Update on our online t-shirt fundraiser stores
Online stores were one of the major success stories for our business and our local community last year.
When faced with the pandemic, like other Chicago businesses, it wasn’t easy for us to figure out what we could do to help ourselves and what the future held. To be honest, it’s difficult to entirely remember the day-to-day of what we went through.
But one thing is for certain: the online shirt fundraisers that we hosted for local Chicago businesses were a huge success. The city of Chicago came out in a big way to support their local businesses and we raised $71,000 for the organizations that participated.
Here is a video with an explanation of our stores and interviews with small businesses that were part of the program.
Online t-shirt stores have been one of our core services for years. Our customers love it because there is no risk for them or upfront costs. We host the store, print the shirts, and fulfill all of the orders. What’s not to love about that?
COVID 19: Hurting us, our customers and our communities. As small businesses we need to stand together!
TL;DR – We will set you up with a fundraising store online, selling shirts and other swag. You give the profit to your employees to help cover them during these times. We can offer gift certificates and you can include a gift too!
Contact us today to get an online t-shirt fundraising store started.
By the time that we publish this the entire vibe of our communities may shift radically as they have for the past few days. Two weeks ago I brought up the possible slow down from the Coronas Virus in a management meeting, and it was an afterthought to me and the rest of the team. No one is glossing over the effects and hardships this is causing now.
We are all asking…
How can we help?
How can we save ourselves?
How can we build community with the people who have contributed and nourished us throughout the years?
Let us build a store for you and try to raise some funds for your employees! Send us a design or let us design something for you. No cost, no setup, no management. We’ll even put the money straight into their GoFundMe accounts or write a check.
This will save us, and hopefully help your team pay rent!
How is Barrel Maker affected?
Our business makes custom apparel for other small and large companies. We also do live printing at events. Due to cancelled events and business closings, orders from 95% of our customers have ceased. Our cash flow has almost immediately stopped and it will likely be months before it picks up again. On top of that with schools and businesses closing we don’t know how many months it will take to recover.
We are a manufacturing company that works extremely hard to pay good wages, offer benefits, and a work environment that is enjoyable while being able to support our team and their families. Though the screen printing industry isn’t directly being shut down, we are unable to work while our customer base is closing.
For the sake of our health and the health of our loved ones we need to all be at home so this virus can slow down. We will be running a skeleton crew with a high standard of cleanliness and distance during this time. But we need orders to sustain.
Please let us help you raise money and keep us going during this hard time for everyone. If you can tag 5 businesses you think would benefit from our printing or fundraising stores that would be greatly appreciated.
