My First Blog Post! 10/6/23
My name is Brittany, owner of Britts Fits!
I started out my business during the pandemic, just as a little hobby to keep myself occupied. Thanks to the power of social media, I was able to grow my business into something amazing. In 2022, my business started finally getting bigger thanks to going on TikTok Live and I got to quit my bartending job that I was doing on the side, so I could focus fully on my business.
I started out my business with using vinyl, because that seemed to be the most trending thing at the time. I went to my local Hobby Lobby and loaded up my cart. After a few months of trial and error, I realized that vinyl didn't stay on the shirt all that well. Then, I switched to sublimation. For those of you who don't know, that's when the ink is infused within the shirt, so you don't feel it. Sublimation is great, but can only be used on lighter color shirts, and it's a whole extra process within itself as to what type of printer and ink you need to purchase.
Finally, in the beginning of 2020, I bought my dream printer... or so I thought. This was called a White Toner Printer, and could print any color on any material. I thought this would be the best thing for my business. Turns out, it was the most expensive. It was such a learning curve to use it, and it ended up cracking pretty bad on the shirts after washing it enough times. If you're an OG from the vinyl, bleach, sublimation, or white toner shirts, and you're still here with me today, I freakin love you and thanks for not breaking up with me quite yet.
At the end of 2022, I took a huge shift in my business and started only making items that I designed. That was the toughest decision I've ever had to make. Customers like what is trending, but between copyright and trademark items flooding into small businesses with lawsuits, I realized that I couldn't take that risk anymore. I was only selling items like "Hocus Pocus" but I really couldn't risk losing my entire business and all of the money that I had put into it.
It's hard turning down requests to do things like sports teams during football season, and the Grinch during Christmas time, but I knew it had to be done to keep my business going. I do take pride in all of my designs and ideas that I have put into my business, which I think it truly helps me stand out from others.
By the beginning of this year, I started learning more about what Direct to Film and Screen Prints were. I got some samples and started testing them out on shirts. These transfers were still newer to the industry, so I was skeptical on how well they would actually stay on the shirt. Well, if you have any of my apparel items from any of these newer prints, you know they stay on superrrrr well without any cracking or color fading. Switching to these prints, although I have to order them and can't make them in house, has been such a huge upgrade for my business. I now do not have that stress of the potential of the shirts being ruined after a few washes, and losing valuable customers over it.
If you don't watch my TikTok Lives or already know this, I do have an office space that I get to let my creativity flow in, which I am so thankful for. My future plans are to stay in an office space or smaller warehouse and keep growing my business by adding other items outside of apparel. Eventually, I want to be a "ready-to-ship" shop only, so that way I can get items out within 1 or 2 business days. I am the type of person that as soon as I order something, I hope it can be on my doorstep 5 minutes later. Speaking of ordering something, use code BLOG for $10 off of your order of $30 or more :) anyway... Being in a 2-10 business day turnaround time helps me so I can make each order as it comes in, so I don't have the chance of wasting inventory. For now, it is harder to keep all of that extra inventory in stock until I grow a bit bigger.
This summer, I started going to markets. I wouldn't recommend to do so in this Florida heat, but they were definitely a great start to get my foot in the door. I got to experience the different side of the small business world, and I'm slowly learning to love it! Each market, I try something new with my layout. What has been crazy to learn, is that markets and online shopping can be completely different with what sells. Online, I sold my 40oz Tumblers out within 3 hours. I took my next round of tumblers to my market, and I didn't sell any! It's still a learning process for me to figure out what is best, especially with the layout to learn what is eye catching from walking by. I have 2 more markets (so far) planned for this fall/winter and I am more excited about these ones because I know the weather will be nicer, so more people will attend.
This winter, I have some new exciting things coming and I cannot wait to share them with all of you! If you've made it this far, thank you for being here, and thank you for helping me grow Britts Fits! Ily guys xoxo