6 Things To Do Before Starting A Print on Demand Business

If you own or want to own an online t-shirt business, listen up!

Today I'm going to give you six beginner mistakes to avoid when starting a Print On Demand store.

So let's just jump right into it...

#1 - DO NOT STEAL DESIGNS

That's right...just DON'T DO IT!

It's fine to get inspo from a design and even use the same phrase in many cases if it's not trademarked, but taking an identical design and putting it on your product is a huge no-no and should be avoided at all costs in order to avoid copyright infringement.

#2 - CHECK IF THE PHRASE IS TRADEMARKED

To avoid trademark infringement, you can go to www.uspto.gov/trademarks/search and search any phrase in their public trademark database to see if it is in use by another brand. Note that this is the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and applies to trademarks filed in the US. Businesses can file for Trademarks internationally as well. Each country has their own trademark office so you can check internationally as well, but I always recommend starting with the USPTO if you are selling in the United States.

#3 - KEEP YOUR COLOR VARIATIONS TO A MINIMUM

In order to avoid analysis paralysis try to keep the number of color variations per design to a minimum. I'm talking about the color of the blanks.

Analysis paralysis is when there are so many options presented to someone that they can't actually decide and end up not buying anything at all.

It happens way more than you think!

I generally recommend two to three colors per design but no more than five. Just so you know, the top three best-selling colors based on my research and my own t-shirt brand sales is black, white, and gray. So if you do choose three colors then those would be the top three I'd recommend.

After that, the next two most popular colors are navy blue and red.

I recommend at the very least offering black. Then look to white and something like a dark gray or charcoal gray which also sell well.

#4 - CREATE COLLECTIONS FOR YOUR DESIGNS

You can easily create a collection by putting a design on multiple products. For example, same design on a t-shirt, tank, hoodie, mug and tote.

This is great for scaling up selling and increasing your average order value. From my experience, if a customer loves a design on a t-shirt then it's a good bet they'll like it on other products too.

I highly recommend scaling designs across a collection, especially for your best-selling designs. The beauty here is that it costs you nothing to do this if using Print On Demand.

#5 - USE LIFESTYLE IMAGES INSTEAD OF MOCKUPS

Yes, and by mockups I mean those generic default mockups provided by Print On Demand companies like Printful. Don't use them!

Why, you ask? First, because everyone is using those mockups and when you see that mockup everywhere it starts looking plain and unoriginal, which then really does devalue your brand. Second, most of them are just very ugly...they're conversion killers. If the imagery is not attractive then it won't entice people to buy it.

So what I recommend instead is having at least one nice lifestyle mockup using a software like Placeit.net and then one standard or Flat Lay mockup.

#6 - ENSURE THAT YOUR NICHE IS NOT BANNED ON FACEBOOK

You can check this by going to www.facebook.com/policies/ads/prohibited_content. It is important to realize that there are a number of niches that are banned so you want to go on there early...because if you are banned on Facebook, that's really going to restrict what you can do in terms of marketing, and generally will have a significant impact on your sales.

SUMMARY

If you own or want to own an online t-shirt business, then here are six beginner mistakes to avoid before starting with Print on Demand: do not steal designs, before using any phrases check if they're trademarked, keep color variations to a minimum, create collections for designs, use lifestyle images over mockups, and before investing in a niche check to see if it is banned on Facebook.

FREE E-BOOK AND OTHER HELPFUL RSOURCES TO GET STARTED

If you find this helpful then feel free to download my FREE E-book here: "How To Start A T-shirt Business For Free From Home With Print On Demand".

That said, if think you'll need full service support to get started then feel free to reach out to us at [email protected]. You can also check out our exclusive Academy Membership for our full coaching and training program if you're looking to start or scale your business to 6-figures as quickly as possible. 

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