Selling T-Shirts to Other Students

This is quite easily one of the simplest money-making ideas out there, but it requires putting money up front, a lot commitment, and some sales skills.

Create A T-Shirt

The first thing you need to do is identify a T-Shirt Idea that will sell with the rest of the student body. Put-downs of a rival school or schools generally do well. For example "________ University sucks______University." Or something clever with a message that is universal on campus, as well as funny. Your T-shirt will need to capture the overall intensity of college rivalries, and will need to be marketable (try not to use profanities, should be something clever, not cliché). Our T-shirt was directly insulting to two of our biggest rivalries, but still was cleverly subtle, and not too over the top. It was marketable because it appealed to both females and males around campus and was a big hit at sporting events.

Method

The best way this is done is to find an independent T-shirt making shop in the area. Try to avoid T-shirt making websites who charge exorbitant convenience and shipping fees. We were able to find a small T-shirt making business who agreed to manufacture the shirts at about $6.50 each. You want your profit margin to be at least $5 per T-shirt, depending on the volume of shirts that you are able to sell.

So, now that you have hundreds of T-shirts, its time to put your selling skills to the test. To start out, it is not a bad idea to get the word out before you start selling. You can sell a few to close friends before you inundate the campus. You can post clever posters around campus. Or you can go with direct marketing through facebook. Either way, the idea is that you want anticipation for your product so that when people see the shirts, they are already mentally prepared to drop cash on them. You don't want to blindside a bunch of tired, studying folks.

The first night you sell the shirts, split up into groups of two and go door to door selling the T-Shirts. Start out, and spend a lot of time at freshman dormitories; they are the most willing to show school spirit by purchasing a shirt. Offer bulk order discounts- for example buy 2 for $25 or buy 3 and get one free. We sold our T-shirts for $15, and our margins were large enough to offer such discounts.

Door to door selling is going to be your bread and butter but it is important to also sell them at parties that you host, sporting events on campus, and at the dining hall if necessary. Eventually, if your T-shirt is catchy enough, word of mouth will have students seeking you for the T-shirts. One mistake that we made is that we did not order enough small and medium T-shirts. We thought our target consumers would be mostly guys who play and go to sporting events. Unfortunately, we had more interest from the girls on campus and we had run out of small and medium T-shirts (Maybe because we're so good with the ladies). This was a big mistake and cost us at least $100 and we were stuck with several extra large T-shirts. The T-shirt idea is clearly one of the most profitable money-making endeavors on the college campus. It will inevitably help to fund your parties, and other recreational activities surrounding the imbibing of alcohol.

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