1. Many of our readers who attend GRAPHICS PRO EXPO (GPX) events know you as the T-shirt guy in the GPX University area. How did you get your start in the industry?
Let me tell you I was a serial hustler from birth, just trying to figure out how to truly become an entrepreneur and successful business owner. I grew up being told to get a job at McDonald’s and I told myself I could make minimum wage doing anything, and the entrepreneurial upside offered me so much more. To make a long story somewhat short, I took the longest route possible to becoming an apparel decorator and print shop owner. Like most people who end up here, I started out doing something different that led me here, but I found out that it’s way easier to sell custom apparel than anything else I was doing.
2. What’s the biggest key to a profitable T-shirt side hustle?
I look back now after helping over 100,000 people get started and I can say that if you want to grow and build a successful print shop, you have to plan it! You need to know where you want to go and what you want to get out of it first and then make a plan to get there. Once you have that figured out, you need to put yourself in position to work on your business instead of in it.
Too many of us get stuck in the learning phase and we never get to selling products at any significant level, or we get stuck in production of orders we have already sold, and we never get out to actually do more selling. We take what comes, which is basically living off word of mouth.
3. What’s the biggest opportunity ahead for apparel decorating shops?
Large shops have this figured out already, but those who don’t need to understand that in this business it’s not about this decoration method versus that one, whether it’s DTF printing, screen printing, DTG printing, or embroidery. It’s all about really just finding the best tool for the job. When you approach your business any other way, it forces you to take the easy way out, which doesn’t often lead to being the most profitable.
Anyone getting started needs a strategy that works for their specific goals. If there is a gap I can see for all shops, large shops included, it’s that no apparel decoration shop is doing enough in the digital and promotion space, and they can grow 15% to 30% with a little more focus in that area. It’s the same art and the customers are getting the products already, just not from us.
4. What’s your biggest concern looking forward?
Looking forward, the only concern I have is the gap between getting into the business and getting to the $250,000 to $300,000 revenue mark. To me, the education space on helping people grow their revenue from side hustle to six figures and beyond is lacking.
The industry is set up to sell you equipment, and, don’t get me wrong, that is needed. I don’t have true numbers, but from what I see, much of the equipment doesn’t get used to any true potential if it even gets used at all. So, I have set out to fix that issue. It’s something that I believe every company needs to think about when it comes to the health of our industry.
5. Circling back to GPX, why do you think it’s important for early-stage entrepreneurs to attend GPX?
I can’t stress enough how much networking is worth in what we do. I give my life away on the internet, but even in that you can only receive so much.
The most valuable knowledge I receive today is directly from other business owners I have met at shows. One thing I can tell you is that if you’re just getting started, the “Start Here, Grow Here” mission of GPX University is so closely related to the T-Shirt Side Hustle mission of “Start, Learn, Earn.” If you come to a show you will get to experience and hands-on training in the University area and if you attend any of the classes I, or others, teach, you will leave with actionable steps that will help you grow, no matter where you are in the journey today. And that, I think, is well worth way more than the cost of entry.
