黑料门

We鈥檝e chatted with Wes Taylor from to let you know how you can sell custom designed products printed and shipped on demand, under your own brand.

Transcript

Jesse: What鈥檚 going on, Richard?

Richard: What鈥檚 happening, Jesse?

Jesse: Yeah, it鈥檚 good, good. I鈥檓 pumped today about the guest we have on, because this is kind of for people that just have this little bit of an idea in their head of a business. This is the perfect opportunity for them.

Richard: Yeah, I mean we talk a lot about how to get on Google Shopping feed and if you鈥檝e got a product here鈥檚 the things you should do with SEO and we鈥檝e covered so many things, but we鈥檝e never really covered a topic, where someone just had an idea or maybe they had a following and they wanted to get something to market, but they didn鈥檛 want to have inventory and what do they want to do, and so we specifically want to cover what we call “print on demand service” basically, and some of the things that you can do with print on demand.

Jesse: Yeah, that鈥檚 awesome. So, let鈥檚 bring on our guest Wes Taylor from Printful. How is it going, Wes?

Wes: Hey, pretty good. Thanks for having me.

Richard: Thanks for coming down as the fun trip from Los Angeles to San Diego.

Wes: Exactly.

Richard: Worst places to come visit though. Thanks for making your way down.

Wes: Yeah, absolutely love it done here.

Jesse: Yeah, awesome. So, we talked a little bit prior to the podcast here so, you know, give us from your view, why print on demand?

Wes: Oh, so print on demand is pretty much a no-brainer if you ask me. It鈥檚 just a really great way if you are very business-minded, you have ideas, you have that entrepreneurial heart, but sometimes you don鈥檛 necessarily have the financial ability to just go hardcore and buy lots of inventory and all this stuff for your ideas. So, print of demand allows you to start a business or start a merch store with little to no cost, especially with Printful, that is. So, yeah, it lets you test out the market, let you just do one off. So, it鈥檚 just a really great opportunity to test out your market and get things started for yourself.

Jesse: Sure. So, in case we lost anybody with print on demand and merch store. So, what are we talking about, what kind of products does Printful allow people to sell?

Wes: Sure. So, with Printful, we have a very large catalog of products. They range from apparel to assessors. So, you can do now cell phone cases, totes, we have like throw pillows for your couch, that you can have outdoors too. So, that鈥檚 a good thing for you, yeah. And then we also have traditional T-shirts, tank tops, hoodies. We have leggings, swimsuits, beach towels. That鈥檚 nuts.

Richard: So, does the merchant have to pick which cues or can they kind of, say they have a customer, to pick specific example. We have a customer, that we鈥檙e going to actually be building a store with, he鈥檚 an author, one of the things he鈥檚 saying in the name of his book is “What is your What?”, and was thinking of doing a T-shirt with that. Did you use that as an example. Does he have to pick the four skews with that logo or that scene is going to go on or is it open for one of his clients to put it on anything they want, or is it either?

Wes: Sure. So, from the store owner perspective, which would be the author in this case, he would go through and choose which specific shirt that he wants to print on and then also the colors as well. So, we have a very wide range of products from oldschool Gilden, to like new school Bellah canvas, that鈥檚 much more like fashion fitted, form fitted, you know. So, depending on your target audience and who you鈥檙e selling to you can find the product that they are going to want, which is also a nice thing that you can do with drop shipping, you can test that out as well. You can kind of put up the boxy old school tee and the new form fitted tee and see which one is there, but it also allows you to give your customer that option of if they want kind of the baggy blue shirt or the tight shirt. So, yeah, and even from there there鈥檚, you know, different fabric blends that they can choose to work with, so, there鈥檚 lots of different options for them, but we offer sample products, so they can always test out for themselves which they want.

Richard: So, they put in some sort of code so they can: “I want to try these four things, put in a code and get it some sort of discounted rate?”

Wes: Yeah. Well it鈥檚 even simpler than that, you just have your personal account and you just, there鈥檚 a button that says “new order”, you hit it, and then there鈥檚 an option that says “Sample” quick it and then it鈥檚 going to be 20% off.

Richard: So, wow, that is so cool, so basically someone鈥檚 sitting there they have an idea, they鈥檙e watching that debate, they鈥檙e some sort of saying that was grown up with the kid they just want to do it for a family reunion. They have the option to go in and buy one or buy 25. Is there some sort of way.

Jesse: Or buy zero.

Richard: Yeah that鈥檚 right, or just the sample. But, in general could you, say now you鈥檝e proved it, it work, and now, they could easily sell 500. Is there a system, how could they get it now potentially discounted cost not that they prove something out?

Wes: Sure. Well, so in general kind of like the ideal scenario is like they would work with 黑料门, for example, and you would put your product for sale there, and that is where you would direct your customers to purchase. So, let鈥檚 take the debate for example like you mentioned, or maybe something really popular just happened on this TV show or the sporting event and the whole world saw it and everyone鈥檚 talking about it, and so you make your product for that, you place it up on your store, you tweet out the link, you publish it wherever you want to social media, you can do it on Instagram and use the “Shop now”, so that you can sell it that way. Yeah. And, so, you鈥檙e not paying anything on the offline until a customer buys it. So, that鈥檚 kind of the nice thing there. And so that鈥檚 how you can go about doing that. But, let鈥檚 say, it is something super popular, you mentioned printing like 500 shirts. So, we do everything one off using technology called DTG — Direct to Garment, which is just kind of this cool new thing, that it鈥檚 kind of like a big inkjet printer if you will some, all the colors at once, which makes it affordable to print everything one off. But we also have screen printing available at Printful. So, in that case if you do know, like, I鈥檓 doing a pop-up shop or a trade show and I want to have a bulk inventory therefore that, you can contact Printful and we can do a little bit cheaper pricing for you, for doing screen printing for a big bowl quarter and then would ship that to you.

Jesse: Got it. So, I mean the basic T-shirt. So, let鈥檚 kind of go, let鈥檚 go average numbers here, so somebody says: “All right, I got this perfect saying for this T-shirt, I鈥檓 going to make it on Printful”, you know, what does that normally cost the merchant for that T-shirt?

Wes: Sure. So, we have a very wide range of prices also with our t-shirts, because that鈥檚 kind of depending again on the target audience you鈥檙e going for. So, our cheapest shirt is $8,95 and that does include the printing on it. So, that鈥檚 what that is and then shipping is on top of that, which you are going to charge your customer for saying not to worry about that really. But, yeah, so that鈥檚 how it is, the prices are always listed on our site, and that includes the, like the fulfillment cost of that and the printing as well.

Jesse: So basically, like we call it like somewhere between 8 and 15 bucks for.

Wes: Sure, yeah, I would say, like average mid level sure is like thirteen dollars. Yeah. And, so, from there you can kind of, we have more some that are more expensive and that鈥檚 kind of more of a premium fill, which you can also then charge more for, because it is a premium shirt premium product and you can sell it as such. So, yeah, there鈥檚 lots of options there for you to be able to run whatever type of business or merch store you want to run.

Jesse: Okay. And, so now we kind of skipped over the design of this so, like, with the example Rich mentioned, you know, we had a previous podcast Steve has, his name of his book is called “What is your what?” So, if he has just the text “What is your what?”, or for other people listening to whatever鈥檚 going on the news or sporting events, you can literally just come with text and then design it on Printful? Is that the case or do you need to have a designer?

Wes: Well, so the answer is yes. So, there鈥檚 lots of different options there for you again. And it just kind of depends on where your skill level is in the world of design. So, let鈥檚 say you don鈥檛 have any skills or access to any programs to design anything yourself.

Jesse: So, you have no skills, no talent, nothing (laughing.)

Wes: You just have the idea. So, you can actually create a very basic text design within Printful and have it pushed directly to your store. So, if you do have just a saying you can hop on Printful, you can plug in those text, you can move them around however you want. You can change the colors, pick the font that you want. We also have a little clip arts and emotions on there, so you can even put cute stuff like that. We just added for the holiday season coming up kind of ugly sweater designs. So, now you can鈥檛 even go in and create your own, like ugly holiday sweater in there if you want. So, yeah.

Richard: So you have some prefab stuff there too?

Yeah, it鈥檚 really great. So, that鈥檚 kind of like basic the idea “I can鈥檛 do anything else”, so I can do it that way. And then we do have print file guidelines on our website for whatever product it is and you can download those, open them in Photoshop Illustrator, whatever. So, if you are a designer have little skills you can do all that stuff yourself and then just load your file into Printful.

Jesse: So. Okay, perfect. So, if you don鈥檛 really have a whole lot of skills, there鈥檚 a way there to do it, if you have photoshop experience or your friend has Photoshop experience, your design can be a little more, I don鈥檛 know a little fancier, I guess.

Wes: Right, for sure, and then we also have an in-house design team, so even that is just another way to remove an obstacle, if you have the idea, the drive, desire, but you鈥檙e just unable to do it yourself, you can contact them and commission them to create whatever it is that you鈥檙e wanting.

Richard: It鈥檚 not like a cost per hour, per project?

Wes: Yeah, you just contact them, because there鈥檚 lots of things. Yeah, it鈥檚 kind of like time, complexity of what you鈥檙e working with, how many things you鈥檙e wanting, all that stuff, so.

Richard: But it鈥檚 available and it鈥檚 there so someone can come in and they just have an idea that could get going. They can A/B tested. They could even have someone to do a design for five dollars and it may or may not be good.

Wes: Exactly.

Richard: But these are all options available around them all the way up to hiring and professional services. Do you guys actually have a designer. And so, now they know what print on demand is, they don鈥檛 have to have this big inventory, they understand that they don鈥檛 even have to have great design experience, but should they want to work with someone they can or if they have someone they work with and they want to now it鈥檚 just follow those design files, that you鈥檙e referring to make sure that this type of file, size. And then, I鈥檓 sure when they鈥檙e picking out the products, is there some sort of layout, where they could see what it looks like on the shirt ahead of time and decide what that actually, before the hitting sample button?

Wes: Yeah, absolutely. So, it is a little tricky, because you are, I mean it鈥檚 not tricky at all, actually, but you just have to keep in mind you鈥檙e looking at a computer screen versus an actual physical product. But we do have a mockup generator that will show you kind of the placement, that mockup generator is free and actually when you鈥檙e syncing it over to your store it pushes those mockup images over, so that you don鈥檛 even have to do your own product photography if you don鈥檛 want to, because again that can cost money. So, there鈥檚 this free option that your customers will see, we can even choose some of the shirts have people already wearing them, we鈥檙e adding lifestyle mockups, so we have a backpack for example that someone can sell and we already have images of like a person wearing the backpack and a setting, and so, you鈥檙e gonna have these nice lifestyle photos, that you鈥檙e generating with your images on it, so you can get an example. But, yeah, it鈥檚 always just keep in mind that it is a computer screen versus a real product.

Richard: To say we鈥檒l stick with the 80/20 rule, 80 percent of it is pretty, the general concept is there, might be a little bit closer to the strap on the backpack than that it鈥檚 a teeny difference, but you鈥檙e going to have a pretty darn good idea, like: “Wow, that鈥檚 way too big for that backpack, let me shrink that down just a little bit, or that鈥檚 a perfect size.” For the most part, you鈥檙e going to have a good idea with that.

Wes: Yeah, absolutely. And we even have a hat mockup generator. It鈥檚 all the same generator, but with the hat it actually generates it to kind of look like a thread and it鈥檚 like the only one out there, like there鈥檚 not another hat mockup generator that鈥檚 going to show you, like, this kind of looks like bread. So, really impressive stuff that we have there that鈥檚 available for free.

Richard: So, these services have been around for a while, the print on demand. Man, I can鈥檛 even remember some of the names, but I鈥檓 sure you have competitors out there, but why Printful? What is it that Printful do and that鈥檚 unique, because I鈥檝e heard a few things, it sounds like you have other services or other things. What is it that makes, why should people other than the obvious easy integration with 黑料门, which is partially why we had a super easy concept that how quick and easy you can set up the 黑料门 store and then connect the two, they don鈥檛 even have to have product images, they don鈥檛 have to have inventory, they don鈥檛 have, like, literally bare minimal effort other than a creative idea and a desire to try to do something. Sounds like you got some other things going on there. What is it about printful, they should know?

Wes: Yeah, absolutely. So, I think the biggest thing, that sets us apart from other print on demand companies is our quality. We work really hard at that and with just even quality control, we do tons of testing always on everything every product we had. We do tons and tons of testing on to make sure that we鈥檙e going to be able to offer a product that鈥檚 going to have good printing on there. Another huge thing that has to do with our quality is that we do everything in-house. So, some other print on demand companies, you will have to pick which supplier or manufacturer you want to use within the print on demand companies. So, a shirt might come from Michigan and then the next one might come from this other store somewhere else. So, we do all that stuff in-house, so we have three locations right now: Los Angeles, Charlotte North Carolina and then Riga, Latvia. So, that鈥檚 really cool, because let鈥檚 say you have a customer in England and they buy something from me, so we can now apprenticeship from Europe and that鈥檚 going to cut down some of the shipping costs and customs fees, stuff like that.

Jesse: It looked the same too.

Wes: It鈥檚 going to look the same, because across all of our locations we鈥檙e using the same technology, the same printing, the same codes. So, you don鈥檛 have to worry about getting different types of quality from different locations, so that鈥檚 a huge thing as well. And so, we鈥檝e grown really to kind of be just a really great solution for anyone starting out or anyone who is already established, so, let鈥檚 say you are an author, you do have your own books, you鈥檙e shipping them yourself. We also offer warehousing and fulfilment. So, let鈥檚 say you have your book or maybe you鈥檙e selling jewelry, that鈥檚 stuff we obviously don鈥檛 have, but we can warehouse that for you. And then, you can still have that product synced to your 黑料门 store and every time a customer buys it, it sync to Printful, we pull out of your stock and ship it for you. And that really frees you up to now start writing your next book or start creating your next product, and you can start concentrating on marketing and all the stuff that you鈥檙e good at, that鈥檚 gotten you to the place where you need someone to fulfill for you. So, it鈥檚 going to allow you to step your game up and your business. So, that鈥檚 kind of like the big things that鈥檚 making Printful stand out from the crowd.

Richard: Love that extra. So, this kind of ties in people who, as we started this broadcast, were like: “We鈥檙e going to have this conversation to help people that maybe don鈥檛 have a product yet.” But what you鈥檙e saying is, they could also have a product, right, so they could be trying to test them, maybe they鈥檙e going to specifically use these shirts to help market a product. So, maybe they just turn the shirts into marketing that, it鈥檚 helping pay for the marketing.

Wes: Right. We have lots of people, that customers that are selling exercise equipment for example, and so we offer leggings, and sports broads, and other apparel. So, now they鈥檙e able to expand their current product line that has nothing to do with apparel and now they鈥檙e being able to add additional income to what they already have going on. So, that鈥檚 another just you know amazing perk.

Jesse: Yeah, that鈥檚 great. And then, they don鈥檛 have to necessarily buy all these different sizes of, you know, leggings and sport bras, like you guys have them, when you want to print them, they鈥檙e ready to go. So, it鈥檚 a way to expand another product line without having to buy any product, that鈥檚 what I love.

Wes: Sure, yeah. And you can test it too. So, it鈥檚 like: “OK, great, the people that buy this gym equipment, they are not interested in t-shirts and I know that, because I didn鈥檛 spend any money, but I offered and no one bought it and that鈥檚 great. So, yeah, I didn鈥檛 lose any money on that. So, now I know that they鈥檙e not interested. So, it鈥檚 just a really great way to test out your market and your target audience.

Jesse: Yeah, I could see a lot of, kind of to Richie鈥檚 point there are people that might have an existing store, selling a bunch of products, but they have a brand and they have a logo. Well you can now take that logo, go to Printful, upload that logo, try it on, you know, a hat, a T-shirt, a tote bag, all these different things, see what sells, and you don鈥檛 even have to buy the sample. You could just go with the standard mockup, you know, right, now you have maybe five or six different products. See, if they sell, you buy one for yourself, you know, I kind of want a hat of a couple different brands, so, I think that鈥檚 a cool way to test out, whether you鈥檙e adding revenue to an existing brand or the idea of just, you have no product, you want to start a merch store basically.

Wes: Yeah, absolutely.

Jesse: Now, we talked about creating the product and you guys take care of the shipping, now, when somebody buys from an 黑料门 store, how does the order get over to Printful?

Wes: Great question, all right. So, 黑料门 and Printful are friends and they鈥檝e, they鈥檝e connected APIs. So, everything is integrated there, which means that they鈥檙e talking to each other, what happened after you have connected Printful, you can download the app within 黑料门 and you go to your Printful account and you start adding your products. We have, what鈥檚 called a ‘product push generator’ and it鈥檚 crazy simple, you can add a product literally in like two minutes, if even that, it鈥檚 so quick. So, you click on what you want, upload your designs, right there within the Printful you can add the product description, your product title, you pick the price, all that stuff that you want, and that syncs over to 黑料门. And, so, now it鈥檚 just connected, like, Internet magic. So, the customer now will go to your storefront, whenever they click ‘place order’ that automatically sent over to Printful for us to fulfill.

Jesse: So, that鈥檚 awesome. So, now you could, you鈥檙e basically making money in your sleep and there鈥檚 no need to cut and paste this order instant over Printful and send an e-mail, like, you just you just sell, Printful, you take the money, and Printful ships it.

Wes: Right. The whole thing is you do the legwork upfront, which isn鈥檛 even that much work, because you the store owner would set up all that stuff beforehand you pick out, you know, the product, the colors, the design, and then everything is automated after that. And the beauty of it is now you get to continue to work on the marketing of that creating the next product, all the things that are really going to help you sell, what you just did, you know.

Jesse: Wow. So, let me give an example of, you know, if people listen this podcast right away, like the World Series is going to happen pretty soon here. So, potentially there could be a hero of Game 3 and that we don鈥檛 know yet, and you could, maybe there鈥檚 the announcer says something you could take that scene, go to Printful, make a design, publish it, put on your store and like right away you鈥檙e on Instagram, you鈥檙e on Twitter, and that could be a viral hit. By the morning, there鈥檚 money in your bank account in Printful,printing shirts, hats whatever.

Richard: I mean, didn鈥檛 you do something similar you were, I think we were talking earlier.

Wes: Right.

Richard: We didn鈥檛 get to hear the whole story, but I think it had to do with something like that.

Wes: Yeah, absolutely. There鈥檚 always, I would say pretty frequently we have a store owner that kind of goes viral, like that鈥檚 a pretty common thing, you鈥檒l be walking around the fulfillment floor and all of a sudden you鈥檙e realizing everything is the same. They鈥檙e all printing the same product. Yeah, and it鈥檚 people just paying attention, having a niche market. And, so, yeah, like the debates for example a few years ago lots of very great quotes were being said and people were on it, they were sitting there at their TV with their laptop, creating the designs as quotes were being made. People would go to bed after they created their product tweeted out that mockup generator literally would wake up with a couple of hundred thousand dollars in profit and all that just cost them the time to make that. And, even myself, again, like if you talked about the World Series, so there is a certain sports team that I like. And we were up for the national championship, and so I created a shirt in the event that we did win the national championship and prayed that I was not jinxing the whole thing, took that shirt with me to the sports bar, watch the game, we won, I put that shirt on real quick, took a photo had already done the legwork and set the product up I just had it from a store, and yet took a picture of myself wearing the shirt, posted it, tweeted out there, Instagram, Facebook and I made about 500 bucks that night. All of that and it just cost me them, I use my sample order to print the shirts, so that I had it there. So, yeah, it鈥檚 a little bit of planning predicting and, yeah.

Richard: So, hopefully they didn鈥檛 see those sales took place to the next day otherwise you were buying the drinks all night right (laughing.) Like, ‘it鈥檚 on you tonight..’

Jesse: The video as you鈥檙e out drinking and having fun and you were able to launch this from your phone. I know you did work ahead of time, but, you know, from your phone basically two thumbs you鈥檙e basically making a store live, tweeting, posting the picture on social and let it happen.

Wes: Yes, exactly, all on-the-go.

Richard: So, this is a perfect example of that never ending debate, saying, Is it the idea or is it the execution. Well, I know there鈥檚 a little pun here, but with 黑料门 and Printful, it鈥檚 literally, it literally is, it鈥檚 the idea, because the execution is going to be so flipping easy. That really does put the power back on that idea and just do you do these simple steps to get it implemented, because you could just as easily, you could have made a mean for if they would last, so you could have been covered both ends, you know, just thinking ahead what could happen, what might not happen.

Jesse: Not a true fan there (laughing.)

Richard: You know, this is a business you are talking about, you know, protecting downside risk to your point. You have the options, you just have the option, that鈥檚 what we鈥檙e getting at. You have an idea. You want to see if something鈥檚 going to fly, if it may or may not turn into something. This is a very compelling, it鈥檚 not even an argument it鈥檚 kind of a no brainer that why wouldn鈥檛 you want to do this to some degree. Is there like a set up fee or like how much cost does this take, other than the monthly for the 黑料门, the minimal they have?

Wes: Sure, yes. So, with Printful it鈥檚 pretty much just like your time spent as kind of the cost. I mean, you, have the prices listed on the website, I think I mentioned that. So, whatever that prices is what you will pay, once it has been sold. So, there isn鈥檛 any subscription fees when it comes to Printful, there鈥檚 no startup monthly fee anything like that. So, it鈥檚 FREE, it鈥檚 free to set up your products in regards to print, you just pay for whatever you just hold.

Richard: Got it. So, let鈥檚 do this hypothetical game, we鈥檙e setting one up or Steve and he鈥檚 going to have a shirt or hat or whatever it is, he sets the, again, making up numbers, let鈥檚 just say it鈥檚 $15 for the cost of the shirt he picked he wanted a higher-end shirt. K鈥檔ex, PayPal, or whatever, I鈥檓 sure you connect to a multiple, whatever is going on with 黑料门, right. They鈥檙e just using whatever they have already set up. Let鈥檚 just say in this in this hypothetical PayPal, the order goes through, maybe the orders for Steve sets the price or whoever sets the price that they make could be 25 bucks to make be 30 bucks they can make it be 50 bucks, if they wanted to. Has anyone made it a limited supply? Can you do, like, numbered shirts? This is me as a sports fan, thinking this out, like if there was a limited amount, like: ‘Oh, hey, there鈥檚 only going to be 50 of these made.’

Wes: Sure, yeah. I mean, that鈥檚 kind of the beauty of it all is that you can do that. I mean, the nice thing about print on demand is you can leave something there forever, but marketing-wise that might not necessarily be the best idea, because people do tend to move more when there鈥檚 a sense of urgency. So, if you let them know that this is like a limited product it鈥檚 only here for this month, you can only get it till the end of this date and then it鈥檚 done, that is going to encourage people to purchase that. So, as far as marketing goes, that is kind of a smart move that you can play around with. And then of course if it does go well you can always bring that back next year, a couple of months later, if you maybe it was something you put on a sweatshirt. Well, now it鈥檚 summertime, so maybe now whatever that design was that was popular it鈥檚 like: ‘Hey, now it鈥檚 on the beach now. Surprise! You can only get it until August.’

Richard: So, so to figure out the rest of this PayPal things just real quick, in this hypothetical, say it鈥檚 decided $30, hypothetical cost $15 from you, you鈥檙e shipping it. Forget about shipping costs for a second. Sell it for $30, does it instantly get charged right then $15 and the money goes to him, how does that actually work?

Wes: Sure. That鈥檚 a really good question, lots of people ask. So, the first, there鈥檚 kind of two transactions, that happened close to the same time. And so the first one is between you and your customer and that transaction runs through, however you have it set up on 黑料门. So, that is where that money takes place, your customer pays you the 30 bucks for the product and then you need to look into whatever setup you have to when you get that money deposited from that. In the meantime over Printful you want to have a default payment method set up as well, so that we can charge you the base rate for that stuff and then we can start automatically.

Richard: Credit card on file, because that card.

Wes: Yeah. Yeah, you can do credit card, debit card, PayPal. You can do, we have a Printful wallet, which is kind of like a prepaid debit card so you can just upload X amount of money on that and we鈥檒l pull from there. Yeah, so lots options there.

Jesse: So, let鈥檚 just say it鈥檚, let鈥檚 say it鈥檚 PayPal on both sides. It could be a lot of different things but. So, in Steve鈥檚 example, he charges 30 bucks, he gets paid in his account, like maybe a day or two later, the order goes to you guys immediately, or is there like a little delay, or is it, you know, API sends that order right away?

Wes: Yeah, it is right away, it might be, like, whatever, 15 minutes, 30 minutes. But, yeah, it goes over pretty immediate. If anyone is concerned about that, because especially when you鈥檙e starting out you鈥檙e, like: ‘Well, what if I get these orders coming through and I鈥檒l have the money for it.’ You can setup Printful to where you have to manually approve orders. So, it comes in, it鈥檚 saved as a draft, you can wait for that. The only downside about that is it does extend your fulfillment time. And so, that鈥檚 totally ok, you just need make sure you鈥檙e being very transparent with your end customer about that with, you know, giving them the right estimation. But, there鈥檚 always, you know, solutions for stuff, like鈥�

Richard: And there are good problems to have all of a sudden you wake up, and you had a hundred thousand dollars in orders. It鈥檚 still going to potentially be an issue, but it鈥檚 nice to have the issue of: ‘Oh, man do I have enough on my credit card, to make sure?’ So, let鈥檚 just say one of those hypotheticals, where someone did they hit a homerun, you know, they鈥檙e watching debate or literally someone hits a homerun in the World Series and they have some sort of sane. What鈥檚 the worst case scenario someone could find themselves in, and I don鈥檛 usually ask those kind of question, but say they sold $100,000 but they only have $10,000 on their credit limit, what, do you guys warn him or say we can鈥檛 ship these until I do get that, or what, how does that work?

Wes: Sure. So, that鈥檚 kind of a lot happening at once. Yes.

Richard: But it鈥檚 something that, someone was sitting there dreaming of happening, right there, like: ‘I had that same nor knew it was a stable genius or whatever you know.’

Wes: Sure, yeah. So, well one thing, so, let鈥檚 say you didn鈥檛 have the money or whatever the transaction failed, when it came into Printful, but, let鈥檚 say you did have that and whatever went wrong, your order it will say you, like, ‘order failed’ and that鈥檚 nothing to freak out about, like your customer doesn鈥檛 know about that, everything鈥檚 still fine there. So, all you have to do is just take a nice breath, make sure you get the money in there and then you just manually approve that order and it will go through, your customer has no idea that ever happened. Some people freak out there, like: ‘One of us was a customer, they think they鈥檙e order failed, they got this email.’ No they didn鈥檛, they didn鈥檛. It鈥檚 all good. This is my, this is Wes personal, personal advice, don鈥檛 take it out or anything, but PayPal does have a credit card option now. So, that鈥檚 a really smart thing that I even use, so now I charge people with PayPal, so the money is going there and then, I have it set up to charge my PayPal credit card. And so now as soon as the funds are available I just pay off the PayPal credit card with that. So, as long as you鈥檙e keeping it with that, you鈥檙e not going around the problems, you鈥檙e going to run into problems, if now you鈥檙e on dominoes and you鈥檙e, like: ‘Oh yeah, sure, pay with my PayPal credit card I have.’ So, as long as you鈥檙e sticking with stuff like that, that鈥檚 a good option as well that you can look into. Again, that is off the record personal Wes advice.

Jesse: PayPal has not sponsored this (laughing.)

Wes: And I鈥檓 just saying that鈥檚 a good option that I have found personally.

Richard: And, what I was ultimately trying to do there was saying, it is a nice issue to have when your only potential issue is: ‘Can I float the money for a minute, because I鈥檝e got all kinds of orders coming in. I didn鈥檛 have to buy product. I didn鈥檛 have to worry about fulfillment. You鈥檙e doing that too, it didn鈥檛 have to ship, excuse me, didn鈥檛 have to print the product, you don鈥檛 have to do any of that, Printful is doing all of it.’ The worst case scenario you鈥檙e going to find yourself in is you might have to float some money, because there鈥檚 a day or two till your money goes into the account.

Wes: Right, exactly, yeah, that鈥檚 awesome.

Jesse: So, Wes, you probably see a lot of these different stores here and a lot of, I mea, do you have any good stories about other customers that have found some of these overnight successes or, you know, anything you can share?

Wes: Sure, sure. So, I can鈥檛 necessarily say that the great thing about Printful is we鈥檙e white label, so, your customer will never know you鈥檙e using Printful. So, we don鈥檛 put our branding on anything which is another perk that some of our competitors don鈥檛 do. So, your customer will only ever see your store name. So, because of that I can鈥檛 necessarily mention our customers, but there are some that have done interviews with us so you can check that out on our blog. We also have a customer section on our page, so you can check those out as well, but, yeah, there are really great success stories where people have done that where they found their niche market and that鈥檚 always where the big success comes in, is when they know who they鈥檙e selling to, they know what they鈥檙e interested in, especially with all the pop culture stuff that鈥檚 going around, if you have something that your audience is interested in, you can sell it to them and they will buy it, because you鈥檙e speaking directly to them with that product and them and all their friends, they鈥檙e all going to love it. And, so, that鈥檚 just the biggest success world that you can get into with everything.

Jesse: So I imagine people that already have, like, the 100,000 Instagram followers, right, if they have their meem or, they鈥檙e saying or something they could create a couple different products and they have this built-in people that are, you know, waiting for what they鈥檙e selling, right.

Wes: Absolutely, there鈥檚 one I can talk about, because they鈥檝e done a blog with us before, ‘We rate dogs’ on Twitter, where you can send in your photo of your pet and ask them to rate your dog and then they give you a rating. And that鈥檚 always like fun. And so their ratings are always kind of like jokes, right. So, it will be like 32 out of 10, and so one guy one day was, like: ‘Why are you rating all these dogs like this?’ And they just, their response became really popular among their whole fanbase, so they were getting lots of tweets and likes on that response that they gave him. They turned it into a product and that became one of their most popular product. So, if you do have that stuff, even if it鈥檚 like, let鈥檚 say, you鈥檙e an Instagram influencer and one of your posts, like, the most like post that you鈥檝e gotten, you can now take that photo and put it on whatever it can be a pillow, it can be you can, if it鈥檚 like a great abstract type thing you can turn it into leggings and sell that stuff to your fanbase, that they鈥檝e already told you: ‘Hey, I like this!’ And you can be, like: ‘Great, glad you liked it, here it is on the coffee mug.’

Jesse: Wow, that鈥檚 very cool, because if you have a big following, you already know what鈥檚 the most popular post, because it鈥檚 the one with all the likes and the retweets or whatever the latest viral signal.

Wes: Exactly, yeah, yeah. There鈥檚 lots of influencers, YouTubers that will use us for, if there鈥檚 a catchphrase that just kind of organically came up that they found out their audience likes or thinks is fun. Yes all that stuff is really great.

Richard: I mean, it definitely seems in the world of influencers. It truly is, back to that phrase earlier, it鈥檚 no brainer, because they could literally even do a poll in their social media, saying: ‘I鈥檓 going to do a shirt. What should we do a shirt on?’ And then people want to help support what they think they help create. So, while I built in audience, it鈥檚 like the ultimate easy beta test.

Wes: Yeah, for sure. And let鈥檚 talk about, like musicians for example, right, like people love finding their indie musician that no one else knows about, they want to support them. Well now that musician who is also independent and doesn鈥檛 have the funds necessarily for merch, now they can sell shirts and all this stuff. And we even do wall art, selling posters, so even independent film artists can have their movie poster up for supporters on Kickstarter or whatever they鈥檙e like trying to get backers for. So, those are all really great options to monetize what you have going on.

Jesse: I bet, you know, a lot of times for, like independent filmmakers and such. Everybody has the donate button, right. Nobody really wants to donate. So you can quote-unquote donate by buying a poster, you know, like: ‘Yeah, you鈥檙e like, I know this poster doesn鈥檛 cost you this much. So this is my way of donating, but now I鈥檓 going to wear the hat shirt poster, whatever.’

Wes: Exactly, yeah.

Richard: So, we understand now why Printful. It鈥檚 pretty obvious why Printful and 黑料门, it鈥檚 super easy. Got the idea. You鈥檙e going to do it. We have two, three minutes here. What would be an example there are two little limited on time there, that someone would do to market and to get this out there, more obviously if they have an Instagram account and a bunch of followers, that鈥檚 going to be pretty easy like we just alluded to, but what are some other creative ways that people use this for marketing, in your opinion?

Wes: Sure. Well, social media stuff is always king right now, I mean, that鈥檚 the been the case for years. So, if you don鈥檛 have, like, your business profile set up on fill in the blank social media site you should go ahead and do that, because that鈥檚 huge and you can do things, like, a giveaway, for example, is a very simple easy way to kind of get started, especially if you鈥檙e just trying to get likes and followers on Facebook or Instagram. Everyone always loves giveaways on those platforms. And so that鈥檚 just a really great way to get started and you can also use those sample products, that we talked about, to not only test out the product itself, your design, you can now do product photography and then you can use that same product to do a giveaway with, so you鈥檙e kind of getting a really good bang for your buck and now getting a base foundation of followers and stuff like that to kind of kickstart your marketing.

Richard: And hopefully you can get a viral loop, because now you have people that are wearing your shirts, that you can get to take selfies and different pictures and use that same hashtag that鈥檚 on your shirt potentially as the vitality loop.

Wes: Right, exactly. And best case scenario, right like, people didn鈥檛 get the giveaway, but they still love that product and now they just go buy it.

Jesse: Right. Yeah, they wanted that, they entered their name for this contest. They lost. Now, they鈥檙e like” “All right, I can buy the hat for 20 buck. OK. Sure I鈥檒l buy it.”.

Wes: Yeah exactly.

Jesse: I can see how you might be able to, like, have a big hit, maybe you buy a couple of these sample products and send them to celebrities too, and try to get them to tweet out, you know, like I don鈥檛 know if we get that, the celebrities probably get a lot of free stuff in the mail, so that wouldn鈥檛 work. But, yeah I like your idea of: “OK, you buy it, you get the sample, you wear whatever the merch is.” So, now that鈥檚 your instead of just a product shot, which is nice, now you have, you鈥檙e wearing it, it鈥檚 a lifestyle shot. You can now take it. You can boost your post and things like that and now, you know. All right you were the hat, once you can give it away. Nobody鈥檚 going to care that you were a one time. Wow. Ok. That鈥檚 great. So, Richard any last questions?

Richard: Wow. I mean, I literally could go another hour, like, but I really just want to tie it back to just my takeaways are: with Printful and 黑料门, you can just get back to the good old “What鈥檚 a good idea that I just want a test?” And, like that鈥檚 my big takeaway, like you can get back to doing what you do best and you don鈥檛 have to do it, and if they already have products you can sell those as well, it鈥檚 not an either or, you do both.

Jesse: Yeah, I think for people that are influencer, if you have a following that seems like a no brainer to add this, if you have a brand and you already are on e-commerce like adding merchant here to your store as well, seems like, kind of an obvious no-brainer so. So, I鈥檓 pumped, I鈥檓 ready to start building up my social profiles and, you know, think of my own products to start selling. So, that鈥檚 that鈥檚 awesome. So, Wes, where can people find out more about Printful, about you? Where can they go next?

Wes: Sure, just printful.com is a great place to start. We have our blog there and all the information. Check out our product that we have available and yeah it鈥檚 a great place to go.

Jesse: All right, perfect. Wes, thank you for being on the show. Richard, another great show. I think we, now we have work to do.

Richard: Yes, lot to do, let鈥檚 get on our profiles right now.

Jesse: All right guys, make it happen.