Just a quick hello from an onion.

[evilonion]

Thought i'd sign up as i saw this site mentioned on another forum... can't believe i didn't find it sooner!

I've been self employed for about 13 years now in the construction industry... went to uni and got a design degree so started doing web design and hosting as a side business to the building work.

This then developed into dropshipping and other forms of online revenue and decided to go into vinyl graphics and tshirt printing.
Im now in the final stages of going fully live with the vinyl and tshirt business and plan on making this available as a dropship business.

I wont post a link, or information yet as i haven't upgraded yet (will be doing so!)

Over the years whilst doing various projects i've ended up learning quite a lot regarding site design, seo, marketing campaigns, business startups and various other bits and pieces... i don't claim to be an expert but i'm willing to share any advice and help that i think i can.

Anyways.

Hi :)

[Dawg]

Hiya. Welcome. Good luck.

[Cornish Steve]

Must confess, you do bring a certain a-peel.

[evilonion]

yes very good ;)

[Cornish Steve]

Oh, there are layers of humour there, enough to cause a real stink. (Sorry to distract from your intro!)

What has been the biggest challenge in setting up your vinyl and t-shirt business? How will you differentiate from your competitors?

[evilonion]

Yes i've been reading a few of your posts with the old one liners... very good haha.

Biggest challenge? There have been a few... firstly, information... there is none.
What cutters to use, what grade of vinyl, application processes along with the software to run it all... the past couple of years have been spent doing stickers and banners for local car clubs as well as a contract with a racing team in the uk... meeting that challenge was tough in itself as the first order was 110 tshirts, several banners and roughly 1,000 stickers... i had only had the cutter for 2 weeks!

Cost is another issue, i had £5000 and this went in a matter of days, i didn't realise it would cost as much as it did, with all the extras i ended up needing which nobody told me about.

With regards to direct competition i honestly don't believe that i have ANY. There are very few companies in the UK that have a decent website that provide my products. I will by the end of summer 2010 have around 4000 products to offer... the nearest rival has around 1000.

Tshirts wise there are a lot of companies offering slogan tshirts but i have not found many that offer as a dropshipper... and on top of that the ones that do have a very limited selection, im planning to have a few thousand slogan tshirts available. Limited colours to start with then as the company grows add new ranges and new colours etc (hopefully helping the dropshipees to grow as well)

The other challenge for me has been time... over the past few years as my dads health has deteriorated i've ended up taking over more and more of the family business and now run all the construction jobs myself, as well as setting up and managing my mums business and setting my sister up in business and running 5 other websites of my own.

Figuring out how to run a server and host it all has been a challenge as well... as well as learning php ontop of the other code languages needed to modify and create all my shopping carts.

Been fun though!
Big old learning curve the last few years but i think i'm now in a position to offer the services out to people and to be able to handle the business growth.

[applemaidcleaning]

Hi and welcome, :-) :-)

[BusinessIdeas]

Hiya, good luck with your business - Gina :)