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Are Screen Printing Businesses Profitable?
Screen printing businesses are growing in popularity as more people are considering this profession seriously. If you are wondering if screen printing is profitable, you have come to the right place.
The short answer is yes, you can successfully run a screen printing business. Custom t-shirts are all the rage for families wanting matching shirts to wear to Disneyland or other theme parks, gender reveal parties showing their preference for “team pink” or “team blue”, Little League® jerseys printed with team names, custom baby onesies welcoming their new baby to the world, graphic tees with funny sayings and everything in between. There’s a big need for screen printing companies and it’s not an industry that’s going away any time soon.
If you can set up a good business, screen printers can earn $3,500/per day.
How Much Does It Cost To Start a Screen Printing Business?
It’s easy to start a screen printing business, you can start with $10,000 or less. Screen printers can make great money, but it also depends on how you market yourself.
One easy way is to find a niche. Some ideas are; custom company t-shirt printing, custom kids t-shirt printing, custom sport shirts, just to name a few. Appeal to a specific target audience, it’s a lot cheaper to market if you have a focused demographic that you serve. Later you can branch out and expand to different markets.
The downside to this is it is hard to start from the ground up. It takes awhile to build your reputation, learn the process and gain clients unless you have a marketing or business background.
Ways To Start Your Screen Printing Business Without Starting From Scratch
Franchise
A franchise is a way to own an already developed business with a reputation. They let owners buy the rights to use a company’s branding, business practices and logos in exchange for a licensing fee and percentage of revenue. They also help you with marketing, sales and obtaining equipment.
Top Franchise put together this list of the 12 Best Printing Franchises, you can read here.
Downside is that it can be expensive depending on the licensing fees (sometimes upwards of $150,000), plus you pay a percentage of your sales to the company. Even though you’re using a reputable brand, you still have to build up your business and market it for people to find you.
Print-On-Demand
A lot of clothing companies, print-on-demand companies, or other e-commerce businesses hire a printer to print and ship the clothing for businesses. This is an easier way to own a business without having to handle the printing.
Some print-on-demand companies will even have the blank clothing ready for your designs to print them and ship them. Allowing you the creative freedom to focus on your designs, not the hassles of the screen printing logistics.
Our favorite is Wicked Milk, they pay a high commission plus they have an affiliate program that is as competitive as Amazon’s affiliate program. Also their market isn’t as saturated like RedBubble and TeePublic. They created a curated platform for artists to showcase their work.
With this one, there isn’t a downside. It costs nothing to start, you make money when your designs sell and you don’t have to deal with the stress of managing inventory, printing and shipping.
Logistics of Owning Your Screen Printing Business
If you decide to go the franchise route or build your own screen printing business from the ground up. The initial financial investment is just the beginning.
Design Skills
Before you start screen printing shirts, you’ll need a design for your screen printing press.
T-shirts designs are typically designed using programs like Photoshop, Illustrator or Canva. YouTube videos as well as Adobe have plenty of tutorials to learn how to do it.
Production & Printing Skills
If you don’t already print garments, you’ll need to learn which machines are ideal for you and your company goals.
Some of the typical machines you’ll need to learn about are:
Screen Printing
Direct To Garment
Transfer Printing
Cad Cut Vinyl
Embroidery
Offering multiple types of printing options can help your company appeal to more people. Some may prefer embroidery over screen printing, or vice versa.
Business Skills
Business skills cover a wide range including accounting, pricing shipping and managing inventory.
You could spend a lifetime learning these skills. There are a lot of software systems that can be really valuable tools to help manage this all and make life a lot easier.
For accounting and pricing we recommend Udemy and Unleashed for inventory management.
Also check out YouTube videos, or even TikTok if you’re running low on time. They have a lot of valuable information on the best software to lighten your load.
Marketing
Marketing is going to your most valuable skill set. You can have the fanciest printing machines, high end software, graphic design skills and if you don’t know how to do marketing, no one will find you.
Marketing can be done both on and offline, however it’s most cost effective to do it online.
The best places to spend your advertising dollars are
- Facebook/Instagram: Direct-to-Consumer
- Google Ads- Search Traffic
- Amazon – Largest retailer, ideal for private brands
- Linkedin- Great for business to business sales
It’s vital to have social media accounts connected when starting a screen-printing business. They help drive awareness, give you an avenue to connect with potential customers and allow you to set up stores to sell your services or products.
Each site has a wealth of resources to educate people on how to utilize their marketing tools. Make sure you familiarize yourself with them before wasting your ad budget on them.
Marketing is great for creating overall brand awareness and converting them into paying customers.
It’s also important to stay current on the latest marketing trends and make sure you are incorporating the same things your competitors are doing.
Don’t underestimate the power of sharing your screen printing process on YouTube or TikTok. People love to watch DIY videos and it can help get your shop noticed a lot sooner.
Another way to drive traffic to your social media channels is by asking your clients if you can share their work. More than likely they will share yours to help you gain traction.
Yelp is also a valuable tool to be found locally, encouraging customers to leave you a 5 star review can help you stand out.
Other ideas include:
- Networking, building relationships builds your brand. Being recommended by word of mouth pays off.
- Follow up with customers. Making sure customers are happy with their order will keep them coming back.
- Try to upsell them. Suggest they try out stickers too or an upgraded fabric.
Establishing The Legal Structure For Your Screen Printing Business
Once you have created a name and business plan, it’s time to establish a legal structure.
Setting yourself up for success can be done through an attorney, accountant or tax specialist to ensure the documents are filed correctly. That will save you a headache in the long run.
Each state has different licenses, permits and tax forms that will be required.
There are a few different ways to structure your business.
Sole Proprietorship:
A sole proprietorship is the easiest way to start a t-shirt business. However, the structure doesn’t protect against legal issues. Meaning if something goes wrong, you could have the potential to lose both your house and business.
To start a sole proprietorship, fill out a tax form called a Schedule C.
Limited Liability Corporation (LLC):
An LLC is the most common business structure because it protects the owner’s assets.
While similar to partnerships and corporations, it can be a single-member LLC in most states. An LLC needs an operating agreement for set up.
However, each state has different requirements, here’s a link to find your state’s requirements.
Franchise
As we’ve said before, you can a purchase t-shirt company through franchises. Franchising.com has a couple franchising opportunities that allow you to start a t-shirt company using a reputable company’s brand.
A franchise makes it easier on the entrepreneur since they’re already established and well known.
They also help you with marketing, equipment and putting business practices and processes into place. Saving you a lot of stress from building from the ground up.
They can be rather expensive, some costing upwards of over $100,000 to start. Others may have a long vetting process and can take awhile to get your license.
How Much Space Do I Need For T-Shirt Printing Equipment?
It’s hard to say for sure, it depends on the equipment you’re using. The smallest space we recommend is 320 square feet for a 6 color/station clothing printing machine.
Assuming you only have one screen printing machine. You’ll need more space if you’re using silk screens or other printers. Plus space for your inventory and computer.
Ideally you’ll want about 500 square feet per occupant plus space for the tee shirt printing machine.
To break it down, you’ll need about 900 square feet to make sure you have adequate space to work and store your inventory.
Creating a Budget & Sticking To It
A budget is the most important tool for your business. Without it your screen printing business might not survive the first couple years.
We highly recommend Quickbooks, used by millions for an easy way to manage inventory and accounting.
Whether your startup budget is $1,000 or $30,000 or more, you need to make a realistic budget factoring in cost of inventory, office space, printing equipment, software and materials/ink.
How To Fund a T-Shirt Printing Business
Common ways to fund your tee shirt business are:
- Personal savings
- A loan from family or friends
- Money from a business partner
- Small Business Administration
Fun fact: The Small Business Administration, also known as the SBA offers free courses on financing options and funding programs.
Is It Hard To Start a Screen Printing Business?
It depends on if you do things manually or use automation. If you screen print manually for years, you can burn out easily. Money will be good, but it’s exhausting.
It’s best to ask yourself:
- Do I have the funds to start my own screen printing business?
- Am I comfortable using a screen printing machine?
- Will I be confident when speaking to clients?
- Where will I buy screen printing supplies?
- Why am I starting a clothing business?
- Do I need employees or help running my business?
- What equipment do I need to have a successful business?
Still Feeling Lost?! We Know Just The Thing…
If this all sounds too much work, we totally get it! Our friends at Wicked Milk® are here to help. They will handle all of the printing and shipping, allowing you to sit back and watch the money roll in.
They take away the stresses of managing equipment, inventory and let you maintain ownership of your store front and designs.