Congratulations on creating a concept with strong demand. That's half the battle right there!
I came down from my mountaintop to offer up some of my exalted opinions (sarcasm pirate needed?), based on hard-earned experience starting up Kagavi & going to trade shows, etc.
I went to your Facebook page and looked at the logo, and came up with these thoughts:
- If the deer was traced from a photo that you don't own, change it. Artists have lost court cases when they created a logo traced from another person's photo without securing permission. (First one I can think of is Shepard Fairey & the Obama HOPE poster.)
- The triple color outline is needlessly complex and WILL create issues at smaller sizes, plus add to cost.
- Font is crooked in relation to the state outline.
- Font choice has legibility issues at smaller sizes, which is an issue given that many people access web via mobile. (For ex: pictures used for decal post, the "of" is nearly unreadable.)
- State outline doesn't look connected to deer head. Seem to be two different logos. I would change the thickness of the state outline.
- I'm glad to help with the logo, free of charge. This is something I've done for others behind the scenes, as a way to keep my skills sharp. Just let me know. Already have some ideas on how to slightly revise it and keep what you have already created.
As for the business and printing shirts, etc. More thoughts:
- Be prepared for Facebook to severely throttle/limit your access and reach once it's apparent you are a biz. Your visibility will be reduced by as much as 90% and you will be pestered to purchase ads, etc. Diversify to Twitter and Instagram and other platforms to reduce the risk of being reliant on one platform.
- I would look into creating a Tumblr page with a slightly custom skin to serve as your business website. It doesn't need to have the address of bizname.tumblr.com, but can be bizname.com, but pointing to the Tumblr page. This will reduce any need of dealing with your own servers, etc.
- I would recommend TeeSpring for a way to offer preorders on shirts without having to deal with inventory, etc. You will take a reduced cut, however, you will not be stuck with inventory management, shipping, etc. They deal with all of that and you get a check. This will allow you to gauge popularity of certain things and see just how big your consumer base is before entering into any potentially costly merchandise agreements.
Starting a biz is very exciting and I'm excited for you.
Resist the temptation to go with the very first idea, etc. when working with designs, logos, etc. My first logo for Kagavi was AWFUL, but I threw something up there because I was paralyzed with indecision and needed to move on. After a few months, a much more superior concept came to me, which is the current one.
Just some thoughts. You are obviously already doing great. Congrats again.
