October 27, 2024 • 14 mins
Ever wondered how to navigate the complex world of print-on-demand for your creative business? In this episode, I’ll take you through my 11-year journey, highlighting lessons learned, from the importance of choosing reliable partners to the realities of pricing, product quality, and variety. Along the way, I’ll share stories about our experiences with platforms like Zenfolio and Printful, and the crucial role research and product testing play in maintaining quality control.
You’ll also hear candid tales of resilience, like overcoming a problematic order with a smelly blue jean jacket and navigating the 2020 inventory crisis. With each story, my mission to empower others in their entrepreneurial journey shines through, reminding us all of the power of persistence and quality service. Whether you’re just starting out or looking for inspiration, this episode is packed with insights to motivate you to make a positive impact through print-on-demand. Join me as we dive into the behind-the-scenes world of building a creative business that matters.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (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.
(00:25):
Hello everyone, today I'mtaking you behind the scenes to
share what I have learned fromworking with print-on-demand
companies for over 11 years.
It's been a journey of insights, surprises and hard-learned
lessons, and if you're thinkingabout using print-on-demand,
this episode may just be theguide you need.
(00:48):
So let's dive in.
So before I start, let me tellyou a story about one of the
first print-on-demand company.
It was called Zenfolio.
(01:10):
Maybe some of you know it,maybe not.
Well, in the beginning, when westarted our doing artwork, we
were doing everything by hand,but after a while, we realized
that the only way to really beable to get this out to more
people is we needed a companythat could do a lot of the
(01:30):
back-end work for us.
Well, in walks not really walks, but in comes Zemfolio.
We thought this was going to bejust what we need.
We could upload our picturesand they could send it out for
us and it would be great and itwas in theory, but we didn't
really have our own website atthe time.
(01:51):
We had to just send people alink to go to purchase and the
profit from doing a lot of thosepictures was very, very small.
You want to know how small,like 20 cents.
And we realized not too longinto it that this was not going
(02:14):
to work for us.
So what we decided was toresearch some other companies.
Now, initially, one of thereasons why we decided that we
were going to useprint-on-demand is because at
the time I was a high schoolbiology teacher, my husband was
(02:35):
also doing administrative workin the Chicago public schools
and because of that it wasreally hard for us to take up
all of our time, to haveinventory in our home and to be
sending out things to ourvarious customers who decided to
purchase.
(02:55):
So Print on Demand was theperfect idea for us, or the
perfect solution to our problemidea for us, or the perfect
solution to our problem.
Once we started, we came acrossPrintful, which I'm pretty sure
(03:17):
everyone knows, and Printful isa company that basically they
have a lot of different productsand you can take your designs,
pretty much, plop them on andthey will do all the labor on
the back end for you.
So that is what pretty muchdrew us first to deciding to
really work with print on demandcompanies was just the fact
that we did not have the time orenergy to have inventory to
(03:42):
send out the different packagesto different people, so we
decided print-on-demand would bethe most effective way to do
this.
Now, one of the most surprisingthings that I learned about
print-on-demand is that everycompany is different.
They may have the same types ofitems, but each one will charge
(04:06):
a different price.
One company might charge $10for a sweatshirt, another
company might charge $20.
Important for you to decidewhich company is going to work
(04:27):
best for the amount of profitthat you want to get from
selling those items, and alsojust which company has the best
items or the best variety ofitems that you would like to use
.
Some of the ways thatprint-on-demand has affected my
(04:48):
creative process, like I said,when I started, we started with
Zenfolio and technically weactually started selling
pictures first and combining ourtalents to sell pictures.
But when print-on-demand cameon the scene, where more
print-on-demand companies cameon the scene, I realized that I
(05:09):
could really try to do varyingdesigns based off of just
different things that I saw,inspirations that I saw.
I would do a lot of typographyand things of that nature.
And then I started playingaround with Illustrator.
So my creative process it kindof changed over time because I
(05:33):
was always trying to practice tomake the next best selling
design in my store.
So having a print on demandcompany to use so having a
print-on-demand company to useit meant that I could be more
creative because I didn't haveto just rely on one design.
I could just keep pumping outmore and more designs so that I
(05:55):
could put them out to people tosee which ones resonated with
people the most.
Now, of course, working withprint on demand, there's going
to be some challenges, and oneof the biggest challenges
working with print on demandcompanies is the fact that
sometimes, because you'reworking with all of these
(06:16):
different companies, you are notreally in control of the
products that are sent out, ofthe products that are sent out,
and you have to trust that theprint-on-demand company that
you've chosen is going to do thebest possible job that they can
to get the best product infront of the customers that have
(06:37):
purchased from you.
But I think one of the ways toget around that is to make sure
that you really do a lot ofresearch on the company that you
want to use first and test avariety of different products,
have them sent to you to see howthe process is for yourself
before actually choosing one.
(06:57):
I believe one of that specificchallenge and how I can overcome
it is basically by researching.
When I research, I'm reallytrying to figure out the best
company for me, based off of howlong it takes to get to me.
When it gets to me, do I likeit?
And if I like it or otherpeople in my family like it,
(07:22):
then I know that it's going tobe a winner with my other
customers who purchase.
Now, when it comes to choosing aprint-on-demand company to work
with, the main criteria that ismost important to me is, first,
how much are they actuallycharging?
So what is their pricestructure like and how quickly
(07:45):
can they get the item to theindividual customer that has
ordered?
I also care about the qualityof the items that I am going to
be picking as well.
Also, variety Do they have alot of variety of items?
Because, yes, I do sell mostlyT-shirts and sweatshirts and
(08:07):
things like that, but theremight be other items that might
be trending at a time that I'dlike to add my designs to to
test out, to test out the market.
So those are really important.
And also their customer serviceon the backend.
Do I do they have the abilityto have either a live chat or
(08:29):
someone you can email that willget back to you relatively
quickly and pretty much solveany problem that you have.
Those are going to be myspecific criteria that are very
important to me.
Now, can I share, or I can shareone time when a print on demand
(08:51):
order didn't go as planned andhow did I handle it?
Basically, recently I had bluejean jackets on my store and it
was from a specific print ondemand company and one of my
loyal customers, who alwayspurchases for me, decided that
she wanted to purchase this bluejean jacket.
(09:12):
She purchased the jacket andwhen she got it, when she
received it, she emailed me andtold me that the blue jean
jacket it had a really bad odorto it and she explained how it
smelled and all of thesedifferent things.
And I let her know that if shewas not satisfied then I would
(09:34):
be giving her a refund on thatspecific jacket.
So if she would like, she canwash it again, she can donate,
she can do whatever she wouldlike with that particular jacket
, and I also contacted myprint-on-demand company about
(09:57):
that issue as well.
Now, the main thing when dealingwith things like that, you have
to really have your process inplace and your solutions kind of
ahead of time, on how you wantto solve those issues.
But as long as you have acompany that is going to be easy
to work with, usually you won'thave any problems trying to
(10:22):
solve those issues when theycome up.
The other thing that happenedand that was back in 2020, when
everything started to shut downand people were not able to get
items like they used to becauseof the varying inventory
problems I had to actually justshut down my store.
(10:44):
During that time and thecompany I was working for
working with, I had to reallystart researching other
companies, because they weren'table to send things out.
They were having lots ofinventory problems, and so
during that time, I used thattime to actually find another
(11:04):
company to work with, and it'sbeen the best decision for
myself to work with this othercompany, because they were just
starting out, it seems, and nowI have more of a relationship
with this company and it hasjust been great.
Now, if someone were consideringstarting a print on demand or
(11:29):
using print on demand to meettheir e-commerce needs, the one
tip that I would give a personis to really research, research
first, and really determine whyyou want to do this, because,
even though a lot of people saythat it's passive income, it's
not really passive becausethere's a lot of work that goes
(11:50):
into it.
You can put out a design andsend it to people that you know.
You can put it on social media.
That doesn't necessarily meanthat people are going to buy.
It's a long-term game andsometimes people aren't really
willing to wait, and so beingpatient is something that you
really have to do.
(12:11):
Make sure you research,research, research the
print-on-demand company that'sgoing to be best for you, and
also make sure that you test andorder different things, like,
if you want to put out t-shirts,you should definitely test and
see.
Put out t-shirts, you shoulddefinitely test and see how the
t-shirts are, sweatshirts or anyother product.
(12:34):
My philosophy is I can't putsomething out that I haven't
first bought and tried myself.
If I try it myself and I likeit and I'm a fan.
If I try it myself and I likeit and I'm a fan, then I can add
it to my store.
If not, I can't add it Now.
(13:00):
Something that keeps memotivated to help me to keep
creating through print on demand, especially when things don't
go as planned or especially whenI don't get a lot of sales as
planned, or especially when Idon't get a lot of sales.
I believe that my purpose indoing Call to Edify is the thing
that helps to keep me going.
I know that my husband and I wedo the podcast.
We also build websites forsmall businesses, so we have a
(13:24):
lot of other things that we do,but my purpose is still to
encourage and build up womenwith the word of God and in any
way that I can do that, usingprint on demand as a way to do
that, I will continue to do that.
Even when things don't go asplanned or even if I don't get a
(13:46):
lot of sales, I still feel thatI am making an impact Over the
years I have been here.
I haven't shut down.
I am still doing what the Lordhas called me to do, and so I
will keep creating with print ondemand and until next time,
(14:07):
take care we're so excited thatyou tuned in to the latest
episode of the we Pivot podcast.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Thank you for joining us Now.
Whether this is your first timeor not, please make sure to
subscribe and share with afriend who can also use some
digital marketing guidance aswell.
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.
(00:25):
Hello everyone, today I'mtaking you behind the scenes to
share what I have learned fromworking with print-on-demand
companies for over 11 years.
It's been a journey of insights, surprises and hard-learned
lessons, and if you're thinkingabout using print-on-demand,
this episode may just be theguide you need.
(00:48):
So let's dive in.
So before I start, let me tellyou a story about one of the
first print-on-demand company.
It was called Zenfolio.
(01:10):
Maybe some of you know it,maybe not.
Well, in the beginning, when westarted our doing artwork, we
were doing everything by hand,but after a while, we realized
that the only way to really beable to get this out to more
people is we needed a companythat could do a lot of the
(01:30):
back-end work for us.
Well, in walks not really walks, but in comes Zemfolio.
We thought this was going to bejust what we need.
We could upload our picturesand they could send it out for
us and it would be great and itwas in theory, but we didn't
really have our own website atthe time.
(01:51):
We had to just send people alink to go to purchase and the
profit from doing a lot of thosepictures was very, very small.
You want to know how small,like 20 cents.
And we realized not too longinto it that this was not going
(02:14):
to work for us.
So what we decided was toresearch some other companies.
Now, initially, one of thereasons why we decided that we
were going to useprint-on-demand is because at
the time I was a high schoolbiology teacher, my husband was
(02:35):
also doing administrative workin the Chicago public schools
and because of that it wasreally hard for us to take up
all of our time, to haveinventory in our home and to be
sending out things to ourvarious customers who decided to
purchase.
(02:55):
So Print on Demand was theperfect idea for us, or the
perfect solution to our problemidea for us, or the perfect
solution to our problem.
Once we started, we came acrossPrintful, which I'm pretty sure
(03:17):
everyone knows, and Printful isa company that basically they
have a lot of different productsand you can take your designs,
pretty much, plop them on andthey will do all the labor on
the back end for you.
So that is what pretty muchdrew us first to deciding to
really work with print on demandcompanies was just the fact
that we did not have the time orenergy to have inventory to
(03:42):
send out the different packagesto different people, so we
decided print-on-demand would bethe most effective way to do
this.
Now, one of the most surprisingthings that I learned about
print-on-demand is that everycompany is different.
They may have the same types ofitems, but each one will charge
(04:06):
a different price.
One company might charge $10for a sweatshirt, another
company might charge $20.
Important for you to decidewhich company is going to work
(04:27):
best for the amount of profitthat you want to get from
selling those items, and alsojust which company has the best
items or the best variety ofitems that you would like to use
.
Some of the ways thatprint-on-demand has affected my
(04:48):
creative process, like I said,when I started, we started with
Zenfolio and technically weactually started selling
pictures first and combining ourtalents to sell pictures.
But when print-on-demand cameon the scene, where more
print-on-demand companies cameon the scene, I realized that I
(05:09):
could really try to do varyingdesigns based off of just
different things that I saw,inspirations that I saw.
I would do a lot of typographyand things of that nature.
And then I started playingaround with Illustrator.
So my creative process it kindof changed over time because I
(05:33):
was always trying to practice tomake the next best selling
design in my store.
So having a print on demandcompany to use so having a
print-on-demand company to useit meant that I could be more
creative because I didn't haveto just rely on one design.
I could just keep pumping outmore and more designs so that I
(05:55):
could put them out to people tosee which ones resonated with
people the most.
Now, of course, working withprint on demand, there's going
to be some challenges, and oneof the biggest challenges
working with print on demandcompanies is the fact that
sometimes, because you'reworking with all of these
(06:16):
different companies, you are notreally in control of the
products that are sent out, ofthe products that are sent out,
and you have to trust that theprint-on-demand company that
you've chosen is going to do thebest possible job that they can
to get the best product infront of the customers that have
(06:37):
purchased from you.
But I think one of the ways toget around that is to make sure
that you really do a lot ofresearch on the company that you
want to use first and test avariety of different products,
have them sent to you to see howthe process is for yourself
before actually choosing one.
(06:57):
I believe one of that specificchallenge and how I can overcome
it is basically by researching.
When I research, I'm reallytrying to figure out the best
company for me, based off of howlong it takes to get to me.
When it gets to me, do I likeit?
And if I like it or otherpeople in my family like it,
(07:22):
then I know that it's going tobe a winner with my other
customers who purchase.
Now, when it comes to choosing aprint-on-demand company to work
with, the main criteria that ismost important to me is, first,
how much are they actuallycharging?
So what is their pricestructure like and how quickly
(07:45):
can they get the item to theindividual customer that has
ordered?
I also care about the qualityof the items that I am going to
be picking as well.
Also, variety Do they have alot of variety of items?
Because, yes, I do sell mostlyT-shirts and sweatshirts and
(08:07):
things like that, but theremight be other items that might
be trending at a time that I'dlike to add my designs to to
test out, to test out the market.
So those are really important.
And also their customer serviceon the backend.
Do I do they have the abilityto have either a live chat or
(08:29):
someone you can email that willget back to you relatively
quickly and pretty much solveany problem that you have.
Those are going to be myspecific criteria that are very
important to me.
Now, can I share, or I can shareone time when a print on demand
(08:51):
order didn't go as planned andhow did I handle it?
Basically, recently I had bluejean jackets on my store and it
was from a specific print ondemand company and one of my
loyal customers, who alwayspurchases for me, decided that
she wanted to purchase this bluejean jacket.
(09:12):
She purchased the jacket andwhen she got it, when she
received it, she emailed me andtold me that the blue jean
jacket it had a really bad odorto it and she explained how it
smelled and all of thesedifferent things.
And I let her know that if shewas not satisfied then I would
(09:34):
be giving her a refund on thatspecific jacket.
So if she would like, she canwash it again, she can donate,
she can do whatever she wouldlike with that particular jacket
, and I also contacted myprint-on-demand company about
(09:57):
that issue as well.
Now, the main thing when dealingwith things like that, you have
to really have your process inplace and your solutions kind of
ahead of time, on how you wantto solve those issues.
But as long as you have acompany that is going to be easy
to work with, usually you won'thave any problems trying to
(10:22):
solve those issues when theycome up.
The other thing that happenedand that was back in 2020, when
everything started to shut downand people were not able to get
items like they used to becauseof the varying inventory
problems I had to actually justshut down my store.
(10:44):
During that time and thecompany I was working for
working with, I had to reallystart researching other
companies, because they weren'table to send things out.
They were having lots ofinventory problems, and so
during that time, I used thattime to actually find another
(11:04):
company to work with, and it'sbeen the best decision for
myself to work with this othercompany, because they were just
starting out, it seems, and nowI have more of a relationship
with this company and it hasjust been great.
Now, if someone were consideringstarting a print on demand or
(11:29):
using print on demand to meettheir e-commerce needs, the one
tip that I would give a personis to really research, research
first, and really determine whyyou want to do this, because,
even though a lot of people saythat it's passive income, it's
not really passive becausethere's a lot of work that goes
(11:50):
into it.
You can put out a design andsend it to people that you know.
You can put it on social media.
That doesn't necessarily meanthat people are going to buy.
It's a long-term game andsometimes people aren't really
willing to wait, and so beingpatient is something that you
really have to do.
(12:11):
Make sure you research,research, research the
print-on-demand company that'sgoing to be best for you, and
also make sure that you test andorder different things, like,
if you want to put out t-shirts,you should definitely test and
see.
Put out t-shirts, you shoulddefinitely test and see how the
t-shirts are, sweatshirts or anyother product.
(12:34):
My philosophy is I can't putsomething out that I haven't
first bought and tried myself.
If I try it myself and I likeit and I'm a fan.
If I try it myself and I likeit and I'm a fan, then I can add
it to my store.
If not, I can't add it Now.
(13:00):
Something that keeps memotivated to help me to keep
creating through print on demand, especially when things don't
go as planned or especially whenI don't get a lot of sales as
planned, or especially when Idon't get a lot of sales.
I believe that my purpose indoing Call to Edify is the thing
that helps to keep me going.
I know that my husband and I wedo the podcast.
We also build websites forsmall businesses, so we have a
(13:24):
lot of other things that we do,but my purpose is still to
encourage and build up womenwith the word of God and in any
way that I can do that, usingprint on demand as a way to do
that, I will continue to do that.
Even when things don't go asplanned or even if I don't get a
(13:46):
lot of sales, I still feel thatI am making an impact Over the
years I have been here.
I haven't shut down.
I am still doing what the Lordhas called me to do, and so I
will keep creating with print ondemand and until next time,
(14:07):
take care we're so excited thatyou tuned in to the latest
episode of the we Pivot podcast.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Thank you for joining us Now.
Whether this is your first timeor not, please make sure to
subscribe and share with afriend who can also use some
digital marketing guidance aswell.
Until next time.
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