Beginners Guide to Start a T-Shirt Printing Business in the Philippines

If you are planning to start a t-shirt printing business you need to understand what are the machine and printing supplies needed in order to start this type of business. A t-shirt printing business is not much different than any other business.  Starting a T-Shirt printing business requires preparation, planning, the dedication of time, a lot of effort, and a solid understanding of this business.

What are the things necessary to start a t-shirt printing business?

Many of you are thinking about how to start your own t-shirt printing business. To answer this question we prepared some of the lists that you needed to enable you to start it in no time. 

1. NICHE

This is the very first thing you should need to decide on starting your t-shirt printing business. Our advice would be to Go for less served communities and design T-shirts for that particular niche. It is also important if you have an interest in the niche you choose to serve, this will help you get on even the hard times. Knowing what particular type of audience you will serve is important in this business. The narrower the niche you served the better because. Avoid serving niches with high competition especially if you are new in the industry.

2. CAPITAL

Capital depends on what type of printing process you choose. Silk Screen printing among the other printing method requires less capital but an expert silk screen printer is necessary. If you are new to the t-shirt printing business the better option would be  

3. SUPPLIER

Choosing the right supplier for your T-shirt printing business is a must. The criteria in choosing a good supplier must be quality, better customer support, and fair price of supplies. A responsive supplier means avoiding delays in supplies and reducing problems in supplies for your business.

It is also better if the supplier you get is within your area or they offer delivery of items to save time instead of going to their shop to purchase the supplies needed.

4. TRAINING

Training is important for you to understand what are the necessary skills needed in order to succeed in this business. Suppliers in the Philippines of heat press machines, printers, and cutter plotters typically offer free training before you purchase the machines.  

But keep in mind that this free training is basic training and does not make you an expert in the printing industry. It is better to attend advanced training and watch informative videos on the internet if you really want to know technical skills in doing this business.

5. PRODUCTION

Silkscreen printing requires bigger space because you need to have multiple shirt boards to print your shirt. Compared to Digital Printing, Direct to Film and  Direct to Garment needs small spaces only. 

Printing the T-shirt involves different processes depending on the type of printing. A good graphic artist to design your shirt is a must. You can outsource graphic design using different gig platforms if you have a limited budget. Or you can hire a dedicated graphic to create t-shirt designs for your shop.

If you opted into silkscreen printing you should have a good printer who are expert in color mixing, exposure of images, and printing in shirts. It is important to have good quality control if you want to last long in the t-shirt printing business.  

T-shirt Printing Methods

Before we give you the list of t-shirt printing supplies let me introduce you to some of the different methods of t-shirt printing so that you will have an idea of what machine to purchase or the supplies necessary to begin your t-shirt printing business.

Silk Screen Printing 

There are several types of t-shirt printing methods. Silkscreen printing is a printing method that uses a screen to expose small images, one at a time, onto a piece of cloth or paper. The images are then transferred to the piece of fabric or paper by pressing them through a fine mesh screen. Silkscreen printing is a popular printing method because it is fast and economical.

Digital Printing

The Digital Printing method involves the use of an inkjet printer with either pigment ink or sublimation ink. After the design is printed on the dark transfer paper or light transfer paper it is transferred to the fabric using a heat press machine which comes in different sizes. 

Vinyl Printing is another method of digital printing it requires a vinyl material and a cameo cutter plotter to cut the design and then press them into the t-shirt using the heat press.

There are many cutter plotters in the market but all of them have the same purpose to cut patterns based on vector drawing. Some cutter plotter has their own bundle of software to cut the drawing and some are compatible with other 3rd party software.  

Cutter Plotter

Heat Press machines are like big iron that can be set to heat at a certain temperature and with a timer. There are two types of heat press machines, manual and automatic this is operated by a pneumatic air compressor so when the timer stops the machine releases the pressing mechanism.  

Clamp Heatpress

Direct to Film

Another method of printing is called Direct to Film printing it prints the design using film and then uses the heat press to transfer the design to the fabric. It can achieve a photo-realistic effect and can be used on cotton fabric.

Direct to Garment

The latest method of t-shirt printing is Direct to Garment, this method involves the use of a Direct To Garment printer and the design is directly printed on the fabric. DTG Printer is expensive so the initial investment in this method is quite higher.

6. MARKETING

Marketing or Selling your product to your audience requires time and effort. You can create an account on social media or do live selling of your product online. This is how the business works right now in the Philippines. Getting your product or business exposed to the potential buyer is one step to get more sales to your business. There are plenty of ways to market your product this is important if you want to get more sales.

In Summary:

Starting any business requires a lot of hard work, patience, consistency, and the ability to motivate yourself in difficult times. The T-Shirt printing business requires quality and good design to be able to compete with other businesses in the market. Choosing the right niche is crucial if you want your business to succeed. Having the right people with expertise will help your business to gain traction if you produce a good shirt that will be loved by your clients.