Here I’m answering some questions you might have about my business. You can also ask me if you can’t find the answers for your questions here 🙂
What is print on demand?
Print on demand (POD) is a business model where products are printed only when an order is placed by a customer. It’s a form of digital printing that enables artists, designers, and entrepreneurs to sell custom-designed products without the need for any upfront investments in inventory or production equipment. This is also environmentally better choice compared to printing first and finding customers after.
How does all of this work?
-From the drawing board to you-
- I get inspired by something and I’ll sketch and draw a design. Sometimes it takes a week sometimes it takes three years. It’s weird.
- Then I’ll upload the design on Spreadshirt and I’ll choose the products that are suitable for the design and the style of my brand.
- An employee at Spreadshirt will make sure that the design doesn’t have spelling errors and won’t break any copyright laws. And then they will publish the design.
- Then the customer, let’s say you, are scrolling around Spreadshirt looking for…let’s say for example a T-shirt
- You’ll find a comfy looking T-shirt with a wonderful design that resonates with your style nicely
- Then you can choose the color of the shirt and check what size does it have to be, and add the product to the basket
- Then you’ll click from the basket to the checkout. You can pay with a credit card or a debit card or even use Paypal. And the delivery is possible to many countries. Check here if your home country is one of them.
- Spreadshirt receives the order
- I’ll get a notification of the order and I’ll be like YAAAAY!!!
- The employees of Spreadshirt will print the design of your choosing on the product you ordered
- They’ll pack the product and ship it to you
- You’ll get your product and be like WOOHOO!!
- I’ll get my commission and Spreadshirt gets what is theirs
What kind of quality can I expect from Spreadshirt?
Well that depends on the product. But I’ve ordered a few things from my shop. In my experience the prints are always great. Colors are vivid and they can handle machine washing well. The fabrics on different clothes vary. Some are really thin and stretch a lot, some are thick and won’t give in that much. But they’ve always been very soft and comfortable. There are a lot of different opinions on the quality of these products so it is hard to determine an average.
Shipping policy
Expected shipping time depends on where you live and what kind of products you are ordering. You’ll find better info on this here
Return policy
Spreadshirt has a 30-day return guarantee. If the product doesn’t fit you or for some other reason you don’t like it, you can send it back. You can exchange it for a new product or exchange for a voucher or get a refund. More on the return policy in here
How sustainable is this really?
Of course I admit that this isn’t as sustainable as buying used clothes from your nearest flea market. But Spreadshirt is increasingly investing in environmentally friendly manufacturing. Their production uses less water when compared to industry standards. Spreadshirt uses renewable energy and vegan ink, and the return rate of their products is 2% which is pretty low. And those returned 2% go into charity or recycling. Read more about this here
Do you take commissions?
I would love to, if I had any clue how to handle the payment transactions. The laws are very strict and complicated and I’m actually scared I’ll get in trouble if I do something wrong. So this is one of the million things I’m trying to learn how to do, so I could feed myself with my own damn hands.
Why don’t you print your products yourself?
That would require a lot of recources that I don’t have. Maybe some day.
Why don’t you get them printed in Finland if you live there?
There is not a single company in Finland that works with print-on-demand system. There are a lot of businesses that print on clothes but I would have to buy the products and pay for the printing and have my own platform to sell them in. And my budget is 0€
How are the product prices determined?
The product price consists of:
1. Product base price (without printing)
2. Printing cost
3. My commission
Lets take an example: A basic T-shirt with one print area. The price for the customer is 27€. The base price with printing is 17,49€ and my commission is 9,51€. The margin is a little different on each product. I could take bigger commissions but I want the overall product prices to make my art available for as many as possible.
What devices and programs do you use in your work?
I’ve been pretty poor my whole adult life. So I have had to manage with cheap and free materials and equipment for my art.
After years of saving, I was finally able to buy the cheapest possible graphics tablet so I could draw digitally. I use it with the laptop I got from my friends. It’s old it but works. Krita is the painting program of my choosing because it’s free but professional.
Now I have a recycled phone that I can also draw with. Samsung Galaxy Note 9. With that I use an app called Sketchbook. Unfortunately it can’t handle bigger data files so I can’t make poster designs with that for example. But I love how smooth it is to draw with that. And how I can use it anywhere. Sometimes I might use many different programs to construct a perfect design.
Canva is an awesome program that I use a lot. I even pay for the premium so I can get to all the useful aspects of it. It has helped me with planning and making videos and social media posts. I even have one T-shirt design made with the elements from Canva.
Why won’t you just get a real job?
It is very hard to find a job that actually pays enough to make it worth it. With my all my mental health problems and a mind that is motivated mostly by curiosity, it has been hell trying to find my place in this society that gives no value to anything I’d actually like to do.
I’ve been to so many work practices but they won’t hire because it is so much easier to just get a new slave. Once in my life I actually got a job that was considered a ”real job” but it made our money situation worse and my mental health situation even worse than that.
So why would I torture myself by giving all my time and energy to a company that doesn’t care about me and in return get inadequate salary that doesn’t even pay the bills. It’s no treat to be unemployed and having to count every cent either but at least I have time to do things that make life worth living and build something that might some day create meaningful jobs and a purpose for me and hopefully hundreds of people.
