What are the Major Challenges T-Shirt Businesses Face?

Starting a t-shirt shop can be a profitable business venture, especially when you begin with a solid business plan. Part of that plan should include knowing the types of challenges you can expect to face and how to overcome them. This will set you up for success from the moment you open your shop.  

Whether your shop specializes in screen printing, embroidery, direct-to-garment printing, or other apparel decoration, you will face many of the same challenges. T-shirt printing has many moving parts that can cause issues for you, your staff, and your clients. 

Not only do you have to worry about tracking inventory, ordering materials, and communicating with clients, but you also have to make time for generating new leads and organizing your sales records. 

Sounds like a lot, right? Fortunately, shopVOX’s business management software can help you keep every aspect of your t-shirt business under one easy-to-use custom dashboard. 

Every business challenge has a solution. Keep reading to learn about the three most common challenges t-shirt businesses face and how shopVOX can help. 

Inventory Management Challenges

One of the biggest business challenges, regardless of industry, is budget planning. When you don’t have a budget plan, it is easy to overspend and undercharge, which eats into your profit margins.

Improper inventory management can be one of the biggest hits to a t-shirt business’s budget. If you underestimate your inventory and order in excess, you are tying up valuable resources in extra inventory that might not be needed soon. When space is limited, that extra inventory can also prevent you from ordering more needed products. 

On the flip side, if you don’t have enough inventory to fulfill your current orders, you may spend more money on expedited shipping or employee overtime to rush orders that are now behind. If, at the last minute, you cannot fulfill a client’s order, they are likely to take their business elsewhere. 

Inventory management challenges can be a serious blow to your business.

Unsuitable Profit Margins

If you run a t-shirt business, you must make money to keep your business afloat. You need to ensure your employees are paid, you can buy more inventory, and, ultimately, turn a profit. 

You may feel you need to keep prices low to compete with other businesses, but you must charge appropriately based on materials and labor. One way to help ensure that you are making maximum profit is to ensure all initial quotes are accurate. 

When someone requests a quote for a custom t-shirt order, it’s important not to guess. If you initially quote a project low but later realize you need to significantly raise the price, your client may feel taken advantage of. If you decide to keep the price too low to keep the client happy, you are losing money. 

shopVOX’s quoting feature takes all the guesswork out of quoting custom work. For custom t-shirt shops, our integrated product catalogs and product templates will ensure your profit margins remain accurate no matter the product or amount. 

Not only will you be happy not to lose money on inaccurate estimates, but your clients will also be satisfied with how fast you can supply them with their custom quotes. 

Inability to Meet Demands

Taking on more work is great for business, but only when you can effectively finish all work on time. Are product errors and inefficient business procedures slowing you down? Are orders falling through the cracks? 

When you run a business with so many moving parts, it’s important to keep all order details in one place. With shopVOX job management software, everything you need to do the job is under one customizable dashboard. 

You can quickly view all jobs and their statuses to meet deadlines. You can also access all order details, such as customer profiles and transaction history, so looking up past orders is a breeze.  

Overcome Business Challenges with shopVOX

The many moving parts of a t-shirt business can quickly devolve into chaos if you’re not careful. Between keeping track of proofs and order changes to handling payments, we’ve built a custom t-shirt business software that provides solutions to the most common challenges you’ll face.  

Are you ready to turn your t-shirt idea into a profitable business venture? Contact shopVOX today so we can help you take your ideas to a new level. You can also download our free Shirt Business Toolkit to get started!