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There are multiple ways you can make stickers for your business. It really depends on your needs for what route you go. Since this is a question I get asked about all the time, I thought I'd update my guide on this to help other current and aspiring small businesses.
Designing your stickers
You can design your stickers any way you like. There are a lot of really great tutorials on YouTube about how to scan and digitize your art if you have a preference for physical art.
I personally use an iPad I bought directly from Apple's refurbished models section of their online store. It's a few years older and uses a Generation 1 Apple Pencil. I bought this model instead of a newer one because I already had a Gen 1 Apple Pencil that I was gifted several years back for a birthday present and was using it on someone else's iPad until their screen was no longer functional. So that I wouldn't waste a perfectly good Apple Pencil, and to save money, I bought refurbished since I figured I could trust the Apple Store to have good refurbished models. One day I plan to upgrade to an iPad with a bigger screen and the Gen 2 Apple Pencil, but I prefer to use my devices as long as possible for both sustainability and frugality.
On my iPad I use Procreate. It's a one-time cost on the App Store of $12.99.
There are tons of YouTube videos, Instagram Reels, and TikTok videos for tutorials, tips, and tricks, and you can even download and install new brushes for it. I love being able to draw anywhere, and I usually lounge on the couch when I draw.
The biggest problem with Procreate is that there is definitely a learning curve, and it can be difficult to remember all of the specific gestures to do certain actions, such as two-finger tap to undo and three-finger tap to redo. These gestures give a cleaner workspace than Adobe Illustrator for example, but it can be tricky for those of us that are used to identifying tasks with icons instead of gestures.
Tips About Colors
If you do design in Procreate, make sure you're working in CMYK instead of RGB.
CMYK stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black and RGB stands for Red, Green, Blue.
Printers use CMYK inks to print while computers, iPads, iPhones, etc. display in RGB. An easy way to remember this difference is that nerds love RGB lights in their PC towers (me included) and your home printer will yell at you when you run out of yellow ink. Your art will look different on your display than when you print it out. You'll need to customize the size of your canvas as well as color profile options before you start drawing. What's nice with Procreate is that you can set a premade canvas so you can use the same presets every time if you wish. I have some set for the size of my art prints and some set for my sticker designs. Also, not every printer is created equally. The material you print on and the type of ink you're using, such as laser vs inkjet, will greatly affect the outcome of the colors.
Printing at Home
There are tons of different at-home printer sticker papers you can use if you'd like to go the hands-on approach. The brand I've used for a few freebie stickers (and plan to use when I start selling sticker sheets for journals and notebooks soon) is called Online Labels. You'll need to buy specifically for inkjet or laser depending on your printer. After many other small business friends encouraged me to, I finally invested in a printer. I went with an Epson ET-3830. While I love the EcoTank style for the ink as it's less plastic waste, with inkjets like this one, you need to use them at least once a week to maintain them (keep them from getting clogged up) and the ink can still be pricey. If you aren't printing often, you may want to go the route of a laser printer. I also wish I would have done more research, because while there is an adjustable tray for my printer, I still haven't figured out how to print smaller prints and have had to cut my small ones down myself. I also struggle sometimes with the software side of things. One day I'll probably invest in something that fits all of my needs better, but I bought it during a holiday sale at Best Buy in 2022. It's doing okay for me so far.
Laminating your stickers
I was curious to see if the waterproof material from Online Labels helped at all with keeping the ink from running and noticed a few things in my test runs through the dishwasher: they get scratched up quite quickly, and after a while, the ink began to run. I am not familiar enough with laminating stickers yet to feel comfortable giving advice on it, but I know there are tons of videos on YouTube about it that I'd recommend checking out if you want to go this route.
Cutting your stickers out yourself for the die-cut style
If you're just starting out and on a tight budget, I've bought tons of stickers for personal use from people who cut them out by hand. This is a great way to get started if you're trying to save up for a cutting machine or just want to do small batches without dealing with software.
Another common tool to use is home cutting machines such as Cricut, Silhouette Cameo, Brother ScanNCut, and Siser. I've only ever used the Cricut and the Silhouette Cameo 4, so that's all I'll be touching on. The Cricut has a lot of cool features that I wish the Cameo 4 had, but I went the Cameo 4 route when I purchased a machine because I liked the way the Cameo reads the sticker paper, meaning I could easily use third-party materials such as Online Labels, I was wasting less sticker material with the Cameo than the Cricut, and most importantly the cost over time of software.
The Cricut requires a monthly subscription to use a lot of features, and if the company stops supporting a machine's software at some point, you could be in trouble if your machine is still working great. (Thanks to Reddit for this advice!) I paid a one-time cost of $100 for the highest level of upgrade for the software (the basic software is free) for the Cameo, and as long as I have a PC that can run the software, I should be able to continue to use my Cameo for many years.
Having a company print the stickers for you
I went the route that I went for my waterproof laptop/water bottle decals, printing with a professional company, because I wanted to make sure my stickers would last for years and not peel as easily since some of my favorite stickers in my early years of college peeled off my laptop quite quickly. I also wanted more consistent quality and to be able to have more time to make other kinds of products, not just stickers.
I streamed on Twitch for about seven years in total and made my first logo stickers for my channel to give out at video game conventions and networking events with Sticker Mule. They have constant deals going that they rotate through their expansive product line. They also offer 3" x 3" sample stickers at 10 for $9 which is how I got started since I had little money as a disabled creator who was scared to invest all my money in inventory that wouldn't sell. Unfortunately, the $0.90 cost per unit is a bit high at the sample price. To get a better profit margin you have to order in large bulk quantities. If you're on a tight budget and just starting to test the waters, or wanting to start selling stickers for your established business to see how they do, it's not a bad deal.
IBS Sticker printed by Sticker Mule
EDIT: I've also just found this news article about Sticker Mule's CEO's political leanings, underpayment lawsuit, violations of labor laws, and more. I'm not 100% on the facts on this, but it's worth giving you everything I know so you can make your own informed decisions based on your own values.
However, I'm no longer impressed by the company's quality and customer service. Mistakes happen for everyone, but I personally believe it's healthy for yourself and your business to know when something isn't working for you anymore. I've had quite a few quality problems with them in the past year between badly printed and badly cut stickers and some terrible quality issues with acrylic pins. The times that I've reached out they sent me replacements, but I still wasn't impressed. The experiences talking to their customer service make me feel like I'm talking to a robot. They also do not listen to the customer comments, at least for me, in the proofs and I often have to reject designs multiple times or change how I want the design to be just because I'm exhausted of the back and forth. Additionally, the materials they offer are super limited, and they only just started offering specific parts of the design to be specific materials such as with their new glitter material, something their competitors have been doing for years.
Sticker App
I don't really have many complaints as far as Sticker App goes. I like the company. They have great quality stickers, a ton of material options, and sent me a whole new batch of replacement stickers when a package got lost. There was a ton of extra inventory on top of the count I ordered, too. I believe they do this to reduce waste of vinyl. (A month later, the original package finally made its way to my door, and I still haven't finished giving away all of these mini freebie Pastel Gamer and the original Faul the Frog stickers. Please take them from me; I'm drowning in them!) I think their normal shiny vinyl holds up better than their matte vinyl. I love the look of matte stickers and tested a matte one on my phone, but it didn't last very long before the top layer started peeling. I haven't had any problems with their normal or holographic materials as of yet. The only other issue here is that I'm a picky person. I fell in love with the thickness of the stickers from Sticker Mule and prefer that thickness still. That doesn't mean they aren't as high quality. It's just my personal preference to have a thick hand feel for the waterproof/weatherproof stickers I sell. They are way more affordable if you want to sell your stickers at a lower cost than I do, which may have something to do with the thickness of the vinyl they use. Edit 12/07/2023: I recently learned they print in CMYK!
Pastel Gamer Sticker printed by Sticker App
Sticker Ninja
This is my favorite sticker company. They have tons of material options to get creative with. They pride themselves on work/life balance so they will temporarily close orders to get caught up. They are based out of Portland, Oregon so I assume that has a lot to do with the culture there. They have an actual person reviewing your proof and they give lots of feedback. They recommended a different material at no additional cost to me on my very first sample run, and I loved the way it turned out. They always give me extras, and they gave me a ton of extras for my Pride charity line, too. Their email customer support is always super helpful when I have questions, and when they didn't offer a particular material, they actually gave me a recommendation for another company to work with.
Be Gentle With Yourself Sticker printed by Sticker Ninja
I've also seen them support trans and queer people with their voice and their wallet on their social media. They will sometimes print an extra of a sticker of yours they love and keep in their personal collections in their office. (I don't know if they have kept any of mine, but I know they've done this from their Instagram.) They can be more costly, especially the cost of samples, but when you get this good of customer service and get extras, it ends up really paying off in the long run. I have been moving all of my designs to them. I got lucky, and they ran a special sample size sale on their Instagram. This let me test out some new and old designs with them for cheaper than normal, so I could determine what I needed to change and whether some designs would do well. They have the same thickness as Sticker Mule and someone always hand writes "thank you" on my package, which makes me very happy! My only big downside is that because they get so busy with orders, wait times can be rough during certain times of the year. You can pay extra for rush if you need them by a certain date as well as pay for faster shipping, but if you don't want the extra costs, I recommend ordering as ahead of time as possible.
Overall depending on your needs and preferences, I really recommend Sticker Ninja and Sticker App. I'm sure there are other great companies out there, but this is based on my own experience of designing stickers. I hope this helps you continue your own research journey!