First Post - Need Help With Decision

Those do not sound like good choices. The idea is to make money moonlighting until you can afford to switch full time away from "time for money" and to something other than your regular gig. It sounds like your regular gig is supposed to be the education stuff. That's what you know, and that's what you have reason to have some confidence about. You should try to make a living with your education stuff now first, unless you have money to burn, and then spend as much time as you are able on other avenues that might some day enable you to ditch that. The t shirt angle just sounds far too uncertain now, except for spending some time on it outside your main gig as you are able.

How did you get 100 unique designs, by the way? Are you also a designer?

Since you have a job, which is probably in line with your pretty good credentials, you should probably go for the t-shirt. I mean a 100 designs? That's pretty remarkable, and it shows that you are really interested in designing, perhaps as a hobby. And people will always wear t- shirts. About the competition, don't worry, if your design stands out, with time, your brand will be recognized.

Stu,

I always suggest that people starting businesses online begin by identifying demand in the marketplace. You need to verify that there is a compelling need or desire by people with money to purchase what you are going to offer. Market research will help you to know what that demand looks like, where you can find potential prospects, and what competition you'll face in the niche.

If you skip this step, you are only guessing about how you should position your business, what you should sell, and where you should go to find your best prospects/customers. "Guessing" and profitable business usually aren't compatible.

Good luck,

Steve

Steve,

Yes. that makes sense.

Ok, so where do I begin? Do I start both sites and see if there is any demand?

I don't yet know how many people will like my t shirts nor how many parents will want my services.

Where to start?

Can your consulting skills be turned into an info product? I bet you answer many of the same questions over and over, don't you? You can leverage your knowledge by turning it into video, audio, or specialized reports which don't require you exchanging hours for dollars. In fact, you can do it once, and have it fulfilled by a third party, like Kunaki for example and that keeps your time free.

Can you train someone to answer follow-up questions or simply dictate answers and have it transcribed into a report.

I don't see the need to choose one over the other, if you can leverage both.

Education is as Evergreen as a market gets, no end to the PARADE of people who will need your knowledge, the question is, can you serve this market via books, courses, trainings which don't involve you, or which you can do once and sell for years to come?

Tee shirts, also evergreen, but if you want to make a dent, you need something unique.

Consider the fall mid-term elections. Can you come up with a design or two for both parties? Could you sell red tees and blue tees as a fundraiser? Can you capture some business from the millions of dollars which will be spent on elections? Can you add a nice hat to the TEE shirt, maybe buy one, get the other thing half off?

Look down the road to special events, I've got several promotions ready for next year's 50th anniversary of the moon landing. Can you create a design for this? Or for any upcoming event?

Can you create a meme, from current events? You need a long term strategy to build your TEE shirt business, one back end is to offer additional specialty printing items via an affiliate program like the one Kaeser-Blair (no affiliation) offers?

I urge you to give yourself some time and flesh out your ideas, both can be profitable for you and you can build both in your spare time.

I agree with SteveB about the DEMAND, albeit, you have chosen two niches which are evergreen in their demand. Take a look at making your educational tools available without your direct contact, if possible, and focus on big events, or fads, for your T-shirt business.

GordonJ

Gordon,

Thanks for taking the time to help out.

You provided me with some good ideas. Your education ideas are good, but as an insider in that niche, I feel that a personalized service is a better recipe for success.

As far as the t shirts go, your idea about capitalizing on fads etc..is definitely a good idea. My brand is already unique and I think that it's the direction I must take in order to stand out and be different. I don't think I want to compete with everyone else who is jumping on the t shirt 'fad' bandwagon.

Your ideas have given me some other ideas.

Thanks

Thanks Gordon!

Some really good stuff here I can implement.

Gordon gave you excellent advice. You don't need to pick one and go all-in from the start.

You see those "burn the boats and go for it" stories, but you never hear about the ones that burn the boats and get slaughtered because they had no escape plan.

Contrast that with testing the waters by offering minimal products that you can create quickly, test quickly, and evaluate quickly.

John,

I agree. Minimal products that can be created quickly, tested quickly, and evaluated quickly seems to be the logical approach.

Here's my question though,...

Don't minimal products that are created quickly undermine the potential quality of my service or product? What is the potential buyer's perception of the quality of service or product I have to offer if they see something that was minimally and quickly produced?

I get it. I need to test the waters. But isn't that a double edged sword?

Stu

Great points John!

Thanks!

Yes, I should have caught that 'kids parenting' thing.

Thanks everyone for giving me tips on that design stuff. A bit embarrassed to admit, but I was not aware "creative market" was an actual thing, but I see now it is a site.

Stu, as you continue your journey through life, remember that your thread was lingering in a state of neglect and sliding down the page for hours til I stepped first.

Hi Stu,

Which business idea do you feel more passionate about?

What would you do for no money, with a stronger pull toward one or the other?

That's your answer.

Both seem to be viable, problem solving ideas.

Forget any idea of competition; this like all fear-based stuff sprouts from the mind, and should be ignored.

Ryan

Hello Stu,

It's always a good thing to have multiple sources when it comes to income, and keeping both your business is something that can be done. Big brands and big names have multiple business, and sure it's something you can also do. It could be challenging but not impossible. You can consider hiring someone to manage the t shirt business and just oversee everything at the end of the day, or week.

Ok..here's my first update.

It know, it's ONLY been a week but I want to share what I've done so others can learn from me.

So, I started BOTH ideas.

I set up an education site with about 50 original articles/tips on a variety of education topics. I created Facebook and Twitter accounts and have reached out to friends and colleagues. No bites yet of any kind (as expected so early) and some sharing on social media of my articles. I am still in the midst of setting up the consulting part of my site. I also found it easy to set up some affiliate links. For example, I have an article about helping a primary student with basic math skills. So, I gave about 10 unique ways to help in my 1500 word article. In one of my 10 ways, I suggested a very popular math workbook on Amazon with the affiliate link included.

Then, I began to upload 10 t shirt designs on one of the major platforms. It is more work than I thought because for each design, there are about 15 or so products. So, I am in the midst of this task and it takes longer than I anticipated. That is, for each product, I create the tags etc, upload image, and then upload to facebook, instagram, and pinterest. Many likes so far on instagram, some visits to my store (it's on one of the POD sites), but no bites yet. Obviously too early.

So, I'm finding both ventures interesting and there's quite a learning curve for both. I'm having more fun with the t shirt gig but the education one is much easier since I know my stuff.

At this point, I have a feeling that the education site will be easier to initially get visitors than the t shirt business. But, I know that I can create tons of products with the t shirts and once they are up, they're up.

One last point of interest...I noticed that the education site gives me a sense of control, since it's my site and I can do what I want. Whereas the t shirt business, I feel somewhat dependent on the pod site. Maybe that will change when I get to uploading my designs on the 6 major sites I intend to join.

FYI - I am here to learn and to help others learn. I am not selling anything here nor will I in the future.

Thanks

When was the last time novelty Tees were not in demand?

I agree. I think that t shirts can be placed under 'evergreen', regardless of the type of t shirt.

As for demand, I also think that all kinds of tees are in demand whether the category is 'dogs', 'quotes', 'memes', 'nature', 'vintage', etc...

An interesting observation...

Okay, so I signed up with Redbubble, Zazzle, and Spreadshirt. So far, I have been able to use these sites, upload my designs, and use their images on my social media channels.

About an hour ago, I received an email from one of these companies, stating that one of my designs was a duplicate and could not be accepted. Well, this can't be true. My designs are pretty much originals. So I thoroughly scanned the site for a duplicate, but couldn't find anything remotely similar to my design.

This leaves me with a mildly bitter taste in my mouth. You see, after going through this, I realized that I don't have much control of 'my' product because I am using these print on demand sites.

What if for some reason one of these sites decides to close my account?

Or what if they tell me I can't sell a bunch of designs, especially my best sellers?

This doesn't sit well with me. I don't think that either of these cases will happen, but, the thought does linger in the back of my mind.

Is it stupid to depend on someone else's platform to run your business?

I guess the same could be said for being an Amazon affiliate. I've read about people who have had their accounts banned. I'm sure some people deserved it, but there might be others who didn't.

Now the educational consulting is looking more promising. I wouldn't have to rely on any company. I just have to rely on myself.

Any thoughts?

To me, print on demand can be a volatile and short term business model. Depending on what niche you go into, it can be difficult to sell products. What happens when you burn through all of those designs? You constantly have to come up with new designs and ideas and who knows if it will take off. If you don't come up with something new, your products could burn out on social media or any other platform you are running ads on and you may see a drop in ad performance. Another thing you have to worry about is people coming in and stealing your design or idea. Even if you have your design branded doesn't mean that the person can come up with their own design based on yours. All they have to do is change up the wording and the overall context of the design.

DripRevenue,

I've actually thought of that. Thanks for reinforcing the idea. I have about 90-100 designs and I was concerned how I could get more. Now, I could learn to make them myself, so that's not a burning issue. What was a concern was that someone would come up with a 'better' design than I have. I understand that the market works that way.

Now, a better business model, for me, or anyone else for that matter, is one where I can continue to produce and my product/service would be hard to replicate.

Ok...

Here's a great explanation of what I was eluding to...

https://www.copyblogger.com/digital-sharecropping/

I'm rethinking this t shirt thang. There's no way I want to print my own t shirts and distribute them...too much of a headache. Not sure if I want to 'sharecrop' (see linked article) on the POD sites...

This is my biggest concern as well. I can't imagine the effort it must take to even sell 1000 t shirts, only to make $2000 and then pay almost half in taxes. I'm sure the time it would take to sell 1000 t shirts (ie designing, promoting) would not be worth the $1200 or so I would make.

I have found quite a few situations online whereby people have had their accounts suddenly cancelled by Redbubble and other POD sites. Sure, these people might have done something against the TOS but you never know.

When you build your house on your own land, you can build it your way on your own terms (more or less).

While I'm in agreement with the whole 'digital sharecropping' idea, there is a time and place for working with third party services. The key is to use them for what they are, not basing an entire business on them.

For example, many of the same people that warn you about using POD or dropshippers will insist that you must have a third party ESP like MailChimp for emailing. Why is relying on an ESP okay, but using a POD service for fulfillment dangerous?

For the tee business, you could use multiple POD vendors to fulfill orders, while not relying solely on their marketplace for orders.

All that said, I still think you are making a good decision regarding the education market. While tee shirts may be an evergreen product, the fashion world revolves around constant change. The demand for education, particularly online and on-demand education, has been on an upward trend for some time with no ceiling yet in sight.

Wow, you're both ends of the spectrum. There are unique ways to market either choice. Do the one you're the most passionate about...

If you follow your heart and do something where you can dedicated 100% than you will have higher chances to succeed in that field.

T Shirt Business very good idea. You can work with Fiverr to make T-shirts. Fiverr is develop market place. you create a fiverr account and post your service gig start your business.