I believe one of the best gifts you can give to your children is the knowledge and skills to become an entrepreneur. It’s not for everyone, and you can’t force it, but at least you can show them a few things at an early age.
Artists are especially resistant to learning to sell and market their products. This is probably because many of them believe art is to be seen and not necessarily paid for, or they are totally focused on producing the artwork and hope that it alone with sell itself. Most artists are not comfortable in the ‘salesman’ role, which is what makes them artists and not ‘sellers’.
My son is a budding artist. He’s 9. And he likes to draw (although lately he has been spending the majority of his time with Legos and Mega Blocks). Over the years I saved most of his work, and set aside a few of his best drawings and put them in a drawer. I had no intentions other than to make sure we didn’t lose the best ones.
As Christmas approached I started thinking about gifts or experiences that were not what Santa usually brings at Christmas. I wanted to give him something totally unique and then it came to me. Why not put his drawings on a T-shirt?
He loved the idea (I broke it to him early because I was so excited) and I found a relatively easy way to get his artwork from paper and then onto a t-shirt. But then another idea came to me. Why not take it a step further and teach him a little bit about marketing and selling and using his t-shirts as a starting point?
And hey, if he isn’t into the whole selling thing at least he gets to show off his work and share it with his friends and relatives. By the way, several people purchased his shirts already! And they are really cool because his artwork really is quite good. Everyone likes to have a original and cool t-shirt.
Do me a favor and make my son happy. Buy a shirt or two and write a nice review? Good karma and a nice shirt will be coming your way as a result!
Nice shirt, right? Boys especially like it. As a matter of fact, a couple of the boys in his class bug him to draw them a skull or skeleton constantly.
So How Do I Get His Drawing On A T-Shirt?
- Step 1: Scan your drawing into a jpeg, or png. I used my printer/scanner and it took 10 seconds. You may be able to use your tablet, or if you need to go to Fedex office or the UPS store you can have them scan it for you.
- Step 2: Have the drawing traced by a professional (or do it yourself if you know how to do this). I have no idea how to do this so I simply went to Fivver.com and hired someone to do it. I have only spent $10.50 – $20.00 per tracing. This is a great deal because I’ve had quotes from others that were anywhere from $90 – $400 by other artists. Be sure that the artist you hire has the exact specifications before they start (more on this in step 4).
- Step 3: Choose your print on demand t-shirt company. I only use companies that use print on demand technology to make my shirts because this way you don’t have to buy inventory and make a big investment. There are sites like Zazzle.com, TeeSpring.com and others. But my favorite is Amazon.com! Amazon is awesome because it’s really easy to set up, and it will be ready for sale in literally minutes. Plus, it will be listed on the biggest eCommerce website in the world.
- Step 4: Amazon requires the image you upload for the front and the back be a .png file and 4500 x 5400 pixels.
- Step 5: Simply fill out the product information, pick colors you want (t-shirt colors), keywords for the listing, and a description, and then it’s ready for sale.
Watch This Detailed Video On Making and Listing T-Shirts on Amazon.com For More Information:
How To Make Your Son or Daughter Into An Instant Entrepreneur!
Now that you have your t-shirt up for your son or daughter, you should buy a couple right away because they are really going to want to have it. So get cracking on that.
After you do that you should use the link that Amazon gives you to tell your Facebook friends about it. You really want to get as many people as you can to order it because you want them to write a review, not to mention that they get a really cool t-shirt created by your son or daughter.
The more orders that come in, and the more reviews it gets, the higher it will rank in Amazon which means eventually you will get orders from people who are looking for t-shirts.
I wanted to provide my son with a tool that will help him sell his t-shirts to even more people without having to go online. So what I did was get him his very own business cards along with an engraved business card holder. I got a great deal on the cards and the case here, and it was really easy. Here is his card: