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I would love some feedback on this business idea.

Idea threads

TheProcess

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This morning I was brainstorming and came up with an idea on how I can create some value and make some money. Please tell me what you guys think. I have never tried a side hustle to this point so I'm just really starting out.

- I live in a huge city, and there are big events going on pretty much every week in this city, things like parades and stuff like that.
- I want to go to those events and sell t-shirts and clothing related to that event. Just last week I was at one of these events and people were selling t-shirts for like 50 bucks and people were buying non-stop.
- To do this I have to deal with the design (I can do this myself or get someone to do it for me on upwork or something). Also I need to deal with actually getting all these t-shirts and buying a little cart or something to sell them on and then driving to those events and setting up a space for myself.

I have two concerns however:
- I'm afraid of trademark infringement. I guess I should make all the designs myself and not use words like Nike or anything like that.
- I'm also afraid that the people organizing the events (if that's the case) will not allow this to happen. To counteract this, I will need to contact my city and find out if people are organizing the events, and then contact those people and ask them if I can do this. I should learn more about the laws surrounding this in my city.

What do you think?
 
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FineDay

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This morning I was brainstorming and came up with an idea on how I can create some value and make some money. Please tell me what you guys think. I have never tried a side hustle to this point so I'm just really starting out.

- I live in a huge city, and there are big events going on pretty much every week in this city, things like parades and stuff like that.
- I want to go to those events and sell t-shirts and clothing related to that event. Just last week I was at one of these events and people were selling t-shirts for like 50 bucks and people were buying non-stop.
- To do this I have to deal with the design (I can do this myself or get someone to do it for me on upwork or something). Also I need to deal with actually getting all these t-shirts and buying a little cart or something to sell them on and then driving to those events and setting up a space for myself.

I have two concerns however:
- I'm afraid of trademark infringement. I guess I should make all the designs myself and not use words like Nike or anything like that.
- I'm also afraid that the people organizing the events (if that's the case) will not allow this to happen. To counteract this, I will need to contact my city and find out if people are organizing the events, and then contact those people and ask them if I can do this. I should learn more about the laws surrounding this in my city.

What do you think?

As you mentioned yourself, you are working against some forces (trademark infrigement, people getting pissed that you use their event as leverage for your sales and they do not participate on it). Also scaling this the way you thought about it would be really hard in my opionion (for the same reasons mostly). And also the barrier of entry is low, so if you should be able to make 10k$ per month, other people will join and everyone's revenue will go down.

What you could do however is something like Merchandise as a service. There could be smaller events who do not want to bother about the merch so you could offer them to manage the creation, production and sales of the merchandise for their event with you taking a cut of it. This would scale well and the barrier to enter would be higher as creating a working system (and processes) for this is way harder.

This is not my area but those are thoughts that came to my mind after reading it.
 

TheProcess

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As you mentioned yourself, you are working against some forces (trademark infrigement, people getting pissed that you use their event as leverage for your sales and they do not participate on it). Also scaling this the way you thought about it would be really hard in my opionion (for the same reasons mostly). And also the barrier of entry is low, so if you should be able to make 10k$ per month, other people will join and everyone's revenue will go down.

What you could do however is something like Merchandise as a service. There could be smaller events who do not want to bother about the merch so you could offer them to manage the creation, production and sales of the merchandise for their event with you taking a cut of it. This would scale well and the barrier to enter would be higher as creating a working system (and processes) for this is way harder.

This is not my area but those are thoughts that came to my mind after reading it.
Wow that is amazing! I never thought about that. Thank you. I'm going to be doing some research on that.
I guess I would need to practice first, so I can maybe offer to do it for free for the first event I try this with. The more I do this, the bigger my resume would become so the start will probably be the most difficult part.
 

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The issue is that clothing being related to the event will always leave you with tons of extra product, and will be redesigning t-shirts based on each singular event. I don't see it scaling much. From my perspective time is probably better spent towards solving an actual problem.

One of the subtle things I noticed in your post is you saw other people making a ton of money, so you think it's a good idea, AKA, money chasing.
 
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TheProcess

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The issue is that clothing being related to the event will always leave you with tons of extra product, and will be redesigning t-shirts based on each singular event. I don't see it scaling much. From my perspective time is probably better spent towards solving an actual problem.

One of the subtle things I noticed in your post is you saw other people making a ton of money, so you think it's a good idea, AKA, money chasing.
Yea you're probably right.. my mindset is yet to be in the right place. I'm just trying to get on my feet and do something right now. I'll try my hardest to think value instead of money when I give this a try. Thanks for the reminder.
 

Ravens_Shadow

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Yea you're probably right.. my mindset is yet to be in the right place. I'm just trying to get on my feet and do something right now. I'll try my hardest to think value instead of money when I give this a try. Thanks for the reminder.
In the end, doing something is better than doing nothing. If you think you can make a few quick bucks selling t-shirts at these events, don't let me stop you. It might be enough to get you to want more and pursue something that's fastlane in the future.
 

FineDay

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The issue is that clothing being related to the event will always leave you with tons of extra product, and will be redesigning t-shirts based on each singular event. I don't see it scaling much. From my perspective time is probably better spent towards solving an actual problem.

One of the subtle things I noticed in your post is you saw other people making a ton of money, so you think it's a good idea, AKA, money chasing.

You're right but I still see potential. I mean one end of the spectrum would be the companies like Spreadshirt (120 million $ revenue) which kind of offer the raw ressources, scale really well and haven proven to be a good business model. The other end of the spectrum would be selling those t-shirts on these events in the black-market-style yourself.

But there might be something in the middle that could work. One more absctraction layer on those raw ressources. I am sure that those people designing their t-shirts on those sites also suffer from a pain. I bet a lot of them cant make good designs. If you have a system which you can book which will manage design, sales staff and offers all sorts of merch with some sort of scalable consulting (with some experience you know which sells well). I mean it's definetely not safe that it works, but to me it sounds like a good raw direction which could lead to something good.
 
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I want to go to those events and sell t-shirts and clothing related to that event.

Minimally, you'll need a permit, probably from multiple authorities, the event, the host, the city...

What you could do however is something like Merchandise as a service. There could be smaller events who do not want to bother about the merch so you could offer them to manage the creation, production and sales of the merchandise for their event with you taking a cut of it. This would scale well and the barrier to enter would be higher as creating a working system (and processes) for this is way harder.

Actually a good enterprise idea which goes beyond a mere side hustle.
 

TheProcess

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Minimally, you'll need a permit, probably from multiple authorities, the event, the host, the city...



Actually a good enterprise idea which goes beyond a mere side hustle.
Wow I'm glad I have finally found my focus for now. I'm going to give this a real try.
 

TheProcess

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As you mentioned yourself, you are working against some forces (trademark infrigement, people getting pissed that you use their event as leverage for your sales and they do not participate on it). Also scaling this the way you thought about it would be really hard in my opionion (for the same reasons mostly). And also the barrier of entry is low, so if you should be able to make 10k$ per month, other people will join and everyone's revenue will go down.

What you could do however is something like Merchandise as a service. There could be smaller events who do not want to bother about the merch so you could offer them to manage the creation, production and sales of the merchandise for their event with you taking a cut of it. This would scale well and the barrier to enter would be higher as creating a working system (and processes) for this is way harder.

This is not my area but those are thoughts that came to my mind after reading it.
One more question. You said this isn't your area. Do you know of anyone, either on the forum or somewhere else who specializing in this?
 
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FineDay

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One more question. You said this isn't your area. Do you know of anyone, either on the forum or somewhere else who specializing in this?

I don't, but you can find them yourself. I did so too for my area. I messaged a guy who had sold his company for 150 million $ some years ago in my industry. So I just sent him an email asking if I can invite him for dinner what he accepted. This single dinner was priceless, I learned a lot! He was pretty unknown to public so I guess he didn't get many emails like this.
 

TheProcess

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I don't, but you can find them yourself. I did so too for my area. I messaged a guy who had sold his company for 150 million $ some years ago in my industry. So I just sent him an email asking if I can invite him for dinner what he accepted. This single dinner was priceless, I learned a lot! He was pretty unknown to public so I guess he didn't get many emails like this.
Congratulations. I guess this shows the importance of being bold.
 

A_Random_Guy

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Wow I'm glad I have finally found my focus for now. I'm going to give this a real try.
Whenever some festival or event happens in my city, there is one shop selling something unique which matches the theme of the event.
If it is Christmas, he'd sell different types of merchandise related to Christmas ( earrings - Santa hat with a bell design, Gloves with red + white design, really well-designed mattresses, etc.)
When the event is Independence Day, he'd sell mobile phone covers and Laptop Skins, T-Shirts, badges of our flag, keychains, etc)
The point is he kept every festival unique and didn't try selling the same thing on every festival/event. This made us anticipate what was next.
As @FineDay mentioned, you could try taking care of the selling part while the production cost and effort are shared by someone else, and at the end of the day, you claim your share. You'd be doing two things at once and reducing more competition.

I'd really recommend you to join the people selling those Shirts and work for them. See if you're comfortable with what you have to do later. My brother said, "Don't think you are passionate about something unless you have invested at least 500 hours and still want to keep doing it." If this idea came on a whim, try to find if you're capable of doing what is needed. Good Luck!
 
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FineDay

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I'd really recommend you to join the people selling those Shirts and work for them. See if you're comfortable with what you have to do later. My brother said, "Don't think you are passionate about something unless you have invested at least 500 hours and still want to keep doing it." If this idea came on a whim, try to find if you're capable of doing what is needed. Good Luck!

This advice is gold! If you REALLY want to advance in that area, join them for some time. I can't second this enough. You will learn more regarding your goals than you expect.
 

TheProcess

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Whenever some festival or event happens in my city, there is one shop selling something unique which matches the theme of the event.
If it is Christmas, he'd sell different types of merchandise related to Christmas ( earrings - Santa hat with a bell design, Gloves with red + white design, really well-designed mattresses, etc.)
When the event is Independence Day, he'd sell mobile phone covers and Laptop Skins, T-Shirts, badges of our flag, keychains, etc)
The point is he kept every festival unique and didn't try selling the same thing on every festival/event. This made us anticipate what was next.
As @FineDay mentioned, you could try taking care of the selling part while the production cost and effort are shared by someone else, and at the end of the day, you claim your share. You'd be doing two things at once and reducing more competition.

I'd really recommend you to join the people selling those Shirts and work for them. See if you're comfortable with what you have to do later. My brother said, "Don't think you are passionate about something unless you have invested at least 500 hours and still want to keep doing it." If this idea came on a whim, try to find if you're capable of doing what is needed. Good Luck!
So you say there was one shop doing this. Was it online or somewhere in the city?
Also, how can I share the production cost and effort? I'm assuming (if we're talking about t-shirts), that you are taking about the printing and handling of the shirts and things of that nature right?
 

A_Random_Guy

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So you say there was one shop doing this. Was it online or somewhere in the city?
Also, how can I share the production cost and effort? I'm assuming (if we're talking about t-shirts), that you are taking about the printing and handling of the shirts and things of that nature right?
Sadly my city was not digitalized 5 years ago, so the shop had no online profits to gain.
Well, you can take care of bringing in customers, make a team(your friends looking to make a quick buck) that introduces your products to people.
Spread out in an area, make sure that everyone participating in that event gets to know your products. Make X amount of sales and claim a certain amount of profit from your end. This way, you invest your time in making profits while having spent no money in production departments. In the meanwhile, notice what products are serving as eye-candies to the people. There will be products that attract them to your store and products which they actually buy. This observation will help you when you start your own business.
I am not experienced in this field but this is what I'd do.
 
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TheProcess

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Sadly my city was not digitalized 5 years ago, so the shop had no online profits to gain.
Well, you can take care of bringing in customers, make a team(your friends looking to make a quick buck) that introduces your products to people.
Spread out in an area, make sure that everyone participating in that event gets to know your products. Make X amount of sales and claim a certain amount of profit from your end. This way, you invest your time in making profits while having spent no money in production departments. In the meanwhile, notice what products are serving as eye-candies to the people. There will be products that attract them to your store and products which they actually buy. This observation will help you when you start your own business.
I am not experienced in this field but this is what I'd do.
Thanks for the advice!
 

A_Random_Guy

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So you say there was one shop doing this. Was it online or somewhere in the city?
Making the shop online beats the purpose of selling on the spot at the event. The reason they buy stuff at fest and carnival is that they don't want to wait a day or two ordering that same stuff online. Most of the events here last for a day or two. That makes it unreasonable to waste time updating my shop online. Besides, Amazon will beat me with more offers, higher discounts and greater reputation anyways.
You need to think in terms of offline marketing for your idea. Or make your delivery extremely quick (within 4 hours), which is possible if your target location is a city(which you mentioned earlier). You need a separate delivery team for that.
Those potential customers who turned back without buying from you could check out your online store and purchase from home after 'thinking it through'. Leave such ideas after you start your own shop. Your current goal should be to get started :D
 

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I don't think it's a good idea for the reasons you said. If they can shut you down, you're out of all that money. I'd do research and see if they can.
 
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TheProcess

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Making the shop online beats the purpose of selling on the spot at the event. The reason they buy stuff at fest and carnival is that they don't want to wait a day or two ordering that same stuff online. Most of the events here last for a day or two. That makes it unreasonable to waste time updating my shop online. Besides, Amazon will beat me with more offers, higher discounts and greater reputation anyways.
You need to think in terms of offline marketing for your idea. Or make your delivery extremely quick (within 4 hours), which is possible if your target location is a city(which you mentioned earlier). You need a separate delivery team for that.
Those potential customers who turned back without buying from you could check out your online store and purchase from home after 'thinking it through'. Leave such ideas after you start your own shop. Your current goal should be to get started :D
I have trouble understanding what you mean by start my own shop. I don't imagine you mean I need to literally buy a property. I was thinking more in terms of having a small cart and carrying t-shirts around. Does that make sense or am I missing something?
 

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Laws and regulations aside, I think this is a good idea. At least you don't have to build "engagement" or social proof on social media and spend $$$$$ on FB/IG ads with no returns. Since this seems to have been proven to work like what the other guy is selling, I would say go for it. I don't think they'll go all the hassle to file a lawsuit on a small fry, at most probably they'll tell you to go away or get the security to ask you to leave, no big deal.

If you're not confident how much you can sell, try Printful or Rushordertees for on-demand printing in small amounts, various designs. The margins will be extremely LOW though.
Then, the 2nd time you do this at some other event and you know this model works, screenprint these t-shirts, keep the design real simple and limit it to 2 colors max (more colors = more cost per shirt). The profit per piece will be way higher.

Stickers in bulk are also good.
 
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A_Random_Guy

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I have trouble understanding what you mean by start my own shop. I don't imagine you mean I need to literally buy a property. I was thinking more in terms of having a small cart and carrying t-shirts around. Does that make sense or am I missing something?
I was referring to temporary stalls that you could put up for a day or so. Or manage to display your stuff on a table or something. While working for them, you might be only selling T-Shirts but I believe you should offer a minimum of 3 items. One should be very cheap, one could be affordable and the other would be quality stuff.
This is called the 3 Box Strategy in Marketing. Do share your current idea.

keep the design real simple and limit it to 2 colors max (more colors = more cost per shirt). The profit per piece will be way higher.

Really great idea. Reminds me of how [yellow tail] succeeded in business by reducing the choices down to two, cutting their cost of production and making it easier for the common people to choose.(Killing two birds with one stone)
 
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Telamon25346

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I don't see this as a "business idea" but more of a side hustle or something people do for small cash.

I've brainstormed tons of ideas, only one of them has turned into a genuine business. But all of them have a consistent theme: take a consistent problem people have + solve it.

I recently went to a music festival, and I met one of these people selling shirts in the parking lot. Personally, I didn't even want a shirt, I simply told him not interested and kept walking with my friends. That's how I'd expect most people to react. it doesn't solve a problem they have.

My honest opinion, re-read unscripted . And every day write down all the problems and inconveniences you see people have. You will have more great business ideas than you will know what to do with.
 

TheProcess

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Laws and regulations aside, I think this is a good idea. At least you don't have to build "engagement" or social proof on social media and spend $$$$$ on FB/IG ads with no returns. Since this seems to have been proven to work like what the other guy is selling, I would say go for it. I don't think they'll go all the hassle to file a lawsuit on a small fry, at most probably they'll tell you to go away or get the security to ask you to leave, no big deal.

If you're not confident how much you can sell, try Printful or Rushordertees for on-demand printing in small amounts, various designs. The margins will be extremely LOW though.
Then, the 2nd time you do this at some other event and you know this model works, screenprint these t-shirts, keep the design real simple and limit it to 2 colors max (more colors = more cost per shirt). The profit per piece will be way higher.

Stickers in bulk are also good.
Thank you for the advice!
 

TheProcess

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I don't see this as a "business idea" but more of a side hustle or something people do for small cash.

I've brainstormed tons of ideas, only one of them has turned into a genuine business. But all of them have a consistent theme: take a consistent problem people have + solve it.

I recently went to a music festival, and I met one of these people selling shirts in the parking lot. Personally, I didn't even want a shirt, I simply told him not interested and kept walking with my friends. That's how I'd expect most people to react. it doesn't solve a problem they have.

My honest opinion, re-read unscripted . And every day write down all the problems and inconveniences you see people have. You will have more great business ideas than you will know what to do with.
I don't see this as a "business idea" but more of a side hustle or something people do for small cash.

I've brainstormed tons of ideas, only one of them has turned into a genuine business. But all of them have a consistent theme: take a consistent problem people have + solve it.

I recently went to a music festival, and I met one of these people selling shirts in the parking lot. Personally, I didn't even want a shirt, I simply told him not interested and kept walking with my friends. That's how I'd expect most people to react. it doesn't solve a problem they have.

My honest opinion, re-read unscripted . And every day write down all the problems and inconveniences you see people have. You will have more great business ideas than you will know what to do with.
I also went to a festival recently and saw this working. I think the problem that it solves is that people want to belong to a group, a tribe. It’s in our nature. What better way to do this than to biy merchandise showing that you are a part of the group and the event.
 
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TheProcess

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I was referring to temporary stalls that you could put up for a day or so. Or manage to display your stuff on a table or something. While working for them, you might be only selling T-Shirts but I believe you should offer a minimum of 3 items. One should be very cheap, one could be affordable and the other would be quality stuff.
This is called the 3 Box Strategy in Marketing. Do share your current idea.



Really great idea. Reminds me of how [yellow tail] succeeded in business by reducing the choices down to two, cutting their cost of production and making it easier for the common people to choose.(Killing two birds with one stone)
Thank you! Great ideas.
 

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