fashion and quality of the printed t-shirts meet the current market trends?
• What is the budget of your target customer? What is the price point that they are willing to pay for your t-shirts?

Some extra tips to identify niche:

• Plug in some keywords related to your niche, add targeted countries and see which words and phrases get suggested. Further, narrow down the suggestions by monthly search volume, competition level, and suggested bid.
• For search volume, go for 1K-10K per month. Any less than this probably means there’s not much room for it.
• With competition you get ideas about your competitors, and with suggested big you can get the idea of a high level of commercial intent.

Set up your t-shirt store with an added USP for Customization

Once the industry and market research is done, you need to write the business plan. While creating a custom printed t-shirt plan you need to mull over things like:

• The mission of your company – which can involve offering high quality printed t-shirts at cost-effective prices
• Will you create the basic templates and design or purchase pre-made designs?
• Things to expect from yourself, management team and other staff members
• Know where you will obtain your raw materials from. Will you have a fixed vendor or you will be buying plain t-shirts from a particular brand?
• Create marketing ideas based on marketing analysis by making use of events, social media, fairs, conventions etc… You can also use social media scheduler for better productivity by scheduling your social content in advance to make social media activities easy.
• Analyze the competition and know how will you make your brand stand out from other t-shirt companies
• Gather supporting documents like design samples, vendor agreements and statistical analysis of t-shirt printing business
• Obtain a license applicable to your location and type of business.

B. Consider the financial aspects

Before establishing a business like this, it is very important to have an idea as to what everything will cost you. If you are an entrepreneur who thinks in a long run, your financial strategy should include the following:

• Projected expenses and assumptions of fixed and varying costs
• Costs of investment
• Revenues goals and revenue resources
• Break-even analysis
• Business ratios including inventory turnover, accounts payable and debt ratio
• Monthly profit or loss figures
• Annual gross margin

The main expenses that you would want to add would be:

You can get printing quotes from different t-shirt printing firms so that you can compare prices and give the best deal, without compromising on the quality. Once you work out on the above aspects, it will help you to decide about the prices you should quote for your t-shirts.

Starting your business in the upcoming year can be challenging because the world economy is at the verge of recession. So, you must take care of every minute details for launching a successful venture.

However, recession is also a good time to start because of availability of resources at cheaper rates. Thus, upcoming economic downfall can also help you in building penetration pricing strategy and sell quality pullovers at lower rates.

C. Don’t make these mistakes

If you have a robust business plan, you will undergo each step of the planning process. There are times when startups or entrepreneurs handling one-man businesses think that there is no need to have a business plan. However, this is not the right approach. Make sure you do not make the following mistakes.

• Not indulging into market research or having a profit and loss projection
• Not branding your business enough (Will elaborate this more later in the post)
• Not establishing a professional brand image with logo, theme and mission
• Commencing business before knowing how to accept and fill shipping orders
• Opening an online store without integrating a web-to-print software
• Not having enough t-shirt design templates, colour options and cliparts
• Lack of knowledge about the working of web to print software and its maintenance
• Not checking the quality of final output (printed t-shirts)
• Not taking into account the challenges that any business must know how to cope with

The second most important thing to do is to know about the ecommerce platforms you will be using for your t-shirt printing e-store. Here, you have two options:

A. Choosing a Hosted Platform

Shopify and Bigcommerce are the biggest examples of hosted platforms. The biggest benefit of using these platforms is that they have a very low startup cost. You can purchase a store, upload the logo of your brand, pick the theme you like and start selling printed t-shirts on the platform.

Hosted platforms are ideal for start ups and will get you up and running. The only drawback with these platforms is that you can’t have an individual design of your choice and cannot add other customized elements to your store. However, you can choose out of different plans and have a great looking store.

B. Having a Self-hosted Platform

You can also have a custom developed Ecommerce solution for your business. Needless to say, it will let you have your own design, provide with the liberty of making custom edits, give limitless options pertaining to SEO and will enable you to add products and set prices at your convenience.

Expensive start up cost is a drawback here. So if you have enough funds and are confident about your business’s bright future, you can consider having a self-hosted platform.

If you’re looking for a custom solution, Brush Your Ideas can be a good choice.

With a user-friendly interface, customizable design, and advanced features like social media integration and mobile responsiveness, it’s the perfect platform to help you succeed in the competitive world of online t-shirt sales.

There is nothing better than investing into an advanced product designer tool when you are into the business of selling customized t-shirts. You can make your online store stand out from others and add a dash of personal touch by allowing your customers to design their own t-shirt.

(Feature-rich and Easy-to Use Product Design Tool By Brush Your Ideas)

Initially, you can purchase an online t-shirt design tool that fulfills the basic requirements of your customers. Thereafter, if your business is doing well, you can enhance your web-to-print software and add new features to it. As your loyal customer base would be established by then, adding new features will help you to boost your revenue.

Thus, a web to print designer tool can make your offerings even more unique. This personalized experience can help you deliver a great customer experience.

Curious about how our web to print tshirt designer tool works?

Watch this video and see for yourself!

Have a look at a real life example of Rafasshop, a company providing printing on T-shirts for advertising. They were in search of a tool that allows their customers to customize the T-shirts without affecting loading time of their website.

Although they already had a running eCommerce store, our Product Designer Tool integrated with their existing store seamlessly. And it turned out to be a great investment for their business! Why?

Because they experienced a transformation in their business operations with the use of this tool. The user-friendly UI of our tool made it super easy for their customers to customize and place orders. Thus, without even promoting the tool and explaining its use cases they started receiving orders from their online stores.

They were able to reoptimize their entire pre-press process as they started receiving editable print ready files after their customers placed orders.

Now, imagine the customer base you can build for your t-shirt printing business, by providing such a distinct experience!

While designing t-shirts, people love to experiment with colours, designs and templates. So make sure you add an ample amount of features to your tool and make it user-friendly. It will help you to win in the online t-shirt business .

You can provide ready-made quotes, clipart, texts and fonts of different styles, graphics etc. Features like masking effects, shadows and overlapping can also be added to make their designs look interesting.

One major thing you should not miss out on is the graphics part. Because this product is all about offering visually appealing products that your customers can easily create.

Additionally, the tool allows customers to design both the front and back of the t-shirt and save their designs for later.

For an even more immersive experience, you can also integrate a 3D configurator.

The tool lets customers configure the t-shirt from scratch, choosing the pattern, fabric, and designs for each part of the shirt.

Plus, the 3D preview feature will give customers a clear idea of how their design will look, reducing the chances of purchase returns.

However, you can still have complete control over what they design as you can enable or disable the design areas as per your preference.

Hence, whatever the budget is, make sure that your tool has all the functionalities your customers would love.

Deliver a personalization experience beyond the expectations of your customer with Our 3D Configurator

After you are sorted with designs, it’s time to print! There are four commonly followed ways of printing t-shirts. All the four methods have their benefits and pitfalls. So the success of production depends on the amount of time you are willing to spend on the production and the printing method you use. Let us study the 4 popular printing methods in detail along with their drawbacks.

A. Screen Printing

When it comes to printing t-shirts in bulk, screen printing is one of the most popularly used methods. It also provides consistent printing and long lasting imprints. When there are more than four or five colours involved, it gets a little complicated for screen printing machines. So in such a scenario, it might take more time to print.

B. Heat transfer printing

This type of printing has been around for several years. Photocopy machines and laser printers work really well on the heat transfer phenomenon. It involves printing designs from your PC and transferring them with iron.

Heat transfer might prove to be a traditional method for handling a t-shirt printing business. This is because you have to print fast and in larger quantities.

Here’s a little brief about laser printers:

Laser printers are quite popular for providing prints that are quite long lasting and don’t get affected by wash. Also, the fabric retains its natural feel after it is printed. It doesn’t look like a design has been unnaturally embossed or printed on t-shirts.

If you want to have t-shirts that look professional and attractive, investing into a Laser printer would be a good thing to do. Plastisol transfer is the latest form of heat transfer. This kind of printing is implemented on high quality heat transfer paper.

You can order stacks or prints from a printer and apply them on the t-shirts as and when you receive orders for t-shirt printing. Through heat transfer, you will be able to print images quite quickly.

C. Direct-to-garment printing

This printer works like an inkjet printer and that is why there are no additional costs involved. It can print multiple coloured images directly on the t-shirts with perfection.

The results obtained from direct-to-garment printing are as good as the ones obtained from screen printing. Needless to say, it is way better than the quality produced by heat transfers.

Here’s a little brief about Inkjet Printers

Inkjet printers are quite cost-effective as compared to laser printers. Also, they give a bright and vibrant output. If you can accept a little less professional edge for low costs and brighter colour, Inkjet printer might be your way to go. The only drawback of this kind of printer is that their ink is a little expensive.

D. Embroidered printing

It is an ancient printing technique whose origins go back to the 5th century BC. Embroidered printing is one of the most unconventional ways of printing. This is because unlike other printing methods, it uses a sewing machine that sews the design in the t-shirt.

Lots of polo t-shirts are printed using this method. Embroidery printing is also used to create corporate t-shirts.

This kind of printing is still preferred by many as the design looks quite original, professional and elegant when printed on the t-shirt. It also lasts quite long and doesn’t come off easily.

Need help in setting up your store with a t-shirt designer tool? Visit the tool page to know more about it.

You can also get in touch with our technical team to know everything about it.

Once you have decided to venture into the T-shirt printing business , you need to buy blank T-shirts for printing. Do a little bit of research and find out about a manufacturer who can provide you with good quality blank t-shirts for printing.

Garment distributors also help the new business owners to go through different T-shirt options to find the t-shirts within their price range. After a couple of orders and production, you will be able to decide on the price points and other factors for your t-shirts.

Here are a couple of things you should remember:

• The quality of the product. If a pattern fades or cracks, or a t- shirt shrinks, or rips, fans won’t come back for repurchase.
• Focus on the material of the blanket-shirt, printing technique , and prepare your design file.

Make sure you maintain a good relationship with your supplier as you lose time and money from your production schedule with every imperfect shirt.

Think about the physical characteristics of the material you will use to print. T-shirt designs have to be printed on one of the three sizes. (Small, medium and large).

The design should be such that it fits to the centre of the t-shirts and should not cross to the collar, sleeves or hem. So if the design is created at different places on the t-shirt, it should remain abstract and not get affected by these variables.

There is a huge variety of ink available in the market. These include high density ink (meant for textured and dimensional look), gel ink (which is thick and rubbery) and foil ink (meant for shiny embossing). You can choose the one which is most compatible with your fabric and goes with your customer requirements.

Once you are done deciding the type of printing method and t-shirt printing material, you need to set up a printing infrastructure or a facility wherein printing can take place without any glitches.

It is advisable to have a printing studio which is equipped with well-maintained printers along with a coating and a finishing unit.

Also, the printer should be able to print a number of designs on different quality fabrics. This is because the customers who demand for printed t-shirts also might demand for customized caps, bags, jerseys etc. Here’s how you should go about the printing process:

• Decide on the colour schemes : If you decide on your color palette first, you can take care of the details which are overlooked by the time it is too late. When working on an apparel order from scratch, it doesn’t matter whether you pick the garment first or the ink. But there definitely is a link between the two which will be visible in the final print. So you can simulate different inks and check garment color combinations by making mock-ups designs.
• Save a copy for yourself and another for print : Once you have received the final design from your customers, you need to save an editable file for yourself, so that changes can be made later if need be. If there are issues in your printer due to the size or resolution of the file, you might have to go back and make changes or ask your customer to do the same. In a worst case scenario, they might have to start from scratch.
• Print the t-shirt : Last but not the least, you can print the t-shirt using whichever method you are comfortable with using the printer of your choice. It is better to hire professionals to do the job if you are not comfortable with the printing process. After printing the t-shirt you have to cure the garment and set the ink in the tshirts to ensure maximum washability.

Once the t-shirt order is placed by your customers, it has to be delivered to them on time. You can ensure a smooth delivery process in 3 ways:

• You can take care of your orders independently with the help of your team and labour force.
• Sell your product through the drop-shipper who can take care of your orders.
• Liaise with a logistics company that can take care of your warehousing and fulfillment.

There are several advantages of packing and shipping your own t-shirt orders as it is cost-effective and flexible. So the companies that have just started with their business often choose to take care of their own logistics.

However, if your business flourishes and you have money to outsource, you can opt for third-party warehousing. You will be able to find several companies who will take care of storage, packing and shipping of your orders.

Last but not the least, you can finally start selling some t-shirts! Invite your customers to unleash their creativity and encourage them to draw the designs to the best of their abilities. Ensure that the designer tool is user friendly and the checkout process is simple. This will lessen the number of cart abandonments. Print the right designs on the right t-shirts and bring a satisfactory smile on the face of your customers.

If you are serious about setting up an online t-shirt printing store, you don’t have to have the knowledge of programming or coding. All you need as an artistic streak and a good sense of fashion. Also, with a business like this, you can start with limited supplies, funding and equipment. There are several companies out there that can provide you with a ready made set up for your online t-shirt printing business . Are you ready to print?

Start marketing about your upcoming businesses through flyers, pamphlets and business cards with QR Code . Hand them out to nearest organizations, businesses and schools.

• Word of mouth promotion is also very important if you want the message about your printing business to spread amongst the locals.
• The right branding can establish your business as a trustworthy leader in your space. For that your logo and website will often be the first thing new customers browse for T-shirts. Hence, make sure to make a good impression.
• Wear your merchandise and step out. Click pictures, talk to people and put them on instagram. It makes a lot of difference.
• You can also give away printed t-shirts bearing the logo of your company. Don’t be hesitant to sponsor events, give online ads and use other paid marketing tactics.
• Conduct online polls and surveys on these channels and post consistently to get people to follow you.

Enable t-shirt customization in your store to attract and engage your customers for 2X business

growth! Understand how it works for your business here.

According to the latest statistics, eCommerce sales are likely to surpass $740 billion by 2023. With more businesses getting online, competition is getting stiffer.

The above steps might provide a detailed guide on how to start t-shirt printing business, but they can’t guarantee a successful venture.

To stay ahead of others, you have to take all your business constraints into consideration – get the right vendors for web-to-print solutions , printing machines and t-shirts. You will also have to figure out the most cost effective way to get the t-shirts printed and delivered to your customers. And once all those are in place you have to figure out a winning marketing strategy to get more traffic. But if you do all these right, then there’s no stopping you from achieving success.

All product and company names are trademarks™, registered® or copyright© trademarks of their respective holders. Use of them does not imply any affiliation with or endorsement by them.

Is T-shirt printing business profitable?

With the global demand for custom t-shirt printing expected to hit 10 billion USD by 2025 , starting a well planned custom T-shirt printing business is for sure a profitable idea.

What tools are needed to start a Tshirt business?

To make your Tshirt Business stand out you need following tools:

• All the required tools for printing: heat press, printers, cutter, emulsion, transfer paper, inks and dryer
• eCommerce Store to sell your products
• T-Shirt Designer Tool for offering customization

Can my customers design their own Tshirts on my website?

Yes, with the help of a T-Shirt Designer Tool your customers can personalize t-shirts on their own.

Can I customize the BYI T-shirt design tool according to my branding guidelines?

Yes, our team of experts will personalize the tool and design it specifically as per your business requirements.

Can I integrate the BYI T-shirt design tool on Shopify?

Yes, our tool can be seamlessly integrated with any eCommerce platform including Shopify.

How much does the BYI T-shirt design tool cost?

Charges of the tool depend upon the unique needs of your business. Take a personalized free demo now to know more.

After the huge success of Biztech’s other products, founder Maulik Shah ventured out to make a web-to-print software solution, and thus, Brush Your Ideas was born. His visionary ideas and innovative power have always been the cornerstone of the success of the company at every step. Maulik enjoys bird watching, playing cricket and is an avid reader.

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T-Shirt Business Plan Template [Updated 2023]

T-Shirt Business Plan Template

If you want to start a T-Shirt company or expand your current T-Shirt business, you need a business plan.

The following T-Shirt business plan template gives you the key elements to include in a winning T-Shirt company business plan.

You can download our T-Shirt Business Plan Template (including a full, customizable financial model) to your computer here.

Below are links to each of the key sections of your T-Shirt printing business plan: T-Shirt Business Plan Home I. Executive Summary II. Company Overview III. Industry Analysis IV. Customer Analysis V. Competitive Analysis VI. Marketing Plan VII. Operations Plan VIII. Management Team IX. Financial Plan

Click below to see each section of our free tshirt business plan template. You can also click here to get our t-shirt business plan pdf.

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T-Shirt Business Plan Home I. Executive Summary II. Company Overview III. Industry Analysis IV. Customer Analysis V. Competitive Analysis VI. Marketing Plan VII. Operations Plan VIII. Management Team IX. Financial Plan

How To Start A T-Shirt Business (2023 Guide)

Reviewed By

Updated: Mar 6, 2023, 5:22am

Table of Contents

Step 1. make a plan, step 2. register your t-shirt business, step 3. find the right production method, step 4. create unique designs, step 5. choose your sales channels, step 6. build your website, step 7. market your t-shirt business, frequently asked questions.

There are more ways than ever to start a business that also gives you a creative outlet. Selling T-shirts with your art, words or anything else printed on them is a great way to exercise your creativity and make money. A T-shirt business can make you a small profit on every unit you sell, which can add up to a great source of extra income. Learn how to start a t-shirt business with our simple guide. We’ll help you start your new side gig or full-time t-shirt career in just a few easy steps.

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Before starting to sell T-shirts, you have to make a plan to help guide your actions toward success. Follow these seven steps to sketch out a path forward for your business, but don’t worry if you don’t have all the details yet. You just need to have an idea of where you’re headed so that everything flows smoothly once you get started.

First and foremost, you’ll need to pick a name for your business. Whether it’s just your name or something different, that will guide your process of creating a logo, business cards, a website and other branded assets.

Once you’ve chosen a name, you can register a domain so that when setting up your website you’ll be all set to link it with your brand. Shopify and Etsy are popular options for selling T-shirts online, but if you want to build your own custom website, you should get started quickly so your website is ready to launch with your products.

Whether you intend for your new venture to be a side hustle or full time, you should register your business as a sole proprietorship or an LLC . Registering as an LLC will give your business more tax benefits. You’ll also be able to buy blank T-shirts at cost with your EIN (as opposed to your personal SSN).

It can cost anywhere from $50 to $100 to register with your state. You should also familiarize yourself with your state’s legal requirements for small businesses and make sure everything’s in order.

If it’s too large a time commitment to go through the process of setting up your business, you can pay an LLC service to set it up for you. Investing in this service and saving your time will give you space to focus on the creative aspects of your business.

Start an LLC Online Today With ZenBusiness

Click on the state below to get started.

There are a variety of ways to produce printed T-shirts for people of all skill and knowledge levels.

If you’re committed to working with materials yourself, you can purchase screen printing equipment for your home or office. This gives you a great measure of control over the quality of the art and designs printed on the shirts, and if you enjoy creating social media content people love to watch creations take shape on TikTok and Instagram. The upfront cost of these machines will be high, but then you will have higher profit margins since you’ll only have to pay upkeep costs.

It’s also very easy to find local businesses that provide screen printing services for you. This means you’d have to take on the cost of paying these vendors as a part of your initial budget. However, a local service, or a company that’s far away but with whom you have a good relationship, will also be good for keeping an eye on quality control.

There are also print-on-demand services that are very reliable if you want to get started immediately. Services like Printful and Printify have fast turnaround times and allow you to sell as many products as possible without assuming the cost of any unsold products. However, the profit margins for these products are smaller because of the cost of individual printing.

Before printing, you need designs that reflect your brand’s goals. If you’re starting a T-shirt business to highlight your own drawings, paintings or digital designs, you’ll need to ensure they are saved as the correct digital files (usually vector files, such as .eps) that can be used by your printing service of choice. If you make highly intricate designs, you’ll probably want to do some test printing to see if everything prints on the shirts clearly. If you’re just starting out with design, there are a lot of free tutorials for using Adobe Photoshop and Canva to create designs.

There are also thousands of great artists whose work you can commission through websites like Creative Market, Fiverr and Upwork. When you find an artist, you can purchase their work outright, but if you have a good relationship with the artist and want to continue working with them, a profit-sharing relationship might be more sustainable for the future.

If you’re stuck on ideas, you can get insight for new designs by checking sales numbers of T-shirts on Etsy or using the tool Jungle Scout (which shows you how many units a product has sold on Amazon). Additionally, a Google trends search of various slogans you want to design for your shirts can show you which are the most popular and probably the most likely to sell.

Once you have the designs ready, customers will want to see how the T-shirts look on real people. Placeit is an easy service to use that gives you a bunch of photographs with blank T-shirt products onto which you can put your designs. You can also look into stock photo packages that include photos of people wearing blank shirts, and you can use Photoshop to put your designs on yourself.

Finally, if you have the time and connections, you can hire a local photographer and get some models for more dynamic action shots. It depends on your budget and how many shirts you’re producing.

When you’re ready to sell, it’s time to choose a sales channel. You can host sales on your own website, but online marketplaces are also an easy way to sell.

If you choose a third-party seller, you’ll have to start an account and set up your store. Services like Etsy, Zazzle and Redbubble are known to sell a lot of clothing and get a lot of customers. You can also sell through Amazon or on social media.

Before choosing, you should check the prices of these services and see which one will be the most sustainable for the long term.

Even if you’re selling on a third-party marketplace, you need a website to promote your T-shirt business. Here are the best e-commerce platforms for building an online store:

• Shopify : strong sales reporting capabilities, ability to customize storefront with design templates
• Wix : free plans available, easy user interface
• Weebly: e-commerce in the lowest-price plan

All of these services can be integrated with a print-on-demand service, if that’s how you’re producing your T-shirts. These make it easy to sell and promote however you choose, and can even ship the merchandise directly to your customers so that you can focus on the creative side of things.

Marketing a fledgling business can be difficult, but there are low-cost ways to do it. If you’re targeting a specific niche, you can look into communities online like subreddits and Facebook groups where you can post your T-shirts to bolster interest.

You could also try to reach out to micro-influencers and ask for their engagement rates to see if they would have decent conversion rates. Influencers that are just beginning to take off are also likely to support a small business just starting out.

Which is better: Printful or Printify?

It depends on which metric you want to save money on. Printify has lower production costs than Printful. However, Printful has better international shipping rates.

How do you create shoppable posts on Instagram?

You can create shoppable posts through tagging the product in the same way that you would tag a person. Set up your Instagram shop first, then you’ll be able to tap items in your photos and link them to a product listing.

What is the average profit margin on a T-shirt?

Most sellers set their profit margin around 50%. So if your cost for the shirt + printing is $10, you might sell your shirt for $20. Setting a higher profit margin may enable you to offer free shipping.

Do I need a business plan to start a T-shirt business?

While you don’t need a business plan to start a T-shirt business, it’s a good idea to create one. The reason being is having a strong business plan will help you stay true to your original vision. Planning out your suppliers, goals and general growth plan will set you up for success in the future.

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Julia is a writer in New York and started covering tech and business during the pandemic. She also covers books and the publishing industry.

Cassie is a deputy editor, collaborating with teams around the world while living in the beautiful hills of Kentucky. She is passionate about economic development and is on the board of two non-profit organizations seeking to revitalize her former railroad town. Prior to joining the team at Forbes Advisor, Cassie was a Content Operations Manager and Copywriting Manager at Fit Small Business.