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Starting a T-Shirt business

The first thing to decide is your aim. Are you ready to set up a business, or do you just want to test your T-shirt designs on the buying public, or perhaps you're raising funds for a good cause by selling customised T-shirts? Each of these has the same end result: printed T-shirts - but the way you get there can be very different.

There are three main routes to printing your own T-shirts: iron-on transfers, hand screen-printing and machine printing and the pros and cons of each method are outlined below.

Printing using iron on transfers

This is the ideal method if you:

• Want to try creating your own designs for T-shirt printing before investing in stock and equipment.
• Won't have to print many at once.
• Can accept at certain amount of variability in the end result.
• Want to use the same design on a range of items (eg T-shirts, bags, tea towels, pennants etc).
• Have enough spare time to invest in a fairly slow print method.

The advantages of iron-on transfer prints

1. You can work from your home computer or laptop.
2. You can buy kits that contain everything you need (except the plain T-shirt, called a 'blank' in the trade) including the software to print from.
3. You don't need extra space or equipment.

The disadvantages of iron-on transfer prints

1. It can be very time-consuming to print each T-shirt.
2. You need different transfer types for white T-shirts and black ones.
3. You may need several test runs before you get a perfect result, which can mean wastage of garments.

Tips for success

• Your iron should be as hot as possible.
• Some people use a Formica-topped kitchen unit to iron on. Others cover a sheet of cardboard with tinfoil - whatever system you use, it must be solid and reflect back maximum heat.
• Iron with an up-and-down motion, as the normal sideways movement can 'tug' the transfer and cause it to wrinkle as it adheres to the fabric.

Next steps from iron on transfers

Many people move straight into screen printing, but an alternative is to invest in a hand heat press and move into textile vinyl printing. This is a thin material that is heat fixed to T-shirts, caps etc. Some vinyls can be layered, one colour on another, and flock vinyl or flourescent vinyl is available too.

Hand silk screen printing

This simple printing process uses a stencil, inks and a mesh-covered frame to create a design. Most hand-printed garments use one, or at most two, colours.

This is the ideal method if you:

• Want to print slogans or single colour designs.
• Don't have to rush to print your T-shirts.
• Have little space to work in.

Advantages of manual silk-screen printing

1. The capital cost is minimal. You can buy silk-screen printing kits or make your own frame with fine nylon mesh. All you really need is a large flat surface on which to print.
2. Once you become experienced, you can screen print by hand swiftly and neatly.
3. You can stencil any colour ink onto any colour T-shirt and blend inks to create custom colours.

Disadvantages of manual silk-screen printing

1. The learning curve on hand screen printing can be time-consuming and result in damaged garments and costly wastage.
2. You need to leave your T-shirts overnight for the ink to set completely - this means finding a large space in which to flat-dry printed clothing.
3. Even experienced printers find it time-consuming to work with more than two colours, because of the need to dry the T-shirts between colour applications and the difficulties of aligning stencil layers on top of each other.

Tips for success

• Start with some cheap T-shirts to try out your silk-screening skills before moving onto more expensive garments.
• Remember that silk screening large areas can make the fabric stiff which is less pleasant to wear. This is particularly true of white ink which is thicker and can blur or crack. Adapt your designs, breaking up large areas of white into smaller sections, until you're used to working with it.

Screen printing machines

This is the ideal next step if:

• You've tried screen printing by hand, and now want to produce larger numbers or multicoloured tees.
• You have large orders that it's difficult to fulfil by hand printing.

A manual T-shirt press can cost as little as a few hundred pounds, second-hand, but make sure you see a used press in operation, as a damaged machine may produce badly aligned prints.

Setting up a full shop, rather than just a single manual machine, can cost a lot, but does allow you the option of printing non-flat items such as caps, and offers a faster turnaround than a manual system. An alternative is to invest in a machine that produces ink transfers that are then applied to the T-shirt.

Advantages of machine screen printing

1. You can produce longer runs faster, which means you can take in printing work from other people at the same time as producing your own designs.
2. You can establish a shop front so that your business is more visible in the marketplace and you may be eligible for business support grants, depending on your age and where you live.

Disadvantages of machine screen printing

1. You will need somewhere with heat, light and water to install your machine, and storage space for your printed garments. All this costs money that has to be paid up-front, whether or not you have income from sales.
2. Fulfilling outside orders can leave you less time to work on your own T-shirts which means your personal designs may suffer.

Tips for success

• Research your machine thoroughly before you buy - there is a bewildering range available, all offering different options, speeds and qualities of print. Where possible, go and watch the machine in operation with another printer to see what it is capable of.
• You need to market your T-shirts as well as print them! You can do this online, but don't forget the value of real-world marketing such as press releases, talking to local radio and TV about your new business, leaflet drops in your area and wearing your own products to networking events.