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

[godkiller]

- I had a storefront about a decade ago where we customized and made t-shirts primarily, but we also made license plates, mugs, dog tags, but we never really made any of that shyt, it was primarily t-shirts.

- I'm African American, a bulk of my clientele was also African American; my small staff was African American as well

- I FAILED. i'm not about to sit up here and act like I ran an empire and we made tons of $$$ and bought cars and shyt, we FAILED and ran a FAILED business for 3 whole years. the last year was a complete nightmare

-i've always wanted to talk about my experience running this business but I never really know where to start, so I'm doing a little AMA

IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS ON HOW TO START A BUSINESS, GET A LOAN, WHAT TO DO, WHAT NOT TO DO - ASK AWAY:

(proof i ain't lying, I got into an argument w/a cat on BGOL years ago about being a small business owner and made this t-shirt for proof that I knew wtf i was talking about)
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I respect that you hustled and learned. Why didn't you just open a convenience store though? Everybody needs snacks, candy, drinks, small time grocery, etc.

 

[Vinny Lupton]

bingo. you've got the right idea IMO

when i had my store i'd be terrified to do something like this...but look at this shyt here, who's coming to "SUE" these people? i bet in his city he's making a killing off of these

on the flipside: i get on facebook and see these bootleg pages selling movie franchise merchandise, they'll have 100k likes!!...some page was selling 5 heartbeats t-shirts and going viral

robert townsend got on Twitter and said he was not affiliated nor had he signed off on that page - pretty sure he contacted his lawyers over that shyt.

it's a risk, but isn't that what being in business is all about?

I know WWE used to patrol ebay for bootleg shyt but now they don't even care. Maybe there's just too much out there to complain any more

 

[Booker T Garvey]

I respect that you hustled and learned. Why didn't you just open a convenience store though? Everybody needs snacks, candy, drinks, small time grocery, etc.

Nah man too similar to what I was doing before, plus there was a cat that had a YouTube channel doing that and he complained about the same ghetto ignorant nonsense I was going through with customers

 

[Alvin]

Some quick stories that come to mind about dealing with customers:

1) One time a dude came in and threw about 3,000 dollars in cash on my counter, and said "DAMN YALL RUNNIN' ANY DIIIILLS!?"
I was so tired of **US** coming in and asking for deals and hook ups, I just said: "you just threw more money on this counter than I have in my register!! I've gotta pay overhead, bills, keep these lights on..cmon man!! - he laughed and said "i fee you!" and just paid for the shyt...but still, DAMN!!

2) I NEVER HAD PROBLEMS WITH WHITE CUSTOMERS. EVER. NEVER. NOT ONCE. <<< i hate to even TYPE this. but it's the truth. One time a white dude with a rebel flag hat on and a cut off t-shirt that sounded exactly like jeff foxxworthy came in to get a Michael Jackson shirt made for his son...crazy.

3) Mexican/Hispanic customers ALWAYS wanted names or numbers put on soccer uniforms, nothing else. everything to do w/Soccer.

4) Middle Easterners never came in. they didn't even LOOK in our shyt.

5) Soulja Boy and Arab came in my store once to look around but this was back when he was just huge on myspace and hadn't blown up yet - he caused a slight ruckus but nothing major.

my nikka S beezy before he became a c00n
you chop it up with him? was he wearing his chain made out of rubber bands
you think the arabs were racist?

 

[Booker T Garvey]

my nikka S beezy before he became a c00n
you chop it up with him? was he wearing his chain made out of rubber bands
you think the arabs were racist?

nah man he just came in looked around and i was like "sup man" he said "whassup" and that was it

i think Charlie Jabely was with him holding the camera...it was a fat white dude and to this day i think it was charlie

 

[Princess Coco]

What did you do after your business failed? Did you always have a backup plan in case things didnt workout?

 

[Booker T Garvey]

What did you do after your business failed? Did you always have a backup plan in case things didnt workout?

- yes my degree and I put it to work (my current career)

on the side though, i went into digital and viral marketing for some local rappers and it grew from there to freelancing w/established Atlanta artists and marketing companies, funny thing is that i wasn't even trying and it took off - fun times, but those days are over.

i'm in the process now of trying to organize that into an actual company and not so much freelancing.

 

[DallasTxRep]

@thatdude901 what silk screen machine did you use and which printer did you use for the transfer paper?

 

[Booker T Garvey]

@thatdude901 what silk screen machine did you use and which printer did you use for the transfer paper?

I never used a silk screen machine; i've seen it used before and it's too much work IMO

I used a big ass EPSON printer, we had two of them...you can get those off ebay and amazon pretty easy now

 

[DallasTxRep]

I never used a silk screen machine; i've seen it used before and it's too much work IMO

I used a big ass EPSON printer, we had two of them...you can get those off ebay and amazon pretty easy now

and what did you use to transfer the printed image to the fabric.....excuse my ignorance lol

 

[Booker T Garvey]

and what did you use to transfer the printed image to the fabric.....excuse my ignorance lol

heat press machine

 

[Zombi_Jeezus]

- 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.




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

Man I can relate on those r.i.p. shirts. the worst were when it was a little kid or baby one time I made some for a 16 year kid that got killed by a drunk driver who also died and both families were in my shop at the same time. you could cut the tension with a knife.

 

[EducatedBrothaFromTheBank]

I feel like this business would be more successful these days with shyt like dad hats with random shyt on it and t shirts with random vintage movie posters/album covers on them

You'd prolly make a killing selling it online and not have to worry about a storefront

shyt like this

Lawsuits breh

 

[Self_Born7]

at least you tried bruh... props..
I know some cats still asking moms and their girl for loot.

 

[Self_Born7]

A church giving out business loans?

Did you have to pay it back?

word? i thought rev kept all that shyt, and laced him and his wifey with his and her benz, 5br houses in the burbs, an private jets