Printing Tricks for EveryonePrinting Tricks for Everyone

If you have started a screen printing business and are having trouble finding sales, you may want to consider offering fundraising opportunities. Most youth sports teams, schools, and charities are always looking for ways to raise funds. By establishing your business as a fundraising opportunity, you can become known in the surrounding communities, which can increase your personal sales. Here's what you'll need to do. 

Calculate the numbers

First, you'll need to figure out how much supplies cost per shirt, as well as factor in the time it takes to make each item and the amount of time you spend growing your business. Beyond those costs, you'll need to determine how much profit you'll need to grow your business so you can purchase more supplies for the next fundraising opportunity. Keep in mind that even though you are offering your goods as a fundraising opportunity, you don't want to mark up the goods to the point that the groups cannot add an amount per shirt to meet their fundraising goals. With the numbers calculated, you'll be able to contact groups and give them a starting point for each shirt they sell. 

Create a list 

Create a list of potential customers who may want to benefit from a new and unique fundraising opportunity. Look for youth athletic teams, parent-teacher organizations in the local schools, youth church groups, and charity organizations. Prioritize your list based on your current capabilities to meet the demands that will be placed on you. For example, if you need to start small due to a lack of finances, gear your efforts towards smaller groups so you are not overwhelmed with order fulfillment. Then, you'll be able to move down the list to larger groups after you've achieved success and have more funds to work with. 

Make sample t-shirts 

If you don't already have samples, make several sample T-shirts to show your potential customers. Consider several different types of shirts, such as classic cotton and moisture-wicking fabric, and long sleeve and short sleeve shirts. If the majority of your list contains youth athletic teams, create samples for each of the various sports. You can opt to create a T-shirt for each team or group you will make a sales pitch to, or you can use your imagination and use fake names and logos or mascots. 

Develop your sales pitches

You'll need to develop sales pitches and practice them so they will be effective. Obviously, you are passionate about your products and well-versed in the art of crafting T-shirts and other garments by using screen printing. But what your audience will want to know is how your business can benefit them. Therefore, start your pitch by explaining that you understand the need for fundraising opportunities for the organizations and how you can help them meet their needs. Come up with two sales pitches: one for the initial cold call and another with more detail. 

Create custom designs 

After you've gotten an interested party or several, order screen printing supplies based on the color and style needs of each interested group. Customize designs specific for each interested group so you can present them to each representative for final approval. While it may be tempting to start printing T-shirts before the fundraising efforts are over, do not get ahead of yourself and start printing T-shirts before you get the final total of T-shirts that are needed to fulfill the orders. However, it's a good idea to order T-shirts and supplies so you'll be ready to start printing as soon as the orders start coming in. You can use any unprinted T-shirts in the future or return them to the supplier.