Ecommerce start up

This is a blog about our store www.1000tshirts.co how it started and the story behind it.

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Crooked Brook Art Sutdio an example of quality

One of the problems faced by many designers and artist who are getting started in the streetwear-fashion, apparel and decorated apparel business is that more often than not, they have to operate out of their apartment; making patterns and cutting fabric on the floor or kitchen table and sewing their own orders.

They finally get a break with a decent size order, but it is too big for them to produce by themselves but not big enough to meet the minimums of a contractor.

Or their business is out growing the space they have or they have space but not the tools, equipment, machines and skilled labor needed to take it to the next level.

Crooked Brook is a unit of the atelier division of an art studio that offers full service apparel design, pattern making, sample making, private-label small lot production and embroidery. Their services are perfect for small designers and artist who are getting started in the streetwear, fashion, apparel and decorated apparel business.

Since 1989, they’ve built a strong reputation of providing top-notch apparel designs, patterns, fit and production samples for many brand name catalogs and retailers, as well as wardrobe and costumes for movies, television and theater.

Crooked Brook works with knits and wovens and all of their garments and accessories are proudly made to order at their production facility in Utica, New York, U.S.A. They make everything from suits, shirts, Hawaiian shirts, pants, vests, jackets, coats, dresses, skirts, gowns, jeans, boxer shorts, Hawaiian shirts, to martial arts and yoga outfits.

Because of their unparalleled attention to detail in tailoring, Crooked Brook has been awarded a Supima® licensing agreement. These contracts are not awarded lightly. The applicants must meet requirements insuring the highest level of quality and integrity for any products bearing the Supima® brand.

Crooked Brook also sells buttons and fabric by the yard.

Their embroidery digitizing team consists of the some of the world's most talented artists with over 100 years of combined experience in machine embroidery digitizing.

In addition, Crooked Brook offers promotional products, items, decorated apparel and accessories such as hats, fleece vests, jackets and blankets, sweatshirt blankets, shirts, polo shirts, golf shirts, jackets, hoodies, sweatshirts, tote bags and aprons that can be customized with the following apparel decorating methods:

Embroidery

Patches

Tackle Twill

Appliqué

Sublimation

Direct to Garment Printing (DTG)

Although the most popular method of printing t-shirts is screen printing, Crooked Brook t-shirts are printed using Direct To Garment Printing (DTG) which is the process of using inkjet printers to print an image directly onto t-shirts without the use of screens like with screen printing, which requires a lot of setup e.g., creating screens for each color. In addition, DTG printing uses eco-friendly, water soluble ink, unlike some screen printing methods that layer Plastisol (a suspension of PVC particles in a plasticizer) on top of the t-shirt. The only requirement for DTG printing is for the image to be high resolution, resulting in photograph quality printing with no setup fee or minimums for custom t-shirts.

Crooked Brook ships worldwide. Hours of operations are 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. EST, seven days a week. Reach them at [phone] to learn more.

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The art of a niche market: Crooked Brook

As we have mentioned in previous posts, when establishing a new company take into consideration the niche that you wish to enter. As an example of this we have invited our friends of Crooked Brook. And I must say we have to start from the beginning, these guys to such a fantastic work in an art form that is almost disappearing that you can't understand their business unless you have the hole background.

Embroidery is the art of decorating a surface, typically fabric, with designs created by using a needle and thread (or yarn). Other materials such as metal strips, pearls, beads, quills, pieces of fabric, and sequins may be incorporated into the designs for more elaborate and unique creations.  Embroidery began as a form of hand sewing and eventually evolved into a type of machine sewing and is now mostly done by computerized embroidery machines. The methods, styles and intricacies of hand embroidery have evolved, but the fundamental techniques and types of stitching have remained the same - chain stitch, buttonhole or blanket stitch, running stitch, satin stitch, cross stitch, etc. Although machine embroidery resembles hand work in appearance, their construction is quite different as hand embroidery uses a single thread, and machine work relies on the use of multiple threads - a top thread and a bobbin.

[This is an example of their work.]

  Crooked Brook is a unit of the atelier division of an art studio that offers full service apparel design, pattern making, sample making, private-label small lot production, embroidery and embroidery digitizing. Their embroidery digitizing team consists of the some of the world's most talented artists with over 100 years of combined experience in machine embroidery digitizing. All of their work is done at their production facility in Utica, New York, U.S.A. and they are willing to work with small designers and artist who are looking to add embroidery into their streetwear, fashion or decorated apparel lines.

Once the artist’s design is digitized here is a list of some of the things it can be embroidered on

Jackets- A jacket is a garment with sleeves that covers the upper body and fastens in the front. Although jackets are usually waist or hip length, lighter and less insulating than a coat, the words jacket and coat interchangeably.

The word jacket comes from the French jaquette, which comes from the Middle French noun jaquet, which refers to a small or lightweight tunic. In Modern French, jaquette is synonymous with jacket.

Hats - There was a time when a custom hat meant an embroidered baseball hat.

Today, with all of the different brands, styles, profiles, fabrics and colors of hats and caps to choose from, finding the right hat to customize can be overwhelming;

Golf hats, baseball hats, trucker hats, fitted hats, mesh hats, flex fit hats, low profile and high profile hats, structured and unstructured hats, garment washed and pigment dyed caps, to name a few.

Sweatshirts - Today, men’s sweatshirt are now available in what were once considered women’s colors and women’s sweatshirts are no longer smaller versions of men’s, with silhouettes cut specifically for a woman’s shape. There are long sleeve, short sleeve and sleeveless sweatshirts, crewneck, turtle neck and mock turtle neck sweatshirts, sweatshirts made in high-performance fabrics, knitted silk, merino wool or other fabrics.

With all of the different brands, styles, profiles, fabrics and colors of sweatshirts to choose from, there is a sweatshirt for everyone.

Hoodies - Hoodie (hoody) is slang for a hooded sweatshirt, whether it is a zip up hoodie or a pullover hoodie.

Like sweatshirts, men’s hooded sweatshirts are now available in what were once considered women’s colors and women’s hoodies are made with silhouettes cut specifically for a woman’s figure. Hoodies are also available in fabrics such as organic cotton, bamboo and some brands offer them in high-performance fabrics, merino wool, knitted silk or other fabrics.

There are long sleeve, short sleeve, 3/4 length sleeve and sleeveless hoodies.

Polo Shirts - Polo shirts are also called "polos" or tennis shirts and they became so popular on golf courses, people started calling them golf shirts. Although the words "polo shirt" and "golf shirt" are used interchangeably, the term "polo shirt" is more popular. In the sport of polo, polo shirts are called polo jerseys. When customized with an embroidered logo or patch and given as gifts or giveaways, they are called promotional polo shirts. Promotional polo shirts are one of the most popular promotional apparel items because they make great corporate gifts and are an excellent way to build brand recognition and promote your business.

Shirts - Button down shirts, Oxford shirts, denim shirts, chambray shirts, work shirts, and camp shirts. The shirt was an item of men’s underwear until the twentieth century and in the eighteenth century, instead of underpants; men “relied on the long tails of shirts … to serve the function of drawers (Yow!!).

If you are a designer or artist and are interested in adding embroidery to your streetwear, fashion or decorated apparel line; Crooked Brook ships worldwide. Hours of operations are 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. EST, seven days a week. Reach them at info[at]crookedbrook[dot]com or call (three one five) 733-1992 to learn more.

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KIS! Keep it Simple: The one page bussines plan

If you have been following this blog or just started to following our blog welcome! If you've had your Harajuku Moment and have selected that area were your passion and what others care about (or substitute your passion with technical ease or ability to produce) now you have to start planning  for this.

I recently read the preview of Disciplined Entrepreneurship which states that there are 24 steps to become a successful entrepreneur and they start off with Market Segmentation, Selecting a Beachhead Market (BHM), En User Profile and so on and so forth. My advice, if you are a rookie e-entrepreneur as I was before I started  1000tshirts.co  you should keep it simple. 24 for steps for disciplined entrepreneurship will scare anyone who is stuck in a 9 to 5 job because its 24 steps too many from the get go. Maybe if you are already a successful entrepreneur this book will help you to improve your business, but its not good start up point.

On the other hand, you should take a look at the "The one page business plan"  this will help you to get started to get an idea of the business plan that came from your Harajuku Moment. Just to prove a point, I've put the answer to the questions of the one page business plan here in this blog post to give you a clear example of what you should put down.

Overview:

What you will sell? T-shirts with happy,funny and cheeky positive messages.

Who will buy it? Men and women between 18 and 35 years old who are unique, first adopters and happy, funny people.

How will your business idea help people? our tshirts will be remainder that life can and should be different. Our lives are positive and happy if and our #tshirts provide a constant remainder of this and other important aspects of life.

Hustling

How will customers learn about your business? We will have an online presence at www.1000tshirts.co and social networks such as facebook, twitter and tumblr.

How can you encourage referrals? We will implement a lifetime giveaway for every 100 registrations in our site. Once the site has XX thousand dollars in sales we will implement a premium customer referral customer and give away 5 dollars for every referral that makes a purchase in our online store to be spent in our store.

Success (Please note that success is defined in your terms; becoming the biggest online retail store is a real goal. Although, I advise that you break it down into manageable steps to avoid frustration and you give up).

Number of customers: www.1000tshirts.co will be a successful when there are 500 paying customers/month for six months.

Alternative answer: www.1000tshirts.co will be successful  when it reaches an annual net income of USD $240.000 which is $20.000 per month. 

KA-CHING:

What will you charge? I will charge between $35 and $50 per tshirt.

How will you get paid? (Note: there are various means of payment, such as paypal). Directly through my shopping cart which will deposit the money in my merchant account.

How else will you make money from this project? Currently, the only income stream is by selling t-shirts.

Obstacles

Specific concern or question 1? You can fill this out. But always, always provide a solution.

I hope this example of the one page BP helps you to get the momentum to get started. You might ask why I'm helping people out with this subject if I own an online store. The answer is quite simple: If I can help someone to get out of the death by 9 to 5 life style it will make me happy, even happier if this business is a success.

Remember, if you have a goal, always take one step towards a newly acquired goal!

Oh yes, I almost forgot. This would be Step 3 in your process of getting your e-commerce start up. In our next post, I will set up a "e-commerce business" which its total cost should be less than 200 USD. I'll document the entire process on a step by step process so that you can take note that it can be done in one week/month or your specific time frame. 

Cheers

Andy!

founder of www.1000tshirts.co

[1000tshirtsco]

The basics of a start up

Once you found your "Harajuku Moment" as mentioned in my previous post. You have to find out what you want to do with your time and how to capitalize on that.

Chris Guillebeau mentions in his book The $100 Start up that you should give your customers the fish. This comes from the old saying that states "give a man a fish, and you feed him for day. Teach him how to fish and you'll feed him for a life time".  The message is clear, people are not interested in doing themselves what others can do for them. So with that in mind, always now that if you are interested in something there is a good chance that other people will be interested in it too.

Guillebeau says that there is an intersection between your passion and what others care about;  and this is where your business lies.  In my perspective, this is just the easiest way to keep you motivated when things get tough. Case in point lets view Tim Ferris first business, he started an online store were he sold Quicken which is a nutrient supplement for body builders, although I don't know Mr. Ferris personally or his passion I can say that very few people have a "passion" for selling this type of product. The intersection he saw was more simple which is a market niche unsatisfied and an interest of others. Between those intersections was were he found his "muse" an exploited the opportunity to make a profit.

Tim Ferris puts it best in his book the Four Hour Work Week by stating that you should find a market niche. A niche market is the subset of the market on which a specific product is focusing on. For example, you live near by the mountains and there is a lot of people interested in biking through the mountains. Therefore, there could be a niche market for those people and the accessories they require to ride. For more examples you should check out http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/ . Now we come to why 1000tshirts.co is a tshirt company and say, not a health product company.

The reason is simple, I've always loved funny humor t-shirts. And consequently, I found that although there are loads of companies selling t shirts in the online market none of them appealed to my sense of humor. Therefore, I decided to launch myself in this line of business.

My thought process wasn't that difficult or complex, I just looked for something that I wanted to buy and found out that there wasn't anything quite as what I envisioned. I then started to work on the project, which will be the subject of my next post. Once you've found your idea were to start, how to start and more importantly before you start what to test. 

On that note, of my personal research the e-entrepreneurs that have been participating in online forums for a while before they start their venture usually get a lot of support from their forums. May be if you participate in a forum constantly you can find ideas for your muse in there. Don't try to solve the energy problem of the world or you won't get started ever. Start simple; and that's it.

Thank you for reading this blog! See you next time!

Andy,

e-entrepreneur of www.1000tshirts.co

[1000tshirtsco]

Alan Watts

What do you desire? What makes you itch? What sort of a situation would you like? Let’s suppose, I do this often in vocational guidance of students, they come to me and say, well, "we’re getting out of college and we have the faintest idea what we want to do". So I always ask the question, "what would you like to do if money were no object? How would you really enjoy spending your life?" Well, it’s so amazing as a result of our kind of educational system, crowds of students say well, we’d like to be painters, we’d like to be poets, we’d like to be writers, but as everybody knows you can’t earn any money that way. Or another person says well, I’d like to live an out-of-doors life and ride horses. I said you want to teach in a riding school? Let’s go through with it. What do you want to do? When we finally got down to something, which the individual says he really wants to do, I will say to him, you do that and forget the money, because, if you say that getting the money is the most important thing, you will spend your life completely wasting your time. You’ll be doing things you don’t like doing in order to go on living, that is to go on doing things you don’t like doing, which is stupid. Better to have a short life that is full of what you like doing than a long life spent in a miserable way. And after all, if you do really like what you’re doing, it doesn’t matter what it is, you can eventually turn it – you could eventually become a master of it. It’s the only way to become a master of something, to be really with it. And then you’ll be able to get a good fee for whatever it is. So don’t worry too much. That’s everybody is – somebody is interested in everything, anything you can be interested in, you will find others will. But it’s absolutely stupid to spend your time doing things you don’t like, in order to go on spending things you don’t like, doing things you don’t like and to teach our children to follow in the same track. See what we are doing, is we’re bringing up children and educating to live the same sort of lifes we are living. In order that they may justify themselves and find satisfaction in life by bringing up their children to bring up their children to do the same thing, so it’s all retch, and no vomit it never gets there.

And so, therefore, it’s so important to consider this question: What do I desire?

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Why we started up

www.1000tshirts.co started after reading the 4 hour work week, the $100 start up, Far From It and other books on the subject. Additionally www.businessoffashion.com and the articles of Ari Bloom helped me decide to start up this company.

Just a quick background on me, the founder of the company, I'm a Colombian born who moved to new york. I studied law and economics in my home country and migrated to the USA a couple of years ago. After a few years of working on a law firm I was burnt out, tired and honestly fed up with the white collar corporate greed that I had grown a costumed to. This article (http://www.businessoffashion.com/2007/02/the-business-of-fashion-basics-1-setting-up-your-own-fashion-business-what-do-i-need-to-know-first.html) starts with a basic question about wanting to run a business? And honestly, I got to a point of my life that I could make a living out of my freelance consulting but I wanted to do more. And after understanding that as an business man you and I can find the money to live and the funds required to run a company; I decided to start up www.1000tshirts.co

Let me brake it to you in one sentence: Its not easy, but its worth it. The first step I took was finding what Tim Ferris calls in his "4 hour body" book the Harajuku Moment. This is basically translated to the moment when I decided to take a different path and this is the main goal of this post. To explain to you what made me decide to start up this project. 

It was December 2012; I was working in the law form and we had to file an application in Colombia on behalf of the Ministry of Trade of this country. I was working with my Colombian colleagues and the goal was to submit the application before December 28/2012 because of a legal requirement that had been issued in the latest tax reform.

While I was working non stop since December 15 my grand father was hospitalized because his heart was failing. Between December 15 and December 24 my mother called me several times to find out if could leave the office for a couple of hours to see my grand father and say my goodbyes. My response in several calls was "I'm busy, I'm sorry. I can't make it at this time." And other times I didn't even answer the phone. I was so involved in the rat race that the only thing that I could think was executing the job assigned and complete the filing before December 28.

It was Christmas eve 8 p.m., in my home country Christmas is celebrated at midnight on the 24 of December. In my mind, I only thought that I could work until 10 p.m. before going home and I would still be "on time" for dinner and midnight to give out the gifts. To add to my negligence, I didn't even notice that I hadn't bought gifts for my sisters or brother or even my mother didn't get a gift. I left the office at 9.30 p.m. and got home by 10 p.m.

I was tired and hungry. My first action was to head to the fridge to get a small snack; I didn't even notice that there was no music. That everyone was waiting for me. I felt the heaviness of the emotions of my family members while they looked at me and told me that my Grandfather was in intensive care preparing for surgery and they didn't know if they would make it. At this point I was so numb, so disconnected of life that I asked "What is the probability that he will make it?"  no feeling went through my head, I just wanted the statistics of the surgery.

My family members looked at me with disgust; with good reason in retrospect. My response at this point was "What, I'm just asking".

At this point it hit me, although this is my Harajuku Moment, it took me a few more weeks to understand what had happened. I was so disconnected with life that I was on the brink of loosing my Grandfather and I couldn't feel anything. At this point, I decided to make a change. And I started to research how to create more free time and that's how I ended up reading the books and articles I mentioned before. So pardon me Ari but the first step towards a business, any business not just a fashion business is to have a Harajuku Moment and decide what's it going to be and how it's going to be.

The next post will be actually in the difficulties and resources to get started!