Hi I'm Josh Ellsworth with Stahls
and Stahls Transfer Express and thanks so much for tuning in to this video, How to
Start Your Own T-Shirt Business from Home. I've helped thousands of t-shirt entrepreneurs get started
and make money with the heat press. A heat press is a high profit machine
and i'm going to prove it to you in this video and show you how to generate your
own income from a spare bedroom a garage
maybe even a living room or a kitchen. I've seen it all visiting different
customers and it all starts with a technology
called a Screen Printed Transfer. At Stahls we have a division called
Transfer Express that manufactures screen printed transfers
that get heat applied with a heat press in four seconds or less it's really
phenomenal. And you can make so much money with
just a small machine like a heat press. A shirt like this
including the garment the labor and the transfer I can print
easily for seven dollars or less. You can sell these all day
for a minimum of twelve dollars possibly much more.
If you're like me and you like math that's five dollars in profit for every
shirt that you print. And you can print 50 of these shirts in
less than an hour generating 250 dollars in income.
All you need to do is learn how to order the right transfer,
make sure you have an accurate press, and make sure you have
customers that you can sell to. I'm going to help you with all three of those
things over the course of this video. And I'd
like to start by explaining the five most popular heat transfer types that
you can print from home let's get started with screen printed
transfers. Screen printing is still one of the most popular technologies for
decorating apparel at retail, and as a business you should be
interested in mimicking that look with your heat press. With screen printed
transfers such as this Goof Proof Transfer from Transfer Express you're
getting actual plastisol ink, the same stuff that's used
in screen printing, onto a paper carrier. The benefit of this
is you can group up multiple images onto one sheet,
as long as they're utilizing the same colors. You can order these and they
start to make sense once you hit 15 shirts or more. You receive them in
all you do is trim them apart and heat apply.
The finished result on the garment feels great just like screen printing this is
the easiest way to decorate t-shirts with a heat press.
The second way I want to show you to heat press a shirt is with heat transfer
vinyl. We call it CAD-CUT. This product is
especially popular because you can do extremely low
quantities cost effectively as little as one and personalization
which is really popular right now. You can buy this by the roll, load it
into what's called a vinyl cutter, their desktop or industrial units.
You cut your vector design in the mirror image, weed away the excess and you get
your pieces ready to press. So unlike screen printed transfers where
we're getting everything all of the colors on one transfer sheet
and they apply it once. When you're working with multiple colors
and heat transfer vinyl we need to layer. So we cut each roll each color
separately, piece them together on the shirt at the press and finish the job.
Because of these steps involved this isn't ideal for
very fine detail artwork because we need to complete the weeding process.
And you really want to keep your color count down, but one of the biggest
benefits of heat transfer vinyl is the range of special effects from
reflective to glitter to metallics to foils. There are
so many finishes that you can complete on a heat press
with heat transfer vinyl. The third way I want to show you to decorate
apparel with your heat press is Print Cut Heat Transfer Vinyl. It's a little
bit different than standard heat transfer vinyl because in this case the
material just comes to you in clear or white. You actually need to
have a printer cutter, solvent, latex one of these large
format machines to be able to print all of the colors that you need onto the
vinyl. Now the benefit of this is i can do
as many colors as I want onto a transfer without increasing my cost. No more
layering involved just print, cut, weed, mask and then you're
ready to heat apply. Print Cut Heat Transfer Vinyl comes in
many different styles and it's great from everything from t-shirts to
athletic wear and there are special effect finishes
such as glitter that you can use with the process.
If your design has three or more colors and it's a low quantity
you're going to want to look at print and cut heat transfer vinyl to complete
the job. Option number four, and this is one I'm
really excited about because it's brand new technology for 2020. We call it a Digital Screen Printed Transfer. So in the past we've had to use print cut heat transfer vinyl for jobs
sizes that really weren't ideal for printing, cutting, weeding, masking.
Completing all the steps that we just talked about.
Or maybe there was too much detail in the design that i didn't want to
weed it. And so you know we have screen printed transfers, you know we have
digital which means printing's involved and so we have this
Digital Screen Printed Transfer. Now you can get a heat transfer that combines
the best of both worlds, digital printing and screen printing.
Allowing for fine detail, cost savings as you go up in quantity,
and lots of opportunity for multiple colors all on one sheet.
Group different designs single step application I love this
technology for decorating t-shirts, performance wear, and more. Okay
I want to take a brief time out now that you've reviewed what I call the core 4
print technologies for heat transfer. Believe it or not
those four print methods that you just learned a little bit about
are going to be used for I would say 95 percent or more of the jobs that you're going to
want to print in your business. And so the natural question is "How do I
decide which one to use?" We've given you some baseline understanding, but there
has to be an easy way to process this. And so just to give you a little
background and some context, I was sitting in a room.
Gosh it was probably about two years ago with some of the largest contract
decorators in our industry out at our Transfer
Express West facility in Arizona. Over the course of a couple
days we were talking about a lot of topics, but one of the topics that came up, one of their challenges was "How do I
equip my sales people to quickly select the right transfer product? So we can do
a quote quickly and we can order the right product quickly and there's some
consistency to how we're doing this." And so here's
what we came up with it's a "What to Use When" grid. And these
big dogs, these experts they're using this grid. And I mean these are the
largest of the largest contract decorators,
but it's something you can use too even in your small startup
from home business. You'll see the four print techniques that we've talked about
so far represented on the grid, and you'll also see along the X and the
Y axis a number of colors in your design or
your logo in quantity of garments. And so all you need to do is figure out
how many colors are in the logo pretty easy to figure out right
what quantity the customer may want to order and go ahead and see where those
two accesses join and that gives you your
print method it's going to be the lowest cost option
that allows you to print your job and most importantly it's going to add
consistency into your selection all of these products are high quality
and durable this just helps you to get to the right one
a little bit faster okay so as i told you uh there is a fifth print method
um that's involved here and it's new technology it's a water-based transfer
it's most like our screen printed transfers but those
are plastisol ink traditional screen printing
uh this is water-based not highly utilized as one of our top four methods
but nonetheless important for you to know about in case
you want to do something super premium on the results so let's show you that
one okay so we have the fifth product that we finally come to and i call this
the filet mignon of heat transfers because it is a
premium finish now we're talking about more new technology that is a
water-based screen printed transfer so you remember
that first screen printed transfer that we applied
well that was plastisol water base is where screen printing is heading
and now you can apply water-based transfers with your heat press
the advantage is that you get something that's buttery soft
on the garment that has stretch that it can apply to practically any fabric
so you want to take your business out of t-shirts and start applying nylon
jackets while water-based screen printed
transfers are the ticket this product is called Aquatru
so there you go we have those five different ways to print apparel at home
with your heat press and by no means does that include all of the
ways I like to say there is a whole umbrella of print
methods and technologies that can go underneath your heat press and as we get
to the end of this video i'm going to show you a lot of different
finishes and styles that you can complete with your heat press from home
but before i get too far i want to make sure that we talk about investing in the
right heat press because as you might imagine this is the
cornerstone of your printing business you're seeing a heat press on my desk
here um the A2Z is the heat press that i'm going to show you
and in the last video footage you saw the Stahls Maxx machine
at Stahls we manufacture a wide selection of heat presses
uh everything from entry level to super high end as we've talked about
from 600 dollars to eight thousand dollars
is the price point but uh regardless of what heat press you select you need to
make sure you have accuracy in time temperature and pressure because
that really makes sure that the items that you are creating
are going to be of high quality and they're going to last there's certainly
a lot of machines out there on the market
that don't deliver accurate time temperature and pressure
we've designed this A2Z heat press specifically for you
for a startup home decorator that wants to get into heat printing and do it
with quality so i'd like to show you the features of this press now
in a previously recorded video the first thing i want you to notice about this
machine is that it swings away this gives me a
complete heat free workspace to place my t-shirts and also
to position my design i have a high quality t-shirt here that
i'm just going to load onto the press and make sure my pressing area is
completely flat by just draping the collar
off of the back edge of the press i programmed the press to 360 degrees
it has accurate digital time and we know that's exactly the temperature that it
is anywhere on this heat pressing surface i'm going
to preheat my garment by locking it down for just a few seconds and then
open the machine there's a nice handle to swing the machine away
and then i'm going to position my design this is a screen printed transfer
and we make them from TransferExpress.com
this is actual screen printing ink and the big secret here is that you can now
screen print from home with this machine with the same
durability that you see in the retail store position your design
where you'd like it onto your garment bring the heat press
back into the location and lock it down this transfer only
takes four to six seconds to heat apply once it's complete i open
the press and i peel the back of my design and i
have a design that sticks and it stays through many washes
now not only can this press print screen printed transfers it can also print heat
transfer vinyl to heat apply the version of heat
transfer vinyl that we have i'm going to go ahead and reduce the
temperature on my digital control board down to 300 degrees and we will set the timer for 10 seconds
we're going to apply a glitter design that's been cut on my
Silhouette cameo vinyl cutter wait for the press to
cool down and i'll show you how to print a bag
when printing an item like a bag there is a lot of seam structure so it's not
just a product you can lay on top of a press
and be able to print with any accuracy because you need to get your item flat
now the A2Z heat press has a semi-threadable design
that means when we look underneath it we can actually split our item open
whether that's from the front or from the back to load it easier to get rid of
that bulk and seam let me show you how it works you just
split the item open and we're going to slide it up on the press
that gets me the start of a flat printing area and then i'll either take
a Heat Printing Pillow or what we call a Print Perfect Pad
and i'll slide it under the item to make sure that that print location which is
right here with my monogram glitter design is
higher it's raised versus all of these seams
now this heat press does have an adjustable
pressure it's right here on the back of the machine
it's okay that's on the back because it is a swing away style press
that locks straight down when you're using it so bring the machine over
center i'm going to retract the pressure just
by turning this counterclockwise and i'm going to lock the machine down
to get a feel for the pressure and i'll just make adjustments until i
get an accurate pressure on the print location that i want to use
i have the machine set we'll position our glitter
heat transfer vinyl design we'll bring the press back over center
and i'll press it for the 300 degrees for 10 seconds so whether you want to
decorate t-shirts or bags you can do it on the a
to z heat press screen printed transfers or heat
transfer vinyl very accurately after it's been applied i'll peel the
backing while it's hot for this design and i have a high quality completed
result very easy to do let's move on to our
next item team uniforms are a big opportunity for
your heat press business i'm going to decorate this mesh
polyester football jersey with a product called thermofilm in
pre-cut numbers for this i'll need another tool that's a
heat printing pillow the heat printing pillow is going
to slide into your jersey to separate the layers of mesh so that
they don't stick together when it comes to applying your design so
i'll just slide the pillow in center the jersey onto my press again i'll swing the press back around
and conduct a preheat i have a nice 15 by 15 inch printing surface which is
going to give me plenty of room to be able to decorate
with single or double digit numbers these come loose with the adhesive on
the back i'll position that into place in this case i'll use a craft paper
cover sheet and then i'll heat apply thermofilm
applies for eight seconds lock the machine down it will count down
to zero and beep when it's completed now let's flip the jersey to be able to
print the back i just need to make some slight
readjustments to my pillow make sure i can see my
print location also going to preheat the back position my back number into place cover and heat apply
thermofilm is the fastest easiest way to number
athletic uniforms in the a to z heat press
makes applying thermal fill numbers easier than ever for the next item i want to show you how
to decorate a jacket this is a quarter zip so we're going to utilize
our semi threadable and be able to split the jacket
over the bottom to load it on and there's still some seams up on the
pressing area and zippers so i'll take my Print Perfect Pad i'll
slide it inside of my jacket into the left chest print location that
i'm trying to hit to make sure my pressure is accurate and any pressure adjustment can be made
on the press and this heat press is capable of
applying any transfer type in this case we're using a digital full
color transfer to put a company logo
onto this item it's a nice 15 by 15 inch printing surface it allows me to see the
placement of my design make sure it's lined up correctly cover and heat apply a high quality completed result
now that you know the products that you can create let's take a look at all of
the features on the A2Z heat press first it has digital time and
temperature which produce accurate quality results
two it has a pressure adjustment that allows the machine
to be raised and lowered to adjust the pressure and to accommodate
the thickness of your item or Print Perfect Pad or Heat Printing Pillow
the press features a nice swing away design that allows for a completely
heat free workspace for both placing your graphic
and also being able to see over top of your item for alignment
next the press has a convenient handle to be able to return the machine
back to the pressing location and a shovel handle design
with a Foam Pad to make for comfort when you're locking down the machine
the base of the press is semi threadable allowing you to split your item
and print more items than ever before we say
everything from A2Z also this machine has interchangeable
attachments there's a knob underneath the lower platen that allows you to
remove the 15 by 15 attachment and load another size if you need to for
printing your item and last but not least this is made in
the usa which means quality accuracy and durability not only
of the machine itself but also of the products that you create
so for less than 700 dollars i think the A2Z heat press is a
great startup option and just to talk a little bit about roi you remember this
shirt that we reviewed at the very beginning of the video
when we talked about the profit potential on this shirt we said
five dollars in profit if we could sell it for twelve dollars which i think is a
really low price uh for 50 shirts so take that five
dollars in profit multiplied by the 50 shirts in an hour
250 dollars an hour so on your list right now one of your
goals should be to sell three jobs of 50 shirts or six jobs of
25 shirts that's gonna mean you're gonna print 150
shirts it's gonna take you less than three hours with screen printed
transfers and you're gonna pay off your machine
and and from then on out it's profits you can get a ton of return
on an investment of a heat press and you can print so much more than just
t-shirts with screen printed transfers as you've already started to learn and
so let's talk about the types of customers that you can reach with the
heat press some let's show you some different
designs some different products some different
finishes that you can achieve with your heat press printing from home
for our first market let's focus on sports and spirit
and take a look at a few different garments and items this is a spike
cancer event shirt something very popular is doing event
shirts for games or special events related to school sports and spirit we have a seat cover here that's
customized with two colors of heat transfer vinyl items
like this as long as you can get them flat can be decorated on
the heat press team uniforms as you saw earlier certainly a big category
from stretchy materials that work on stretch fabrics like this volleyball
uniform to highly durable twill materials
that can just be heat applied that look like they're sewn
on this hockey jersey even sublimated patches that can be applied
with the heat press to get a full color twill design
don't be afraid to expand the items that you're offering here we have the down
the leg print with an electric heat transfer vinyl
that's a nice and easy customization foil one of the top selling effects that
you can do with the heat press in this case we're doing a baseball mom
shirt you can do all sorts of fan apparel and support for sports teams
in schools i love this look because we're combining
glitter with a pattern foil so mixing and matching
different materials helps to have your results stand out and
is going to generate more revenue flowing through your heat press
and here's another great look just selecting a high-end blank item
like this glitter hoodie and pairing it with
glitter and flat heat transfer vinyl creates a great look
so sports school spirit top market to sell to with your
heat press another big potential market that's
available in nearly every community are promotional products to promote a brand
as well as small business apparel so whether that is a face
cover with a corporate brand that you see here
or a neck gator a polo shirt a bag or even
reflective finishes for industries like safety
or construction there are a ton of opportunities for decorating higher
end items with higher end looks on the heat press as well for businesses around
town another very popular use for the heat press is printing graphic tees or
even a clothing line in this case you can see
the detail of the electric and flat material
that's been used to customize this flannel shirt with all sorts of
placement in detailing in the graphic
the heat press is capable of doing rhinestones and the advantage of using
your heat press to decorate like this is you can print to order as you realize
your sale through your ecommerce store etsy or
wherever you're selling even printing on onesies is extremely
popular use for these products a lot of the heat transfer products are cpsia
compliant which means they can be used on
children's apparel it's a great opportunity
we see a lot of customization with higher end
styles with for female fashion in particular
so lots of different looks that you can do for printing graphic tees for
e-commerce fulfillment the next category is personalization
whether that's for general back-to-school opportunities
holidays and the like in this case with the heat transfer
vinyl and a vinyl cutter you can do quantities as little as one this is a
red reflective material we have a holiday placemat that's been
done for the harris family christmas another sales opportunity
personalized stockings another great sales opportunity heading into christmas you can personalize handbags on your
heat press whether that's a clutch like this with
basic or glitter heat transfer film birthday shirts another great
opportunity again great sales opportunity for selling
on online platforms customized with foil
and another example of a tote bag all of these items
very easy to print you just need to find the market that you want to sell to
there's certainly a big opportunity to get group orders for your heat presses
with events in this case we have a full color
digital screen printed transfer for this spring break tee
as well as flock personalization which is a type of heat transfer vinyl
onto this beach towel again both of those opportunities for
spring break type event also walks and runs whether they're for
charity or something else these are very easy and you can heat
press performance wear very easily onto your heat press in this
case we see we can even decorate tie dye this shirt for a county fair or if you
want to do higher end items like full color prints paired with reflective
for racing gear for a weekend or for a brand
all of this is possible another big market is municipalities
whether that's police fire ems paramedic
so many opportunities await in your own local community
so as you can see there are a lot of different items you can print
looks you can achieve in markets that you can reach
with just a heat press printing from home
now i don't want you to get overwhelmed because it actually can be pretty simple
we showed you that what to use when grid up front because it does help with
the product selection process knowing that you can order all of these
items completed for you from transfer express and from Stahls
and when you buy any heat press from Stahls or Transfer
Express we include something called a Marketing Kit
this marketing kit is going to have samples of all the different screen
printed transfer options and digital screen print transfer options and that's
going to be the best way for you to start printing in your business
if you already have a vinyl cutter if you're eyeing up a vinyl cutter
you can also get heat transfer vinyl samples it comes with your a to z heat
press investment as well and so here at Stahls we specialize in
teaching you really how to print items and we have thousands of hours of
footage on our StahlsTV YouTube channel and so
that channel is going to be your best friend so make
sure that you subscribe to the StahlsTV YouTube channel
and you can work through the different videos and we launch about three to five
videos a week teaching you how to make looks that you
have just seen for the different markets and so we'll teach you how to print you
really need to figure out what market you're going to approach who
you're going to sell to who is going to be your customer and i'm guessing if
you're watching this video you may already have some ideas uh to
that end i would recommend that you write those
ideas down who are the top five uh customer types that you're gonna sell
sell to um after you get the types let's say you're going to sell to small
businesses i would encourage you to brainstorm a
list of the sales of the small businesses that you're
going to uh call first this is a start of a marketing plan a sales and
marketing plan and really a plan for your business
if you need more help on marketing i've read an outstanding book
that i'm going to recommend to you it's called "Marketing Made Simple"
and it's written by Donald Miller. I can teach you a lot about sales and
marketing but i'm telling you this book you could probably read it
over the course of a day or two it's going to be a great companion to
our how-to advice on how to print stuff it will teach you how to create a
marketing plan for your business how to find your voice how to really
reach the customers that are going to be able to buy the products so you can get
the return and maybe one day turn this from a side
hustle to a full-time job and generate income
for your household so make sure you're subscribing to the
stahls tv channel if you want to invest in this heat press
you're ready to take that next step in your business
there's links in the description below and that will direct you to the press
into some packages that we've set up with the accessories you're going to
need to get started and i'm going to
encourage you to comment on this video if you have a question about something
that you've watched ask it in the comments section i'm
standing by reviewing the comments as well as our other educators
our entire goal at Stahls and Stahls Transfer Express
is to help you be successful in your apparel decorating business
why when you're successful you buy more t-shirts from us
and you buy more transfers from us and you buy more vinyl from us
and it's a win-win relationship so best of luck as you look to get started
in your heat printing business and we're here if you need help
thanks for watching you
