How To Make Money With A Heat Press Machine

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You've been enjoying your vinyl cutter for some time now. Your family and friends love the gifts you have made for them. It's getting to the point where people are seeing your work and asking you to make things for them. Until now, you've been using your laundry iron to apply heat transfer vinyl. Feeling unprofessional, you thank them for the praise, but tell them you haven't gotten to that point yet. Is it time to turn that corner and spend the money on a heat press?

If you truly enjoy what you are doing, why not give it a go? In this post, I will share some things that worked and some that did not work as I began my heat press business.

Here are six things to keep in mind when your goal is to profit from your HTV and or Sublimation craft:

Keep it simple.
Choose a niche.
Find customers before you start stocking up.
Deciding on HTV, sublimation, or both.
To Etsy or not to Etsy.
Craft fairs: Cost and time involved.

Keep it Simple!

It is so easy to get caught up in all of the shiny new things in the industry. Heat transfer vinyl for the hobbyist was a fairly new thing when I first began. There wasn't a lot of help out there for home crafting beginners like myself. Being self taught, I found myself soaking up all the YouTube advice I could find on the topic. This quickly led to a vast array of random purchases.

I can remember scrolling through the Silhouette America store. EVERYTHING looked amazing and I found myself wanting to try it all! Not as much was available then, but it was enough to overwhelm me. I bought regular vinyl, heat transfer vinyl of each type, rhinestones in many colors, rhinestone template paper, a fabric blade, and glass etching supplies.

My scope was way too broad. With just these purchases, I had the means to produce wall art, t-shirts, and fancy glassware. I guess I was still in the experimental stage trying to figure out what I liked best. That's not necessarily a bad thing as long as this stage doesn't last too long. In this stage, more money is spent than made.

Choose a Niche

When you narrow it down to a particular niche, you will begin to see the money grow. As you may have seen in my previous posts, I really love dye sublimation. I do not, however,recommend this as a starting point for heat press crafting. It's just too easy to get lost in all of the wonderful products. I have spent a fortune experimenting with this!

Since this post is about heat press crafting, I would recommend beginning with heat transfer vinyl. This limits the amount of spending you will do.

Find Customers BEFORE You Start Stocking Up!

Finding people in need of shirts and purchasing stock for them alone is a great way to avoid overspending. Some good places to start include local sports teams, schools, churches, and any other group that you may be involved with.

Sports Teams: Chances are, the sports teams in your area already have a vendor they use for uniforms. That's ok! What they probably don't have is a creative person like yourself to design shirts for all of those doting moms and dads! Check on Pinterest to find fun new designs for sports parents and siblings. Do some designing and have some mock ups on your cell phone ready to share at the next game. All it takes is one super enthusiastic mom to get the ball rolling. She may even take the order and collect the money for you! I've had this happen on more than one occasion! They really get into it!

Schools: TEACHERS LOVE T-SHIRTS! Having been a public school teacher, I know this for a fact. Many schools have jeans day on Fridays and teachers are always looking for comfy, clever, and stylish shirts. Where I come from, most elementary teachers order class shirts for field trips. Although screen printers can probably beat your price, some teachers will ask their parents for a few extra dollars for a super colorful HTV shirt. I have several regulars in my own business. Use your magnifying glass to get up close and view all of the individual groups within the schools as well. Band, cheer, chess club, and honors groups to name a few.

One of my biggest sellers in the school was an autism awareness shirt. I donated 10% of the proceeds to autism speaks. Each year around April, I found myself popping out more of these shirts. Loyalty is very important in this industry.

Church Groups: This is another large venue that can be broken down into lots of smaller groups. You may even try helping out with fundraising.

Choosing Sublimation for Your Niche

Yes, I did recommend heat transfer vinyl as a starting point for bringing in cash with a heat press. However, the heart wants what the heart wants and if you have fallen in love with sublimation, that just can't be helped! My advice for this is, again, to focus in on one or two products and keep it small. I have a previous post that should lead you in the right direction for choosing a few products.

Looking back, it would have been a good idea to zone in on an area of interest such as pets, kids, or kitchen decor. Having done this would have helped to keep inventory to a minimum as well as aid in locating a customer base.

Smaller items are cheaper to make and ship. The ink for sublimation is not cheap. It does seem to last a long time, but you will need to figure it into the cost of your product. If you will be shipping, items like pet tags are light and flat allowing them to fit into a regular letter sized envelope.

What About Etsy?

This is a tough one for me to answer. I must admit, I haven't had a whole lot of luck selling products on Etsy. There are just so many people enjoying the same craft that I enjoy! The heat transfer vinyl and sublimation markets are over saturated on Etsy.

I have tried using the search engine optimization (SEO) tool, Marmalead, and honestly found it to be a waste of money. The cost for Marmalead is $19 a month. In the three months I used this tool, I only sold one product (for $25). All of my listings had A or B grades (graded by Marmalead) after I tweaked my key words, but I still was not getting many views, much less purchases.

There are many YouTube videos that will tell you how to get your products sold on Etsy. I just have not found any of their hints to be helpful in this business. I still have my Etsy page, but may be doing away with it soon. In my experience, if you don't have a lot of extra cash to spend on promoted listings, your products will never be seen. Maybe the best way to utilize Etsy in the heat press market is to pay only to have your items re-posted each month and use it as a place for face to face customers to visit.

Craft Fairs

Craft fairs usually involve a booth fee. In addition, you will have other items to purchase such as a canopy, a utility cart, price tags, tables, etc… It can be very frustrating to pay for all of these things and sit all day out in the heat or cold and not profit a nickel. That said, I continue to research fairs in my area and do a few each year. Why? Craft fairs are a great way to get your brand noticed! Some of my most loyal customers are people who have taken a card at what I thought to be an unsuccessful vendor event.

Here is a great tip concerning business cards: Use your heat transfer vinyl or sublimation to make a sign with your information. Post the sign so that visitors can easily snap a cell phone picture. Have some cards on hand for visitors who request them, but don't leave them out on the table. This has nothing to do with the cost of business cards. Business cards are cheap! It is a marketing strategy. Business cards usually end up in the trash. Cell phone pictures may be deleted as well, but it is likely that the person who took the picture will see it several times before finally deleting it. The more times a potential customer views your brand/logo, the more likely it is to stick!

In Conclusion:

The bad news: Earning money from your hobby will take time.

The good news: You love your hobby!

The main thing is to stay focused and try not to overspend. Keep it simple and have fun. The money will soon follow!

As always, Happy Crafting!