There are many people looking to make money online, but there are so many money making scams out there. As a result, you may be skeptical of any popular “side hustle” ideas floating around the web. However, skepticism is not a bad thing, as it can save you from wasting time and money and protect you from a claim about what at first seems too good to be true, such as no upfront costs are required to start a business. Teespring, now Spring, is one of those companies that seems almost too good to be true.
Is Spring Legit?
The first question is whether Teespring is legit or not. The company has been around for over ten years and has even created several millionaires, according to Forbes, thehustle.co and mofluid.com. You need to ascertain how Spring makes money to determine if the company is legitimate.
How Spring works
Spring seems rather intelligent, making it a win-win situation for everyone. Instead of creating a design, paying a t-shirt company to complete the t-shirts, and hoping you can sell them all to make a profit, spring has you create a t-shirt and set a goal for how many t-shirts you want it to sell. The more you think you will sell, the more money you will earn if you reach the goal. If you don’t reach the stated goal, then Spring does not produce the t-shirts and no money changes hands.
Because of this business model, Spring avoids charging an upfront fee. They don’t have to produce the shirts if you don’t reach the stated sales goal. However, if you achieve the stated sales target, a profit is already foreseen for you and the company. So they produce the shirts and have a guaranteed profit.
Is spring safe?
There is little initial financial risk to using Spring, so the company is safe. Since you don’t have to pay upfront when you use Spring, you don’t risk losing your hard-earned cash. The real investment is your time. You don’t earn anything if you create campaigns that don’t reach their sales goals. That being said, there are some unique problems with Spring that you might consider “unsafe”.
Quality issues with the spring
Many content creators, businesses and freelancers rely on Spring to make shirts. While they only have 2.6 stars on Trustpilot, most of the negative reviews for Spring (Teespring) seem to relate to the quality of the site or have complaints about the time it takes to download stuff. While these issues may be problematic, they don’t exactly implicate Spring as a “fraud.” However, you may want to shop around and see if there are other companies that can meet your needs.
In addition to its average Trustpilot score, the Better Business Bureau does not currently recognize Spring. Unfortunately, the BBB reports findings similar to Trustpilot, as Spring receives a high volume of customer complaints. BB notes two main issues: Customers can’t talk to anyone for customer service, and customer service doesn’t respond to emails or chats.
Quality risks from using the spring
As mentioned above, there are some risks involved with using Spring. They don’t “cheat” it, but they are definitely noticeable. The most widely cited risk is deadlines. It seems pretty well covered that Spring struggles to get stuff out on time for a significant subset of its customers. So if you need your materials to arrive on time, you’ll want to explore other options.
Another risk cited by the BBB is the possibility that you may not be able to remove your art from the site. If you’re a design-based business, your intellectual property is invaluable. So you might have to think twice about using a company that might not deliver when you ask for it. As the BBB states, reviewing the terms of service before purchasing is critical to ensuring your IP is protected.
Monetary risks from the use of spring
Other notable risks are the costs you may incur when creating and trying to sell the t-shirts. If you pay someone to design a logo or other image (you don’t have to, you can do it yourself), you might lose that cost if you don’t end up selling the t-shirts you’ve set your sights on . The same can be true if you are spending money to promote the t-shirts. That money is gone and you get nothing for your ad investment if you don’t reach your t-shirt sales goal.
You also have a little risk with the number of t-shirts you think you can sell. The higher you set your goal, the more you will earn for each shirt sold. The problem is, if you don’t hit the goal, you get nothing. For example, if you set a target of 50 shirts and only sell 49, the shirts will never be produced and you will get nothing. However, if you set a goal of 10 t-shirts and sell 49, you will receive a commission on all sales since you reached the goal. However, this commission would be less than if you could say you could sell 40 t-shirts. Trying to accurately estimate how many t-shirts you can sell without overestimating is crucial.
Is Teespring (Spring) legit or a scam?
Spring is not a hoax. it is a legitimate business. Although, that doesn’t mean it’s the better business for you. There are some risks and it has a negative reputation with consumers, so it is essential to understand how the company operates so you know what you are getting into. But it is a legitimate opportunity to earn money without paying any upfront costs. If you’re creative enough to come up with some t-shirt designs that you could sell to others, you might want to look at Spring as a potential way to make some extra money in your spare time. Just make sure you explore all the available options before you pull the trigger.
For how to get sales with this business as well as other side businesses, check out these articles:
How to combine investing and small business ownership
Side jobs to grow your bank account
(Image courtesy of Spring).
Trey LaRocca is a freelance writer, financial salesperson and technician. When he’s not out or at work, he’s usually at home enjoying video games and a beer. This California kid, who currently resides in Newport Beach, can be found at the beach every weekend. Trey has many years of experience in day/swing trading, financial analysis and sales.
