If you’re thinking of starting a company that prints on tee-shirts, you’ll be in good company. Evidence is ample that it’s easily a billion dollar a year industry.

Printing on tee-shirts can combine one’s love of art with one’s need for commerce. Printing graphics on shirts and selling them will require you to have some basic skills in both art and business. It is also important to make sure you have the best printer as well as ink technologies to make the best quality tee shirts.

As in getting into practically any business, there are numerous ways to become an owner of, or starting a graphic tee-shirt company:

1) You can start small, and on your own, and set up your operation in a corner of the garage or basement. Days will have you going out and landing business, nights will see you printing and packaging shirts for delivery. It will probably contribute to your success if you have a few ‘regular’ accounts to start out, and you can look to your family, friends, and business connections to start these relationships. Some good places to start might be your church; a child’s scout troop or sports team. A club or YMCA you belong to. Perhaps you’re active in a local civic club like Rotary or Kiwanis?  These organizations are rife with opportunity for your start-up business.  Start small, grow as you go. If you are starting out on your own, you will have to have an “eye for design” or at least be able to critique other’s work. If you’re starting small you can hire free-lance designers to do layouts and graphics.

2) If you’re impatient for growth, you might consider starting out larger; renting a space, hiring employees, purchasing or leasing equipment. You will have to make a budget in advance and plan on operating for several months without making enough income to cover your expenses; that’s just the nature of start-ups. If you don’t have any familiarity with this kind of operation, look to your local Small Business Administration’s SCORE department. SCORE is made up of executives from a wide variety of industries who donate their time and expertise to helping entrepreneurs.

3) Consider a franchise. There are a number of franchisors in the business segment of graphic printing, including some who specialize in tee-shirt printing. By purchasing a franchise, you are buying a “blueprint” to success; in addition to an established brand name and operational manuals, you will receive training, possible discounts on your initial equipment purchases, ongoing support, and a stream of business leads from national or regional advertising campaigns conducted by the franchisor. If you’re very ambitious, some franchisors offer “master territories” whereby you are purchasing the rights to develop a specific geographical territory. This might be a city, state, or region. You are making a commitment to the franchisor to open a certain number of stores in the territory within a certain time period. Depending on the agreement, some companies require you to open and operate the stores; other companies allow you to sell the rights to the stores within the territory, essentially making you a “sub-franchisor.”

When you purchase a franchise, the company will require you to pay a license fee, be able to demonstrate you have a certain amount of operating capital, and you will generally pay them a small percentage of your annual revenue in return for the support and advertising they are paying for you. Franchise fees can vary from $10,000 to many hundreds of thousands of dollars; the license you are purchasing will be for a set number of years, at the end of which you may negotiate to stay with the brand or move out on your own as an independent operation.

4) Another way to enter the business is to purchase an existing operation. Perhaps a local graphic tee-shirt company owner is ready for retirement; perhaps they have other businesses they must attend to. There are many, many reasons people sell businesses, but in the end, it comes down to one of two views: problem or opportunity. If a business owner is selling because he is having problems, you may be able to purchase the company for less than its fair market value.  If the owner has reached a point where he desires to capitalize on his success, expect to pay more.  There are many formulas to determine the value of an existing business, and your accountant or lawyer can help you determine a fair market value for an enterprise you may be looking at. To get started in looking at businesses for sale, look in the local Yellow Pages under “Business Brokers.” Some commercial realtors also sell businesses. Commercial realtors specialize in selling office, retail, and medical buildings, apartment complexes and land, instead of houses.

There are many sources you can call upon in your community to decide whether or not starting or business is a good move for you; of course you will have to make sure all of your family is in agreement as well.

Before entering into any agreement to buy an existing business or a franchise, be sure to check with your account and lawyer to make sure that all of the paperwork is in order.