Welcome to the official OrderMerch blog! In the future, you can expect to find guides on starting a business, marketing, product development, engineering, and much more!

Welcome to the start of OrderMerch. Today we're talking about the current status, what we would like to see happen, and more.

Welcome to OrderMerch

Entrepreneurs who run their own ventures, due to their strong drive for success, almost always prioritize hard work over their own well-being. However, you can find a middle ground where you can manage and grow your business and also focus on your health & wellness. Are you looking for tips on how to care for yourself despite your busy schedule?

You can take control back of your life even if you have a busy schedule and all you have to do is to implement effective time management. From simply sleeping more to managing your social interactions that sometimes take up too much of your precious time. All it takes is a little discipline and you will get the best life-work balance you never knew was possible.

Self-care is a traditional term commonly used in health care which means actions a person can take to maintain good overall health, disease prevention, and manage long-term illnesses. It addresses both your physical needs (i.e. sleep, food, and water) as well as your emotional needs like interacting with other people to create a balanced social life.

When psychiatrists collectively discovered a pattern among ordinary employees, office executives, CEOs, and entrepreneurs that their health problems are directly connected to their work-related stress, self-care was coined. Corporate folks were advised to care more for themselves than just focus all their energy on work and making money.

Pampering one’s self by giving yourself more “me time,” traveling to freshen up your mind and meditation were highly recommended activities, while not neglecting your emotional needs and relationships is also another crucial aspect of self-care.

Below are 20 self-care tips for entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurs are known to be notorious for putting all their efforts towards achieving their goals, having said that, they work so hard to the point where they neglect having a healthy diet, or worse – eat less than what is needed for the human body’s daily nutrient intake.

, as it’s affordable, the ingredients are widely available and the meals are easy to prepare. You don’t have to prepare the food yourself in case you’re too busy, you can go to any restaurant that serves Mediterranean food and get your healthy diet from them!

Drink 8 glasses of water every day (you can drink more if you want). Spread them throughout the 24-hour period and drink Gatorade or eat fruits high in electrolytes as well, to stay hydrated all day, especially if there’s a heat wave going on.

Getting enough sunlight in the morning between 6 am – 10 am will cause your skin to create vitamin D, which help the body absorb and retain calcium and phosphorus; both are critical for building bone. Another benefit is that exercise triggers your body to release endorphins – a naturally occurring hormone that makes you feel happy.

It has been known that mindfulness meditation helps remove stress and anxiety from your mind, so learn all about it and start making it a part of your busy daily routine.

Bottling up your feelings can only have a negative impact on your mental health, psychiatrists say that it is good to release those feelings and be assertive every once in a while. You may think this is one of those odd self-care tips for entrepreneurs, but you will thank me later.

There have been reported cases where people suffering from stress developed pneumonia and had a mental breakdown, so based on this it’s not really healthy to keep stressing yourself over work, even if it helps boost your business profits. There are dozens of ways to cope with stress and a lot of them are surprisingly easy to do, plus they don’t take up too much time or effort to do. You can still have enough time to work on your business and keep those profits coming.

I may not be a psychiatrist but I think stress comes from overthinking and anxiety and it’s only natural for entrepreneurs to think about their businesses endlessly. So what you must do as an entrepreneur is to find time for yourself to relax, watch a movie, read a book, go camping or pick up a hobby. These things are known as good stress relievers.

You only have 24 hours per day just like all of us do and you can only divide that time among things you prioritize in your life. Being the person who leads and manages your business essentially makes you a busy person, but if you don’t learn how to say “No,” you risk losing time for important matters and time for yourself. Say no to invitations that you think will not benefit you.

People who are in leadership roles always have full responsibility not only for themselves but for their subordinates as well. If you blame others (I’m not saying that your subordinates did not contribute to your failure as a team), then you’re showing a sign of weakness as a leader.

Keep in mind that your team depends on your leadership, so if anything, their mistakes came from your plans and strategies which clearly did not work out like they were supposed to. So accept responsibility for your mistakes, move on, and improve yourself.

Let’s say that your team only has 10 people plus you the CEO. You know that there’s only so much your team can do, so if you’ve bitten more than what you can chew - delegate other projects and outsource them.

Attempting to do all the projects or contracts you’ve been awarded will only result in delays, poor quality of products or services, and ultimately your failure as a company. Just make sure that you get 60% of the income and 100% of the quality of service that the company you outsourced your clients to and you’ll see that you still win in the end. Wondering just how beneficial it is? 

There are many self-care tips for entrepreneurs on this list, but this is definitely my personal favorite! That’s because I do it myself and I have personally witnessed its effectiveness in accomplishing goals. So wake up early, have a morning routine, and plan a strategy for the day before you engage in your work.

If you’ve ever heard the phrase “walk it off,” then even if you’re not a health expert, you know, that this means to clear your head of “stuff.” This is because thinking too much can lead to stress and if you take a couple of brisk 15-minute walks throughout the course of your workday, you will create a better state of mind and have great mental health overall.

Include family and friends in this support network to help guide you in making decisions in life, especially when it comes to work-life balance. Adding your most trusted colleagues will help too but just make sure that they will support you on a personal level, your marriage (if you’re married), your wife and kids (if you already have a family), and other important details of your life. Your support network is a group of people with who you are comfortable talking about your daily life struggles, so you won’t feel alone in the world.

Who doesn’t, right? I tell you, if I had a job that lets me go on vacation 24/7, I wouldn’t hesitate for 1 second to sign up for it! Going on vacations will help put your mind at ease, so schedule at least one trip somewhere that you think you will enjoy like Thailand or the Philippines.

Plan your day out in advance. Schedule time for work and time for your personal life including family and friends. Ninety percent of entrepreneurs said that the reason for their messed up lifestyle is not managing their daily schedule.

 is already a great business tool that saves you a lot of time when doing business making everything streamlined and efficient. But there are also tools that help you manage your team, finances, tasks assignment, milestones, and other things that are crucial in running a business. The better the tools you use, the more time you save and the less stressful your life will become.

17. Take Business Calls During Work Hours Only

The reason why it’s called work-life balance is that you don’t overlap the two. Accepting business calls while you’re supposed to spend time with your family will create tension and resentment, and you don’t want that. Trust me when I tell you, it’s not worth all the money in the world. Set aside time for work and set aside time for your personal life as it should be.

Lack of sleep has a lot of negative impacts on a person’s health according to recent studies. Among them include the shrinking of brain size, which may not only cause you to reduce your intelligence (very important when running a business) but may also lead to dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. Another health risk it causes is erectile dysfunction and I think I don’t need to elaborate on this. Get at least 6 hours of sleep per night, although 8 hours is much better.

We, humans, are created to have social interactions. In fact, NASA once conducted an experiment where the volunteers were subjected to solitary living inside a capsule for at least 30 days and the results were not very nice. The experiment was conducted with the aim of finding out how people will survive mostly alone in space for an extended period of time. The data showed that the test subjects developed stress, anxiety, depression and even bordering psychotic disorder. Do not alienate yourself for money. It just isn’t going to help.

There’s a saying that goes, “Choose the job you love and you never have to work a day in your life.” Of course, the kind of business you decided to run is exactly the job that you love, so unless what you’re doing is not making you happy, then you need to change what you’re doing. Loving what you do aligns all your goals with the success of your business, so extend that enthusiasm to your team, in order for them to see the value of their contribution to building your business.

20 Self Care Tips For Entrepreneurs

If you're an aspiring photographer, then you must already be familiar with the challenging and complex process of selling your work; however, the playing field has dramatically changed with print on demand services. The amazing thing about these services is that it allows photographers to have a simple and convenient way to sell their work and reach a global audience. Photographers who are looking to monetize their work are now choosing to use print on demand because it gives them the ability to customize products, 

Today we will talk about print on demand photography and how photographers can benefit from it.

The entire transaction of print on demand services is fairly simple and that’s the reason why both photographers and customers love to use it. Print on demand is a type of dropshipping business that has grown into a 4.91 billion dollar market and is expected to grow even bigger by 2030 at an estimated 39.87 billion! Therefore, photographers who sign up with print on demand websites now will have a key advantage once the market grows.

Photographer sign up for a print on demand website.

Photographer showcase their work on their website, which will also appear on the print on demand service provider’s site due to the connected service features.

Customers make an order on 1 or more photos/images available for sale.

The service provider prints and ships the order(s) to the customer.

The service provider gets a certain percentage for each product sold as agreed upon with the photographers. Or the provide sells it for a flat fee and makes a profit from the product margin.

The photographers get paid automatically via their money transfer apps or bank accounts. Or if they're running their own site they get paid by the e-commerce platform.

However, photographers can sell their own prints on their own website without signing up with print on demand sites, in case they don’t want to give away a certain percentage of the profits they’ll make on each sale to the service provider. For example, if the photographer has a local studio and most of his or her customers are from within the area he operates his photography business, then all he has to do is host a website with prints and then fulfill them directly as required. He can do this by hand with a printer or use a service such as OrderMerch to provide 

This way photographers will get 100% of the profits they’ll make from selling their work. Using print on demand services is great for all artists as it is more cost-efficient to use such services than to fulfill orders on their own.

I’ve listed some very noteworthy reasons why photographers may benefit from using print on demand services for selling art.

Print on demand services allows photographers to reach a wider audience easily because they sell their art on the web, and they can also diversify their sales channels through it. There’s no need for a “middle man” because they can sell their photos from their own site, or on marketplaces (e.g. Society6, Redbubble, 

, and many more) and they get a share between 15% - 20% fees from sales, which is not bad.

Having an inventory and shipping products to customers is also a thing of the past now with print on demand services. It’s either the courier you hired or the service provider from the marketplace that will handle all shipping work for you, and all you have to focus on is creating and promoting your work.

Print on demand photography reduces the need for investments in inventory or large print runs. The only time photographers will shell out money is when customers make a purchase, the rest is handled by the services provider or courier.

Print on demand products ranging from traditional prints to phone cases and clothing are available to photographers, and they can choose which product they want their work to be sold as. Plus they can set prices for each of them.

Photographers can easily reach customers all over the world because print on demand service providers already have a large customer base. All of the shipping, and taxes are also taken care of, so photographers will have more time for creativity.

Creating a passive income stream is what print on demand services gives photographers. All they have to do is set up their shop and start selling, while the service provider will handle the rest.

Because print on demand platforms are web-based and due to the fact that they utilize 

 on their websites, photographers are ensured to increase their exposure and reach new audiences. The platform's marketing and promotion efforts become a bonus for member photographers.

Dropshipping sites that offer print on demand services ensure that photographers won’t have a difficult time using their platform to sell their work. It’s mostly click & drag and doesn’t require a lot of technical skills.

Another benefit that photographers can get from print on demand services is its analytics feature, which allows users to track sales and identify their top selling products. Photographers can then use this information to formulate their business strategy and be able to boost their profits.

The best thing about print on demand services is that there are no upfront costs or inventories that do not sell. Photographers only pay for what is sold, well, technically they actually earn when their product is sold, so service providers only get a share from the income which is a low-risk method of selling photos on the web for photographers. That is unless the POD provider sells the product at a flat rate like OrderMerch.

If you’re an aspiring art photographer, then you must already be familiar with the challenging and complex process of selling your work; however, the playing field has dramatically changed with print on demand photography services.

Selling Print on Demand Photography

Is it possible for print on demand to be sustainable? If you consider the state of the planet and the most pressing problem of climate change, this becomes a legitimate question. As more and more consumers become aware of this inconvenient truth, they’re also voicing their concerns to companies through their websites and social media business pages. People are crying out for print on demand businesses to reshape their business practices to focus on sustainability while serving their customers.

Going back to the question, the answer would be a resounding “Yes.” Print on demand sustainable business practices can be incorporated into all businesses operating in this industry. From the materials they’re using to the production process, sustainability can be infused into these areas seamlessly, which can significantly reduce the company’s carbon footprint.

In this article, we will learn how print on demand companies can transform their business into one of the sustainable and eco-friendly entities that balances all 3 crucial aspects of any business.

The demand for profitability by company stakeholders

Maintaining quality products and services for the benefit of consumers

The print on demand business model is very economical and also very profitable at the same time. If you’re wondering just how profitable, you need not look any further than the 

. Suddenly indie authors and publishing companies can sell their books without risking tens and possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars on printing books that will be placed in inventory but may not sell.

But book publishing is just one of the dozens of examples of print on demand sustainable business solutions.

The beauty of print on demand is that it leaves no room for creating waste because the traditional print business requires an inventory, inventory that will go to waste if unsold. However, the print on demand model will only require products to be printed if the customer makes an order, therefore there’s almost zero waste created in the process.

Most of the traditional printing methods require the use of water – lots of it in some cases, which not only increases the demand for tap water but also may create water pollution. On the other hand, the technologies behind ethical print on demand use 70% less water, which makes it eco-friendly and sustainable for the foreseeable future.

Storage space and maintaining a warehouse for your products will cost you money for renting the storage space, electricity, and other utilities. This will be deducted from your profits and you may realize that 3% - 10% of your profits are lost to storage space and utilities. That doesn’t happen with a 

. That’s because orders are being fulfilled (products printed) per consumer demand, which essentially takes away the need for storage space.

Using Lesser Transportation to Ship Goods

Whatever product the customer orders will be sent to the customer directly. By comparison, traditional businesses will probably take the manufacturer to hire several transportation systems in order to deliver the products ordered by the retailers and then be shipped again by another courier to customers. However, in the print on demand/dropshipping business model, it will only take a single courier to accomplish the same task, even though the customer 

and dropshipping is that e-commerce stores will want to sell the best quality products from the manufacturers to their customers. High quality products, say, 

 for instance, are fashionable, feel good to wear, and last longer than other low quality products. This ensures that customers will less likely throw them away even if they’ll buy new products. This reduces the energy, manpower, and logistics used in creating and shipping such products; and it also reduces waste.

In the past inks used for printing were made from harmful chemicals, but with the increased awareness of climate change, more and more companies have not only shifted to the print on demand business model but also came up with the means to create eco-friendly inks. Eco inks are made from natural materials and do not cause harm to the environment when disposed of. Creating them also uses less energy whenever waste is produced during manufacturing and will also not cause harm to the environment.

The age of plastic packaging is fading away and more and more e-commerce stores are using paper and other environmentally friendly materials to pack their products when they ship them to customers. It not only benefits our soil but also prevents plastics from ending up in the oceans which causes microplastics, which are extremely harmful to human and animal health.

Many countries and even the UN have created sustainable development plans, which include a designated area where fast-growing trees are being planted and harvested for industrial use. This is done in order to protect rainforests and avoid cutting down trees that serve an important part of an ecosystem, that if cut down may endanger various species to extinction. Another example is using recyclable materials like paper, plastic, and tin cans. Some have even suggested the use of industrial hemp or marijuana trees, as they have been proven to be very useful and eco-friendly.

Print on demand sustainable business practices may include:

Because the printer will only be used when there’s an order from the customer, the printing machine is used less often compared to typical printing services. Low energy consumption means less fuel or coal is burned in power plants, which reduces CO2 emissions that damage our atmosphere.


To avoid harming the environment with artificial chemicals in the ink cartridges of your printer, find ways to dispose of them properly. If you live in the United States, then you can contact your local council to get instructions on how to do it. Otherwise, you can use eco-friendly ink to not have to worry about these things in the first place.


For couriers, they can transition from gas-powered vehicles to electric vehicles for transporting goods. Boats, on the other hand, have yet to harness the power of electric engines, so in the meantime, they will have to settle for gasoline and diesel fuel until the technology becomes available.


While helping our planet is obviously a good cause, print on demand doesn’t have to be entirely altruistic. For instance, about 78% of consumers are more aware of climate change and how the things they purchase can affect the planet’s ecology, so they always prefer products that are environmentally friendly. Yes, you can still make a profit from your print on demand business even as you do your part in saving the planet.

Thanks to the advent of ecommerce and dropshipping, print on demand sustainable business practices have made a huge impact on the environment and more and more companies' carbon footprint has been reduced. Scientists even estimate that if the major economies of the world adopt this business model, we may still be able to reverse the catastrophic failure of climate change within our lifetime.

Is it possible for print on demand to be sustainable? Both for your business, the state of the planet, and the more pressing problem of climate change, this becomes a legitimate question. 

Welcome to OrderMerch

Brandon Nilsson - Author

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