December 1, 2024 • 46 mins
What happens when a former high school biology teacher-turned-digital marketing strategist sits down with a print-on-demand expert to uncover the secrets to e-commerce success? In this episode of The WE Pivot Podcast, I chat with Shimmy Morris, an entrepreneur who transformed his passion for design and business into a thriving career in print-on-demand, Amazon FBA, and online education. Together, we dive into the essentials of building a profitable print-on-demand business, from creating designs that resonate with customers to leveraging platforms like Printify and the power of AI to streamline marketing. Whether you're just starting out or looking to refine your strategy, this episode is packed with practical tips and inspiration to help you build a business that lasts.
If you want to get more information about Print On Demand please check out Shimmy's Print On Demand Hub. https://www.theprintondemandhub.com/
Ready to Take the Next Step?
If you're looking to elevate your digital presence with a new website or explore digital marketing strategies for your business, reach out to us:
📧 Email: tona@haywoodsbs.com
Special Offer for Listeners: Mention that you found us through the podcast when you email, and you'll receive a discount on your next service!
Thank you for listening to today's episode! Don't forget to subscribe for more expert insights on digital marketing for women entrepreneurs.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tona (00:02):
The we Pivot podcast is for you if you're a woman who
has recently pivoted intoentrepreneurship.
You'll find digital marketingtips, trends and strategies to
help grow your business intoday's digital world.
Join Tona and Al Haywood as wehave fun breaking down all
things digital marketing.
So sit back, relax and enjoythe show.
(00:28):
Hello everyone and welcome backto the we Pivot podcast.
Today, I have a special treatfor you.
I will be interviewing ShimmyMorris, who is an entrepreneur
with various e-commerce stores,with a main focus around
creating helpful content onYouTube so others can build
(00:49):
their own brands, and I amexcited to have you here, Shumi.
Thank you for being here.
Shimmy (00:55):
Thanks for having me.
I'm looking forward this isgoing to be fun.
Tona (00:59):
Yes, it will be.
So let me tell the audiencefirst how I found out about you,
because this is an interestingstory.
It's been years, I don't evenknow how long, maybe four or
five years, I'm not sure but Iwas following a Christian
influencer.
(01:19):
Well, she's a Christianinfluencer, her name is Crystal
Evans Hurst and basically shehad told her audience about
someone who had helped her withFacebook ads.
And I guess at the time maybeyou did a video about doing
Facebook ads and this is thebest way to do it.
(01:40):
Now, can you tell me how longago that was, because I really
don't know.
Shimmy (01:44):
I think my Facebook ads video my first one came out
eight years ago maybe, or sevenyears ago.
Okay, I have made more recentones, like four years ago.
Yeah, there's a few.
Tona (01:55):
Okay, well, I know it's been a minute.
I know that for a fact.
So I found you from that video.
And then, all of a sudden,since I was getting into print
on demand back in probably 2015,16, around in that area, the
(02:15):
other videos that you were doingwere starting to pique my
interest.
So I was like, well, let mejust keep watching.
And you had so many videos,such great videos, and you give
so much information to youraudience that it's amazing,
especially since you're givingmost of this all for free.
(02:36):
So that's what I definitelyliked about your content.
So that is how I found outabout you.
Nice, that's cool, yeah.
So I figured I would let youknow that, if you could tell my
audience.
Have you always done print ondemand or did you pivot into
this?
Were you doing something elsebefore?
(02:58):
Because this is the we Pivotpodcast and most of our
entrepreneurs are coming fromsomewhere else and coming into
this space.
I used to be a high schoolbiology all kinds of science
teacher and now I'm not onlydoing print-on-demand.
Actually, my husband and I owna digital marketing company and
the print-on-demand piece isactually it was one of our
(03:22):
foundations, so that's kind ofhow that works For sure.
Shimmy (03:26):
Put on demand isn't my only thing.
I was selling throughout schoolas a teacher.
You probably know that kids dosell in school, despite not
being allowed.
Yes, I used to sell a lot inschool and then during that
phase I kind of got into sellingin general.
So I created an eBay store andstarted buying in bulk and
selling on eBay.
And then when I left school, Ileft school after A-levels at 18
(03:49):
.
And I did a six-month gap yearI guess a six-month gap, it
wasn't a year and I came backand I went straight into
t-shirts.
But I went into t-shirts from afocus of advertising, not Etsy,
amazon design.
It was more how could I find anaudience that's really targeted
that I could create a designfor?
And then I created a design forthat audience, rather than
(04:12):
create design and then try andfind an audience.
So I did that for a bit of time.
For quite a bit of time it didreally really well.
And then I, as you say, pivotedto various other things.
So I did a lot of freelance.
I am also a photographer and avideographer.
I created an Amazon FBAbusiness with my brother which
was very successful.
(04:32):
I did a lot of coaching andtraining and teaching.
It starts out in my local areawhere I live, with people who
lived around here who wanted toleave their nine-to-five and it
was a very in-person training.
We'd go and get food or I'd goto their house and I'd actually
help them one-on-one, and thenone person basically said to me
this is really good, why don'tyou try and do this more?
(04:53):
And I was like I can't have thetime.
So he gave me the idea ofcreating a course and that whole
saga.
So I did that and thenthroughout that time, I started
YouTube, which has always beengreat fun.
And since starting YouTube,it's got me back into
print-on-demand.
I did a big six or seven-yearbreak from print-on-demand and
(05:13):
then YouTube got me back into it.
Tona (05:15):
Wow, and are you enjoying being in the print-on-demand
space?
Shimmy (05:20):
Yeah and no.
It has its ups and it has itsdowns.
So I like print-on-demandbecause I'm very creative, I
love art, I love designing, so Ilike that element of it.
I hate the cutthroat element ofit, where people are ripping
people off and doing anythingthey can to get a sale, and it's
one of those businesses wherepeople don't want to help
someone else because they'rescared that it'll backfire.
(05:41):
But no, in terms of just aprint-on-demand business, I do
like it.
I mean, I started a neweCommerce brand in January 2024,
which I've got big plans for toscale up in 2024.
So that's a big, big focus ofmine at the moment.
Tona (05:57):
Okay, now, before I go to the next question, I know that
there was a time when you had avideo and you told your audience
that you were doingprint-on-demand, but you were
also working another job.
Is that still?
Shimmy (06:13):
Yeah, so I got From YouTube.
I actually got recruited by acompany in Canada to work on
PrettyMerch, which is theprint-on-demand app.
I haven't actually saidanything, but as of January, I'm
not really working thereanymore.
I'm working there a bit.
I'm now a very, very, veryshort-time consultant for them,
(06:37):
but it was full-time, it wasfull-on, it was doing various
things and now it's veryinfrequent.
Tona (06:43):
I was just wondering, because I was like I knew I saw
a video that said he was doingit and I was like, oh, are you
going to be doing it?
Because you said it was prettyflexible so you would be able to
do that.
You would still be able to doyour videos and things like that
.
But then I saw you ramping upwith your videos and I was like
man, it must be nice to be ableto do both.
So I figured I would just askto find it.
Shimmy (07:11):
So starting January, I've scaled back drastically
with it, and then, startingFebruary, I've just hired a
video editor.
So starting February, I'llhopefully be going to three
videos a week.
So ramping up YouTube, yeah,potentially starting a second
channel, but we'll see.
Tona (07:22):
Okay, all right, sounds good.
What do you feel are the keyfactors for success when it
comes to print-on-demand?
I know for myself 2020,.
I had one print-on-demandcompany that I was working with
and, based off of everythingthat was going on, I actually
(07:42):
had to shut down my store.
I had to just tell everybodyhey, you know, we'll be back,
hopefully soon.
And then I had to researchother print on demand companies
for the items that I was tryingto sell and it was.
I mean, re-uploading all mythings to another store was not
fun, or redoing productdescriptions wasn't the best,
(08:05):
but actually branching out toanother print-on-demand company
that I actually got to know thembecause I think they were
starting, it's been the bestrelationship since what?
Shimmy (08:17):
company do you use at the moment?
Tona (08:19):
I use Print Melon at the moment.
Nice, I believe at the timewhen I was starting, I feel like
they were starting too.
They had kind of just got onthe scene and I was able to talk
to the owner.
I actually have a podcast withthe owner of the company, so it
was a really great interview.
It's been a really greatworking environment and to me
(08:41):
now it seems like working withthe smaller companies it might
be a little bit better thanalways working with the big ones
.
But tell me your thoughts.
Shimmy (08:53):
I think it's down to two mainly your consistency and the
quality of your design.
And the reason why I say thesetwo is okay.
So you've got to start withconsistency.
If you're not consistent, youcan't expect anything, not even
put on demand.
So you've got to start withconsistency.
If you're not consistent, youcan't expect anything, not even
put on demand, just anything.
You want to get fitter andyou're not consistently working
out and eating healthy.
Not going to happen.
So it starts with consistency.
But then I say to peoplebecause some people ask well,
(09:15):
I've been consistent.
Six straight months I've beendoing this and I haven't got any
sales.
Shift to design, so to design.
So if you're consistent and youtick that box, great.
If you're still not gettingsales, then chances are your
designs are really bad.
And lots of people skip thistopic, avoid it.
They don't want to hurtanyone's feelings and I don't
know if you remember, but I usedto do a segment on my channel
(09:36):
called Are your Designs Any Good?
And I literally had lots ofpeople send in, hundreds, if not
thousands of people sendingdesigns and I would review them
and make videos about them and99% of those designs were
absolutely atrocious.
And the issue around designs isand the reason why I think it's
such a big topic and I actuallymade a video about this today
the reason why I think it's sucha big topic is people will sit
(09:58):
there and let's say they spendan hour creating a design.
They've got an emotionalconnection with that design,
they've spent time on it,they've been looking at it, they
think it's good themselves.
They haven't stepped back andactually thought is this good?
They haven't sent it to otherpeople and said is this good?
So their whole thought processis completely warped because
obviously they're going to likeit.
(10:18):
They made it, they spent hourson it, so why wouldn't they like
it?
Even if it's bad, they'llprobably trick themselves into
liking it.
So what I found is for a lot ofpeople struggling to get sales,
as soon as I say send me fiveof your designs, I'm like, yeah,
that's why you're struggling toget sales.
These designs are just not verygood.
So the easiest thing that youcan do with that is just send
(10:39):
your design to a friend orfamily and just say be honest.
If it's bad, just tell me I.
To a friend or family and justsay be honest, if it's bad, just
tell me, I don't mind.
Tona (10:47):
Most of the times they'll get the honest truth.
That's true.
I think it's hard though,because, like you said, you
spend so much time on it and youfeel like, man, this is
something I worked hard on andyou just feel like everybody
likes it.
But for myself, I'm in theChristian space, so I do.
A lot of the designs aren'tnecessarily designs.
(11:09):
It's more words on a shirt.
I've gotten a little bit intodesigning a little bit more with
graphics and things like ofthat nature, but mostly people
are just looking for the words.
Man, I've done so many that Iwas like, oh my gosh, this is
terrible, I don't like it.
But other people do.
So it's like, oh, okay, I guess.
(11:33):
So I do ask people if they likethe designs, but also I put it
out.
Sometimes I have to put it outscared, because you just don't
know what's going to resonatesometimes with people or not.
Shimmy (11:48):
When we design, we're designing what we would wear,
and we design for ourselves.
Yeah, as soon as you realize,most of the designs I make, I'm
never going to wear them, and assoon as.
I flip that switch and I realizeI'm not designing for me, I'm
designing for my customer.
Would they wear this?
And then I'm like, no, theyprobably wouldn't wear this.
And another huge thing when itcomes to designs is the font
(12:09):
that you use.
Right, the font that you use isreally important, and the size
and the readability and thelegibility and all of it People
don't realize.
When you are sitting theredesigning something you won't
ever realize.
If it's easy to read, becauseyou would have been staring at
it for an hour and the phrasewill be in your mind over and
over and over again, what youhave to do is see from a
completely fresh perspective.
(12:30):
Can I quickly read what thatdesign says in a split second?
If you can't, then it's clearlynot a good font, you know.
So sometimes it's just a matterof fixing the font and making
it more readable for people,which which you can't really do
yourself.
Regardless of the emotionalconnection that you've created
with that design, which I don'tthink you should have, I think
(12:51):
you should try and remove allemotions with the design.
Regardless of that, I justthink, because you're staring at
the screen and the design forhours on end, you're never going
to not be able to see what itsays.
But if you send it to someoneelse, they need to be able to
see what it says.
But if you send it to someoneelse, they need to be able to
see it on a t-shirt from faraway, and it needs to be able to
be seen from a very smallthumbnail because if someone's
scrolling on their phone lookingat your t-shirts, that's how
(13:13):
they're going to be viewing it,and if they can't even read the
design on their phone, how arethey going to buy it if they
don't even know?
Tona (13:19):
what they're.
That's why it's a good idea tohave other eyes on the design,
because that will probably helpyou a lot more than you think in
the end.
And I agree with theconsistency portion.
Being consistent is veryimportant.
Also, I think, just knowing whyyou're doing this.
(13:40):
If you're doing print on demandbecause you're like, oh, I want
to make millions of dollars,well, that could be possible,
but you're definitely going tohave to be very consistent in
trying to meet that goal.
This is something you just likedoing.
(14:02):
This is something you want toprovide for people.
You're not necessarily tryingto make a lot, a lot of money.
You need to help use that tokind of guide you as well as how
you are consistent, becausesometimes, if that's all you're
doing, you can definitely beconsistent, but if you're doing
(14:23):
other things, you have to try tofigure out how to fit it in.
Shimmy (14:27):
A good trick there is to have people do vision boards
and people do all sorts ofthings but if you write down
your why, like you said whatyour why is why are you doing
product on demand?
Why do you want, let's say, ifit's to make money, why do you
want to make money?
Do you want to buy a house?
Do you want a car?
Do you just want more income?
If you write down what your whyis and you put it in front of
you and it's always visible toyou, being consistent will be a
(14:49):
lot easier because you'llconstantly have that reminder of
why you need to be consistentand why you need to do the work.
I actually, for the first time,created a vision board.
I've always talked about doingit, but I've never done it.
But 2024, I just was like I'mgoing to do it and it's just a
collection of things that I wantto do or want to have, or ways
of life that I want to be, and Ican just look at it and be like
(15:09):
, yeah, that's why I'm working.
I've got to stop scrolling onTikTok or Instagram and just
start working.
Tona (15:15):
Yeah, that's true, and I think, while also on the vision
board, or when you're trying tomake these goals, make them
attainable for yourself.
If you know you have two orthree jobs, don't think that
you're going to be posting everyhour on the hour or just some
ridiculous thing that you'retrying to put on yourself.
(15:36):
It's not going to work, it'snot going to happen.
Shimmy (15:40):
And another thing to that is, when you are creating
your goals, you want to makesure that they're, like like you
said, achievable, but also youwant to make sure you're in
control of the outcome.
So, for example, you never wanta goal of like 100 sales a day
because you have, or 10 sales aday, or one sale, it doesn't
matter, because you never havecontrol over that sale.
That's the customer who needsto buy.
(16:01):
You have control of is creatingthe designs or uploading to the
website.
So you can say I want to upload10 designs to Etsy a day.
You have full control overwhether or not that happens and
if it doesn't happen, you'veonly got yourself to blame.
But if it's like I want 10sales a day, that's my goal, you
might never hit that, you mightblow past that and it will be
completely out of your control.
So it's very important to setgoals that are achievable and
(16:25):
that you have control in.
Tona (16:27):
You know what.
That makes a lot of sense, andI think that's probably where a
lot of the discouragement comesin, because most times people
are like, well, I didn't makeany sales, therefore I'm not
supposed to be doing this or I'mfailing, I'm not doing good.
Not supposed to be doing thisor I'm failing, I'm not doing
(16:48):
good, whereas if you're actuallyputting it as, oh, I'm just
trying to put out a design a dayor a certain amount of designs
a day, I think that does bringit back to yourself and you can
at least feel good aboutwhatever those goals that you
are attaining at the time.
Shimmy (17:05):
Yeah, 100%.
Tona (17:07):
What are the common challenges that entrepreneurs
face in the print-on-demandspace and how do you think they
can be overcome?
Shimmy (17:17):
Yeah, there's a lot of discouragement of when you're
not getting sales.
It's a bit of an emotionalrollercoaster at times,
especially if you hit on a trendand you do really well and then
for some reason, you just can'tget sales again for six months.
There's so many.
It should never be painted inthat it's easy and because
print-on-demand is somewhat free, it's easy and quick and it's
(17:39):
not.
It has its challenges.
People struggle with whatplatforms to use, people
struggle with what printingpartners to use, people struggle
with marketing and SEO and somany things.
Tona (17:49):
Yes, how do you overcome them?
Or do you feel like, just inovercoming them, it's just
continuing to be consistentanyway?
Shimmy (17:57):
Well, I would say people don't put enough effort into
Not enough effort, enough timeinto researching and learning.
So if you want to go intoprint-on-demand, you research a
niche, you try some designs, yougo for it.
Of the people I've spoken to,the one commonality between
everyone is the amount of time,the months and months and months
that they put in before eventrying to upload a design, just
(18:19):
to learn about business model,about the different niches,
about the customers, about whatthey would want.
So, for example, this brandthat I built for 2024, I spent a
really long time coming up withfive potential brands and
niches and then finding out,creating a case for each one,
why it would work and thenwhittling it down and deciding
(18:41):
on one of them and the amount oftime and effort that went into
that.
Most people would have quit bythen because that can be like
three months and people are notlasting three months.
They'll create a design on dayone and three months down the
line and they haven't got anysales, they'll stop.
It's interesting because I'mtalking about spending months
before you even start uploadingdesigns and just engulf yourself
(19:03):
in as much information as youcan really learn it.
Tona (19:07):
That's something that a lot of times, people don't want
to put that time in becauseprint on demand seems so easy.
So therefore, I should just puta design on a shirt and then
say, hey, I'm open.
I'm open for business.
So that is so true.
Are there any current trendsthat you're observing in
(19:27):
eCommerce when it comes toprint-on-demand, any specific
trends?
Shimmy (19:33):
Kind of missed the boat, but not really.
But personalization, which wasobviously very big for the last
three months because ofChristmas and whatnot.
I think personalization is onlygetting more and more popular
over a wide variety of products.
So I would definitely recommendanyone and everyone gets into
personalization on their ownwebsite on Etsy, and you've got
(19:55):
platforms like MyDesigns now orHello Custom these various
platforms where it can all beautomated and not so time
consuming.
That's going to be well, thatis massive and it's only going
to get bigger because peoplelove buying personalized things.
But in terms of things, I mean,2024 will come with a whole
bunch of trends.
In April we've got the totalsolo eclipse.
(20:18):
You'll have these little trendsthroughout the year, but terms
of like big things, likepersonalization or life events I
mean life events was huge in2023 and I say this if you've
ever made any life event designsin 2023, just go back and just
change to 2024 and re-uploadthem.
100 more designs, I would say.
(20:39):
Of everything, I thinkpersonalization is going to be
one of the biggest and I mean,on top of that as well, scalable
designs and scalable shops.
The reason why I went forShopify, for this brand, is
because I'm going to be doingFacebook ads with it and I want
to try and scale this to aseven-figure-per-on-demand
business, which is a legitimatebusiness, and I think to stand
(21:02):
out, you have to separateyourself from other people.
So with my own Shopify store Ihave no competition.
My competition is me.
If they don't like one design,they buy another.
It's all mine, so it doesn'tmatter.
And people need to get over.
This concept of advertising isbad and we can't do advertising.
It cuts into profits whenadvertising is one of the only
ways to scale.
So I'm very happy to spend,let's say, for every dollar I'm
(21:25):
happy to spend on advertising.
If it's making me $1.01 back.
Yes, it's not very much, butit's profitable.
As long as it's profitable,that's fine.
All I have to do is scale upthe ad.
Spend $10, get $10.10.
Obviously that's a reallydrastic example.
It's nice if every dollar is $2, every dollar is $3.
But advertising, if you don'tuse it in 2024, then I think
(21:49):
you'll fall behind very fast.
Tona (21:52):
And do you suggest, since you're on the advertising, I
think a lot of times withprint-on-demand or anyone who's
coming out that part, that piece, is very scary.
I've done it before and italways felt like when you're
just starting in business youdon't have enough money to play,
(22:13):
and a lot of times withFacebook that's exactly what it
seems like.
I'm just playing to see if thisis going to work, and I know
for myself in the space that I'min, in the Christian space,
they took all of those interestlevels out.
You used to be able to targetcertain things, people in that
space and now it's gone.
(22:34):
So you have to figure out otherways in order to get people to
see your items and things likethat.
And what happens when you don'thave a lot of disposable income
to use on ads?
Shimmy (22:49):
Well now, firstly, with Facebook, they have removed
certain targeting, but thealgorithm and the AI that
they've adopted is really good.
If you made a general ad, itwould know who to advertise to
on Facebook.
It's actually very, very good.
But, yes, if you can't affordads, that's a different story.
It's where people are makingsales and they say I still can't
(23:12):
afford ads.
Or let's say you have, forgetFacebook ads for a minute.
Let's say you sell on merch ondemand with Amazon.
You're getting good sales everymonth.
Let's say you're making $500 amonth and you have access to ads
and people will say why would Ispend money on ads?
I'm making $500 a month.
I don't want to cut into that,just cut into that.
You can make $1,000.
So obviously you need money torun ads.
(23:34):
If you don't have any money torun any ads, then I would assume
you're not getting any salesyet.
If you're not getting any salesyet, then you've got to start
at the beginning.
If you've got money to run adsand to test let's say between
$500 and $1,000, that can testhundreds of t-shirts, hundreds
and hundreds of t-shirts, if notthousands of t-shirts.
(23:59):
I've got a $10 a day budget onmy ad.
It's going to my store.
It's a general ad.
I've got 91 designs on my storeand I've set up the pixel in a
way that if a certain design isgetting more traction or sales,
the ad knows what to show andwho to, and it does this all
automatically.
It's really really cool, but itbasically allows you to spend a
very small amount of money totest a lot of designs.
So this idea of needingthousands of dollars for
(24:20):
advertising, I don't think youdo.
Tona (24:28):
And that's good.
Because I think a lot of timeswhen you're listening to the
experts they're saying if youdon't have a certain amount of
money thousands of dollars thenyou might as well not do ads.
And I guess for me I'm kind oflooking at it as, even if you
have a little bit of money doingads to at least keep your store
relevant in the people's eyesthat want to see it, even if
they see it and you get asubscriber, that's good enough
(24:52):
because you can take it fromthere.
Even if you don't get a saleright away, you can at least
take it to the email.
Shimmy (24:59):
That's another whole thing.
Ads is one point.
If you can get 100 customersfrom ads and you've got 100
emails, any new product, anydiscount, anything, anything,
you're slowly increasing thevalue of that customer.
So, yeah, it makes a lot ofsense.
Tona (25:12):
Yes, exactly Okay.
This is the one that you'vedone so much research on that.
I think this is what puts youahead of a lot of other people,
and that is how canentrepreneurs select the right
platform for theirprint-on-demand business,
because you've checked out a lotof print-on-demand businesses.
Shimmy (25:37):
Okay, so you've got your Printfuls, printify and
Classics.
I have tested a lot.
It depends on what you careabout.
So for me I really care aboutquality and shipping more than
price.
I'll happily spend a bit moremoney if my customer is going to
get a better quality itemfaster.
So I've actually just switchedall of my stores everything over
(25:58):
to Printify.
I've used a lot of differentstores and it's very hard to For
me.
Anyways, it was hard to findone that ticked all the boxes.
You had Gelato out there thathad good prices, the largest
range of products and shockingcustomer service.
You had Awkward Styles who wasalso cheap prices and actually
they ticked a lot of boxes, butthey were only in America.
(26:20):
You've got so many, so I've goton my podcast.
I was speaking to I think I'vespoken to like 15 or 20 people
now and I was kind of gettingthe sense that everyone was
using Printify Everyone and Iwas like I always dislike
Printify because I don't likethe way they work in terms of
multiple printing partners andthe consistency between quality
(26:41):
might not be there.
I was speaking to one personwho swears by Printify and he's
like look, just try it out.
And I've always refrained frommaking a video and actually
today was my shooting day, soactually I shot my Printify
review, I did a full review ofthem and I just really liked
what I saw.
The prices were really reallycompetitive, really good.
The shipping was really good,really fast Two to five days
(27:04):
shipping.
It's pretty good, especiallyfor on-demand.
It's the most popular producton-demand company.
It gets 10 million views amonth.
Their website is going to begood.
So I'm not really worried aboutthose kinds of things.
The customer service I'm notworried about that at all.
That's all fine.
The thing that I was concernedabout was the product quality
throughout different suppliers.
So I went to their store and Ibought an item from various
(27:29):
suppliers for the Bella 3001,the canvas, bella one, and I
just bought with the same designon the back, tons of colors and
tried to make it as colorful aspossible.
I've got literally one on mydesk and I just compared them
with each other and I did thison camera.
But I compared them with eachother, I put them in the wash,
I've done all the tests and Iwas like, look, we're not
talking like Gucci quality here,but it's really good, as good
(27:53):
as the other really goodsuppliers, but it ticks the
other boxes of either supercheap shipping that's quick and
the amount of products thatthey've also got over 800
products.
To me it was just like.
This just makes sense.
I can see why everyone's usingthem.
I have actually emailed them andwas like I'm going to switch
(28:13):
over.
Would you want to do somethingwith me?
To that I'm still waiting.
Their customer service forthose kinds of things isn't the
best.
But one thing is so actuallyit's very good that this
happened.
So, of the order that came, Iordered over Christmas time and
one of the items got lost, whichI'm not surprised, especially
with Christmas.
I went on the website and Ipicked the drop down.
I said item never arrived, itgot lost.
And within that, literally thatsame day, they said oh my gosh,
(28:35):
I can see it, yet it hasn'tarrived.
What would you like?
Would you like a reprint or arefund?
And I was like just give me arefund.
And the same day, literallywithin like as if I'm having a
conversation, they gave me arefund.
And it's these kinds of thingswhere, like, if something
happens to a customer, it's niceto know that they're not on
their own.
So for me, I think I'm going toswitch over everything, and one
of my stores, this one that has91 designs on it.
Tona (29:04):
I've already switched all over, like to printify.
Well, I guess maybe that'sconfirmation for me, because I'm
not switching over all ofcourse not, but I do have items
that I would like to try, and Iwanted to try them because their
profit margin is a littlebetter and their shipping prices
it's a little better as well,and I was like you know they do
go through a lot of differentprinting partners.
Shimmy (29:26):
I don't know how that's gonna you pick the one that you
want.
So, like my store, I've pickedswift pod.
Everything goes to swift.
Now if, if it turns out thatswift pod doesn't have any stock
, it will default to monitordigital.
You know, those are my twogo-tos.
They're're the two that Ireviewed.
Those are the two that arepretty much identical.
So that's what I'll do, butit's also, like you said, the
(29:47):
range of products.
During my video.
I was like, let's just put inthose random things, see what
they have.
And I put in shoes and theyhave 20 different types of shoes
.
Who's selling this many shoes?
But it just seems like they'vegot such a weird and wide
variety of products.
It's quite nice just to havethat kind of catalog.
Tona (30:07):
The other thing, because this just happened to me.
Actually, I was on the big one,Printful, which was my first
one, and I have a love, hate,love, whatever relationship with
them and I was like you know,there are certain items that I
have from them on my store.
(30:29):
And I was like you know, I seethese calendars, I want to make
a calendar, let me go ahead anddo that.
And so I tell my husband I'mgoing to do these calendars and
he's like, well, you shouldprobably order a sample.
And I was like why I shouldjust go ahead and put it out,
let the world buy or whatever,and tell my audience, no, you
(30:54):
should do a sample.
I was like, okay, so I bought asample and I got it finally
after two weeks and I looked atit and I was like the amount
that I would have to sell thiscalendar for I wouldn't buy it
myself.
So if I'm not going to buy it,I know people who would buy it
and get it.
They might be upset at thiscalendar, so you might not want
to do it.
So the moral of the story ismake sure you buy the sample,
(31:18):
always buy the sample to findout what it's going to be like.
Shimmy (31:22):
Yeah, that's the thing.
That's why, whenever anyonesays, do you care if the
product's a bit more expensive?
I don't mind, because if theproduct is more expensive and
it's a better quality product,I'll just charge more.
I've sold t-shirts for $32.
You can't do it $35 for thatmatter.
It can be done.
You just have to make sure whatyou are giving is superior
(31:43):
quality.
And I've bought t-shirts for$35.
It's not unheard of, but withprint-on-demand, typically
quality and print-on-demanddon't really go hand in hand.
But if you are able to do that,then if you're not going to buy
your own product, notnecessarily because of the
design that might not be yourstyle then I wouldn't be happy
with other people buying iteither.
Tona (32:05):
No, I think it's mainly the quality.
If you're trying to sell acalendar because the shipping
alone costs $13, and you'retrying to sell this calendar for
$35, when you can get one for$9 or $10, and you're looking at
it and you're like when you canget one for nine or 10, and
you're looking at it and you'relike this is it?
(32:27):
No, nevermind, so scratch thatoff the list.
At least that's for me how Ikind of felt about it.
But always buy the sample.
How do you feel that AI hastransformed print on demand?
Industry.
Shimmy (32:41):
It depends.
So, like AI for coming up withideas I think is really cool
Phrases and things like that,especially chat, gpt AI as well
for helping with descriptions,helping with general research,
like if you've got a niche thatyou want to do and you want to
research it, ai is fantastic.
Likewise, I am a big advocatefor designs, you know.
(33:06):
Like, if you are using ai tohelp you with designing, I don't
see an issue with that.
I am a designer myself andpeople say, you know, this
argument is, oh, it's rippingoff artists and and anyone who's
an artist themselves will hateit.
And I've done art.
I've been in the creative space, whether it's photography,
videography, drawing for, youknow, 15 years.
When AI came about, I didn'tfeel like, oh, I'm going to be
(33:30):
replaced or anyone can do this.
I just felt like, oh, my gosh,wow, this is going to be such a
time saver.
Instead of me having to spendthree hours drawing a really
good cartoon panda on the iPad,I could just learn how to create
amazing prompts and use AI andthen take that panda and put it
into Illustrator or Figma orwhatever.
Make it how I would haveoriginally made it, because
(33:51):
obviously AI can't do exactlywhat you want, and I've just
saved myself and that processtakes me like five minutes, 10
minutes.
I just saved myself hours andhours of work.
So that's it for the artist'sperspective.
For someone who was never anartist and never able to design,
I think it's even betterbecause now they're able to
compete in a market that'salready so saturated, but they
(34:12):
can create designs that are sogood.
So I really like AI.
Tona (34:18):
Okay, I agree, I like it too.
I like it for descriptions.
It's very good for descriptions.
And then, because I thinkyou've had a couple of videos on
AI and I started trying to dothings in different platforms
with AI and for the most part,it's pretty good.
Or even if I'm not good atgiving the prompt, it can give
(34:40):
me an idea of where I can gowith this and it's like, okay, I
could do this or I could takethis, change it, and things of
that nature.
So I think that's a good thing.
And when it comes to digitalmarketing, what are some of the
main tools that you use in orderto get the information out
about your print on demand, yourvarious companies that you have
(35:05):
?
What is your two or three ofyour favorite tools?
I would guess YouTube may beone of them.
Shimmy (35:13):
You mean to advertise the product.
Tona (35:14):
Yeah, just to advertise your product.
Shimmy (35:17):
I don't use YouTube to advertise anything.
Tona (35:19):
No.
Shimmy (35:19):
Okay, like Facebook, okay, and then, funnily enough,
with Amazon.
Well, I will merge on demand.
I'll do Amazon ads and thenEtsy.
I will sometimes do Etsy ads,but a lot of the time I'll leave
Etsy to do its own thing.
I don't do this, but I know Ishould, and that's like a lot
more social media, organic stufflike TikTok and Instagram.
(35:41):
You know TikTok.
If I just bought my own designthat I knew was getting sales
anyway, let's say there's adesign out there that's getting
me 10 sales a day or something,if I would just buy it, make a
whole bunch of TikToks wearingit not promoting it, but wearing
it, doing something stupid ordoing something that would get
views.
Let's say, a TikTok goes viral.
People will say in the commentswhere is that t-shirt from?
(36:04):
I want that t-shirt, especiallyif what I'm doing is on brand.
So let's say I have a bikingt-shirt, a mountain biking
t-shirt, and I create a TikTokof me going to the bike park
doing a couple of jumps or justriding my bike, falling over,
doing something that people willbe like whoa, that could get
(36:25):
tons of views If I'm alsowearing a funny bike t-shirt and
the audience that are watchingit are people who enjoy that
content.
There's a very, very, very goodchance that they'll click
through and find the item andbuy the item.
I should do it more and withthis new store in 2024, I plan
to do it a lot more, so, okay,so I'll answer this question a
(36:47):
little bit better.
With the store that I've justlaunched, I have three specific
types.
The three types of marketingthat I will be doing will be
Facebook ads, email marketingbased on the people that sign up
, and I'll do like a get 20% off, put your email in.
And the third will be TikTok,and it will be this method of
Well, I'm in a very relatableniche, but it will be creating
(37:07):
content in that relatable nichewhilst wearing your clothes.
So not here's a t-shirt, buy myt-shirt, it will just, I'll be
wearing the t-shirt and maybe inthe caption I'll be like if you
want the t-shirt, check out thelink in the description or the
link in my bio.
Tona (37:28):
That sounds like a good way to do it.
Now you said 20% off to get theemail.
Do you feel like that's abetter number than the 5% or 10%
or 15%?
Do you feel like that convertsbetter?
The 20%?
Shimmy (37:35):
I wouldn't know if it converts better because it's a
brand new store.
Based on my research, what Ican see literally 20 or 30 other
people doing into building thisstore, it seemed like 20% was
the given.
Everyone did 20% and even justgeneral buying stuff online.
I see a lot of 20%.
That's not to say 10% won'twork or 5%.
I think 5% is a bit naff.
(37:55):
The 10% or the 15% it very wellcould work At least we test
with enough traffic.
But at the end of the day, ifit will still be profitable with
the 20% off, then I don't minddoing the 20% off.
Tona (38:10):
That makes sense.
So just a couple more questions.
What's the most valuable lessonyou've learned in your
entrepreneurial journey?
Shimmy (38:21):
Not giving up is an easy one, trying to stick to some
sort of routine, not listeningto people when they tell you it
will or won't one.
Trying to stick to some sort ofroutine, not listening to
people when they tell you itwill or won't work.
That's not to be confused withpeople commenting on your
designs.
If you ask a friend forfeedback, then fine, but if you
have friends saying this shop'snot going to work, your YouTube
channel is going to fail, you'renot getting any views, or you
(38:43):
only got 1000 views, haha.
Those kind of things just gotto block out the haters and, for
that matter, block out yourinner hater, which should be the
person in the back of your head, always talking to you, telling
you to stop or to give up andtake note of what is and what
isn't working Journal, becausedown the line A, it will be
great for you to see what'shappened or what hasn't happened
(39:05):
.
But also at the end of the year, if you feel like you haven't
done anything that year, but yougo through and you see, oh,
actually I had all thesedifferent wins.
That's very motivating.
But I think also down the line,if you do ever build a personal
brand, this content that couldbe used for that, and I think
personal brands are huge andonly going to get bigger.
I used to do this a lot.
I still do it a bit.
What I would do is I would dowhat someone told me was called
(39:27):
procrastinate working, where youhave a list of things to do.
So, for example, today my listwas shoot five videos, this
podcast, five products, variouslists of things.
But then there's other thingsthat just happened the other day
I need to call.
There's two companies I have tocall.
My desk is a bit of a mess.
My working area is not the best.
(39:48):
I've got 2000 emails that Ihaven't bothered to go through
in two weeks.
There's all the other littlethings which don't actually make
much difference and don'taccount for the major output
that you want.
If your goal is money, mecleaning my desk is not going to
make me any more money.
Me calling these companies isnot going to make me more money.
It's just admin and whatever.
(40:09):
So I chalk those tasks down toprocrastinate working.
So when I can't be botheredworking and I'm not scrolling on
TikTok, I'm doing these othertasks and I'm filling my day
with these tasks thinking I'mbeing really productive.
Actually, I'm not beingproductive at all.
What I would suggest is, if youhave a routine in the morning or
the night before, write downyour to-do list and make sure
(40:30):
one to two of those items is ahigh-level task, one that either
makes money or has thepotential to make money or is
leading to something that willmake money, and then the rest
can be lower-level tasks.
Or you can have threelower-level tasks and then a
couple of just fully irrelevanttasks that you feel like you
have to get done.
I need to go to the post officeand return an Amazon parcel,
(40:51):
and I've refrained from doingthat for so long because the
refund is £15, which is like $20.
I was like, do I want to spend20 minutes of my time, 30
minutes of my time, going to dothis refund?
And I know I should, but it's amassive distraction.
It will take away from my workand then when I come back, I've
got to get back into the flow ofthings and all of that.
So it's just important toschedule your day and make time
(41:12):
for all the things at the righttime.
Tona (41:15):
That actually makes a lot of sense.
And last question if someonewere starting a print-on-demand
company today, what would youtell them?
Shimmy (41:30):
Great question.
I mean, one of my videos todaywas what would I do if I started
a print-on-demand businesstoday?
What would I tell them?
Well, I would tell them tospend as much time as they can
researching print-on-demand howit works, what customers think,
what they spend all of thatstuff.
Then I would say sign up toAmazon and Etsy as your first
platforms and I would say leavethe other little platforms,
(41:50):
because the amount of time andeffort that you put into them
for the output that you get isjust not worth it.
In my opinion, even the reallybig time sellers selling on
Redbubble still only get like$1,000 a year, which to me is
just like the amount of timeyou've put in, for that is not
worth it.
You can get paid more at yourlocal grocery, so it doesn't
make any sense.
So I say start with Amazon andEtsy.
I would then say pick a niche.
(42:12):
Obviously, try and find scalabledesigns.
They work really really well.
Focus on those designs, makesure they're really really good
and upload them, and then youcan either wait and see if,
organically, you get sales oryou could run some ads.
You can either wait and see if,organically, you get sales or
you could run some ads.
That's a lot more complicatedthan that, obviously, and I
don't want to make it sound likeit's really easy.
I mean, it was a 20-minutevideo.
I can read the script to you ifyou want.
Tona (42:34):
Right, well, actually I'm going to have everything in our
description on where they canfind you and your videos and all
of that, so they'll be able tofind that video where you talk
about it.
Shimmy (42:49):
As long as it's out.
It will be out in the nextmonth or so.
Tona (42:52):
Okay, well, I'm pretty sure that people will subscribe
and they'll definitely get thatvideo, which is good, but you
did say something that I didn'tknow Amazon.
Did you say merch yeah, that Ididn't know Amazon.
Did you say merch, yeah.
So does that mean that I canput items on there that are
(43:13):
print-on-demand and they don'thave to be housed in an Amazon
warehouse?
And work with print-on-demandcompanies, because I didn't know
this.
Shimmy (43:18):
Yeah, so Amazon merch-on-demand it's their own
platform.
Items are listed on Amazon, butit's a print-on-demand company.
So you apply.
You don't get accepted straightaway.
You've got to wait.
Sometimes you do, sometimes youdon't, various factors where
you live, all these kinds ofthings.
Once you get accepted, youstart in tier 10.
So that allows you to have 10designs and then, as you upload
(43:43):
designs and you get sales, youget ranked up to 25, like tier
4,000, tier 200,000, whatever.
The larger the tier, the moredesigns you can have.
Also, the higher the tier.
That's when you get access toAmazon ads.
You don't have access to ads atthe beginning and they do
everything.
So you would upload a designthat you normally would to any
printing partner.
If I find your design on Amazon, I can buy it and it's shipped
(44:05):
with Prime so I could get itnext day, and then Amazon have
an entire printing fulfillmentwarehouse center where they'll
do everything, just like anyother print-on-demand company.
Tona (44:17):
Yeah, I had no idea.
Shimmy (44:19):
It's worth it just to chuck your designs on there and
just see what happens.
Tona (44:22):
Yeah, I mean, I've been in this world where I still
thought that the only way to getinto Amazon was I needed to
have a place to house my stuffand all of that.
I had no idea they had that, sonow I have to go and check that
out.
So is there anything else thatyou would like to add?
(44:42):
And you could also just letpeople know the best way to find
you, even though I'm going toput that information in, but
twice is always good.
Shimmy (44:53):
Sure, you can check out my YouTube videos.
You could subscribe to my emaillist.
If you want to get a bit ofextra help.
Yeah, I would say, start there.
And if you really like thecontent, you want to get in
contact with me.
I respond to all of my comments.
So if you leave a comment beinglike, hey, let's get in touch,
we could do that.
And a bit of advice I'd say isdon't give up, keep going.
(45:13):
Basically, I don't want tosound cliche, but what I'll say
is, if it's been three monthsand you've been doing print on
demand, you haven't got anysales, then ask yourself are
your designs good?
Because that is what I havefound for the majority of people
is that after three monthsthey're still not getting sales.
There's something wrong withthe designs, even if you're
charging a ton of money or yourmarketing is not the best.
(45:34):
If people are seeing it and youcan see that on Etsy, you can
see page views and stuff Ifpeople are seeing it, you're not
getting sales.
It's most likely your designs.
So that's what I would say.
Tona (45:45):
Well, that sounds great.
Thank you so much for being onthe we Pivot podcast.
There are so many gems in thispodcast.
I'm pretty sure people aregoing to have a lot to take away
, especially for 2024.
So thank you for being a gueston our podcast.
Al (46:03):
We're so excited that you tuned in to the latest episode
of the we Pivot podcast.
Thank you for joining us Now,whether this is your first time
or not, please make sure tosubscribe and share with a
friend who can also use somedigital marketing guidance as
well.
Until next time.
The we Pivot podcast is for you if you're a woman who
has recently pivoted intoentrepreneurship.
You'll find digital marketingtips, trends and strategies to
help grow your business intoday's digital world.
Join Tona and Al Haywood as wehave fun breaking down all
things digital marketing.
So sit back, relax and enjoythe show.
(00:28):
Hello everyone and welcome backto the we Pivot podcast.
Today, I have a special treatfor you.
I will be interviewing ShimmyMorris, who is an entrepreneur
with various e-commerce stores,with a main focus around
creating helpful content onYouTube so others can build
(00:49):
their own brands, and I amexcited to have you here, Shumi.
Thank you for being here.
Shimmy (00:55):
Thanks for having me.
I'm looking forward this isgoing to be fun.
Tona (00:59):
Yes, it will be.
So let me tell the audiencefirst how I found out about you,
because this is an interestingstory.
It's been years, I don't evenknow how long, maybe four or
five years, I'm not sure but Iwas following a Christian
influencer.
(01:19):
Well, she's a Christianinfluencer, her name is Crystal
Evans Hurst and basically shehad told her audience about
someone who had helped her withFacebook ads.
And I guess at the time maybeyou did a video about doing
Facebook ads and this is thebest way to do it.
(01:40):
Now, can you tell me how longago that was, because I really
don't know.
Shimmy (01:44):
I think my Facebook ads video my first one came out
eight years ago maybe, or sevenyears ago.
Okay, I have made more recentones, like four years ago.
Yeah, there's a few.
Tona (01:55):
Okay, well, I know it's been a minute.
I know that for a fact.
So I found you from that video.
And then, all of a sudden,since I was getting into print
on demand back in probably 2015,16, around in that area, the
(02:15):
other videos that you were doingwere starting to pique my
interest.
So I was like, well, let mejust keep watching.
And you had so many videos,such great videos, and you give
so much information to youraudience that it's amazing,
especially since you're givingmost of this all for free.
(02:36):
So that's what I definitelyliked about your content.
So that is how I found outabout you.
Nice, that's cool, yeah.
So I figured I would let youknow that, if you could tell my
audience.
Have you always done print ondemand or did you pivot into
this?
Were you doing something elsebefore?
(02:58):
Because this is the we Pivotpodcast and most of our
entrepreneurs are coming fromsomewhere else and coming into
this space.
I used to be a high schoolbiology all kinds of science
teacher and now I'm not onlydoing print-on-demand.
Actually, my husband and I owna digital marketing company and
the print-on-demand piece isactually it was one of our
(03:22):
foundations, so that's kind ofhow that works For sure.
Shimmy (03:26):
Put on demand isn't my only thing.
I was selling throughout schoolas a teacher.
You probably know that kids dosell in school, despite not
being allowed.
Yes, I used to sell a lot inschool and then during that
phase I kind of got into sellingin general.
So I created an eBay store andstarted buying in bulk and
selling on eBay.
And then when I left school, Ileft school after A-levels at 18
(03:49):
.
And I did a six-month gap yearI guess a six-month gap, it
wasn't a year and I came backand I went straight into
t-shirts.
But I went into t-shirts from afocus of advertising, not Etsy,
amazon design.
It was more how could I find anaudience that's really targeted
that I could create a designfor?
And then I created a design forthat audience, rather than
(04:12):
create design and then try andfind an audience.
So I did that for a bit of time.
For quite a bit of time it didreally really well.
And then I, as you say, pivotedto various other things.
So I did a lot of freelance.
I am also a photographer and avideographer.
I created an Amazon FBAbusiness with my brother which
was very successful.
(04:32):
I did a lot of coaching andtraining and teaching.
It starts out in my local areawhere I live, with people who
lived around here who wanted toleave their nine-to-five and it
was a very in-person training.
We'd go and get food or I'd goto their house and I'd actually
help them one-on-one, and thenone person basically said to me
this is really good, why don'tyou try and do this more?
(04:53):
And I was like I can't have thetime.
So he gave me the idea ofcreating a course and that whole
saga.
So I did that and thenthroughout that time, I started
YouTube, which has always beengreat fun.
And since starting YouTube,it's got me back into
print-on-demand.
I did a big six or seven-yearbreak from print-on-demand and
(05:13):
then YouTube got me back into it.
Tona (05:15):
Wow, and are you enjoying being in the print-on-demand
space?
Shimmy (05:20):
Yeah and no.
It has its ups and it has itsdowns.
So I like print-on-demandbecause I'm very creative, I
love art, I love designing, so Ilike that element of it.
I hate the cutthroat element ofit, where people are ripping
people off and doing anythingthey can to get a sale, and it's
one of those businesses wherepeople don't want to help
someone else because they'rescared that it'll backfire.
(05:41):
But no, in terms of just aprint-on-demand business, I do
like it.
I mean, I started a neweCommerce brand in January 2024,
which I've got big plans for toscale up in 2024.
So that's a big, big focus ofmine at the moment.
Tona (05:57):
Okay, now, before I go to the next question, I know that
there was a time when you had avideo and you told your audience
that you were doingprint-on-demand, but you were
also working another job.
Is that still?
Shimmy (06:13):
Yeah, so I got From YouTube.
I actually got recruited by acompany in Canada to work on
PrettyMerch, which is theprint-on-demand app.
I haven't actually saidanything, but as of January, I'm
not really working thereanymore.
I'm working there a bit.
I'm now a very, very, veryshort-time consultant for them,
(06:37):
but it was full-time, it wasfull-on, it was doing various
things and now it's veryinfrequent.
Tona (06:43):
I was just wondering, because I was like I knew I saw
a video that said he was doingit and I was like, oh, are you
going to be doing it?
Because you said it was prettyflexible so you would be able to
do that.
You would still be able to doyour videos and things like that
.
But then I saw you ramping upwith your videos and I was like
man, it must be nice to be ableto do both.
So I figured I would just askto find it.
Shimmy (07:11):
So starting January, I've scaled back drastically
with it, and then, startingFebruary, I've just hired a
video editor.
So starting February, I'llhopefully be going to three
videos a week.
So ramping up YouTube, yeah,potentially starting a second
channel, but we'll see.
Tona (07:22):
Okay, all right, sounds good.
What do you feel are the keyfactors for success when it
comes to print-on-demand?
I know for myself 2020,.
I had one print-on-demandcompany that I was working with
and, based off of everythingthat was going on, I actually
(07:42):
had to shut down my store.
I had to just tell everybodyhey, you know, we'll be back,
hopefully soon.
And then I had to researchother print on demand companies
for the items that I was tryingto sell and it was.
I mean, re-uploading all mythings to another store was not
fun, or redoing productdescriptions wasn't the best,
(08:05):
but actually branching out toanother print-on-demand company
that I actually got to know thembecause I think they were
starting, it's been the bestrelationship since what?
Shimmy (08:17):
company do you use at the moment?
Tona (08:19):
I use Print Melon at the moment.
Nice, I believe at the timewhen I was starting, I feel like
they were starting too.
They had kind of just got onthe scene and I was able to talk
to the owner.
I actually have a podcast withthe owner of the company, so it
was a really great interview.
It's been a really greatworking environment and to me
(08:41):
now it seems like working withthe smaller companies it might
be a little bit better thanalways working with the big ones
.
But tell me your thoughts.
Shimmy (08:53):
I think it's down to two mainly your consistency and the
quality of your design.
And the reason why I say thesetwo is okay.
So you've got to start withconsistency.
If you're not consistent, youcan't expect anything, not even
put on demand.
So you've got to start withconsistency.
If you're not consistent, youcan't expect anything, not even
put on demand, just anything.
You want to get fitter andyou're not consistently working
out and eating healthy.
Not going to happen.
So it starts with consistency.
But then I say to peoplebecause some people ask well,
(09:15):
I've been consistent.
Six straight months I've beendoing this and I haven't got any
sales.
Shift to design, so to design.
So if you're consistent and youtick that box, great.
If you're still not gettingsales, then chances are your
designs are really bad.
And lots of people skip thistopic, avoid it.
They don't want to hurtanyone's feelings and I don't
know if you remember, but I usedto do a segment on my channel
(09:36):
called Are your Designs Any Good?
And I literally had lots ofpeople send in, hundreds, if not
thousands of people sendingdesigns and I would review them
and make videos about them and99% of those designs were
absolutely atrocious.
And the issue around designs isand the reason why I think it's
such a big topic and I actuallymade a video about this today
the reason why I think it's sucha big topic is people will sit
(09:58):
there and let's say they spendan hour creating a design.
They've got an emotionalconnection with that design,
they've spent time on it,they've been looking at it, they
think it's good themselves.
They haven't stepped back andactually thought is this good?
They haven't sent it to otherpeople and said is this good?
So their whole thought processis completely warped because
obviously they're going to likeit.
(10:18):
They made it, they spent hourson it, so why wouldn't they like
it?
Even if it's bad, they'llprobably trick themselves into
liking it.
So what I found is for a lot ofpeople struggling to get sales,
as soon as I say send me fiveof your designs, I'm like, yeah,
that's why you're struggling toget sales.
These designs are just not verygood.
So the easiest thing that youcan do with that is just send
(10:39):
your design to a friend orfamily and just say be honest.
If it's bad, just tell me I.
To a friend or family and justsay be honest, if it's bad, just
tell me, I don't mind.
Tona (10:47):
Most of the times they'll get the honest truth.
That's true.
I think it's hard though,because, like you said, you
spend so much time on it and youfeel like, man, this is
something I worked hard on andyou just feel like everybody
likes it.
But for myself, I'm in theChristian space, so I do.
A lot of the designs aren'tnecessarily designs.
(11:09):
It's more words on a shirt.
I've gotten a little bit intodesigning a little bit more with
graphics and things like ofthat nature, but mostly people
are just looking for the words.
Man, I've done so many that Iwas like, oh my gosh, this is
terrible, I don't like it.
But other people do.
So it's like, oh, okay, I guess.
(11:33):
So I do ask people if they likethe designs, but also I put it
out.
Sometimes I have to put it outscared, because you just don't
know what's going to resonatesometimes with people or not.
Shimmy (11:48):
When we design, we're designing what we would wear,
and we design for ourselves.
Yeah, as soon as you realize,most of the designs I make, I'm
never going to wear them, and assoon as.
I flip that switch and I realizeI'm not designing for me, I'm
designing for my customer.
Would they wear this?
And then I'm like, no, theyprobably wouldn't wear this.
And another huge thing when itcomes to designs is the font
(12:09):
that you use.
Right, the font that you use isreally important, and the size
and the readability and thelegibility and all of it People
don't realize.
When you are sitting theredesigning something you won't
ever realize.
If it's easy to read, becauseyou would have been staring at
it for an hour and the phrasewill be in your mind over and
over and over again, what youhave to do is see from a
completely fresh perspective.
(12:30):
Can I quickly read what thatdesign says in a split second?
If you can't, then it's clearlynot a good font, you know.
So sometimes it's just a matterof fixing the font and making
it more readable for people,which which you can't really do
yourself.
Regardless of the emotionalconnection that you've created
with that design, which I don'tthink you should have, I think
(12:51):
you should try and remove allemotions with the design.
Regardless of that, I justthink, because you're staring at
the screen and the design forhours on end, you're never going
to not be able to see what itsays.
But if you send it to someoneelse, they need to be able to
see what it says.
But if you send it to someoneelse, they need to be able to
see it on a t-shirt from faraway, and it needs to be able to
be seen from a very smallthumbnail because if someone's
scrolling on their phone lookingat your t-shirts, that's how
(13:13):
they're going to be viewing it,and if they can't even read the
design on their phone, how arethey going to buy it if they
don't even know?
Tona (13:19):
what they're.
That's why it's a good idea tohave other eyes on the design,
because that will probably helpyou a lot more than you think in
the end.
And I agree with theconsistency portion.
Being consistent is veryimportant.
Also, I think, just knowing whyyou're doing this.
(13:40):
If you're doing print on demandbecause you're like, oh, I want
to make millions of dollars,well, that could be possible,
but you're definitely going tohave to be very consistent in
trying to meet that goal.
This is something you just likedoing.
(14:02):
This is something you want toprovide for people.
You're not necessarily tryingto make a lot, a lot of money.
You need to help use that tokind of guide you as well as how
you are consistent, becausesometimes, if that's all you're
doing, you can definitely beconsistent, but if you're doing
(14:23):
other things, you have to try tofigure out how to fit it in.
Shimmy (14:27):
A good trick there is to have people do vision boards
and people do all sorts ofthings but if you write down
your why, like you said whatyour why is why are you doing
product on demand?
Why do you want, let's say, ifit's to make money, why do you
want to make money?
Do you want to buy a house?
Do you want a car?
Do you just want more income?
If you write down what your whyis and you put it in front of
you and it's always visible toyou, being consistent will be a
(14:49):
lot easier because you'llconstantly have that reminder of
why you need to be consistentand why you need to do the work.
I actually, for the first time,created a vision board.
I've always talked about doingit, but I've never done it.
But 2024, I just was like I'mgoing to do it and it's just a
collection of things that I wantto do or want to have, or ways
of life that I want to be, and Ican just look at it and be like
(15:09):
, yeah, that's why I'm working.
I've got to stop scrolling onTikTok or Instagram and just
start working.
Tona (15:15):
Yeah, that's true, and I think, while also on the vision
board, or when you're trying tomake these goals, make them
attainable for yourself.
If you know you have two orthree jobs, don't think that
you're going to be posting everyhour on the hour or just some
ridiculous thing that you'retrying to put on yourself.
(15:36):
It's not going to work, it'snot going to happen.
Shimmy (15:40):
And another thing to that is, when you are creating
your goals, you want to makesure that they're, like like you
said, achievable, but also youwant to make sure you're in
control of the outcome.
So, for example, you never wanta goal of like 100 sales a day
because you have, or 10 sales aday, or one sale, it doesn't
matter, because you never havecontrol over that sale.
That's the customer who needsto buy.
(16:01):
You have control of is creatingthe designs or uploading to the
website.
So you can say I want to upload10 designs to Etsy a day.
You have full control overwhether or not that happens and
if it doesn't happen, you'veonly got yourself to blame.
But if it's like I want 10sales a day, that's my goal, you
might never hit that, you mightblow past that and it will be
completely out of your control.
So it's very important to setgoals that are achievable and
(16:25):
that you have control in.
Tona (16:27):
You know what.
That makes a lot of sense, andI think that's probably where a
lot of the discouragement comesin, because most times people
are like, well, I didn't makeany sales, therefore I'm not
supposed to be doing this or I'mfailing, I'm not doing good.
Not supposed to be doing thisor I'm failing, I'm not doing
(16:48):
good, whereas if you're actuallyputting it as, oh, I'm just
trying to put out a design a dayor a certain amount of designs
a day, I think that does bringit back to yourself and you can
at least feel good aboutwhatever those goals that you
are attaining at the time.
Shimmy (17:05):
Yeah, 100%.
Tona (17:07):
What are the common challenges that entrepreneurs
face in the print-on-demandspace and how do you think they
can be overcome?
Shimmy (17:17):
Yeah, there's a lot of discouragement of when you're
not getting sales.
It's a bit of an emotionalrollercoaster at times,
especially if you hit on a trendand you do really well and then
for some reason, you just can'tget sales again for six months.
There's so many.
It should never be painted inthat it's easy and because
print-on-demand is somewhat free, it's easy and quick and it's
(17:39):
not.
It has its challenges.
People struggle with whatplatforms to use, people
struggle with what printingpartners to use, people struggle
with marketing and SEO and somany things.
Tona (17:49):
Yes, how do you overcome them?
Or do you feel like, just inovercoming them, it's just
continuing to be consistentanyway?
Shimmy (17:57):
Well, I would say people don't put enough effort into
Not enough effort, enough timeinto researching and learning.
So if you want to go intoprint-on-demand, you research a
niche, you try some designs, yougo for it.
Of the people I've spoken to,the one commonality between
everyone is the amount of time,the months and months and months
that they put in before eventrying to upload a design, just
(18:19):
to learn about business model,about the different niches,
about the customers, about whatthey would want.
So, for example, this brandthat I built for 2024, I spent a
really long time coming up withfive potential brands and
niches and then finding out,creating a case for each one,
why it would work and thenwhittling it down and deciding
(18:41):
on one of them and the amount oftime and effort that went into
that.
Most people would have quit bythen because that can be like
three months and people are notlasting three months.
They'll create a design on dayone and three months down the
line and they haven't got anysales, they'll stop.
It's interesting because I'mtalking about spending months
before you even start uploadingdesigns and just engulf yourself
(19:03):
in as much information as youcan really learn it.
Tona (19:07):
That's something that a lot of times, people don't want
to put that time in becauseprint on demand seems so easy.
So therefore, I should just puta design on a shirt and then
say, hey, I'm open.
I'm open for business.
So that is so true.
Are there any current trendsthat you're observing in
(19:27):
eCommerce when it comes toprint-on-demand, any specific
trends?
Shimmy (19:33):
Kind of missed the boat, but not really.
But personalization, which wasobviously very big for the last
three months because ofChristmas and whatnot.
I think personalization is onlygetting more and more popular
over a wide variety of products.
So I would definitely recommendanyone and everyone gets into
personalization on their ownwebsite on Etsy, and you've got
(19:55):
platforms like MyDesigns now orHello Custom these various
platforms where it can all beautomated and not so time
consuming.
That's going to be well, thatis massive and it's only going
to get bigger because peoplelove buying personalized things.
But in terms of things, I mean,2024 will come with a whole
bunch of trends.
In April we've got the totalsolo eclipse.
(20:18):
You'll have these little trendsthroughout the year, but terms
of like big things, likepersonalization or life events I
mean life events was huge in2023 and I say this if you've
ever made any life event designsin 2023, just go back and just
change to 2024 and re-uploadthem.
100 more designs, I would say.
(20:39):
Of everything, I thinkpersonalization is going to be
one of the biggest and I mean,on top of that as well, scalable
designs and scalable shops.
The reason why I went forShopify, for this brand, is
because I'm going to be doingFacebook ads with it and I want
to try and scale this to aseven-figure-per-on-demand
business, which is a legitimatebusiness, and I think to stand
(21:02):
out, you have to separateyourself from other people.
So with my own Shopify store Ihave no competition.
My competition is me.
If they don't like one design,they buy another.
It's all mine, so it doesn'tmatter.
And people need to get over.
This concept of advertising isbad and we can't do advertising.
It cuts into profits whenadvertising is one of the only
ways to scale.
So I'm very happy to spend,let's say, for every dollar I'm
(21:25):
happy to spend on advertising.
If it's making me $1.01 back.
Yes, it's not very much, butit's profitable.
As long as it's profitable,that's fine.
All I have to do is scale upthe ad.
Spend $10, get $10.10.
Obviously that's a reallydrastic example.
It's nice if every dollar is $2, every dollar is $3.
But advertising, if you don'tuse it in 2024, then I think
(21:49):
you'll fall behind very fast.
Tona (21:52):
And do you suggest, since you're on the advertising, I
think a lot of times withprint-on-demand or anyone who's
coming out that part, that piece, is very scary.
I've done it before and italways felt like when you're
just starting in business youdon't have enough money to play,
(22:13):
and a lot of times withFacebook that's exactly what it
seems like.
I'm just playing to see if thisis going to work, and I know
for myself in the space that I'min, in the Christian space,
they took all of those interestlevels out.
You used to be able to targetcertain things, people in that
space and now it's gone.
(22:34):
So you have to figure out otherways in order to get people to
see your items and things likethat.
And what happens when you don'thave a lot of disposable income
to use on ads?
Shimmy (22:49):
Well now, firstly, with Facebook, they have removed
certain targeting, but thealgorithm and the AI that
they've adopted is really good.
If you made a general ad, itwould know who to advertise to
on Facebook.
It's actually very, very good.
But, yes, if you can't affordads, that's a different story.
It's where people are makingsales and they say I still can't
(23:12):
afford ads.
Or let's say you have, forgetFacebook ads for a minute.
Let's say you sell on merch ondemand with Amazon.
You're getting good sales everymonth.
Let's say you're making $500 amonth and you have access to ads
and people will say why would Ispend money on ads?
I'm making $500 a month.
I don't want to cut into that,just cut into that.
You can make $1,000.
So obviously you need money torun ads.
(23:34):
If you don't have any money torun any ads, then I would assume
you're not getting any salesyet.
If you're not getting any salesyet, then you've got to start
at the beginning.
If you've got money to run adsand to test let's say between
$500 and $1,000, that can testhundreds of t-shirts, hundreds
and hundreds of t-shirts, if notthousands of t-shirts.
(23:59):
I've got a $10 a day budget onmy ad.
It's going to my store.
It's a general ad.
I've got 91 designs on my storeand I've set up the pixel in a
way that if a certain design isgetting more traction or sales,
the ad knows what to show andwho to, and it does this all
automatically.
It's really really cool, but itbasically allows you to spend a
very small amount of money totest a lot of designs.
So this idea of needingthousands of dollars for
(24:20):
advertising, I don't think youdo.
Tona (24:28):
And that's good.
Because I think a lot of timeswhen you're listening to the
experts they're saying if youdon't have a certain amount of
money thousands of dollars thenyou might as well not do ads.
And I guess for me I'm kind oflooking at it as, even if you
have a little bit of money doingads to at least keep your store
relevant in the people's eyesthat want to see it, even if
they see it and you get asubscriber, that's good enough
(24:52):
because you can take it fromthere.
Even if you don't get a saleright away, you can at least
take it to the email.
Shimmy (24:59):
That's another whole thing.
Ads is one point.
If you can get 100 customersfrom ads and you've got 100
emails, any new product, anydiscount, anything, anything,
you're slowly increasing thevalue of that customer.
So, yeah, it makes a lot ofsense.
Tona (25:12):
Yes, exactly Okay.
This is the one that you'vedone so much research on that.
I think this is what puts youahead of a lot of other people,
and that is how canentrepreneurs select the right
platform for theirprint-on-demand business,
because you've checked out a lotof print-on-demand businesses.
Shimmy (25:37):
Okay, so you've got your Printfuls, printify and
Classics.
I have tested a lot.
It depends on what you careabout.
So for me I really care aboutquality and shipping more than
price.
I'll happily spend a bit moremoney if my customer is going to
get a better quality itemfaster.
So I've actually just switchedall of my stores everything over
(25:58):
to Printify.
I've used a lot of differentstores and it's very hard to For
me.
Anyways, it was hard to findone that ticked all the boxes.
You had Gelato out there thathad good prices, the largest
range of products and shockingcustomer service.
You had Awkward Styles who wasalso cheap prices and actually
they ticked a lot of boxes, butthey were only in America.
(26:20):
You've got so many, so I've goton my podcast.
I was speaking to I think I'vespoken to like 15 or 20 people
now and I was kind of gettingthe sense that everyone was
using Printify Everyone and Iwas like I always dislike
Printify because I don't likethe way they work in terms of
multiple printing partners andthe consistency between quality
(26:41):
might not be there.
I was speaking to one personwho swears by Printify and he's
like look, just try it out.
And I've always refrained frommaking a video and actually
today was my shooting day, soactually I shot my Printify
review, I did a full review ofthem and I just really liked
what I saw.
The prices were really reallycompetitive, really good.
The shipping was really good,really fast Two to five days
(27:04):
shipping.
It's pretty good, especiallyfor on-demand.
It's the most popular producton-demand company.
It gets 10 million views amonth.
Their website is going to begood.
So I'm not really worried aboutthose kinds of things.
The customer service I'm notworried about that at all.
That's all fine.
The thing that I was concernedabout was the product quality
throughout different suppliers.
So I went to their store and Ibought an item from various
(27:29):
suppliers for the Bella 3001,the canvas, bella one, and I
just bought with the same designon the back, tons of colors and
tried to make it as colorful aspossible.
I've got literally one on mydesk and I just compared them
with each other and I did thison camera.
But I compared them with eachother, I put them in the wash,
I've done all the tests and Iwas like, look, we're not
talking like Gucci quality here,but it's really good, as good
(27:53):
as the other really goodsuppliers, but it ticks the
other boxes of either supercheap shipping that's quick and
the amount of products thatthey've also got over 800
products.
To me it was just like.
This just makes sense.
I can see why everyone's usingthem.
I have actually emailed them andwas like I'm going to switch
(28:13):
over.
Would you want to do somethingwith me?
To that I'm still waiting.
Their customer service forthose kinds of things isn't the
best.
But one thing is so actuallyit's very good that this
happened.
So, of the order that came, Iordered over Christmas time and
one of the items got lost, whichI'm not surprised, especially
with Christmas.
I went on the website and Ipicked the drop down.
I said item never arrived, itgot lost.
And within that, literally thatsame day, they said oh my gosh,
(28:35):
I can see it, yet it hasn'tarrived.
What would you like?
Would you like a reprint or arefund?
And I was like just give me arefund.
And the same day, literallywithin like as if I'm having a
conversation, they gave me arefund.
And it's these kinds of thingswhere, like, if something
happens to a customer, it's niceto know that they're not on
their own.
So for me, I think I'm going toswitch over everything, and one
of my stores, this one that has91 designs on it.
Tona (29:04):
I've already switched all over, like to printify.
Well, I guess maybe that'sconfirmation for me, because I'm
not switching over all ofcourse not, but I do have items
that I would like to try, and Iwanted to try them because their
profit margin is a littlebetter and their shipping prices
it's a little better as well,and I was like you know they do
go through a lot of differentprinting partners.
Shimmy (29:26):
I don't know how that's gonna you pick the one that you
want.
So, like my store, I've pickedswift pod.
Everything goes to swift.
Now if, if it turns out thatswift pod doesn't have any stock
, it will default to monitordigital.
You know, those are my twogo-tos.
They're're the two that Ireviewed.
Those are the two that arepretty much identical.
So that's what I'll do, butit's also, like you said, the
(29:47):
range of products.
During my video.
I was like, let's just put inthose random things, see what
they have.
And I put in shoes and theyhave 20 different types of shoes
.
Who's selling this many shoes?
But it just seems like they'vegot such a weird and wide
variety of products.
It's quite nice just to havethat kind of catalog.
Tona (30:07):
The other thing, because this just happened to me.
Actually, I was on the big one,Printful, which was my first
one, and I have a love, hate,love, whatever relationship with
them and I was like you know,there are certain items that I
have from them on my store.
(30:29):
And I was like you know, I seethese calendars, I want to make
a calendar, let me go ahead anddo that.
And so I tell my husband I'mgoing to do these calendars and
he's like, well, you shouldprobably order a sample.
And I was like why I shouldjust go ahead and put it out,
let the world buy or whatever,and tell my audience, no, you
(30:54):
should do a sample.
I was like, okay, so I bought asample and I got it finally
after two weeks and I looked atit and I was like the amount
that I would have to sell thiscalendar for I wouldn't buy it
myself.
So if I'm not going to buy it,I know people who would buy it
and get it.
They might be upset at thiscalendar, so you might not want
to do it.
So the moral of the story ismake sure you buy the sample,
(31:18):
always buy the sample to findout what it's going to be like.
Shimmy (31:22):
Yeah, that's the thing.
That's why, whenever anyonesays, do you care if the
product's a bit more expensive?
I don't mind, because if theproduct is more expensive and
it's a better quality product,I'll just charge more.
I've sold t-shirts for $32.
You can't do it $35 for thatmatter.
It can be done.
You just have to make sure whatyou are giving is superior
(31:43):
quality.
And I've bought t-shirts for$35.
It's not unheard of, but withprint-on-demand, typically
quality and print-on-demanddon't really go hand in hand.
But if you are able to do that,then if you're not going to buy
your own product, notnecessarily because of the
design that might not be yourstyle then I wouldn't be happy
with other people buying iteither.
Tona (32:05):
No, I think it's mainly the quality.
If you're trying to sell acalendar because the shipping
alone costs $13, and you'retrying to sell this calendar for
$35, when you can get one for$9 or $10, and you're looking at
it and you're like when you canget one for nine or 10, and
you're looking at it and you'relike this is it?
(32:27):
No, nevermind, so scratch thatoff the list.
At least that's for me how Ikind of felt about it.
But always buy the sample.
How do you feel that AI hastransformed print on demand?
Industry.
Shimmy (32:41):
It depends.
So, like AI for coming up withideas I think is really cool
Phrases and things like that,especially chat, gpt AI as well
for helping with descriptions,helping with general research,
like if you've got a niche thatyou want to do and you want to
research it, ai is fantastic.
Likewise, I am a big advocatefor designs, you know.
(33:06):
Like, if you are using ai tohelp you with designing, I don't
see an issue with that.
I am a designer myself andpeople say, you know, this
argument is, oh, it's rippingoff artists and and anyone who's
an artist themselves will hateit.
And I've done art.
I've been in the creative space, whether it's photography,
videography, drawing for, youknow, 15 years.
When AI came about, I didn'tfeel like, oh, I'm going to be
(33:30):
replaced or anyone can do this.
I just felt like, oh, my gosh,wow, this is going to be such a
time saver.
Instead of me having to spendthree hours drawing a really
good cartoon panda on the iPad,I could just learn how to create
amazing prompts and use AI andthen take that panda and put it
into Illustrator or Figma orwhatever.
Make it how I would haveoriginally made it, because
(33:51):
obviously AI can't do exactlywhat you want, and I've just
saved myself and that processtakes me like five minutes, 10
minutes.
I just saved myself hours andhours of work.
So that's it for the artist'sperspective.
For someone who was never anartist and never able to design,
I think it's even betterbecause now they're able to
compete in a market that'salready so saturated, but they
(34:12):
can create designs that are sogood.
So I really like AI.
Tona (34:18):
Okay, I agree, I like it too.
I like it for descriptions.
It's very good for descriptions.
And then, because I thinkyou've had a couple of videos on
AI and I started trying to dothings in different platforms
with AI and for the most part,it's pretty good.
Or even if I'm not good atgiving the prompt, it can give
(34:40):
me an idea of where I can gowith this and it's like, okay, I
could do this or I could takethis, change it, and things of
that nature.
So I think that's a good thing.
And when it comes to digitalmarketing, what are some of the
main tools that you use in orderto get the information out
about your print on demand, yourvarious companies that you have
(35:05):
?
What is your two or three ofyour favorite tools?
I would guess YouTube may beone of them.
Shimmy (35:13):
You mean to advertise the product.
Tona (35:14):
Yeah, just to advertise your product.
Shimmy (35:17):
I don't use YouTube to advertise anything.
Tona (35:19):
No.
Shimmy (35:19):
Okay, like Facebook, okay, and then, funnily enough,
with Amazon.
Well, I will merge on demand.
I'll do Amazon ads and thenEtsy.
I will sometimes do Etsy ads,but a lot of the time I'll leave
Etsy to do its own thing.
I don't do this, but I know Ishould, and that's like a lot
more social media, organic stufflike TikTok and Instagram.
(35:41):
You know TikTok.
If I just bought my own designthat I knew was getting sales
anyway, let's say there's adesign out there that's getting
me 10 sales a day or something,if I would just buy it, make a
whole bunch of TikToks wearingit not promoting it, but wearing
it, doing something stupid ordoing something that would get
views.
Let's say, a TikTok goes viral.
People will say in the commentswhere is that t-shirt from?
(36:04):
I want that t-shirt, especiallyif what I'm doing is on brand.
So let's say I have a bikingt-shirt, a mountain biking
t-shirt, and I create a TikTokof me going to the bike park
doing a couple of jumps or justriding my bike, falling over,
doing something that people willbe like whoa, that could get
(36:25):
tons of views If I'm alsowearing a funny bike t-shirt and
the audience that are watchingit are people who enjoy that
content.
There's a very, very, very goodchance that they'll click
through and find the item andbuy the item.
I should do it more and withthis new store in 2024, I plan
to do it a lot more, so, okay,so I'll answer this question a
(36:47):
little bit better.
With the store that I've justlaunched, I have three specific
types.
The three types of marketingthat I will be doing will be
Facebook ads, email marketingbased on the people that sign up
, and I'll do like a get 20% off, put your email in.
And the third will be TikTok,and it will be this method of
Well, I'm in a very relatableniche, but it will be creating
(37:07):
content in that relatable nichewhilst wearing your clothes.
So not here's a t-shirt, buy myt-shirt, it will just, I'll be
wearing the t-shirt and maybe inthe caption I'll be like if you
want the t-shirt, check out thelink in the description or the
link in my bio.
Tona (37:28):
That sounds like a good way to do it.
Now you said 20% off to get theemail.
Do you feel like that's abetter number than the 5% or 10%
or 15%?
Do you feel like that convertsbetter?
The 20%?
Shimmy (37:35):
I wouldn't know if it converts better because it's a
brand new store.
Based on my research, what Ican see literally 20 or 30 other
people doing into building thisstore, it seemed like 20% was
the given.
Everyone did 20% and even justgeneral buying stuff online.
I see a lot of 20%.
That's not to say 10% won'twork or 5%.
I think 5% is a bit naff.
(37:55):
The 10% or the 15% it very wellcould work At least we test
with enough traffic.
But at the end of the day, ifit will still be profitable with
the 20% off, then I don't minddoing the 20% off.
Tona (38:10):
That makes sense.
So just a couple more questions.
What's the most valuable lessonyou've learned in your
entrepreneurial journey?
Shimmy (38:21):
Not giving up is an easy one, trying to stick to some
sort of routine, not listeningto people when they tell you it
will or won't one.
Trying to stick to some sort ofroutine, not listening to
people when they tell you itwill or won't work.
That's not to be confused withpeople commenting on your
designs.
If you ask a friend forfeedback, then fine, but if you
have friends saying this shop'snot going to work, your YouTube
channel is going to fail, you'renot getting any views, or you
(38:43):
only got 1000 views, haha.
Those kind of things just gotto block out the haters and, for
that matter, block out yourinner hater, which should be the
person in the back of your head, always talking to you, telling
you to stop or to give up andtake note of what is and what
isn't working Journal, becausedown the line A, it will be
great for you to see what'shappened or what hasn't happened
(39:05):
.
But also at the end of the year, if you feel like you haven't
done anything that year, but yougo through and you see, oh,
actually I had all thesedifferent wins.
That's very motivating.
But I think also down the line,if you do ever build a personal
brand, this content that couldbe used for that, and I think
personal brands are huge andonly going to get bigger.
I used to do this a lot.
I still do it a bit.
What I would do is I would dowhat someone told me was called
(39:27):
procrastinate working, where youhave a list of things to do.
So, for example, today my listwas shoot five videos, this
podcast, five products, variouslists of things.
But then there's other thingsthat just happened the other day
I need to call.
There's two companies I have tocall.
My desk is a bit of a mess.
My working area is not the best.
(39:48):
I've got 2000 emails that Ihaven't bothered to go through
in two weeks.
There's all the other littlethings which don't actually make
much difference and don'taccount for the major output
that you want.
If your goal is money, mecleaning my desk is not going to
make me any more money.
Me calling these companies isnot going to make me more money.
It's just admin and whatever.
(40:09):
So I chalk those tasks down toprocrastinate working.
So when I can't be botheredworking and I'm not scrolling on
TikTok, I'm doing these othertasks and I'm filling my day
with these tasks thinking I'mbeing really productive.
Actually, I'm not beingproductive at all.
What I would suggest is, if youhave a routine in the morning or
the night before, write downyour to-do list and make sure
(40:30):
one to two of those items is ahigh-level task, one that either
makes money or has thepotential to make money or is
leading to something that willmake money, and then the rest
can be lower-level tasks.
Or you can have threelower-level tasks and then a
couple of just fully irrelevanttasks that you feel like you
have to get done.
I need to go to the post officeand return an Amazon parcel,
(40:51):
and I've refrained from doingthat for so long because the
refund is £15, which is like $20.
I was like, do I want to spend20 minutes of my time, 30
minutes of my time, going to dothis refund?
And I know I should, but it's amassive distraction.
It will take away from my workand then when I come back, I've
got to get back into the flow ofthings and all of that.
So it's just important toschedule your day and make time
(41:12):
for all the things at the righttime.
Tona (41:15):
That actually makes a lot of sense.
And last question if someonewere starting a print-on-demand
company today, what would youtell them?
Shimmy (41:30):
Great question.
I mean, one of my videos todaywas what would I do if I started
a print-on-demand businesstoday?
What would I tell them?
Well, I would tell them tospend as much time as they can
researching print-on-demand howit works, what customers think,
what they spend all of thatstuff.
Then I would say sign up toAmazon and Etsy as your first
platforms and I would say leavethe other little platforms,
(41:50):
because the amount of time andeffort that you put into them
for the output that you get isjust not worth it.
In my opinion, even the reallybig time sellers selling on
Redbubble still only get like$1,000 a year, which to me is
just like the amount of timeyou've put in, for that is not
worth it.
You can get paid more at yourlocal grocery, so it doesn't
make any sense.
So I say start with Amazon andEtsy.
I would then say pick a niche.
(42:12):
Obviously, try and find scalabledesigns.
They work really really well.
Focus on those designs, makesure they're really really good
and upload them, and then youcan either wait and see if,
organically, you get sales oryou could run some ads.
You can either wait and see if,organically, you get sales or
you could run some ads.
That's a lot more complicatedthan that, obviously, and I
don't want to make it sound likeit's really easy.
I mean, it was a 20-minutevideo.
I can read the script to you ifyou want.
Tona (42:34):
Right, well, actually I'm going to have everything in our
description on where they canfind you and your videos and all
of that, so they'll be able tofind that video where you talk
about it.
Shimmy (42:49):
As long as it's out.
It will be out in the nextmonth or so.
Tona (42:52):
Okay, well, I'm pretty sure that people will subscribe
and they'll definitely get thatvideo, which is good, but you
did say something that I didn'tknow Amazon.
Did you say merch yeah, that Ididn't know Amazon.
Did you say merch, yeah.
So does that mean that I canput items on there that are
(43:13):
print-on-demand and they don'thave to be housed in an Amazon
warehouse?
And work with print-on-demandcompanies, because I didn't know
this.
Shimmy (43:18):
Yeah, so Amazon merch-on-demand it's their own
platform.
Items are listed on Amazon, butit's a print-on-demand company.
So you apply.
You don't get accepted straightaway.
You've got to wait.
Sometimes you do, sometimes youdon't, various factors where
you live, all these kinds ofthings.
Once you get accepted, youstart in tier 10.
So that allows you to have 10designs and then, as you upload
(43:43):
designs and you get sales, youget ranked up to 25, like tier
4,000, tier 200,000, whatever.
The larger the tier, the moredesigns you can have.
Also, the higher the tier.
That's when you get access toAmazon ads.
You don't have access to ads atthe beginning and they do
everything.
So you would upload a designthat you normally would to any
printing partner.
If I find your design on Amazon, I can buy it and it's shipped
(44:05):
with Prime so I could get itnext day, and then Amazon have
an entire printing fulfillmentwarehouse center where they'll
do everything, just like anyother print-on-demand company.
Tona (44:17):
Yeah, I had no idea.
Shimmy (44:19):
It's worth it just to chuck your designs on there and
just see what happens.
Tona (44:22):
Yeah, I mean, I've been in this world where I still
thought that the only way to getinto Amazon was I needed to
have a place to house my stuffand all of that.
I had no idea they had that, sonow I have to go and check that
out.
So is there anything else thatyou would like to add?
(44:42):
And you could also just letpeople know the best way to find
you, even though I'm going toput that information in, but
twice is always good.
Shimmy (44:53):
Sure, you can check out my YouTube videos.
You could subscribe to my emaillist.
If you want to get a bit ofextra help.
Yeah, I would say, start there.
And if you really like thecontent, you want to get in
contact with me.
I respond to all of my comments.
So if you leave a comment beinglike, hey, let's get in touch,
we could do that.
And a bit of advice I'd say isdon't give up, keep going.
(45:13):
Basically, I don't want tosound cliche, but what I'll say
is, if it's been three monthsand you've been doing print on
demand, you haven't got anysales, then ask yourself are
your designs good?
Because that is what I havefound for the majority of people
is that after three monthsthey're still not getting sales.
There's something wrong withthe designs, even if you're
charging a ton of money or yourmarketing is not the best.
(45:34):
If people are seeing it and youcan see that on Etsy, you can
see page views and stuff Ifpeople are seeing it, you're not
getting sales.
It's most likely your designs.
So that's what I would say.
Tona (45:45):
Well, that sounds great.
Thank you so much for being onthe we Pivot podcast.
There are so many gems in thispodcast.
I'm pretty sure people aregoing to have a lot to take away
, especially for 2024.
So thank you for being a gueston our podcast.
Al (46:03):
We're so excited that you tuned in to the latest episode
of the we Pivot podcast.
Thank you for joining us Now,whether this is your first time
or not, please make sure tosubscribe and share with a
friend who can also use somedigital marketing guidance as
well.
Until next time.
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