7 Pro Tips to Start a Print on Demand Business [Launch + Make Money]

Are you looking for an easy way to make money from home? Print on demand (POD) offers a great opportunity for anyone with a creative idea. With minimal effort, you can create custom products and sell them without having to buy and store inventory or deal with the hassle of shipping and fulfillment. But how do you ensure success in your print on demand business? We have 7 Pro Tips for Success in a print on demand business.

What is Print on Demand?

Print on demand is a digital printing technology that allows you to create custom products and have them printed and shipped directly to your customers. This allows you to print one-off products instead of ordering hundreds of product. There is no risk of being stuck with tons of product if they doesn’t sell. Whew!

You can create products such as t-shirts, mugs, hats, and more. All you have to do is select the product you want to use, upload your design, and then let the print on demand company take care of the rest.

With print on demand, you can start a business with very little upfront cost. You don’t need to buy or store any inventory, and you don’t need to worry about shipping and fulfillment. You can focus on creating and selling your products – the fun stuff!

Is this drop-shipping? You got it! Drop-shipping is a great way to sell physical products without laying a finger on the product itself. This is a common way others earn passive income to grow their wealth.

Pros and Cons of Print on Demand

Before you get started with print on demand, it’s important to understand the pros and cons. On the plus side, print on demand has a VERY low start-up cost, and you don’t have to worry about buying and storing inventory. You also don’t need to worry about shipping and fulfillment, as the print on demand company will take care of that for you.

The downside of print on demand is that you have less control over the quality of the products. While the print on demand companies have high-quality standards, you still may not be able to get the exact product you want. You also don’t see each product yourself before it ships – so you are putting all your faith in the POD company to get it right.

Additionally, you have to pay a fee for each product you sell, which can cut into your profits.

Pros

• passive income
• low start-up cost and no need to invest in inventory
• hands-off the fulfillment and shipping processes
• focus on the things you like doing best – like designing and marketing your products!

Cons

• not in complete control of the quality of the products or printing
• need to actively handle any complaints or returns
• some costs such as fees and ordering test products

Print on Demand vs. Do It Yourself

When starting a business with your own designed merchandise, you have a couple options: print on demand or do it yourself.

With do it yourself, you buy the blank products and then put the designs on yourself.

For t-shirts or apparel, you can do this using silk screening or heat transfer vinyl. We’ve even seen others use fabric paint and a stencil to customize a shirt.

An easier way is to have a local printing company produce the products you want, although you’ll likely need to order a hundred or more pieces to get started.

By doing it yourself, you have more control over the final quality of the products. You get to see and inspect the final product before it ships, making sure it meets your standards to please your customers.

There is also full control over the final packaging of the product. You can dress up the packaging with tissue paper, branded stickers, branded thank you cards, discount offers for return purchases and more. Some of these can be done by the print on demand company, but again you get full control if you do it yourself.

Now, there’s one or two big drawbacks to doing it yourself. First is the upfront cost of the equipment and materials. The second is the time to handle product creation, fulfillment and shipping.

Print on demand is usually the better option for most people, as it requires very little money upfront and you don’t have to worry about buying and storing inventory. Additionally, the print on demand company will handle all the printing and shipping for you. This is SO HELPFUL, especially if you already have a full-time job.

1. Choosing the Right Print on Demand Company

When starting a print on demand business, it’s important to choose the right print on demand company. There are many companies out there, so it can be difficult to choose one. Make sure to research each company and compare their products and prices. Additionally, you should look for a company that offers good customer service.

There are small local companies that offer print on demand. Unfortunately, I haven’t found these to be competitively priced to the big POD companies. Also, many don’t integrate with sellers’ platforms like Etsy or Amazon.

Two of the most popular print on demand companies are Printful and Printify. With similar names, these two can easily get mixed up!

They both offer a wide selection of products and competitive prices. Plus, they have great customer service and user-friendly websites. And they integrate with MANY different ecommerce platforms.

They are great on returns too! I’ve had some prints I was not happy with and they quickly credited me for the poor print. Returns are based on errors from the POD company – they won’t credit you if you just aren’t happy with the design you created.

Check the POD companies that you are interested in to see where the merchandise is produced and where they ship to. You’ll need to make sure the POD company ships to where your target market is located.

2. Niching Your Products

It’s important to niche your products. It’s much easier to market and sell products that are targeted to a specific audience. Think about what kind of products your target audience would be interested in and create designs to match.

You can sell in almost any niche you can think of! Here are some niche ideas to get you started:

• Sports
• Music
• Video Games
• Retro Gaming
• Geeky Science

• Adventure & Travel
• Fitness and Health
• Pop Culture & Fandom
• Animals
• Nature
• Hiking and Camping
• RVing and Van Life

• Political Slogans & Statements
• Religion
• Humor & Quotes
• Art & Illustrations

• Holidays (Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, Valentine’s Day etc.)
• Food: Coffee Culture, Grilling, Fast Food etc.

As you can see, the opportunities are endless! Hopefully, you have a niche to focus on. Now let’s look at the importance of a good design.

3. Design Quality

To create professional designs, consider hiring a graphic designer. You can find designers on Fiverr, Upwork, Dribbble and other freelancing websites.

If you are just starting, you may not have the money to pay for a designer. That’s ok! You can design something yourself even if you don’t have design skills. There are lots of free design tools online, such as Canva. You’ll be a design pro in no time with Canva’s intuitive drag-and-drop functionality.

Before you start designing yourself – be sure to check out the 7 Design Mistakes to Avoid When Designing T-Shirts.

To get started with a design, we suggest researching products that already sell well. Take note of what it is about their designs that customers like. Then, implement the same tactics into your products. Just make sure to use your ideas – it’s not cool to copy other people’s work (and it can get you in trouble).

Once your design is complete, we strongly recommend ordering a sample of the product to evaluate how it looks in print. If this is your first time creating and printing an item, there is a lot you can learn from seeing your final product!

Ordering samples are easy through the print on demand company – simply order it through the platform on the backend. You will pay the wholesale price of the product plus any shipping fees.

When your sample arrives, check that you are happy with the quality of the print and the size of the print relative to the product.

Now that you can create your merchandise, let’s ensure we are aware of not infringing on copyright laws. Let us explore this concept further!

4. Copyright and Intellectual Property

When creating products for your print on demand business, it’s important to make sure you’re not infringing on anyone’s copyright or intellectual property. If you use someone else’s work, you can be sued for copyright infringement.

If you want to use someone else’s work, you should contact them and get permission. As a small business, you likely won’t be able to use popular logos or characters without permission. Even creating similar replicas can land you in hot water.

When designing your own products, be sure to use images and designs that you created or bought the rights to. This will help keep you safe from legal trouble.

Where to Find Graphics to Use?

You can use images that have been released under a Creative Commons License or similar license, provided you follow the terms of the license. Canva offers a variety of royalty-free images and illustrations, so you can use those without having to worry about copyright. Just be sure to use their free content. The Canva Pro content falls under a different licensing and is more restrictive than the free content.

Creative Fabrica is also a great spot to find graphics with flexible usage. As with any graphic – double check that you can use it for your POD business.

Quotes & Copyright

Did you know you also need to stay away from quotes? If you use a famous quote, it could be considered copyright infringement. If a quote is trademarked or registered with the US Patent and Trademark Office, then you need permission to use it.

Instead of using a famous saying from someone else, write your own copy! Or you can check the Public Domain for quotes – some laws allow quotes to become public use 70 years after the author passes.

Here are 2 examples of quotes:

“I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.”

Abraham Lincoln

Yes, you can use this quote because he died in 1865 and it HAS been 70 years since he passed.

“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing”

Walt Disney

No, you can’t use this quote because he passed in 1966 and hasn’t been 70 years since he passed

Here’s a list of merchandise ideas to stay away from to avoid legal troubles:

• famous politicians or celebrities
• characters or artwork depicting famous people
• quotes, phrases or song lyrics that you didn’t write
• brand names or logos of brands, businesses or sports teams
• images from google or social media that aren’t yours
• images from memes
• movie or tv characters, name or image (nor a likeness of these)
• parodying big brands or famous people
• any other trademarked property

If you are ever in doubt, it’s best to contact the copyright holder and get their permission first.

5. Finding High Margin Print on Demand Products

Before we get into high margin products, let’s make sure we understand mark up and margin in a POD business.

Mark Up and Margins

The typical markup for clothing in a retail store can be up to 2 – 2.5X the original price. This means that when a large retailer purchases something at $20, it would then be sold for $40. This results in a 50% margin.

Markup on products is necessary to cover the overhead for retail stores, labor expenses, utilities bills, office space needs, and inventory—not just to make money. Since POD drastically reduces your costs down to nearly nothing however; you pay a higher price per item but don’t fret! Your margins are lower, yet they handle most of the heavy-lifting from here.

Finding High Margin Products

When looking for high margin print on demand products, it’s important to research the market. Look at what other businesses are selling. What products do they offer? Additionally, you should look at what’s popular in your niche and create products that fit your clientele.

Once you have an idea of what is selling in the market, head to your print on demand provider and browse their selection of products. What can you create that will give the best margins?

We suggest creating using a spreadsheet to record the products you are interested in. In the spreadsheet, include the product cost, shipping cost, transaction fees, and marketing costs. Set a retail price for the product and calculate the remaining amount (profit).

Are you happy with this number?

Remember we haven’t even included your labour in the initial calaculation. If your business turned out to be successful, you’ll need to hire others to support your business.

Go back to your calculation and add in your labour to make sure that you still have a profit!

6. Setting Your Prices To Sell (and Make Money!)

When running a print on demand business, it’s important to maximize your profit margins. To do this, you need to make sure you’re charging enough for your products. Do some research on what similar products are priced at.

Etsy is a good place to look at what the lowest and highest prices are for your product. Then have a look at the Etsy shop itself to see if they are making sales at these price points. We all want to make a hefty profit from each shirt sold, but if they remain unsold, there is no point in listing them at a high price.

Average T-Shirt Prices

As an example, shirts on Etsy range from about $15.50 to $21.50 USD. Some are selling them for $8.86 to $11.82 – I tend to ignore the super low and high prices when I do my research. When you see very low prices, have a look at the shop. They are usually either brand new shops or very large shops. The new shops are trying to get a sale and the large shops buy in bulk, garnering a much larger discount than you or I are getting. They might even by printing and shipping themselves which also has bulk discounts.

If you are selling t-shirts, you’ll want to price yourself somewhere in the range of $15.50 to $21.50 USD. Have a look at your expenses and determine how much money you would like from each shirt sale. Use this basic calculation to determine your profit:

Selling Price – Expenses = Profit

Don’t forget to factor in the cost of marketing, transaction fees, your time and shipping if you offer that for free.

Additionally, you should look for ways to reduce your costs. For example, you can look for discounts on shipping and printing. Printify has a paid version of the platform that offers discounts on your merchandize which puts more money in your pocket. Use the paid version of Printify once you break the threshold for sales to make the fee worth it!

You can also keep an eye on the printing companies offered through the POD. Prices change and you can always switch printing companies for a better price. Just do some research to make sure you and your customers will be happy with the quality!

7. Selling Your Print on Demand Merchandise

When starting a print on demand business, you need to find the right platform to sell your products. There are many platforms out there, so it can be difficult to choose one. An important question to ask yourself is, do you want your own website or just an online storefront?

It’s always a good idea to have your own website – it’s the surest way of ensuring uninterrupted service, as well as avoiding potential issues that may arise from having someone else host your products. Your own website doesn’t have to happen right away! Make it a goal and work towards it.

In the meantime, there are ecommerce platforms that you can start selling from right away! These platforms already draw a huge audience, which makes it easier to find and reach customers.

The large print on demand companies have integrations with Etsy, Ebay, and more. Printify even integrates with Walmart and Printful integrates with Amazon!

These integrations are easy to set up. If you have a design ready you could start selling today!

Final Thoughts

Print on demand is a great way to start a business with very little upfront cost. With print on demand, you don’t have to worry about buying and storing inventory or dealing with shipping and fulfillment. However, you have to make sure you’re following these 7 tips to unlock your print on demand success.

Choose the right print on demand company, niche your products, protect your copyright and intellectual property, maximize your profit margins, find high margin print on demand products, and use the best platforms for print on demand. Following these tips will help you get the most out of your print on demand business.

Now get out there and start your own print on demand business!