T-shirt design job is among the most popular jobs of recent times. If you have a passion for design and most importantly, if you say I do this job with love, t-shirt design and sales are the job for you.
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How to start a T-shirt business?
If you have a starting a t-shirt business plan, please follow the steps I explained below and do your research well. Here’s what you need to do before you start.
Step 1: Research and planning
Before starting t-shirt printing business, you need to do a good market research. There are many people who do this job. Researching them thoroughly and doing competitor analysis is one of the first things you should do before starting work.
Identify the best selling products and designs in e-commerce virtual marketplaces, social media. Determine if you can make these, or at least which model you can make. Calculate cost of the product to you. These are the main research you need to do before you start work.
Step 2: Deal with a good wholesaler
Do a wholesaler search for t-shirt supply. While doing research, look at the quality of the product, whether it is suitable for printing, the reliability of the supplier, and whether it can supply the product continuously. The supplier is one of the most important parts of this business. A disruption in the supply chain can cause disruption to your business.
Step 3: Do your competitor research
As in all new businesses, you need to do a good competitor analysis before starting. See what your competitors are selling best. Focus on what you can do differently from these products. Most importantly, evaluate whether you can compete in terms of price. If you are going to make the same products as your competitor, your chance to compete will be difficult. In the beginning, you need to come to the market with different designs and more affordable prices. This gives you an added advantage.
Step 4: Build your own brand
If you have decided to start your own t shirt business after the research, you need to move on to the brand building step, which is one of the most important steps. The brand is one of the most important elements in this business. In the absence of branding, your sales rate will be below your competitors. Create your own brand and register your brand.
Step 5: Create original designs
One of the most important parts of this business is design. If your designs are amateurish, your sales may not be what you expect. That’s why you need to create professional and most importantly creative designs. If you have graphic design skills, you can make your designs from the following sites:
- Canva: There are free and pro versions. Designs may be limited in free versions. Therefore, I recommend using the pro version. It is one of the best websites for design.
- Adobe Spark: It is a free platform offered by Adobe.
- Teespring: This platform offers you various possibilities. You can make your designs on the platform and have production at the same time. You can also sell your products on the same platform.
If you do not want to make your own designs or if you say that I do not have such a talent, you can hire a Graphic Designer as a second option. The third option is to buy ready-made designs. There are many platforms that sell ready-made designs. You can buy the ones you like. Here are the best websites where you can buy ready-made designs;
- Redbubble: It is among the best websites where you can buy online design. It is a marketplace where you can have all the designs you want made upon your request. It is also a platform where designs can be sold.
- Teespring: The second website where you can buy designs online is Teespring. You can buy the designs you want online from this platform.
- Threadless: It is a platform where you can find and buy design samples for many products.
- Zazzle: It is a website where ready-made or customizable designs are sold.
Step 6: Decide on the printing method
After making your designs, the last step is printing. You have two options for printing. If you wish, you can buy a printing machine and do your own printing, thus reducing your costs. This may require a large amount of capital to start with, because printing machines are quite expensive.
My advice to you is not to buy a printing machine at first. Depending on the status of your job, you can buy the printer later. At the beginning, I recommend you to have your prints done by the companies that do this job. You can get price offers by contacting the printing companies that do this job in your city. Printing is not very expensive. You can negotiate per piece and start selling.
7. Final step: Determine your Sales Platform
One of the last and most important steps is to determine the sales platform. Choose platforms where you can reach buyers directly. I have listed the best platforms for you to sell below.
If you are looking for a new business idea, you should definitely visit our best business Ideas 2025 page.
Best way to sell t-shirts online 2025
You have many options for selling t-shirts. Here are the best platforms.
- Instagram: Instagram is one of the most used social media platforms. Users spend at least 1 hour a day on this platform. This creates a great potential for those who want to sellers. By opening a professional account on Instagram, you can create your store for sales and start selling by uploading your products. You can also make good sales by supporting it with advertising.
- Shopify: Shopify is one of the largest online stores in the world. At the same time, it offers good options with easy-to-use ready-made scripts and payment methods for those who want to step into e-commerce. In Shopfy, you can open your online store in a few easy steps and start selling right away by uploading your products.
- Etsy: Etsy is the most suitable platform for selling design and handmade products. You can start selling immediately by opening your online store on Etsy, where you can sell globally.
- Amazon Merch: This service offered by Amazon is a suitable system for those who want to sell their own designs. Within the scope of this program of Amazon, you can open your store and sell both to your own country and to the whole world.
- eBay: eBay is among the largest e-commerce companies globally. You can sell your T-Shirt designs on eBay both in your own country and around the world.
Is selling t-shirts online profitable?
Yes, t-shirt side hustle cost-profit ratio is quite high. When you first open your store, you may not be able to do much. However, the important thing in this process is to brand and never give up. After 6 months of long work, your sales will start to increase when the awareness of your brand increases. I have a friend who does this job. He has a store on ETSY and his monthly net profit is now around $27,000.
How to start a tshirt business at home?
T-shirt business is an online business so you can work from home. You do not need to rent a warehouse or workplace for this job in the first place. You can do this by using a part of your house as a warehouse. At the top of my article, I have created a step-by-step guide for those who want to do this job. You can start by doing your research accordingly.
How to start a tshirt business with no money?
Making, printing and selling your own designs is costly and you have to spend money. But don’t worry, There is a way to start an online t-shirt business at zero cost. You can also do with zero capital. You should use the Dropshipping method for this. With the dropshipping method, you can make commission sales on behalf of companies. You can find detailed information about how the system works in our content titled What is Dropshipping, how to do.
Cheapest way to start a t-shirt business
Dropshipping is the best way to start selling t-shirts with zero capital. However, this system has some disadvantages. If you do not want to sell with the Dropshipping system and want to make your own sales, then you should consider the following suggestions for lower cost sales;
- Make your own designs.
- If you can, do the printing yourself at home with simple printing methods. If you can’t, get the best deals.
- Get your tshirt purchases from wholesalers and buy in large quantities. This will allow you to make more affordable purchases.
Start a t-shirt business in 24 hours
It is impossible to start a tshirt sales business within 24 hours, except for the Dropshipping method. If you want to get started right away, you have no choice but to use this method.
