15 T Shirt Business Pitfalls

November 14, 2008 | Written by Gino | Category: T Shirt Business

Starting up a new t shirt business is no easy task, especially in today’s economy. So it is essential that you properly plan out your ventures to ensure success. Below is a common list of pitfalls many t shirt business owners encounter when launching a clothing line. I hope that this list will help you avoid these mistakes so that your t shirt business venture will go smoothly!

Common T Shirt Business Pitfalls

1. No Marketing Plan

Even the best designs won’t just sell themselves. Without the proper on and offline marketing it will be impossible to sell tees and if you don’t know the best ways to market your tees online you could end up wasting thousands of dollars!

2. Inconsistent Branding

Branding is essential for long term success and if you do not properly brand your business and stay consistent with your branding efforts you will be on a the path to nowhere.

3. No Target Audience

A successful business plan includes knowing your target audience. If you don’t know who your target audience is how can your properly sell tees to them?

4. A Website That is Hard to Navigate

A poorly designed website is one of the most common problems I see. Not only can a great website design improve your conversions ten-fold, but it can also help you get more extremely valuable search engine traffic!

5. Bad Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization is probably the most overlooked, yet most important part of marketing t-shirts online. Its cheap, its powerful and can get you a ton of sales each day!

6. Not Enough Online Marketing

The web has advanced greatly and so as the online presence of t-shirts. There is a large t-shirt community online and many ways to market your brand to this community.

7. Bad or No Pay Per Click Advertising

Pay per click advertising is a a great way to start getting traffic, but without the proper research and testing you could end up wasting a lot of money and sales.

8. Not Enough T Shirts in Stock

Keeping t-shirts in stock can be rough with limited funds at the start, but its essential you pick your stock carefully and replace sizes quickly and only as needed so you can keep up with demand and continue to expand your line.

9. Ugly Product Photos

Having poorly taken photos will speak negatively about your products. If your photos suck so must your quality! That’s what people will think, even if its not true when yo use poor photos.

10. Slow Shipping Times

Customers expect their items to be shipped on time. Not having a handle on your shipping or shipping to slow can have a very negative impact on your business and could ruin any chance of a customer returning to buy more later.

11. Atrocious Customer Service

Providing your buyers with great customer service is essential for avoiding major problems and keeping customers happy. One unhappy customer could end up telling dozens of potential customers about their bad experience with you, so you need to take care of issues right away.

12. Crappy Quality T-Shirt Printing

Finding a great way to print your tees that also fits your current situation can be tricky, but if you Order Fuel for Design you will have a clear idea of what quality options are available to you and much more!

13. Cheap T Shirt Brand

Lets face it no one wants to wear an uncomfortable tee that will fall apart in a few weeks, so if your budget permits you should use top quality t shirt brands for your line.

14. Ugly Designs!

No amount of marketing or money will get people to buy ugly designs, so before you dump thousands into printing your tees get some opinions! Ask your family and friends for honest opinions and show your tees to strangers to see what they think.

15. Not Buying Fuel for Design!

If you are interested in creating a successful T Shirt Business you should Pick up our eBook Fuel for Design, a powerful guide to starting your own clothing line.

Our eBook will guide you step by step all the way from picking your business name to launching and beyond. Our book will help you avoid dangerous pitfalls such as the ones we listed above and will provide you with a truly complete guide to starting your own t shirt business. Enjoy!