Ambition has always been my strength...and my weakness
What happens when an artist decides to walk the walk after talking the talk?
In every YouTube video I publish I say, “I’m Dave and I make things.” It’s not only on brand for the channel, but it perfectly sums up what I do; the perfect cocktail party introduction because it encourages people to ask what it is that I actually make.
The answer at any given moment could be entirely different depending on when it gets asked. Sometimes it’s painting, sometimes I’m building, and sometimes I’m designing.
When the RedBubble debacle hit a couple of weeks ago, I closed my ghost town of a shop in protest of the company taking more money out of the pockets of artists and designers. Then I shared a video talking about what I would do next if I were any of those artists.
That’s when a creative bug crawled right up my backside and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. (Read like a voice in my head) Instead of me just talking about what I would do, why don’t I actually do it and film the whole process for people to follow along?
"I want to do things so wild with you that I don't know how to say them." - Anais Nin
The TL;DR is that I’m going to design a niche brand from the ground up using print-on-demand and an e-commerce website, but one that is completely independent of me and my art.
The extended story is that I’ve had this ambition for a while, to create a brand that’s niche-specific, has a focused catalog of products, and caters to hobbyists with plenty of discretionary income. Do I know what that niche is yet? Nope, not a clue, which makes this idea of me sharing every aspect that much more interesting.
I’m not being entirely truthful there because, in the video below, I did a small bit of niche research for the sake of delivering value to the viewers. However, I haven’t picked the niche yet, which is the first item on the list of things I need to do to start a ground-up merch business using print-on-demand.
1. Riches in the Niches
To start, I knew I wanted to focus on a popular hobby, especially one where people place their joy in the hobby over personal expense. For example, golfers spend a lot of money on gear, greens fees, and outfitting. They also like to let other golfers know they’re golfers by showing off their golfi-ness to others.
In contrast, artists will spend money where it’s important, on materials or tools, but in my experience, they don’t buy a lot of gear that talks about being an artist. Many of them would be horrified by the idea of emblazoning their artist status on a shirt for the world to see.
This is why picking the right niche is important and requires research. My current favorite research tool is ChatGPT. Say what you will about AI, but that app has helped me out way more often in the last 6 months than Google has in as long as I can remember. The accuracy and detail of the responses are unmatched.
Personally, I’m leaning more toward something either in the travel or outdoors niches, and maybe there’s an opportunity by combining those two. I have a spark of inspiration for a more humorous approach, but I want to do a little more research before I go further. I’ll share on YouTube once I’ve landed on something specific.
An important side note is that there are plenty of people out there giving advice on how to do this process, but often they don’t share the shops they’ve built because they don’t want people stealing their ideas. My plan is to show everything so you know whether what I’m doing is working or not.
The only downside to this choice is that by sharing with people who might not immediately associate with the niche, and if those people buy from me, it skews my data, which could affect the marketing and advertising aspects of the business.
2. Cheeky and Search-Friendly Naming
Once I establish my niche, it’s time to pick a name, preferably leaning into one where I can be guaranteed a .com URL extension. It’s a little crazy that in 2023, we still lean hard on .com as the extension of choice considering the hundreds of different extensions are available, but I’m not trying to break the cycle with this brand.
I want the name to be playful, not too long but also have a reasonable amount of SEO (search engine optimization) strength to it. SEO is going to be a big factor in the total effort with this shop and starting with a good domain name is key.
3. Stylin’ and Profilin’
Picking a style and sticking to it is going to be essential, and might be my biggest challenge. I want the style to be a bit more progressive, avoiding traditional tropes of the niche (whatever it is), but also not going too far off the norm that causes people to disassociate from the concept.
My design style when left untethered can be as bold as my expressive art style. That may work for some pieces, but not for all. I will want to reel myself in on how radical I get with these designs. To make sure I stick to that, I’ll be using the method of an ideal customer avatar and treating that avatar as my client like I would with any traditional design project.
4. More Deep than Wide
When it comes to picking products, I will of course have the common items like shirts and mugs available, but these can often be loss leaders and not built to generate margins that help keep the business alive. I’ll be adding products that allow for more profit margin and using those as the gateway to the shop through advertising. I’ll talk more about that in the future because it requires special consideration.
Also, I don’t want to have a bunch of random products, tossing my designs on anything that I feel will sell. I want to start with a smaller amount of designs on a more curated group of products.
Finally, I know I want to focus on leisure, but not necessarily luxury. Print-on-demand can sometimes be difficult to create top-level quality products. You can get really good products made, but not necessarily on the level of luxury brands. Plus, luxury items can be a bit of a hard sell, and the goal here is to bring more people in the door.
5. Print Partners
Full disclosure, I’m going to use Printify as my print partner. However, they may not be my only option because I may find a product that could be a good addition to the shop, but Printify doesn’t provide that product.
Being in the U.S., Printify is a solid option for me, but if someone is outside the States, they may want to choose another provider. I know Gooten and Gelato both have a wider reach outside the Americas, so that might be better for you. I’ve never used either of those services, so I cannot comment on their quality or service.
6. Where to Sell
Picking an e-commerce platform is an important decision and there are many considerations. This is another topic that I will go into deeper because I don’t want to have tunnel vision on my preference (Shopify). I love Shopify, but it may not be the right option for everyone.
7. Into the Hands of the People
Marketing and advertising is going to be essential. The current plan is to have an email list so I can reach out to people whenever I want (within reason). I also will open a couple of social media accounts and use them not just as promotion, but highlighting the best parts of the niche lifestyle.
For advertising, I’ll use Facebook and Google ads, and when the business grows, include selective influencers for paid endorsements. That’s pie-in-the-sky thinking and we’ll broach that subject when we get there.
"Ambition is a dream with a V8 engine." - Elvis Presley
Execution and Expectations
If I’m being honest with myself, the timing of this project is not the best. I currently have a reasonable amount of free time in May, but June is the complete opposite; always the busiest of the year for my family.
Also, I don’t want to rush the design process. In the past, I’ve had a habit of pumping out work too fast to get more products into the shop on my personal brand. I want to be more conscientious of the design work for this new brand, producing the best quality work that resonates with potential buyers.
On the other side of that, I want to make sure the shop is fully functional and looking rad by the time the holiday shopping season begins, which means September. The shop will be up and running before then, but I want the final polish to be finished by Autumn.
In other words, it’ll be a journey, and I hope you come along for the ride. If at any time you have thoughts or questions, make sure you ask in the comments and we can chat about it.
Finally, if you know anyone who might benefit from this, make sure to share this post, and invite them to subscribe to my YouTube channel for the nitty gritty details.