This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Today's listener has an idea to sell non-screen entertainment kits for kids. How can she go from concept to on-the-shelf product? We have been looking at ideas, specifically where do money-making ideas come from? I talked about it in last week's classroom episode. Tomorrow we're gonna break down different categories of side hustles.
Well, this one comes from personal experience and solving a problem. Kids might not think this is a problem. You know, it can be difficult to get them away from their devices. But for a lot of parents who are concerned with excessive screen time, it definitely is. So this listener, Paige, has got an interesting idea and has already made a lot of progress at bringing it to life.
But what comes next? Again, how does she go from concept to on-the-shelf product? Let's find out in this exciting chapter of the year of interaction. [Music]
Hi, Chris. This is Paige from Brisbane, Australia, and I've been a long-time fan of your work on this show in particular.
I've been designing a range of portable play kits to combat the increasing reliance on screen-based devices for entertaining kids. Each kid is compact and ideal for family travels, dining out, attending church, hospital stays, or any other challenging moments on the go. They are designed to cultivate creativity and imagination and to grow with the child for maximum repeat play value. I've handmade my prototypes and I've successfully tested them for my children and their friends. But now I'm stuck with how to transform my designs into professionally manufactured products ready for sale.
In terms of cost, I will probably have to manufacture in China as my end goal is to donate some products to disabled and disadvantaged children. However, I don't know how to source and decide on a manufacturer or how to keep my quantity slow for the time being. Also, would I be best to manufacture the products ready for sale or purchase the parts and assemble the products myself? I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. Thanks, Chris.
- Thank you so much, Paige. Definitely sounds like you've got an interesting project there. Now, kits can mean a lot of things. If I hear kit, I think, well, what exactly is that? And I don't know entirely what this one includes, but hearing your question made me think of a service I learned about for a popular episode last year.
That was episode 989. Camera Tool raises $400,000 on Kickstarter. And in that story, two guys had this tremendous success funding their idea, but of course, such a success also brings a lot of pressure to get the manufacturing right. So in their case, they ended up using a service called product.com. So it's kind of like product, but with a U, P-R-O-U-D-U-C-T.com, product.com.
It's essentially a concierge or a go-between for people like Paige who have an idea for a product that might benefit from overseas manufacturing, but who don't have the experience or expertise to solve everything associated with that process. Or perhaps even if they had the expertise, they don't want to solve everything associated with that process because it can be a lot. Now, this is a big market. I don't actually know the folks who run product.com. I don't have any personal experience with them.
So I'm sure there are other services that do something similar. My point is if I was going to manufacture a product, I would probably want to work with a service like that just because I don't have the expertise, I don't have the experience. And again, I wouldn't want to solve everything associated with that process. So if nothing else, you might want to look into something like that, ask some questions, just educate yourself a bit. And obviously there will be fees associated with that.
But I think their pitch is, we're actually going to save you more money in the longterm. And not only that, but we're going to make sure you get a quality product done the right way. So as for whether you're doing assembly yourself, that's a question you can answer when you have more information. You need information like how much will it cost for the kits to arrive fully assembled? How much will it cost for them to arrive unassembled?
And if I go that route, how much time will assembly require? If I get all the pieces, is it a relatively simple process to assemble? Or is it something that takes a lot of time and is complex or difficult? And then lastly, how will you be handling fulfillment? Because if you're going to be shipping these anyway, that could be an argument for handling the assembly as well.
But if a fulfillment center or any other party is going to be doing the shipping for you, that's an argument for buying everything fully assembled. Because then the product could go straight to that fulfillment center or whoever else is doing the shipping. And you don't have to touch any part of the process. And in a lot of ways, of course, that's ideal. But at the same time, it's going to cost more to do it.
The minimum quantity that you mentioned might be higher, et cetera. So there are lots of variables, lots of pros and cons, but acquiring that information, I think, would help a lot. Good luck, Paige. And listeners, if you'd like to follow along with her project, she is on Instagram @createchangestudio. So one word, of course, create change studio.
[Music]
If you have a question, please come to sidehustleschool.com/questions. We'll be featuring them throughout the year, along with updates from listeners as they launch their projects. I personally am excited about that last part. You know, I look forward a couple months from now being able to go back to some of the stuff that we've talked about in January and say, okay, you know, what happened? Where are they now?
What have they learned? And what's the next step? All right, this has been episode 1114, 1,114. Tomorrow, we will continue our exploration in the world of ideas and break down the different categories of side hustle. Is it a product?
Is it a service? Which is better? Be sure you're subscribed for that and more. Thanks so much. My name is Chris Guillebeau.
This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
- From the Onward Project.
