How Much Money Do You ACTUALLY Need to Start Print on Demand?

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]Today is episode 3, and I'm answering six questions that print on demand gurus either avoid, they overcomplicate, or they just flat out lie about. Hi, I'm Shirmi Morris, a seven-figure print on demand seller. I make YouTube videos, I run a brand, and I have a community. And I've decided to start this series answering various print on demand questions because truly it seems like no one else is going to answer these questions. And these questions will massively help you in your business. On last week's episode, which if you want, the links will be down below for episode 1 and episode 2, I asked if you had a question that you wanted to ask, just leave a comment and I would get to it in the next episode. And the same goes here. If you have a question that you want me to answer specifically about print on demand or anything to do with building a brand or my community or whatever it may be, then just leave a comment down below and I will get to it in episode 4. For now, let's just get right into this with question 1. So, question number 1, is it possible to start with a $1,000 and start print on demand with $1,000 and then just reinvest the profit and keep it growing from there?

[00:01:07]So, I try not to focus so much on the amount of money needed in order to hit profitability or you know, around that area because obviously it's there's so many there's so many factors. And someone might say to you, "Oh, if you just have X amount of money, that's all you need. You're going to you're going to be great."

[00:01:28]And truthfully that's not that's not the case because there's like I said, there's so many factors. For example, let's say you have $10,000, which is a huge amount of money to start this business, but let's just say you have that. But your designs are terrible, your store is terribly converting, your ads just make no sense. Well, it doesn't really matter how much money you have, you're just going to burn it on all of those mistakes, right?

[00:01:51]So, rather than me rather than me say to you, "Oh, you need this amount of money.

[00:01:57]It's really important that you focus on all the different factors in order to be profitable as quickly as possible. So, to answer your question, is $1,000 enough? Well, if we're just talking about signing up to various tools or websites like Shopify and maybe you want to use ChatGPT and pay for that for the for the designs or maybe you want to use Kittl, whatever it may be, then yes, $1,000 is way more than enough. In fact, you you could get away with like 50 or even $60.

[00:02:30]Then when we throw in advertising, well, what I say about advertising is I don't like to say you have to spend X to make X cuz no one really knows that. But what I like to say is at the beginning, there's going to be a phase of testing, right? And there's going to be testing throughout the whole business, but especially at the beginning.

[00:02:48]And at the beginning, it's very normal to spend money on Facebook ads or Meta ads, whatever you want to call them, and not make your money back. And we do this to learn what works, what doesn't work, what we should spend more time doing, and what we should spend less time doing.

[00:03:04]And for this, I like to suggest having around $400 a month that you can comfortably use to test. And what I mean by that is I mean if at the end of month one, you don't make any money, but you spent $400, I don't want you to come back to me and say, "Oh, I've just spent $400 and it hasn't worked."

[00:03:25]You know, because that's the that's my point, right? I want you to have $400 that is disposable income for you that you can use as like a stepping stone to this business because setting up a business is not free. It This is significantly more affordable than going and setting up a brick-and-mortar store on on the high street or something. You know, you don't need to pay for inventory, you don't need tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars of a costs, but you still need some money. And it's it's I don't I don't look at that $400 as being lost. I look at that $400 as startup cost in order to find out what works, what designs resonate, what mock-ups work, um you know, which audience is going to to to find and like the designs, you know, which elements of your website are going to convert better than others, all of it. And what I like to say is $400 a month is a good starting point. So, if you've got $1,000, right? You've got yourself there just over 2 months of Facebook ad testing comfortably without running out of money.

[00:04:29]And it's not like you're going to make absolutely nothing back. You just might not make a profit back. But you could certainly reinvest what you do make back into the business. And if you started with $1,000 and you kept reinvesting everything, then there is a very very good chance that if you get the designs right, you get the website right, you get the the audience research right, the niche right, and the mock-up, and all of those things right, there's a very very very good chance that you could just start with a thousand and get to the point of profitability via reinvesting everything, the profit, the revenue, all of it.

[00:05:02]And then you start to get to a point where you're spending more on ads, but you're making even more than you're spending. So, yes, that is very likely.

[00:05:08]I just I hate telling people, "Oh, spend X and you'll get that." Cuz no one, and anyone that does say they can is lying, no one can tell you how much you have to spend in order to make a certain amount of money, especially with ads when it's so volatile. It's There's so many factors.

[00:05:25]Question number two is, "How do you handle returns if an item doesn't fit?"

[00:05:30]That's a really good question. So, for me, and I know this is a a thing on people's minds because obviously customer service is going to become a thing, especially when you're doing Shopify um with Facebook ads or Google ads. And I know a lot of people don't want to have to handle customer service, which is why you pick Redbubble or Amazon. But truthfully, customer service really isn't a big deal. And if you can't even be bothered to handle customer service, then I question whether or not you're cut out to do this business at all.

[00:05:57]Uh because if you're looking for shortcuts, you're looking for things to avoid before even getting started, then this isn't right for you. But to answer your question, how do I handle returns? Well, for me it's a little bit more unique because I live in the UK, but I sell predominantly in the US. Now, I also do sell in the UK and in Canada and Australia and so on.

[00:06:17]But majority of our sales do come from the US. So, for us to sort out returns, it was a little bit more complex. But I'll tell you how to do it if you're in the US or if you're in the UK. And you can do it however you however you want.

[00:06:29]So, if someone um emails us and saying it doesn't fit or there's a there's a problem or or any reason for that matter, we don't really care what the reason is. Even if they just don't want it, we will always offer them a refund, always.

[00:06:43]I have a very, very strict policy in customer service where I I don't care about the $30 that that customer has made me. I'd rather have a happy customer that will tell their friends or even come back maybe and buy again.

[00:06:58]I just would prefer that. So, I prefer to give them the money and make sure they're happy.

[00:07:01]So, the problem that we faced is for a customer to send back an item to us, it actually cost us more than just giving them a refund because they would have to ship it to our middleman in America and then that middleman would ship it to us.

[00:07:14]So, we would be paying quite a lot of money. Now, the customer pays to return it to the middleman, which is fine, but then we pay from the middleman to us. And because it's international shipping, it ends up costing quite a lot of money. So, what we do is if someone wants to exchange a size or return an item, if it's up to three items in their order, so they've bought one Well, they've bought two items maximum, then we will just give them a full refund and we will tell them to donate those shirts to a local charity. A, we love charity, so that's nice. I love giving to charity. And B, um it for the customer to see us being so open about charity, they like that because they think we're a nice giving com- company, which we are. And three, the way I've worded the email is the customer feels a sense of gratitude because they think, "Oh, that's so nice. They They don't want me to have to go out of my way to pay for postage and go to the post office and all of these things. They just told me I can donate it." Um and customers love that. We get an amazing response. Yes, it costs us a little bit of money, but as I said, it's cheaper than getting them to return it to us.

[00:08:18]And then anything where there's three items, three or more items, we then do get them to send it back to the uh middleman, and the middleman sends it to us because that's like where we break our break even point, where actually it's better for us to get them back. And on top of that, as you can see, some of the some of these are returns, not all of them, but some of them. And then we can use those returns in marketing, in in pictures and videos, and all sorts of things. So, it's actually beneficial for us to have a couple of our own t-shirts.

[00:08:46]Now, that's because we're in the UK. If you're in the USA, you could get them to return them to you, um you know, obviously just return them back to wherever you are. But again, even if I was in the USA, I would probably still tell them to donate it. And then when I do give them a refund, I don't refund the shipping, um if they paid for shipping when they ordered the items, but I do obviously refund the item cost.

[00:09:06]Now, when it comes to exchanging, I don't actually exchange, and there's a reason for this. So, if someone says, "I I bought a size small, I need a size medium," I will still tell them to donate it, still give them a full refund, and then say, "I've given you a full refund. Here is a link to the t-shirt. Please go and buy the right size. Please go and buy a size medium."

[00:09:25]Now, the reason why I do this is A, it means they spend they they they pay for shipping again, which is good cuz it saves us a little bit of money, but B, the main reason is sometimes someone who wants a large will want a two a two XL or three XL. And those shirts actually cost a little bit more for the customer, one or two dollars more. So, if I just send them that size, I lose out on that money as well. And I have to pay extra because those shirts cost me more to print. So, I will just say go and buy that size. Now, there are ways around this. There are things you can do where you can charge the customer and so on and so on. But, I just think it's a lot easier if I give them the refund and they rebuy the shirt in the correct size. If they don't rebuy the shirt, it's not the end of the world. Um I'm not so bothered. But, from what I've seen in the past with all of all of our refunds and our size exchanges, they do tend to buy the correct size again.

[00:10:16]All right, question number three.

[00:10:18]Shopify doesn't pay instantly. So, how am I supposed to pay for the shirt?

[00:10:22]Okay, so let me just quickly explain how print on demand with Shopify works. So, because it's a little bit different to like Redbubble or Amazon in merch on demand. With Amazon merch on demand or Redbubble, you upload listings for free. Someone will buy an item for from you. And then within a few days, they will pay you out. And that's it. You don't have to actually pay any money. It's completely you no money leaves your pocket unless you're going to be paying for advertising.

[00:10:48]That's great. I'm not such a fan of those business models. Um they can't really scale. There's many drawbacks to them. They're not right for everyone.

[00:10:55]But, for Shopify or even Etsy for that matter, when someone buys an item from me, so let's just say Joe Bloggs comes to my store, they buy a T-shirt, they will buy the T-shirt for $35, $40, whatever it is, right? Um they will pay the money. That money will kind of go into the Shopify pot, right?

[00:11:15]Our Shopify bank account, right? Where the money just stays there. We then have to go to Printify and fulfill that order. You can do it automatically or you can do it manually, whatever you want. Um but, we would go to um Printify, fulfill the order, and that's how we pay for it. So, a customer spends $40 on a t-shirt, that's $35 plus $5 shipping. We then go and pay for it on Printful, so that's $15 for us, which is about $11 and four something dollars shipping.

[00:11:41]Right, so now we've laid out $15. Then, depending on how fast your payouts happen on Shopify, whether it's a day, 3 days, a week, a month, whatever it is, you will then get paid that money.

[00:11:52]And that's just how it works. Now, if you're asking, "Well, how do I pay for Printful if I don't have that money to begin with?" Well, what I like to do is use a credit card, and I use a credit card for a few reasons. One, it's better for cash flow. So, if I'm getting lots of orders, or we are getting lots of orders, um I will pay for the Printful stuff with my credit card.

[00:12:15]So, I'm never no money is actually ever leaving my bank account. Then, when the money comes in from Shopify, I pay off the credit card. So, at no point do I pay any interest on that credit card. I have a credit card where there's a 60-day window, so it's like 2 months, which is kind of good. Um but, at no point am I paying interest the worst thing you can do is let the balance carry over and carry over and carry over, cuz that's when the interest starts to accrue. If you pay for Printful, you then get paid out from Shopify a couple days later, you pay off that credit card, then that's brilliant, that's fine.

[00:12:45]That's one reason why I use a credit card, um just for cash flow. The second reason I use a credit card is for points. So, we get points {slash} cash back on various cards that we use.

[00:12:56]And because this is not a massive margin business, you know, the margins are kind of small, I like to try and um gain in other ways. So, one of the ways we gain massively is we use a credit card for our advertising spends and our printing spend. So, if we're spending 50 or 60 or even more thousand dollars a month on advertising and Printful costs, then we are getting that in points, 50,000, 60,000 points. Now, if you're in America, you can actually get four times the points, which is brilliant. In the UK, you can't, and that's with the gold American Express card. But, what that means is every single month I'm getting 50 to 100,000 points at my current level.

[00:13:35]Um and as I grow the business more and more, we'll obviously get more points.

[00:13:38]And those points pretty much just mean we can travel for free, hotels and flights for free. And that's like business class business class flights um and nice fancy hotels. And all of that is paid for with these points. So, whilst it's not real money, you could say, it has real money perks because I love traveling. I love going away. That's one of the reasons why we have this business. You we just spent a couple of weeks in Japan.

[00:14:03]Um we're going to be going to Croatia.

[00:14:05]You know, we've got Canada on the on on the on the horizon. So, I love traveling. And one of the biggest benefits here is I can just do it for free. So, that's another reason why I use a credit card.

[00:14:15]And then, I guess I guess you could say those are just the safety of using a credit card. Um but, that's not really a big deal.

[00:14:22]I know a lot of there's a huge stigma behind credit cards.

[00:14:25]Um if you're Dave Ramsey, he'll tell you never to use a credit card. And some people will just like shy away from credit cards because there's this huge huge stigma around them where credit cards are debt and you are borrowing money, and it's bad. It's bad to borrow money.

[00:14:41]And honestly, whilst I'm not the biggest fan of debt, you know, I really dislike debt. Like I don't have finance on my car. I like to just own it outright and all these other things. Whilst I do agree with that somewhat, I don't look at this as as debt because the money that I'm borrowing is being borrowed for such a short period of time and it's free. There's no interest on it. I borrow for 3 days, I then pay it off.

[00:15:03]Simple as that. Um so, it's kind of just like it's just it's honestly it it's just mainly for cash flow. So, that's how we do it and that's how it would work on Etsy as well. If you get a sale, Etsy will pay out a couple days later or a few days later, however many it is.

[00:15:18]And that in my opinion is the best way to do it.

[00:15:22]So, yeah. Next question. Question four.

[00:15:24]When you start getting bigger and profitable, how do you handle taxes?

[00:15:28]That's a great question as well. So, this really depends on what country you live in. So, I live in the UK. So, we have a limited company here in the UK. I have an accountant in the UK and I'm not going to pretend that I know all the ins and outs of accountancy and taxes because I don't. Um, but I will I will answer to the best of my knowledge, but I do genuinely think you should seek professional advice. Whilst I I'm very good at print on demand and very good at building this business, all of that, I do not think of myself as a professional accountant. And even though I speak a lot to my accountant and I feel like I know a lot, I would never really want to give uh tax advice.

[00:16:06]But, we have our limited company in the UK, so we pay taxes in the UK. We also have an LLC in the US. We have our setup in Wyoming for various reasons.

[00:16:17]That is a more recent thing. Now, we don't pay taxes in the US. We don't have to. There's a treaty between the UK and the US, but what we do have to do is still file every single year. Now, if we miss a filing, we could we could face uh fines of $25,000.

[00:16:32]So, I have lots of reminders not to miss a filing. Um, but what we do have to pay in the US is sales tax. Now, you only have to pay sales tax in individual states if you pass certain thresholds.

[00:16:42]Those thresholds could be uh 200 items sold. It could be passing $100,000 in sales or $500,000 in sales. Every state has different thresholds. Now, we use a tool uh a website, a service, you could say, called Numeral.

[00:16:58]They are a fantastic service. And basically, what they all do is they will register you for tax when the time comes, when you need to. And that costs between $75 and $150. Or the registration costs $150. And then the filing, because you obviously have to file, it could be every month, every quarter, um every 6 months, every year.

[00:17:18]It depends on the state and it depends on your your um your revenue. The more you're making every single month, the more you're probably going to have to file. But then they will also handle all of those filings and that's $75 per filing. Now, before you get really nervous, you think, "Oh my gosh, there's like 50 states and $75 a filing and filing every couple of months, it's going to cost me so much money."

[00:17:42]Pause. Hold the phone because these are a yearly thing, so you have to pass a threshold within a single year.

[00:17:49]And some of these thresholds are really big. For example, if the threshold is $500,000 in sales in a single state, that's a big threshold to pass in a single year. If you're doing tens of millions, then yeah. But then again, if you're doing tens of millions, what's a couple of $75 for filings? So, it really it really grows with you, right? At the very beginning, you don't have to do it at all.

[00:18:10]And then as you start getting, you know, bigger and bigger and bigger, that $75 really doesn't even feel like a big deal. You don't even notice the hit because you've got to make that money.

[00:18:20]You know, you're making hundreds of thousands of dollars before you get to that point anyway. So, yeah. Numeral is who I use for that. And then again, in terms of the UK accounting, I just have an accountant I've had for the last 10 years.

[00:18:33]I would tell you who they are, but they're on the the cusp of retiring, so they're not taking on new clients.

[00:18:38]Um So, either way, that is how we're set up. So, I would fully pay my my my taxes, my corporation tax, my whatever, my VAT if if there's VAT in the UK, um but not in the US. The US is just sales tax.

[00:18:53]Question number five. When should I change my niche and what does that entail? So, this is a great question because someone might try and almost like, you know, the flog a dead horse kind of thing. Is that the saying? I don't know if that's the saying. But they might try to just keep a niche going even though it's not working. They'll blame everything else. They'll blame the ads, they'll blame the designs, they'll blame the audience, but they won't ever blame the niche. Sometimes a niche just needs to be changed. The question is when. So, if you start a business, you start a print-on-demand business, you pick a niche, you create the designs, you build the website, you start running ads, you're going 3 months in, you spent, you know, two, three, or 4,000, like a like quite a few thousand dollars on ads, and something's not clicking. Your designs are amazing. You know, they've been they've been validated. Maybe you're in the community and I've told you your designs are really, really good. There's no reason why they shouldn't get sales.

[00:19:43]Your ads are really good. Your mockups are really good. Your website's really good. Then, the last thing to really look at is the niche. Maybe the niche just doesn't work. Maybe it's not the best niche.

[00:19:52]Maybe that audience does not resonate with wearing T-shirts with a specific phrase or graphic on them.

[00:19:59]That's when you might want to pivot to a new niche. But, bear in mind, you'll have all of that knowledge, all of those skills that it takes to build a store, to build designs, to create the mockups, to run the ads. You'll You'll have all of that. So, going from niche one to niche two is way quicker. And if you have to go from niche two to niche three or niche three to niche four, it can happen like that. It can happen in a week, right? So, you're going to get better and better and faster and faster over time. Now, when is it not the right time to swap niches? Well, if you tell me you've built a niche um you haven't really run a Facebook ads, but you're not getting any sales, um your designs suck, and there's many problems, but you think it's the niche you're going to pivot, that's when I'll tell you, "Well, you haven't really given that a fair shot." It's like trying to learn the piano and saying after the third lesson, "Well, I still can't play any Beethoven, so I'm I It's just not working. I'm going to go to a different instrument. I'm going to play the guitar." Well, no. It's hard. It It takes a lot of work. So, if if you can genuinely tell me you've put the work into a niche, you've made the designs, you've made sure they're good, you've made sure they're relevant to the to the audience, you've made sure they're intentional, and and they're well researched, and it still hasn't worked, then fine. I You you we could have a conversation about changing niches, and it makes a lot more sense. But if you're just telling me I haven't got sales, but I haven't really run ads, I've spent like 50 bucks, and I've got 14 designs on my site, it's not working for me, I'm going to change the niche, then I would tell you you haven't really given it a good shot. You haven't tried at all. Um so, I'm not going to put a time period to this, like after 6 months or after a year, more an effort period. So, if you've put in a humongous amount of effort, you've got those 100 plus designs, you've got the ads, you've got the mock-ups, you've got the website, you've got everything going for you and it's still not working, then I would consider potentially pivoting your niche.

[00:21:40]Question number six, is print on demand worth it, or should I pick an easier business?

[00:21:45]I love this question. In fact, the amount of times I'm, you know, let's say talking about the business or people are asking me about the business with my friends or family, and someone will just pipe up and say, "You know what? I should so start selling t-shirts. You know, if Shirmi can do it, I can do it."

[00:22:02]It's a little bit of an insult, because people tend to only see the outside, the success of a business. They only see the tip of the iceberg. So, if I if I'm talking and I'm like, "Oh yeah, you know, we we sold 4,000 shirts last month. It was great month. We did, you know, 120 grand."

[00:22:19]And I'm talking about all the ins and outs, that's what people focus on. They don't focus on the really long days, the struggles, the the stuff I had to learn to get there, all the different nuances of having to know about email marketing, Facebook marketing, designs, understanding audiences, researching, there's just this, honestly, branding.

[00:22:41]There's there's My head often feels like it wants to explode. Um there's so much that goes into it that people don't realize. So, the question is, is POD worth it or should I pick an pick an easier business?

[00:22:53]Print on demand isn't easy.

[00:22:55]But I'm going to tell you something here.

[00:22:57]No businesses are easy. I've done a whole load of businesses in the last, well, 12 years. Now, Amazon um FBA where we've ordered from China, we've ordered in bulk, we spent tens of thousands dollars on stock. I've done a service business being a photographer for either supercar rallies or weddings or just portraits or travel. I've done a whole lot of things. I've got various different Shopify stores. I've done Etsy, I've done Amazon, Amazon Merch on Demand.

[00:23:27]There's a lot of things that have been done, you know.

[00:23:30]Copywriting, email marketing for people.

[00:23:33]There's so many different businesses out there. Every single business will come with its challenges. None of them are easy. If there was a genuine business out there that was like, "Oh, this is so easy."

[00:23:43]Everyone would do it. Everyone would make money with it and it would be oversaturated. So, really if you're just looking for an easy business, then no, print on demand isn't right for you. But, I'm also going to argue and say no business is right for you and maybe you should look into just getting a 9-5 job where you turn up to the office, you leave, you get paid and happy days. Right? Maybe and I'm not saying 9-5's are easy. They're also not easy. It can be a grind. You're competing with all of your co-workers.

[00:24:13]You're trying to get that raise. You have to actually stick to your deadlines, you know, otherwise you'll get fired. So, I guess what I'm trying to say here is life isn't easy, work isn't easy and you have to put in a ton of work to actually make anything. So, yeah, if if hard worth it or should I pick an easier business? Print on demand is worth it. I I bloody love print on demand.

[00:24:36]There are days that I hate it, and but I actually do really like it for the most part. Um but then again, I like all businesses and that's because in my mind, I understand businesses are hard and I'm ready for that. I'm ready for that challenge. And that's why it's fine. If you're not ready for the challenge and you're just thinking I need the easy route, then it's never going to work for you and I don't really know what to suggest cuz even a 9-5 is going to be hard. And as many YouTubers or gurus or anyone that says, "Oh, this is passive. This is easy. This is that.

[00:25:05]This is the other." please ignore it because it's only going to it's only going to screw you in the long run cuz you're going to go into the business thinking it's easy, you're going to fail hard, and then you're probably going to have well, a no one to blame but yourself, but you're probably going to blame that person that told you. And quite rightly so. So, yeah. Put on the mind is hard. Is it worth it?

[00:25:24]Yes. Is there an easier route? I mean, I'm sure there are easier businesses, but no businesses are easy. Um you know, for example, the photography business, what came hard with that was the customer side of things. Having to find customers, deal with customers. The customer service on that side was way harder than the customer service over here.

[00:25:42]Um and then obviously just having the skill set to be able to take good enough pictures that people wanted to pay you for them.

[00:25:50]So, there's lots of different factors here, but yeah, it's not easy, but it's definitely worth it. Now, if you have any questions that you want to be featured in the next episode, then let me know in the comments down below.

[00:26:00]Literally, you can ask me absolutely anything. Um and I will try and answer it. Of course, if it's something that I don't want to answer, then I just won't answer it. But let me know in the comments down below. And on top of that, if you want to work with me um in my own community where I can help you one-to-one in live calls or through the community wall, you can ask any questions, you can you can lean on any shoulders, you can watch all the training. Um and you can just get help with this entire business where you might not even know what you don't know, and you just need advice um on any aspect, then definitely consider checking out the community. We talk about design. We talk about ads. We talk about website. We talk about the whole package. And it's it's it's risk-free cuz if you don't like it, then just cancel. You know, it's it's a month-to-month subscription, and you know, if after the first few days you don't want it, then just reach out to me anyways, and we'll have have Um but if after a few months you're like, "Nah, not interested." Then just cancel. Simple as that. It doesn't even You don't even have to tell me. You can just quietly leave if you wanted to. Um, but what I will say is it's a really fantastic community and we've helped people do over $1.7 million in revenue inside this community and I want to help you as well become a success story. I want to help you with your business and I want to help you just understand the realistic approach to this business and not the fake uh, tinted glasses approach where everything is easy, everything is this, everything is that. Like I want to actually tell you how it really is and how to get over certain things such as like the taxes or ads or any struggles that you might have. I want to make sure that you can ask me anything and I can help you with it. So, if you want that, the link for that down below. The link for the community is also down below. And of course, as I said, episode one and two is there as well. Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next video.