Starter guide

Custom T-Shirts and Apparel

Put your designs on shirts and hats, and sell what people order.

Around $90
Medium

You put a design people want on a shirt or a hat, and they wear it. The value here is your idea, not the shirt, which is why this business can be great or can bury you in unsold inventory. Everything depends on one rule: never print a shirt nobody has ordered yet.

Start for free

Sell twelve shirts on a picture

Make one design. Mock it up on a photo of a plain shirt so people can see it. Do not print anything.

Then go take orders:

"I'm printing these next week, [your price] each. What size do you want?"

Collect names, sizes, and if you can, the money up front. Twelve orders means print. Four orders means your design isn't there yet, and it cost you nothing to find out.

The plan

Your simple plan

  1. Design for a group that already exists. A team, a club, a grade, a family reunion. Groups buy in bulk. Strangers don't.
  2. Pre-sell every single time. Orders first, print second. This rule never expires.
  3. Collect payment with the order. It funds your print run and it means nobody backs out on you.
  4. Print exactly what's sold, plus a couple extra sizes. Leftovers are money sitting in a bag under your bed.
The gear

What you need, and what you can skip

Depends how you print. Heat transfer at home is the cheap way in.

Get these
  • Blank shirts in the common sizes. Shop this
  • Heat transfer vinyl or printable transfer sheets. Shop this
  • A heat press, or a good iron to start. Shop this
  • Weeding tools for cutting vinyl cleanly. Shop this
  • Parchment or a teflon sheet to protect the shirt. Shop this
Skip these for now
  • A screen printing setup. Big money, big learning curve.
  • A garment printer. That's a real business investment, not a starting one.
  • Every size in every color. Print the sizes people ordered.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. We only list gear the guide actually calls for, and the skip list is there because most of it you do not need yet.

The lesson from the book

Andre once bought supplies he didn't need yet because having them made him feel like a real business owner. It didn't make him a dollar. Same trap here, and it's a big one, because a stack of blank shirts feels like being ready. It isn't. It's money you can't spend, sitting in cardboard. Take the order. Then print the shirt. In that order, every time.

The full program

Ready to build the whole thing?

The full Young Founder kit walks you through everything Andre and Sophie learned: how to pre-sell, price for profit, and grow without a closet full of things nobody bought. The book, the workbook, the videos, and more.

See what is inside the kit

Questions about this idea

What should a kid charge to walk a dog?

A kid walking dogs in their own neighborhood usually starts between $10 and $18 for a thirty minute walk. Professional walkers average about $21 for the same walk.

Read the answer

How much money does a kid need to start a business?

Less than almost anyone expects, and for a lot of these ideas the honest answer is nothing until somebody has already said yes to a price.

Read the answer

How does a kid find their first customer?

Ten people who already know them, one prepared sentence, and an easy way for each of them to say no.

Read the answer

What do I do when my kid wants to quit?

Find out whether this is not working or just not fun right now. Those look identical from outside and they need opposite responses.

Read the answer

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Young Founder

A program from Founder's Best Friend. Built for kids 8 to 18 who want something of their own.

Young Founder, 2026