Having an online business can be a spectacular side hustle, especially when you consider the power of a good print-on-demand (POD) service. A high-quality service will give you everything you need to create custom sweatshirts and sell them to fans - all you need is a few hours to get set up, and a couple of fun designs!
This can be a great way to generate passive income when you're really busy with other things in your life. Often, POD sellers that see a lot of success are also studying or working at the same time: after the first few hours of setting up the business, it runs itself.
Let's talk about a super simple three-step plan to create your own POD online startup business.
1. Start a website
Obviously, if you're going to have a business online, you're going to need an online presence. This can be created through any number of impressive methods, but there are two that are most popular:
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creating your own site,
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or hosting your products on a pre-existing site.
Both of these have benefits and disadvantages, but first, consider what will separate your business from the crowd.
It's important to ensure that your t-shirt-selling startup has a USP (unique selling point) - something that makes what you're doing totally unique. A great way to do this is to base your startup on a hobby that you’re interested in: you can use your pre-existing knowledge of that hobby to create more detailed, sellable products.
So, with a niche decided on for your website, it's time to get started designing it!
1.1. Using a pre-existing site
The main benefit of hosting your products on a large, pre-existing site is that you can guarantee that people will see your products, almost immediately after you get them online. The reason for this is that people are always looking at Flipkart, Amazon, eBay, Etsy, and other businesses: you can think of it like a billboard on the side of a super popular highway.
The main downside of this method is that you will have to pay some fees to the service that you're using - typically a percentage of every sale that you make. When you first get started: this can be great as it doesn't eat into your profit too much. As you grow, though, it can be more economical to move to your own site.
1.2. Creating your own site
The number one benefit of your own site is that you don't typically have to pay as large a fee per sale. You often don't have to pay any fee at all for a sale!
Of course, your site will still need to be hosted, and the payment process will still be carried out by a third party for security. You’ll have to pay these businesses some fees on a monthly or annual basis, but typically the economy of scale works in your favor when using your own site.
Another benefit of creating your own site is that your USP niche will typically play better on your own site than on a third-party one.
For the sake of argument, let's suppose that you decide to make surf-themed products. These products could blend in among other, similar products on larger websites with thousands of products. On your own website, though, you can give your unique designs space to show off your style - you're not competing for the customer's attention.
You can also use services like Shopify to create your e-Commerce website.
2. Integrate a print-on-demand business
Great print-on-demand businesses will have a bank of different e-commerce platforms through which you can use them. Typically, to make it as simple as possible for you, a POD platform will have built-in apps to connect your site to their printing facility.
Once you've got the app installed and connected, you can select the products that you want to sell.
At this point, it can be a great idea to validate the products that you're hoping to sell. This is a great way to ensure that you're not wasting your time and money with your first batch of ideas. To do this, we would recommend reaching out to people in the niche that you’re operating in on social media - share a post in their spheres, and see what they think of your products.
Take their criticism seriously: they're your customers!
Select the products that you want to sell, customise them to suit your designs and styles, and before you know it, your site will be live!
3. Make sales!
In a sense, this is the easiest part! We say this because you don't have to lift a finger to get your goodies printed and shipped - your POD service will take care of that for you!
Ensure you select a company with fulfillment centres in the region you're hoping to sell in. Then, you can target marketing to those specific regions, and watch the orders come in! With fulfillment centres ideally placed for your customers, they will receive high-quality items quickly and easily.
After those first few hours of getting your site and products set up, the website will sustain itself. Take some time to market and advertise your products, and you’ll be in a great place to turn a profit before you know it.
