Could Your First £3,000 in Sales Start With a T-Shirt?

A little creativity, a heat press and an idea worth trying.

Picture this.

You've designed something rather brilliant. Perhaps it's a funny saying, a piece of artwork or something celebrating your local community.

You put it on a T-shirt.

Someone sees it and asks, ‘Where did you get that?’

And suddenly, what started as a bit of fun has the beginnings of a small business.

With the Government's announcement of a £3,000 trading income reporting threshold, we got thinking at Print Me Makerspace. What would £3,000 in sales actually look like for someone starting a creative side hustle?

So we decided to explore three everyday products: T-shirts, tote bags and stickers.

We're starting with T-shirts.

At £25 each, you'd need to sell 120 T-shirts to reach £3,000 in sales.

That's ten a month. Not quite a clothing empire, but certainly an interesting beginning.

From artwork to something you can wear

Modern printing equipment has made creating personalised clothing surprisingly accessible.

At PM Makerspace, we’ve been demonstrating the xTool C1 Print & Cut alongside the xTool WonderPress, showing how artwork can be printed onto PU transfer material, cut to shape and heat pressed onto a garment.

Watching a design go from a computer screen to a finished T-shirt is rather satisfying.

And you don’t need to be a fashion designer.

Illustrations, typography, local humour, club merchandise and personalised gifts are all possibilities.

The challenge isn’t necessarily making the T-shirt. It’s creating something people want to wear.

Let’s talk numbers

Imagine buying a blank organic cotton T-shirt for £3.50 and selling your finished design for £25.

That leaves plenty to explore when choosing your printing method, packaging and presentation.

Now imagine selling ten T-shirts a month.

Your first year, at a glance:

Of course, these are illustrative sales figures rather than a prediction. But they give you something tangible to aim for.

And there’s another interesting number.

Buying 120 blank T-shirts at £3.50 would cost £420, leaving £2,580 from your sales for printing, equipment, packaging and other costs.

Now you can begin working out which production method suits your ambitions.

Do you need to buy a printer?

Not immediately.

There are several ways to produce printed T-shirts, and each has its advantages.

You could order ready-printed transfers and apply them yourself using a heat press.

You could use a print-and-cut machine such as the xTool C1 to produce your own transfers.

Or you could have finished garments printed by a supplier while you concentrate on your designs and customers.

The xTool WonderPress is one option for applying suitable transfers, while the C1 offers more control over producing them.

The right combination depends on how much you want to make, the materials you enjoy working with and your available budget.

After all, buying a machine is the easy part. Giving it something interesting to do is where creativity comes in.

Where might your customers come from?

This is where the possibilities become rather fun.

Perhaps you’ve designed a T-shirt celebrating your neighbourhood. A local café likes it and wants a few for its staff.

Perhaps you’re an illustrator with a small following who would love to wear your artwork.

Or maybe you’re involved in a club, community group or event that needs something a little more personal than an off-the-shelf design.

You could explore local markets, online shops, community events or commissions.

And sometimes the opportunities come completely out of the blue.

I once had a phone call asking whether I could heat press 80 bibs.

My first thought was, 80 babies? That's a lot of bibs!

Not being a football fan, I soon discovered they meant the training bibs worn over players' shirts — not something for feeding babies.

It's a good reminder that you don't always know where your next job will come from, or even what someone might ask you to print.

A local football club, a community event, a café or someone with an idea for a small business. They all need things made, and sometimes all they need is someone willing to say, "Let's see what we can do."

And once you've developed a design people enjoy, there's nothing stopping you from exploring other products.

That same artwork might look rather good on a tote bag.

Which, conveniently, is the subject of our next article.

Come and see how it’s made

At Print Me Makerspace in Bell Green, Lewisham, we’re interested in helping people turn creative ideas into real products.

We offer equipment demonstrations, practical advice and printing services for artists, makers and people exploring small business ideas.

Whether you’re curious about heat pressing, print-and-cut equipment or simply want to understand the possibilities, we’re happy to help you explore.

You don’t need to arrive with a fully formed business plan.

An idea and a few questions are a perfectly good place to begin.

And finally…

£3,000 might sound like a big number when you’re looking at a blank T-shirt.

But 120 T-shirts over a year?

That’s a much more interesting way to look at it.

The real question isn’t whether you can make 120 T-shirts.

It’s whether you can create something that 120 people would love to own.

And that’s a creative challenge worth having a go at.

Print Me Makerspace — Bell Green, Lewisham, London

Printing, making and helping creative ideas become real products.

Visit pmmakerspace.com to explore our printing services, equipment demonstrations and creative side-hustle support.

Next in the series: Could a £15 tote bag become your next creative side hustle?