So you want to ditch corporate America, work for yourself, be your own boss. You want your commute to be a trip to your downstairs office where you can work in your pajamas if you want to. Nice thought, but what on earth would you do to make this dream possible?

Maybe know some witty sayings and thought they would look cool on t-shirts or maybe you are artistically talented and want to sell some of your creations on t-shirts. I personally went this route a few years ago when I started selling my own creations online. I overcame a few stumbling blocks along the way and can share what I wish I knew at the beginning.

Where do I go?

There are many websites where you can sell your designs but the three biggest are Cafepress, Printfection and Zazzle. Each company has its own line of t-shirts and gifts. These companies are best bets for first-timer to open a shop and be successful.

Cafepress is the leader by far. You can open a free shop with limited products or you can open a Premium shop for about $5 a month where you can have an unlimited number of products and designs. You can also personalize the shop any way you like. In addition, your designs are available in the Cafepress marketplace, where the buying public can find them with a keyword search. Cafepress makes it easy to put your images on many products at once with their bulk upload tools. You pick a product name, description and image and put these on all the shirts and all the other products you select at one time. None of the other online vendors have this feature.

One drawback is that Cafepress has become a victim of its own success. As it has grown, the marketplace is crowded and the print quality is spotty. Sometimes the site is down, or slow.

Another company, Zazzle, is giving Cafepress a run for its money and with a $16 million investment from Google investors may blow Cafepress out of the water.

I first discovered Zazzle years ago when my husband custom-designed a motorcycle shirt at the request of the local Harley dealership for the top executive at Buell motorcycles. My husband, a graphic designer, was impressed with the retail quality of the printing. I didn’t initially open a store with Zazzle because I could not name my markup.

This has changed. You can not only custom design a t-shirt or gift but you can put the creation in the Zazzle Marketplace and in your own Zazzle Gallery for sale to the general public and name a markup up to 50% of the product price. Each image is featured on a model rather than just on a boring old t-shirt stock image. Your customers can then further customize the products before they purchase them. I have tested the Zazzle features myself and am very pleased with the results. The images upload quickly and the products are available almost immediately in the Zazzle marketplace. The only thing lacking at this writing is the bulk-editing tools available on Cafepress. Those tools are coming to Zazzle as of first quarter 2008. And this isn’t a pie-in-the-sky promise. Zazzle is a serious competitor. I have had the opportunity to beta test one of the bulk tools, the bulk uploader for images. I recently uploaded 100 images in about 10 minutes to a folder of my choice with no downtime and no connection drop-off. All I can say about this tool is WOW!

Printfection is the third online vendor. It has a nice selection of shirt styles but no infant apparel and a limited selection of gifts. Printfection probably wanted to combine the best of both Cafepress and Zazzle but has not grown in the past year. There are no bulk editing tools for putting your design on multiple products at once, and none seem to be on the horizon. Opening a shop is free and the owners are enthusiastic and listen to their shopkeepers, but without a big capital investment, market visibility for this company is limited. Customers visit Cafepress and Zazzle websites more often.

What do I sell?

So what the heck do I sell, is one of the first questions people ask. What kinds of designs do people like? The most successful sellers find a niche. Popular niches include life changes such as birthdays, weddings, moms and babies. Also popular are international and ethnic designs, politics, holidays, and awareness designs for breast cancer or autism. Photography and very arty designs such as fractals do not seem to sell very well unless you already have a following before you open your shop. It does not mean that your art is not very good; it just means that the buying public is looking for something else. That is the most important thing to keep in mind. It will save your ego!

How much can I make and is it worth it?

How big are the checks? The simple answer is that the more unique designs you have, the more you earn. Some people earn as little as the minimum check amount, which is $25, but others earn as much as $3000 a month and some others even make Cafepress’ 20% bonus category, which is $10,000 in base sales.

The most important advice for success at any of these websites is to keep adding new designs. Equally important is to give your products good titles and descriptions using words that a customer might type into a Google search. And do not even think about copying somebody else’s design because your products will be removed. Read the message boards on each of these sites because they are an excellent free learning environment with tips for building your shops and trends in the business.

Happy Selling!

Websites:
http://www.iheartswimming.com
http://www.helloworldshirts.com

Cafepress:

You have begun doing some things that are upsetting a lot of people that helped make you what you are today and getting in the way of them continuing to help you grow. Previously you limited premium shop sizes to 500 sections, increased base prices on some items and now are rearranging the way commissions are being pay with one obvious goal – to increase revenues on the backs of those that are your lifeblood.

As an entrepreneur, I understand the need for Cafepress to make money and turn a profit. Businesses do not survive without doing so. But this series of major changes has me worried about your future especially when you seem so cavalier about making changes that greatly effect your shopkeeper base.

This most recent change, more than any of the previous, has a serious chance to cost shopkeepers money and people who use you, at least those that are entrepreneurially inclined, to sell product will adapt and fight against loosing money in a variety of ways.

Perhaps you may not beware of the way entrepreneurs think, but one of those ways many of us will pursue to recover lost profits from our own pocket is to continue to increase our presence on other one-off t-shirt sites like Printfection, E-Shirt, Spreadshirt and Zazzle. This will enable us to make up the money we are loosing from this change by making more money with them.

However, this will come at a cost to Cafepress. As we increase our presence on these other sites, they will grow. As they grow, your competition will get more fierce. As your competition gets more fierce, your advertising costs to maintain your current position will increase even more and accelerate an already upward spiral which you are helping to feed by forcing those of us who support your service to spread out to other services and grow our market share to bolster our own bottom line.

I bring this up because one of the reasons for the recent change of not providing commissions on sales from the marketplace is due to advertising costs making it cost prohibitive.

What you have basically done is pointed a gun at your own head. If you think that advertising costs are high now, just wait until your competitors double, triple and quadruple the size of their own marketplaces as Cafepress shopkeepers work hard to supplement their income by expanding and adding new revenue streams through your competitors.

The only thing saving you right now is that that gun you have pointed at your own head isn’t loaded. At least not yet.

In my opinion your ownership needs to be looking long and hard at the people you have making decisions like those as of late and questioning their sanity and business skills. Short term gains are often a goal of those at the top of any company hoping that they will be on their way out the door before the long term consequences of those gains come home to roost. Your marketplace wouldn’t be making you a dime if it were not for your shopkeepers who work hard and this is how you repay them? By cutting their profits to increase you own?

You are welcome to do that. Private enterprise does certainly require companies to make decisions and chose which path to take. But it is my opinion that is path is a path to sure suicide. No company can expect their employees to remain loyal when they announce salary cuts while other companies are paying higher and higher rates. By this same token Cafepress cannot expect the shopkeepers, who have made your site a cornerstone of their business, to remain loyal when you cut their profits.

Plus, dropping bombs like this in the manner in which you have done, barely a week before they are to go into effect, is not a very good way to gain trust with those who are essentially your business partners. You might have avoided criticism and backlash by keeping it secret until it was announced, but now you will have a tidal wave ten times worse coming down upon you by taking this approach.

I would seriously suggest those in charge at Cafepress do some self examination as to whether or not this is the path they want to keep following. Because it is clear to where it leads. Biting the hand that feeds you, brings in your revenue and that is the continuing source of your greatness has ruined companies much larger and more prosperous than you.

Now, if you will excuse me, I have some expansion plans to make and some other revenue streams to begin to grow to compensate for this change.

Sincerely,
J.J. Jackson, shopkeeper

But a lot of companies are instituting policies to “Green” themselves up. Some of these are companies that I do business with and I get emails from them every now and again telling me the latest “Green” thing they have done. Well whoop-de-doo! Unfortunately, what I am most interested in is more or less how does this new thing that you are doing impacting my bottom line as an entrepreneur.

A prime example of what I am talking about is my bank, which will remain nameless. Their branch offices are littered with references to how “green” they are. Their website also makes sure to promote the “greenness” of the company. But meanwhile the interest rate on Certificates of Deposit for this particular bank are dead last in the interest rate they are offering if I invest my money in that way with them. Hey, being “green” is nice and thank you for making sure that everyone in the world and their mother knows it, but explain to me why I should give you my money to earn a paltry 1.75% interest on a one year CD while other institutions are offering me 3.00% or more? Sorry, but the fact that you are “Green” does not cut it.

Great, you’re “green”. But you won’t be seeing much of my “green” until you fix that problem of your interest rates being in the dumper.

The whole claim of “going green” is becoming nothing more than an advertising ploy in my most humble of opinion. While I am sure that there are some people out there that will forgo a better interest rate that is almost double what you are offering because you have “gone green” most people I do not believe will.

If you want to “Save the Planet” then save the planet from threats both real and imagined. But do it. The second you start advertising that you are doing it to try and gain customers you are just joining the already crowded bandwagon.

If you cannot make me money, I do not care how “Green” you are.

There are many reasons businesses fail such as lack of direction, impatience, greed, taking action without thinking it through first, poor cost/poor product, insufficient working capital, bad or nonexistent budgeting, inadequate financial records, loss of momentum, failure to anticipate market trends, lack of managerial ability or experience, indecisiveness, bad human relations and diffusion of effort to mention a few. But, you there was a but coming right? But until you have a strong a “Why Statement” you are spinning your wheels to be successful in the entrepreneurial arena.

On average every one is conditioned from birth to go to school, get good grades, graduate from high school, go to college, get a degree, get a job, work for 40 years, and retire on 60% of the wages you couldn’t live on when you were making 100% of your salary. Now here is the kicker; life expectancy upon retirement, depending on the industry, is on average 10 years. Now that’s something to get excited about! There is a trend afoot that is showing that the average age of retirement is going up drastically. You may ask yourself why? Simply, the state of the economy is a mess. Social Security is broke and there is a general fear that the retirement promised through the Social Security Administration will not be there when you plan to retire. Company retirement plans are being reduced or eliminated and in many cases the funds are just not there. This does not paint a rosy picture for the future of the working class.

Here is the problem; people trade hours for dollars all the time. In fact 95% of the population is competing for 5% of the wealth. Whereas 5% of the population controls 95% of the wealth. There is only one way you can personally place yourself into the 5%. You MUST be a business owner! But there is another problem, statistics show 90% of all businesses fail. Now there is a sobering statement. So most, i.e. the 95%, won’t even try or give it a go for a few of months and quit and return to trading hours for dollars. There are a lot of reasons why businesses fail but the main reason is that you don’t have a strong enough “Why Statement”.

Your “Why Statement” is the most critical part of any business start-up and its longevity. Your reason or WHY must be so strong nothing, I mean nothing can stand in your way of success. You must get way outside your comfort zone. It must be your main focus! If you don’t have a strong enough “Why Statement” you will fail. You will fall back into your world of complacency, your comfort zone and your trading hours for dollars. Simply, “if you don’t have a strong enough Why Statement you will keep doing what you’re doing and get what you got!”

As stated at many of my seminars, “A strong Why Statement is the vehicle that will help you get the heck out of your own way!”

“The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It’s as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer.”
- Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese’s

So you think you’re an entrepreneur?

Wikipedia defines an entrepreneur as follows: An entrepreneur is a person who has possession over a new enterprise or venture and assumes full accountability for the inherent risks and the outcome.

An entrepreneur is not just someone who wants to work for himself or herself. It is someone who is driven to do so. I have been self employed for the past 8 years. Overall, it’s been great, but there have been times when I wished I had someone to lean on, to fill in, or to blame. But ultimately, I fill all those roles and I’ve found that I have a lot more drive and talent than I ever gave myself credit for.

I think the hardest thing to learn is that you have to operate outside your comfort zone. It’s the only way to grow. If you continue to do only those things that you feel comfortable doing, you probably won’t be very successful. I used to hate to call people so I started making myself do it. What I learned was that it wasn’t so bad. I never thought I could blog or write an article so I made myself do it. I’m not a very good writer, but I’m not the worst. I never thought I could build a website but I did. The first attempt was not bad, but I got better at it. Just like learning to ride a bike – you try, you fail, you get up and try again until you succeed.

The fear of doing something is often much worse than actually doing it. We’re afraid of what other people will think about us – almost to the point of paralysis. It’s easier to do nothing and avoid being criticized than it is to attempt to do something new. Just remember that your worst critics are most often the ones sitting on the sidelines doing nothing, wanting you to fail so they don’t feel so worthless. You’ll find that other entrepreneurs are much more supportive and helpful and truly respect the fact that you’re trying.

So just do it. Whatever it is that you’re doing, stick with it and push yourself. Don’t let fear hold you back.

I started “Fake It Until You Make It” to provide women owned small businesses with tips on using technology. I see so many women not investing in technology or training for the business or themselves. Having no (or poor) technology doom most who try, and prevent others from even trying. They are constantly working harder not smarter because they are afraid of technology.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not saying an accountant can try, then, instantly become a database programmer, nor can a commercial real estate trainer morph into a web designer. Even if you aren”t particularly savvy with technology, that doesn’t mean you should be afraid of it.

How many of us knew how to walk, talk or do anything when we were first born? NONE! As we grew from an infant to a toddler we learned you had to crawl before you walk. That same philosophy holds true as an entrepreneur, however when it comes to technology we let 4 of the most dangerous words in the English language stand in our way. . .

“I DON’T KNOW HOW!”Some entrepreneurs fear of technology, lead them to utter those 4 words (not to be confused with four letter words, that’s another topic!) more often than they realize. As a result, it’s hard and overwhelming to get started.When was the last time you updated your internet (web) browser software? “I DON’T KNOW HOW!” Regular software updates can provide better service and quicker service, are crucial to keeping your home office computer or your home office network as secure as possible.

When was the last time you updated your Office templates? “I DON’T KNOW HOW!” Microsoft offers free templates for work, home, and play. Importing pre-designed templates into Microsoft can save you time and money.

When was the last time you attended technology training from your home or office just using your phone and computer? “I DON’T KNOW HOW!” WebEx offers free live and recorded webinars and webcasts from industry experts. Principal Financial Group offers free teleclasses for Women, from Leading Experts.

You get my point?

I challenge you to replace 4 of the most dangerous words in the English language with these “I WILL learn how” to use technology to propel my small business to the next level.

For many, it is a mystery exactly what an entrepreneur does, however most have some fair idea that they are business people. This is only half the truth, entrepreneurs are essentially deal makers and ideas people.

An entrepreneur uncovers existing circumstances which he sews together into a deal. An entrepreneur typically focuses in certain areas of expertise, however they are more interested in the manufacture of money than having any sort of loyalty to any particular business area.

Most successful entrepreneurs have a projects archive. An idea that has some “legs” is typically investigated thoroughly and the results recorded and filed if the individual cannot act on it immediately for any particular reason, or the idea may just prove not to be as viable as first thought.

This type of feasibility study is crucial in any venture. A list of questions is created surrounding the product or service developed for the idea. Actual potential customers are poled for their opinions and their responses meticulously recorded. This type of documentation is crucial for securing private venture capital and is part of the “burden of proof” a successful entrepreneur offers potential financial backers.

With a well defined feasibility study in his/her brief case, an entrepreneur can leverage this document and the project summary by simply sending it off to his lawyer, who will fax it off to various interest groups that may be willing to fund the project. Getting venture capital is one of the most important roles for an entrepreneur as they rarely use their own funds to develop a project because they would be too close to it and their vested interest can muddy the clarity of their decisions.

http://www.easycorporatemoney.com

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