Hello Readers,

As mentioned in the last post, the site is working, at least the most important part, getting product to the customer. The next issue is getting the word out. I’ve posted the site on my personal social medias, but I don’t have a huge amount of followers.

However, I wanted get advice from at least the viewpoint of someone I admire in the business as well as faith before moving ahead with other plans. I turned to ChatGPT with asking it to response in the spirit of how Stanley Tam would have responded, based on his books, interviews, and other materials. Stanley Tam (founder of U.S. Plastics) had such a unique, humble, and faith-driven perspective, always focusing on doing honest work, honoring God, keeping things simple, and building American business responsibly. That’s what I want to model this business after. If you’ve not read any of this books, I highly recommend them. For sale here new (many places for sale used): https://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=142730

Here’s the questions and responses. This is what I hope to stay on course with:

The 1st question was on the USA products. I started this LLC with the goal to sell only made in the USA products. I selected suppliers initially based on that, but learned their products were only mostly made in the USA or perhaps not even at all (some had a disclaimer if they run low on production, hey have overseas partners, blah, blah, blah). Huge barrier, because the name Patriot Prayer Tees was created with this idea of selling made in the USA products. The closest to this goal I could find is supporting farming in the USA by using a POD supplier that uses USA grown cotton. CustomCat’s has about six products that are 100% (unless you get a poly bend) USA grow cotton. However, the products are sewn in Honduras, Hatti, etc. Shipped to CustomCat in Michigan and printed there. The question to the ChatGPT acting from the shared knowledge of Stanley Tam, is what do I do? The long explanation of the products may sound confusing and even worst could sound like I’m trying to trick the customers. But, I still want to be true to the Patriot part of the business vision.

GPT”Stanley” said: You’re absolutely right to be uneasy. It’s better to lose a sale than to lose your integrity. If God blesses your business, it won’t be because you bent the truth. It’ll be because you honored Him in the small things, even when it cost you.

The 2nd question was on where to set the profit margins, when to commit to giving to charity, which is a goal. I entered a long question, outlining the costs so far, the fees various parts of the process cost, etc.

GPT said :

Stanley Tam once gave 100% of his company profits to God…but he did it after building a business that could survive.
First, he paid his expenses, paid his people fairly, and operated with excellence. Then he gave more and more as the business was strong enough to do it.

Here’s a practical, step-by-step way you might think about it:

1. First, survive.
   • Cover your costs: supplier fees, website fees, printing costs, transaction fees, etc.
   • Set your baseline prices to survive, sustain, and grow.
     (If you can’t stay open, you can’t help anybody.)
2. Second, build a small margin.
   • Maybe aim for 15% to 20% margin at first to cover your work and future needs.
   • This margin will feel tiny after everything else takes a bite — but it’s realistic and keeps you competitive.
3. Third, Only give from what you actually have.
   • After costs are covered, then set aside a % of profits — not gross sales — to give.
   • You might start very small: 2-5% of profits for veterans’ homes and 2-5% for church.
   • If profits are tiny at first, that’s OK — God honors the heart, not the dollar amount.
4. Fourth, be transparent but simple.
   • You could say something on your site like:
   “A portion of every sale supports veterans and faith-based missions.” (I’m not to this point yet, it’s still a vision, just FYI)
   • No need to promise exact percentages unless you want to.

If I could sum it up in a “Stanley Tam” style encouragement:

Build slowly, build honestly, and build to serve.
God doesn’t expect you to run before you can walk.
Stay honest. Price wisely. Share generously as you grow.
He’ll bless the work done with clean hands and a faithful heart.

Overall, those are the business future goals. There may be changes in who hosts the website, which payment processors are used, which additional partners are involved to help get the word out (referrals, etc.).

Thanks for reading – Patriot Prayer Tees

📜 Blog Disclaimer

Disclaimer: The information provided in this blog post is for general informational purposes only.

While we do our best to share helpful insights, this content should not be taken as legal advice, professional guidance, or a guarantee of compliance.

Copyright laws, trademark rules, and licensing agreements can vary depending on location, usage, and platform terms, and they may change over time.

Always do your own research and consult a qualified professional if you have specific questions about commercial use, copyright issues, or licensing rights.

By reading and using the information here, you agree that Patriot Prayer Tees (or the blog owner) is not responsible for any outcomes related to your use of the information.

Hello Readers!

No, I didn’t have a business plan when I started Patriot Prayer Tees LLC.

However, being well-seasoned (ok, a bit older!) and drawing from my experience selling on eBay when eBay was brand new (shocking, I know), I had a rough game plan — outlined below.
It wasn’t written down at the time, but here’s basically how it went:

1. Research (Just Enough)

I researched mainly using Grok and ChatGPT — but I verified things myself too — just enough to get started.
I’m an over-analyzer by nature. I tend to research endlessly, know a ton of “book knowledge,” but not put it into practice.

About six months before starting Patriot Prayer Tees, I shifted my mindset. I looked back at how much time I used to spend researching things like buying a car — months of evenings and weekends reading reviews and shopping — and asked, “Was it really worth all that time?”

Most of the time, the answer was no.

I realized it would’ve been smarter to simply buy the most popular car model at an average price (assuming no major issues) and move on to more important things.
So that’s my approach now: Do just enough research to avoid major pitfalls, then get moving.
The results might be average — but average is better than no results at all.
(Perfection is the enemy of progress — not sure who said it, but they were right!)

Side Note to Step 1:
This is a low-barrier-to-entry business because I use a POD (Print-on-Demand) company.
I didn’t need anything but my laptop or tablet to get started.
I took a slightly longer route than most, but that’s just my style.

Low barrier to entry comes with rewards and risks:

• Rewards: I’m in business fast, startup costs are low, and the whole world is my customer!
• Risks: Anyone else can start just as easily. Competition is fierce.

The hardest part will be building a name and getting my brand out there.

2. Form an LLC

(Not legal advice — see disclaimer below.)

I wanted an LLC to separate my personal identity from the business.
I operate it solo, but there are advantages over just selling under my own name.
From what I’ve seen, about 90% of POD sellers don’t bother forming an LLC — that’s just based on conversations with 8–10 other POD sellers.

Setting up the LLC took one evening: I found the process for my state, filled out the forms, and paid the fee.

3. Register to Collect Sales Tax

This step took forever because the state’s website kept crashing during an upgrade.
After many nights of trying, I finally got the application submitted.

4. Get an EIN Number from the IRS

This took less than 15 minutes.
The EIN lets me use the LLC’s identity instead of my personal Social Security number when doing business.

5. Research POD Companies

I repeated some research here — again using Grok and ChatGPT — and verified it myself.

I wanted to know:

• Who are the top POD companies?
• Do any offer shirts made in the USA?
• How is their quality and customer service?

After narrowing it down to 4 top choices, this research took about an hour.

6. Fail Fast, Fail Often

Seriously.

I registered with my top POD choice, used their integrated store option, created a product, and launched my first store in one evening after work.

But after digging deeper, I realized their shirts weren’t even USA cotton (despite their homepage implying it), and I didn’t like how the store looked — it felt outdated.

So I moved on.

7. Try Again with the 2nd Choice

Tried again.
Something in their setup process rubbed me the wrong way — I can’t even remember exactly what — maybe the USA materials again?
Either way, after a few more hours, I decided to move on.

8. Third Time’s the Charm: CustomCat

This time I partnered with CustomCat.

They offer three main integration options:

1. Shopify — might upgrade to this later as sales grow.
2. Etsy — tried this first.
3. WooCommerce — my backup option.

Etsy Setup:
Setting up on Etsy was fairly easy, but because I was an LLC (unlike most sellers), registration dragged out.
They kept asking for document after document for about a week — I’d respond after work, they’d reply the next morning, and so on.

Finally, everything was set up — my CustomCat products synced perfectly to Etsy — then my account got suspended.
No clear reason.
I appealed once but wasn’t reinstated.

Maybe I could have escalated it… but I decided to move on.

9. Building My Own Website (WooCommerce)

I set up my own WordPress site with WooCommerce.

This was my first WordPress site ever.
Even though I followed the documentation, CustomCat wasn’t connecting at first.
Luckily, CustomCat’s support team went above and beyond to help me figure out that some default WordPress settings needed to be changed.

It took about two weeks to fully set up.

10. Improve as I Go

The site works — ordering and catalog are live.
That’s the important part!

There are still things I want to improve:

• Shipping prices don’t always match actual shipping costs perfectly (sometimes slightly under, sometimes slightly over).
• Other small tweaks will come over time.

Final Thoughts:

If I had stayed stuck in my old mindset — researching forever — I’d still be researching and not selling shirts.

I had to fail at three different online store setups before finding one that worked and felt right.

Progress > Perfection.

Thanks for reading!

– Patriot Prayer Tees

📜 Blog Disclaimer

Disclaimer: The information provided in this blog post is for general informational purposes only.

While we do our best to share helpful insights, this content should not be taken as legal advice, professional guidance, or a guarantee of compliance.

Copyright laws, trademark rules, and licensing agreements can vary depending on location, usage, and platform terms, and they may change over time.

Always do your own research and consult a qualified professional if you have specific questions about commercial use, copyright issues, or licensing rights.

By reading and using the information here, you agree that Patriot Prayer Tees (or the blog owner) is not responsible for any outcomes related to your use of the information.

That’s the original.

Next it came time to made some graphics on my own. My two main research “employees” are Grok and ChatGPT. (I don’t have employees at this point.) As a fresh starting business, tools are very cost sensitive (ain’t got $719.88 a year, billed in one lump sum to use all Adobe cloud apps, sorry Adobe). Graphic tools reviewed are on the budget friendly side.

Here’s a summary based on what I asked the two bots. The main questions are 1) do I own what is created and 2) are these restrictions to use.

Using Microsoft (PointPoint, Visio, Publisher, etc) the research bots said:

If you create something in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Publisher, etc.:
✅ The work you personally create (like your own slogans, designs you draw with shapes, your own layout)
➡️ You own it. You can sell it.

BUT ⚠️ you have to be very careful about: Microsoft Clipart (even old stuff), Stock images bundled with Office, Icons and templates that came with Office, Fonts that are licensed for “personal use only”. Those elements are not automatically cleared for commercial use.

Next, I looked into Cavna, Kettl, multiple AI’s, and a few others, but things usually came back to if you use their templates, their clip art and you’re in a free or lower level member, then you can’t sell the images on your products without proper attribution or following some restrictions. If you made something from scratch, then it was usually yours. Along that path, the next designs were using a Pro membership on Kettl, being sure I have the rights to sell what’s created. Kettl Pro is $15 per month as of this post.

I may not continue with Kettl. I know $15/month doesn’t seem like much, but that’s $180 a year (might be a bit lower paying in lump sum). Still, this enterprise is starting out I don’t feel the need to generate a ton of shirt designs right now. I have six total and need to see how those sell, what are people looking for, etc.

I downloaded Inkscapce, but haven’t tried it yet. Bonus, it is free. Here’s the ChagGPT review:

That’s my graphic design journey so far. Thank you for reading! – Patriot Prayer Tees

📜 Blog Disclaimer

Disclaimer: The information provided in this blog post is for general informational purposes only.

While we do our best to share helpful insights, this content should not be taken as legal advice, professional guidance, or a guarantee of compliance.

Copyright laws, trademark rules, and licensing agreements can vary depending on location, usage, and platform terms, and they may change over time.

Always do your own research and consult a qualified professional if you have specific questions about commercial use, copyright issues, or licensing rights.

By reading and using the information here, you agree that Patriot Prayer Tees (or the blog owner) is not responsible for any outcomes related to your use of the information.

🏷️ How Can Something Say “Made in the USA” If It’s Not All Made Here?

🧵 At Patriot Prayer Tees…

At Patriot Prayer Tees, our goal is to be transparent and honest. For that reason, we clearly state where every part of our shirts comes from. We believe in supporting American farmers and bringing you quality you can feel. Each of our shirts is crafted using 100% cotton grown right here in the United States. While our shirts are assembled in facilities in Haiti, Honduras, or the Dominican Republic, the cotton itself is proudly U.S. sourced.

However, other sellers may claim their shirts are “Made in the USA,” and we may both be selling the base same shirt.

It might sound strange, but in the world of labels, the rules can be a little tricky. Here’s what happens sometimes:

Imagine you grow cotton in Vietnam, send it to China to be turned into a T-shirt, then ship it to the USA, where someone finishes the shirt by sewing the bottom edge (hemming it) or printing a design on it. In some cases, because the “last important step” was done in the USA, companies might label it as “Made in the USA.”

The U.S. government has rules for what counts as “Made in the USA,” but sometimes companies stretch it. Here’s what usually happens:

• If a product is truly made in the USA, it means all or almost all of it was made here—from the materials to the sewing and packaging.
• But if only the last step happens here, and it’s a “significant” step (like printing, assembling, or final touches), some companies might still try to say it’s made here—even if most of the work was done overseas.

⚖️ The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) watches for false claims, but not every product is checked right away.

🧵 Why Does This Matter?

Because people want to support American jobs, and when a label says “Made in the USA,” we expect that means the workers and materials are from here. But sometimes, it’s only partially true, which is why it’s important to ask questions—like you’re doing.

For more detailed information, you can refer to the FTC’s official guidance on this topic:

• Complying with the Made in USA Standard
• Enforcement Policy Statement on U.S. Origin Claims