Tips for T-shirt Printers

So, you are a t-shirt printer. Do you own a large printing factory, or a small printing facility such as a local print shop? Either way, this page has suggestions on how to promote your business. The advice is for clothing and textile printers only — companies that print on fabric, and the related services that sell them textile printing machinery, printing inks, mesh for printing screens and squeegees. It covers the four moves that consistently bring a print shop work: getting listed where buyers search, publicizing the business, hiring experienced printers as volume grows, and sourcing blank t-shirts properly.

None of the four requires a large budget. They require being findable at the moment a buyer searches, which is a different discipline from printing well — and the one most good printers neglect.

1. List Your Printing Factory on Industry Directories

Apparel Search is one of the leading apparel industry directories, and it has a section for printing on clothing. If your company prints on clothing in large or small quantities, you are welcome to list your business in the directory — the listing instructions are in the Add Your Company section. The Clothing Industry Directory likewise has a method for printers to list their companies: its clothing manufacturers section has an area to list garment printers, and companies that sell textile printing supplies or machinery rather than printing themselves are welcome to list there as well. Additional directories can be found by searching the internet, and the Clothing B2B search engine is a good way to search the whole internet for them.

2. Publicize Your T-shirt Printing Business

In addition to directory listings, publicize the shop directly. Present a press release for possible publication at the Fashion Newspaper or in the Apparel Search fashion articles section — both generally publish well-written, fashion-relevant releases at no cost. A submission to the fashion blog on Apparel Search is another possibility. And get listed on local search engines such as Google Local for Business: local search is where team, school and small-business orders begin, and a complete local listing with services, hours and photos is the cheapest advertising a print shop can own.

3. Finding Good Employees

Has your printing business taken off? It may be time to find experienced printers to join your team. Job opportunities for textile printers can be posted at the Fashion Job Search website, which allows printing factories to list job opportunities — for a small payment for listings, per that site current procedures. Experienced press operators are the constraint on growth for most shops: an automatic press earns nothing without someone who can set up, register and cure a job correctly, so recruiting ahead of the busy season beats turning work away during it.

4. Looking for Blank T-shirts for Printing

In order to print shirts, a printer obviously needs shirts — in various weights, colors and fabric constructions, sourced before the job is quoted. The supplier routes below cover corporate apparel sources, t-shirt factories and blank t-shirt wholesalers. Quote discipline matters here too: know the weight and construction behind every blank price, because the shirt is most of the cost of a finished printed tee and the first place quality complaints begin.