The Passionate Pursuit
How to Turn Random Crap People Say into a Printify Print On Demand Store For Less Than a Dollar and No Risk
JIGE #194: ShirtStorm
It was the first time I ever squatted 275 pounds.
And I could definitely feel it.
My personal trainer, standing right next to the squat rack didn’t spot me. Instead, he shouted war cry after war cry.
“C’mon Mikey, c’mon!” he bellowed.
“Don’t worry. It’s not impossible! It just sucks!”
I succeeded in pulling off all five reps and re-racked as I started bursting out laughing.
All I could think was
“Man, that would be such a funny t-shirt!”
Print-on-Demand by and large has one of the lowest barriers-to-entry in the world of business.
Really what you need when it comes down to it is a couple of graphics and access to a digital shop that will let you host everything.
You don’t need a warehouse to store stock, you don’t need to buy in bulk. It really is a case of “I have an idea, let’s make it happen tonight”.
Even then, I couldn’t help but think to myself:
“Why did I think it was a good idea to start a print-on-demand store when I’m unemployed and have no source of income to fund it?!”
Here’s what you need to take away from this story: there is nothing wrong with building a side hustle. Where people fall flat is losing steam because they don’t realize how much they’re investing into the business.
- Time
- Resources
- Money
I could go on and on.
I believe I could and can make money off of this idea. But will it be overnight?
Of course not.
And instead, it became a fun challenge for me.
“If I can do this when I have no money,” I thought to myself. “Imagine what I can do when I have a source of income to rely on?”
And with that, I explored my options.
The Concept:
The original idea was to collect all these phrases that seem to escape people when they think “Put that on a t-shirt” and then…
Well… put it on a t-shirt.
No rocket science here.
And some of them were pretty fun to look back on and think “Oh yeah! If I never did this, these would’ve just disappeared forever!”
My three favorites were:
- “It’s not impossible, it just sucks”
- “Go do all the tough shit so you can do the fun shit”
- “Welcome to your 30’s. If you don’t stretch, you’re screwed.”
After working on Shopify for my day job, I decided that’s where I was going to set up shop.
Especially because for the first three months, you get a discount where it’s either $1/month or completely free (I can’t remember) to host on Shopify.
Then I would do some simple designs to make the words speak the loudest.
Think the male icon you see on restroom signs.
I did some rough sketches on the app Procreate on my phone to get a general idea. From there, I would brush up a little with the render and then find a POD distributor to get the products to put on my shop.
The Process & Setbacks:
Remember, at this point in time, I had no job so I also had no budget.
Thankfully, I managed to find a job while setting up the project, but I was playing financial catch-up with my student loans and DMP (Debt Management Plan).
So there wasn’t a lot anyway.
And I began to set up my Shopify account, when all of a sudden…
I was rejected from the discount!
Normally, Shopify charges $30/month to host a store but thirty was way too much right now.
Suddenly I had a crazy flashback:
I had tried this exact thing in high school with no luck. And I used the email already.
No problem, I could just make another email.
Normally, this is where the troubles would cease.
But, I had another problem: Google requires you to sync up a phone number with your email address to develop security verification.
And because my phone number was already synced up, it didn’t work out.
So I decided to pivot and just keep working on the designs. And I found a loophole.
Printify.
Printify is the most common distributor that is used with Shopify.
I was already planning on using them as my back-up and not my original go-to, Subliminator.
Printify is free for the most part while Subliminator if my memory serves me right starts at $40/month.
And while I was searching for free alternatives to Shopify, wouldn’t you know it, Printify can actually help you host a free shop!
Are there caveats?
Definitely:
- There’s a five product limit to your shop before you get charged
- It’s not as customizable, and therefore presentable, as Shopify
But I wasn’t necessarily looking to accomplish that.
I was looking to accomplish a Print-on-Demand store.
The Outcome:
I showed my personal trainer the “It’s Not Impossible” graphic (the only one that was AI-Generated, I promise!) and he was over the moon!
Dude, hell yeah! he texted back. I would totally get that as a sticker for my water!
And then, I wasn’t just in the shirt business (it’s way too saturated anyway).
I was in the Print-On-Demand business.
I decided to print that guy on four different products and then the fifth one, a beer can sleeve, was the second graphic to “foreshadow” the next batch of products (“Welcome to your 30's”).
I finalized everything, and wouldn’t you know it, I had a print-on-demand store with $0 down!
In case you want to make this a reality for yourself, here’s the article as an action plan:
- Collect things people say that stick out to you.
- Find an ecommerce platform to host your shop (I chose Spotify for affordability)
- Choose your design style (I chose something simple so people would focus on the wording and that would match my artistry skills at the time)
- Choose a distributor to print the products you’ll host on your shop
PRO TIP: Make sure to choose a distributor that works with the platform you chose (not everyone works with Shopify)
5. Finalize your graphics
6. Put the graphics onto products using your distributor
7. Sync up your distributor with your ecommerce shop
8. Tell people the good news!
Thanks for reading! If you want to check out the products, use this link! 10% of all profits will go to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention!
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