I would think I would Know Better At My Age
Why in the world would I start a new enterprise at this point in my life?
Somehow, I came up with this feeble idea that I should monetize my blog site. I scratched my head and thought and thought, how?
Tee shirts and bumper stickers sounded like a great idea and something I could actually do.
I dismissed other ideas for a host of reasons. They were either too boring or too much work or just plain lame IMHO.
How hard could it be to come up with some witty one liners or maybe two liners and a drawing to put on a shirt? Actually, the tee shirt ideas flowed right out of my brain like there was water on it. It proved to be the easiest part. I’m up to about a dozen different sayings and still creating! This is the fun part.
And now for the rest of the story.
This Should Be A Snap, Right?
I researched things like the best kind of ink. I wanted the shirts to last. Then there was the proper paper to transfer the images to the shirts. That proved to be simple enough. The instructions on how to do it were straightforward as well. This should be a snap! Off I go, purchasing fresh color ink for the venerable inkjet printer. I ordered the proper transfer paper at the same time.
You Needed The Right Ingredients
Heck, even the boss pitched in with her idea for a shirt design. I love it too! See above and tell me what you think of her idea. I think I’ll keep her around.
The supplies showed up on time and as ordered. That was where the troubles began. I bought genuine HP ink. It had the right ingredients for making long lasting images on fabric.
I Have Not Used Colored Ink In A Long Time
I have not used color ink for years. Black text was my standard. Behold the color cartridges didn’t fire up. First, I started going through the numerous maintenance procedures that HP provides with their products. I got zippo. The next stop was HP help desk. We went through their advanced maintenance procedures. I have used color in the distant past with this printer and had no issues. We made no headway except to make plenty of extra scratch pads. When we hit the wall, HP says my printer could be broken and may need to be replaced. Not what I needed to hear.
My Original Premise
My original premise was to spend a couple of bucks on ink and specialty transfer paper and start a project to see if it had merit and could gain traction. Now this!
I had to mirror the images too. Not as easy as two, four, six either. I would have expected that I could select the whole page and hit reverse or mirror (queue the exasperated sigh). Nope, the images must be mirrored individually. No complaint there. The text parts though, they had to be saved into a separate gif. file, then cut and pasted in the master file in the right place. It was wasted time consumption.
Looks Like I have A Broken Printer
So here I sit so brokenhearted with a broken printer and stalled plan. The thought came to me to buy a color cartridge for Kathy’s printer. I am reticent to do that because the same condition exists. She never prints in color and the worn out cartridge has been in it for years. I hate wasting money. I think I will try asking my friends if they will print a page or two for me on theirs. If it transfers properly onto a test tee shirt, I won’t mind nearly as much with purchasing a new printer.
I Reached Out And Asked
I reached out and asked a friend who does design and sell tee shirts. He told me his experience taught him that tee shirts were an expensive way to start. There were easier ways to market test ideas. Tees require lots of inventory on hand. You need multiple sizes and colors for every different design. I already had way too many of those and I just got started! John recommends I try bumper stickers and just plain old stickers. According to my friend, they are wildly popular. Go figure. He also recommended refrigerator magnets. He says people buy them all the time. These are cheap products to try, with little on hand inventory needed that will give you a feel for people’s interest. I think the concept has merit. What say you??
