Silkscreen equipment

Part of being an entrepreneur and an artist is keeping yourself financially stable and from time to time, I give you guys tips on different things that you can do to help you do that. I grew up in a household where both my mom and my dad were entrepreneurs. My dad in particular has built a couple of businesses over the years, but the one that he has spent almost 30 years working at now is one that he’s particularly passionate about. He’s been manufacturing and selling silk screening equipment. These are the tools you need to start your own business printing designs on T-shirts, scarves, stickers, signs and more. He not only sells the equipment, he also teaches people how to run their own business.

He not only gets them started in the business, but over the years since he started he’s used his skills as an inventor and designer to make the system more affordable. When he first started, the costs were incredibly high, but these days it’s a really viable business option financially. He has great entry-level models to help you get started and he has created free videos online, which I’m going to link to, that teach you how to actually use the equipment.

The reason this is kind of neat if you are an artist already, is that you will be able to create your own merchandise to sell and even find clients to create for as a great side business, like dog walking or something like that. My dad used to say that you could just go through the phone book and cold call and you might call 100 numbers and get 99 no’s, but you would invariably get a yes too. The truth is that there are many small businesses, charities and other groups that would be looking for someone to produce small orders of T-shirts for them. It might be a local Scout group or your mechanic, even a local school. You just have to think creatively and you really can make money doing it.

You probably don’t know this, but I actually wrote a book on silk screening. My dad’s videos are faster and easier to get a hold of and if I’m honest, the book doesn’t have the best ratings on it, but nevertheless I’ll include a link to that. So silk screening is a great, great, great way of making some money, but the main reason I bring it up is so I can share the lesson I learned from growing up around my dad’s entrepreneurial spirit. The biggest lesson is that he does what he loves. He not only loves running his own business, he also truly loves helping other entrepreneurs be successful and it’s really kind of neat to have that role model growing up. Granted, he does have his own opinions on life and how I should do things, but growing up with his example has instilled that same passion for following my heart in me. I’m a lot like my dad in that I do what I love because I love it and I’m not really after the money.

I’m not saying it’s wrong to be after money, not at all, but I’m in it first and foremost because I love it. And you can make money, if we’re honest you can make money doing anything, honestly. You just have to figure out a way to do that. So it’s important to understand money and to know how to make money, but it’s also very important to do what you love. Very, very important because as people say all the time, life is too short to do something that you don’t care about. I remember reading this one book called All the Happiness in the World, a short book written by Ruth Mitchel. It’s out of print now, but basically she talked about how people felt when they quit doing the things that they loved and what happened in their life.

She found that it’s very important to keep doing what you love, even if it’s only your side thing. For example, this one guy in the book loved to climb mountains, but he worked during the day and everything he did was to pay for and enable him to go on his mountain climbing trips, and that’s what kept him happy and successful. So I’m not saying that you should only do what you love, but if you don’t also do what you love, it can really take its toll on you.

So while you work on following your passion, if you’re looking for a way to make ends meet, silk screening is a cool business that you can make some extra money doing and have a lot of fun with, especially if you are an artist or you know other artists that can draw and help create different designs. If you’re an actor, artist or you’re in a band for example, you can have T-shirts for your business to wear to promote yourself or to sell to raise funds. A great way to help promote your product. So not only was it really neat to grow up with a dad that inspires you by doing what he loves, but since artists are also entrepreneurs, I love being able to share tips to help others make an income so they can pursue their passions.