Today on Trend Following Radio Michael interviews Dave Huss. Dave discusses his transition from marketing consultant to entrepreneur. Formerly Dave did consulting work for paid advertising and now has transitioned into t-shirt design and sales (Michael notes that famed trader Salem Abraham had considered the t-shirt business before trading). He has been able to grow his business quickly due to a website called www.teespring.com. This website allows him to order shirts on-demand without any out of pocket expenses.Dave comes at t-shirt sales in a trend following manor. One out of every ten shirts that he puts out will be a big winner. He makes it clear that it is very important he has a system. He limits his cost to $20 per shirt for advertising. If he doesn’t get a positive response from his $20 advertising push then he stops. He lets the market decide which t-shirt designs are worth pursuing. He has put out 500+ designs just this year. Six out of ten times he sells zero shirts. Three out of ten of those shirts sell 20 or 30 units and he breaks even, but one out of ten shirts will sell over 1,000 units. He never knows which will be the home run and which designs are going to be the duds.Dave stresses how online marketing has become more and more a part of our lives. You have to participate in online marketing if you are going to have any kind of business these days. You find your most passionate fans in your business and hit them at the right time. You can’t put your head in the sand and think your business is going to make it.
In this episode of Trend Following Radio:

Contract work vs. Entrepreneur
Niche markets
Online marketing
Importance of a system
Survivorship bias