Spinoff: I use to own a small storefront for 3 years, Ask me whatever:

[O.T.I.S.]

NONE. i was fresh out of college in my mid 20's man and dead broke - we got a business loan.



- it's easy to put logos on shirts, you just need the right type of transfer paper; i'd recommend doing that on silk screen though

- yes you can send the logo and they'll do it for you

- it was EASY AS fukk TO GET THAT LOAN. we didn't even have a business plan

- i can't say a small business is a bad investment seeing that I didn't invest anything in it but a bunch of time I can't get back.

So what happened to the loan?

And any places do you recommend for sending in your own logos?

 

[Booker T Garvey]

Dope

What went wrong?

- truthfully we put our store out in a shopping mall right as shopping malls were dying out.
the foot traffic after about a year was literally GONE.

when nikkas got killed though, we knew business was about to pick up.
I use to worry that shootings and fights would break out in our store but they never did.

When it came time to close down were you depressed or did you feel like a failure?

- hell no. I was tired of dealing w/it to be honest and glad it was over with...

 

[Responsible Allen Iverson]

when nikkas got killed though, we knew business was about to pick up.

 

[Klyk21]

@thatdude901 did you make any money overall? Or did everything go back to paying off the loan. How much was the loan?

 

[Kilgore Trout]

hope you pay the photographer who took those pics for his images

 

[calixprynce]

How much was the business loan? And where did y'all get it?

 

[Booker T Garvey]

Where did you get the loan?

- i can't remember the name (it was 10 years ago) but it was a loan for minorities and women specifically
at the church where they were giving it out, I was in there w/dudes getting loans for restaurants, auto body shops, all of that
she asked everybody "if you have felons you can't get the loan", about 10 dudes walked out

@thatdude901
how much was it to rent the space in the mall

- it was about 5k a month, but since the mall was dying they cut us a huge deal. we weren't making no damn 5K a month

So what happened to the loan?

And any places do you recommend for sending in your own logos?

- we used the loan to start the business, buy equipment and supplies
- nah I'm out of the loop man

 

[Responsible Allen Iverson]

A church giving out business loans?

Did you have to pay it back?

 

[Booker T Garvey]

that's one of the reasons I wanted to shut it down man, it got like that.
then I put a few of my little league teammates on T-shirts man
and then dudes that would come in and do repeat business w/us we'd end up putting THEM on shirts too!!
shyt got deep man

hope you pay the photographer who took those pics for his images

- nah. one of the things i regret is being too cautious with copywrites and shyt...
people would want us to put disney characters and nike on shyt.
looking back I should have done it, fukk it.

 

[Tenchi Ryu]

I'd do this with dope ass comic covers and shyt like that, but I'd be afraid the demand just wouldn't be there to keep a thriving business.

 

[bnew]

What kind of explicit requests would you get? what did you consider a big order? Were repeat customers your biggest clientele or one-offs? How much capitol did you need to start your business? how much experience did you have prior to starting your business? Any entertaining fukkery go down behind the scenes? What were your business hours? How did you advertise? How did you handle payments and what did you do about delinquent clients?

 

[Booker T Garvey]

A church giving out business loans?

Did you have to pay it back?

nah. the bank lender or whoever this "group" was that was giving out these loans just used the church as a place to do it instead of an office building
I have no idea why that was b/c it was a white woman and this was a very black church
my bad for not being clear on that.

 

[Booker T Garvey]

What kind of explicit requests would you get? what did you consider a big order? Were repeat customers your biggest clientele or one-offs? How much capitol did you need to start your business? how much experience did you have prior to starting your business? Any entertaining fukkery go down behind the scenes? What were your business hours? How did you advertise? How did you handle payments and what did you do about delinquent clients?

- Put some titties on a dudes license plate once - it was cool we just got em of the internet and printed the shyt out

- Family reunions or church groups (CHURCH GROUPS ARE THE fukkING WORST) would put in orders for like 20+ shirts but those were the worst because there was ALWAYS drama w/big ass orders.

- no experience at all.

- My employee (family) was always on some bullshyt, he'd not do orders or sit online and talk to women all day on myspace; and like i said in the other thread - he'd shut the store down in the middle of the day to smash chicks IN THE BACK ROOM or just leave and go do something...i'd get texts like "why yall closed!?" all the time if i wasn't there.

- We didn't have delinquent clients because we got paid all up front before you got anything.

 

[Booker T Garvey]

I'd do this with dope ass comic covers and shyt like that, but I'd be afraid the demand just wouldn't be there to keep a thriving business.

- bad idea for a store front. that was one of the problems we ran into in the store; always give the people what they want, if they want blunts and profanity on t-shirts then get that for them.

the same designs that you see on t-shirts at SPENCERS, that X-rated shyt; you can order from catalogues, but you have to want to stock your store with them.

when we did, they sold, but certain investors and overseers of my store didn't want that content in there. and we suffered.

 

[SemiEnlightenedBum]

anyone tag on you shyt afore..?