Spiritual merchandise range: is it a viable enterprise?
- Coral Ryder
- Mar 21, 2024
- 9 min read
Updated: Jun 13, 2024
Growing up in a household where mediumship was deemed a normal natural ability, means I have been around mediums and Spiritualists all of my life. Whilst living within this community, I have noted a distinct lack of merchandise in relation to it. Working in the public eye has shown me that there is also a lot of misconceptions about who we are, and what we do. With these things in mind I started to design merchandise aimed at breaching that gap in the market, and perhaps in the process educate and amuse the general public through the visual aid of Spiritual T-shirts, hoodies, tote bags, mugs and water bottles etc...
Before committing myself to this side hustle I need to ask myself, is my business idea viable, is there a market for it, can I financially afford to begin this enterprise, and be able to sustain it until it makes a profit? I thereby need to consider what resources are available to me, what the start up costs will be, what my survival budget will be, and what funding, if any, is available to me.
As previously stated due to personal experience I believe there is a niche to fill in this area. Having previously had my own studio I already have some materials and equipment in place which will save on initial costs. And, I already have an array of art supplies to utilise in designing my own range of spiritual merchandise.
Resources and start up costs:
If selling at fares, depending on whether indoor or outdoor, and whether your stall is provided for you or you have to supply your own, you will need to consider if you require:
portable foldable table: on Amazon: £32.55 & £3.99 p&p (already have)
portable chair/s: on Amazon from £16.99 each (already have)
portable clothing rail: on Amazon: £15.98 (already have)
gazebo: on Amazon £179.99
insurance with public liability: with Zurich/Balens from £46
sum up machine basic: on Amazon £34.99 (already have)
sum up machine with printer: on Amazon £169.99
Are you going to print your merchandise yourself? If so, you will need to have the correct equipment, printers, inks, transfers, t-shirts, hoodies, mugs etc. suitable for commercial use. On Amazon you can buy a commercial printer from £135.99 up to £2599.00. This option could become quite expensive and time consuming, for me personally I think its simpler to get them professionally printed, which leaves more time to design and promote the produce.
When having them professionally printed for you, do you opt to have them printed in bulk and sell them in person at fares, or online, or see if local shops will stock them? If so, you will need to have samples to show with varying designs and sizes. This means you need to cover the initial outlay and have a suitable safe place to store your produce. If posting them out yourself, you will also require packaging and need to know the prices for postage. You will also need to know the turn around from order to delivery so you can keep your customers up to date, as to when to expect their order.
Royal Mail UK, and International postage costs: (as of April 2024)
Then there is the print on demand option. Where you order directly from the printers, as and when you need to. Customers can order through your online store, which is connected to your printers, who then print and ship directly to the buyer. This is much more cost effective as it cuts down on initial outlays and the need to store your products.
Print on demand: T-shirts, Hoodies, mugs, aprons. etc.
The Printers in my local town of Hartlepool charges £8 to print each shirt, they are willing to do print on demand and are working out what the costing for postage and packaging will be to UK, Europe & Worldwide. They are also working out the price for eco friendly Tee's. I'm currently having a range of tester products printed to see how they turn out. Have budgeted £100 for this purpose. Using this printer means I get to speak with him face to face, see the quality of work and feel the fabric. Being very tactile and on the ASD spectrum it is important to me to ensure no one has to put up with itchy scratchy clothing. Utilising this printer would also support a local business rather than the big corporations like Printify.
Printify is located in Wilmington USA, it offers a print on demand service that you can link to your online stores such as Etsy, Ebay, Shopify or Patreon. You select the product you want to sell, design it, set the amount of profit you want to make and publish it to your online store/s. When purchased, Printify source your order to a printer in the country its ordered from, who then prints and sends it direct to your customer. This helps save the customer money on postage. With Printify you can have a Free account which allows 5 stores and unlimited product designs or a Premium account which costs $24.99 a month which allows for 10 stores, unlimited product designs, and gives a 20% discount on printing costs. As such to print a tote bag is £5.89 with a free account v's £4.53 with a Premium. With a unisex jersey t-shirt its £8.31 v's £6.94 and a unisex heavy cotton tee £6.54 v's £5.04.
Teemill is located on the Isle of Wight, it is an ecommerce website builder and offers the same print on demand service as Printify but is centred around sustainability, they therefore only use "organic materials, renewable energy, plastic-free packaging" and focus on "recyclability". They claim to be "The world's first open-access circular supply chain". Their products are designed from the outset to be recycled. Once the clothing is worn out, instead of it going to landfill, the customer can send their clothing back to Teemill, where it will be remade into new clothing.
Unlike other shopfronts like Etsy, Teemill do not charge you to list your product nor a percentage of the sale. I've found part of the site is difficult to navigate but eventually came across their pricing page which provides a guide on the cost for each type of item and a gage you can alter to how much profit you wish to make from each product. T-shirts samples are £13.50 each, which seems quite expensive but then they are eco friendly and sustainability motivated, which is a good selling point especially in todays society in relation todays climate and global warming issues.
T-shirt Studio is located in Swindon, UK, it offers the same print on demand service as Teemill and Printify. Like Teemill they do not charge to list your products. Instead you state how much commission you want from your sales. They provide an online shop address for you to sell from e.g. Spirit Within Art Shop.
On testing out each of these printers the one that works best for me at present is T-shirt Studio as it has proven to be prompt, the quality of the products is excellent and the customer service exceptional. Where as one of the others printers although helpful, the product was not as good and some of the samples were not to a high enough standard to use as samples of the products. Unfortunately they also took too long in printing and for a print on demand service would not be fast enough for customers. Where as another printers was too big a company, and you had to have an Ebay, Shopify or Etsy store, all of which have their own fees that cut into your profits.
Personal survival budget:
For print on demand I do not need an initial outlay as the costings are covered by the customer.
Presently I am lucky enough to be in a position where my husband brings in the main wage so we are not reliant on my work to cover our survival budget; which is good as I can only work around what my health allows.
However, as no-one fully knows what the future brings, it is wise to know what my personal survival budget would need to be, should I need to ever rely upon my wage for us to live on. On looking at our finances I would need to do enough workshops, sittings, and demonstrations, plus sell enough products to cover all of our outgoing bills. Therefore would need to take into account the cost of our mortgage, water, gas, electric, council tax, food, water, prescriptions, insurances, clothing, internet, phones, prime, TV license, entertainment, the cleaner, dog walker, travel expenses, business expenses etc. The list is extensive, I would also need to consider what incomings we get from work, benefits etc. With these in mind, I would need to clear around £38,500 a year, to cover my home, and businesses survival budget. And still provide some disposable income, without having to dip into personal savings to sustain us whilst building my Brand and creative enterprise.
Funding:
There are varying ways in which to fund your creative enterprise such as grants, loans, or crowd funding etc.
Grants: are funds given by individuals or organisations that are non repayable. There are some grants available for artists and creative enterprises but it is knowing where to look to apply. The Arts Council England, The Princes Trust, Jerwood Arts and Biscuit Factory, Crafts Council and Fashion Council have grants that you can apply for. When applying you will need to state what your project is and detail how much it will cost in your application for funding. Loans: are funds that are borrowed and then repaid with interest. There are some companies that offer loans like Creative UK, The Princes Trust, creative united and banks offer loans. Crowd funding: is a way to raise money from a large group of people willing to invest in up and coming businesses and projects in exchange for shares, or as a donation to help new ideas, and businesses come to fruition. ( Kick starter and Indiegogo ) There is equity finance to consider where you can sell shares in your business in exchange for funding, where your investors will receive a portion of the profits. Then there are accelerator programs available that can provide help with mentoring and funding. Some banks like NatWest and companies like Creative UK, and again The Princes Trust all operate accelerator programs. If none of these are viable options then you can utilise personal savings, to start your business if you have enough to cover your start up costs and initial expenses. This helps avoid interest rates, and initial debts but cuts into your savings.
In the past when I have applied for funding, I have been turned down for loans and grants once the topic of mediumship came into the conversation. I have therefore had to rely upon our savings and filter what I earn back into my business in order to continue trying to establish my Brand and creative enterprise. However times are changing and it may be in my businesses interest to try applying to one of the companies mentioned above, although some like the Princes Trust have age restrictions (30) so not suitable for me.
Reflection: Having looked at all of the variables, I believe the print on demand section to my enterprise is worth exploring as most of the costings will be covered by the consumer, as they pay for the product to be printed and posted and I get paid a small profit from each sale. The risk is in how long it takes to get sales to cover the costs of the online store subscriptions, listing fees and percentages taken from sales. With that in mind I found T-shirt studio and Teemill the most viable printers as they have free store options and you do not pay to list your items.
The college fair 30th November 2023,
the fair gave us creatives the opportunity to sell some of our wares. Overall it was a good experience, but in retrospect I think the students would have had a better chance to sell their crafts had their stalls been in the main hall and not in a side classroom. Being in the side room at the end of the corridor meant not as much footfall entering the room, and those that did had spent most of their money on the other stalls by the time they got us. I also think the students would have stood a better chance had they not been in the position of being in competition from outside vendors. These professional stalls did give us the opportunity to see how varying displays worked in drawing the eye to wares, and about the import of having your stall in a position it can be seen and where there is plenty of footfall, so it wasn't all negative.
With my display, having lots or new items and old stock to sell, I tried not to overcrowd my table by placing extra and duplicate items under the table. Then as each item sold I was able to replace it with another, which worked out quite well.
I got to use my sum up machine for the first time which was fun and interesting to learn about a new piece of technology. I liked the fact you could upload images and add your stock to the sum up app which meant it was easier to take orders and keep a stock check. I will definitely be using this in the future as it makes taking card payments easy.
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