Print on demand is a business that you can do from home, without buying inventory. You can start it as self-employment, where you are doing the design work, and you can develop it into a business where you hire others to replace you either as contractors or employees.
What you will need:
- Marketplace with print-on-demand integration. Here are some that may work. There may be others.
- Etsy
- Temu
- RedBubble
- Teepublic
- Society6
- Cafepress
- Wix
- Amazon
- A market research tool to help you understand what people are looking for (or you can skip this step if you already know)
- Design software. Here are some that may work.
- Online with subscription: Kittl, Canva
- Free desktop software: GIMP
- Commercial desktop software: PhotoShop.
- Mobile apps: Snappa, Stencil, Pixlr
- One or more ways to reach people who may be interested in your designs (also called “an audience”), so you can promote them and not rely on search traffic
Then you create a listing in the marketplace and get it fulfilled by your print-on-demand partner.