Where’s My TeeShirt?

I’m seeing a lot friends on Facebook selling different stuff - makeups, perfumes, bags, shoes, cellphone load, gadgets, accessories, etc. and I was like “I can do it as well!”. I need to take advantage of my unlimited data plan and the available social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and many more which have now become part of our daily routine.

It was last November 2016 when I started researching about starting an online business. And here are the things that consumed my nights resulting to lack of sleep, so much headaches and a lot of stress (whew!):

1. What product should I sell online?
2. What’s going to be my business name?
3. A unique Facebook page name and username?
4. Who’s my target market?
5. How much capital should I invest?
6. Should I go solo or find a business partner?
7. Do I need to have my own website unique to my online business?
8. What if I fail?

When Miss Universe event was confirmed to be held in my beloved country, the Philippines, I thought a Miss Universe shirt is a good memorabilia. Since I love wearing custom-made shirts, i did not have a hard time agreeing to my own idea. 

Quoted Shirt was my first business name. I chose this name to align it with my other Facebook page “Quotes4Life”. I thought it was cool name because I initially planned to sell shirts with beautiful quotes printed on them. 

Prior to launching my first design, I boosted my Facebook page’s Likes by availing Facebook’s marketing offering which charged my visa card whenever someone likes my Facebook page. I said to myself, it’s okay to lose a few bucks to increase my Facebook page audience as I always believe and hope these audiences will potentially become my customers.

Research…research…and a lot of researching filled up almost all my November nights. I was looking for a way to start my online custom-shirt business without spending too much as I only have a limited budget. Boom! I found an online shirt funder company (their company name starts with “S” and ends with “Y”) that promised me to start my own online store without any capital. Yes you heard it right - no capital is required. All I have to do is submit my own designs, have them approved and market them to my chosen audience. 

At first, I was feeling so lucky that I have found this company which is kind of promising. I had a few email exchange with two of their front liners. They were polite and fast at first but eventually they were like ignoring my inquiries. After few follow-ups and waiting in vain for almost 2 weeks, I got a message saying they were too busy that’s why they were not able to attend to my inquires. I was like, “Seriously?!”. I have a deadline to meet and a target date that I chose to launch my online store. 

To cut the story short, I decided to do it on my own; I took a risk. So, the first thing that came up on my mind that day was to have my own website where I can display my designs and process orders. To maintain my not-so-established Facebook page identity, I decided to get Quoted Shirt a domain. Hence why my first business website was “quotedshirt.com”. 

I spent another sleepless nights designing and improving the face of my own website. Few days before my 31st birthday (Dec. 9), I finally open my website to public and showcased my Miss Universe shirt designs. I had gathered more audiences when I boosted my page likes and my first few products. 

One night, I suddenly realized that my business name isn’t very unique. I search my business name on Google and the search result was overwhelming. I found a lot of businesses with names similar to Quoted Shirt. Since I wanted to have a business name unique to my own business, I decided to change my business name from Quoted Shirt to TeeShirt. Sounds cool, isn’t it? I chose “Where’s My TeeShirt?” as my tagline thinking it could make good and long-lasting impressions.

After few days, I changed my mind and decided to name my business “Where’s My Teeshirt?” (website: wheresmyteeshirt.com) because just like Quoted Shirt, Google result had shown numerous results of businesses with names similar to TeeShirt search term.

Wooh! change is indeed the only thing constant in this planet. Luckily, Where’s My Teeshirt? received positive feedback and I’m loving it. What about you? Did you have the same experience when starting your own business?