This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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We talked recently about understanding the steps involved in finding the path to creating your product or service. So when you're trying to create your product or service, any kind of opportunity that, you know, involves selling something. There is usually a sequence of steps. A sequence, a series, a set of categories you can think through. And one of the most important skills you can learn, in addition to developing your curiosity and learning to spot opportunities in the first place.
One of the most important skills you can learn is, how can I take this large concept in it and identify the series of steps associated with it? And the more you can do that, the easier everything else is. You'll be able to respond quicker, take action sooner, perhaps save some money if it's some kind of manufacturing process in which you're gonna have to spend money to get something made. So just understanding like what are those categories and what are my first steps? What do I need to do right now?
One of the things I hope to do this year is really look at that in some specific examples coming from you, our listeners. And hey, by the way, welcome to side hustle school. In case you're new here, my name is Chris Guillebeau. Every day here, I'm talking through different ideas that people have to make extra money. Make extra money whether to quit their job and go all in with something really big or just do something fun and interesting that's going to make their life a little bit easier.
Ultimately, that's what it's about, increasing your options to do what's important to you. So in this example, a listener in the UK is inspired to design and manufacture a bath toy. So obviously our question here is how can she create a sudsational product? The goal is to go from bathtub to bank deposit. That's gonna be the subtitle of my next book.
Let that sink in. How can I go from bath toy idea to manufactured product? That's our question for the day. It's coming up in just 30 seconds. [Music]
Hello, my name's Millie and I live in the UK.
I'm a primary school teacher and I've been listening to your show for about a year and find it really inspiring. I've got a question about going from idea to action. So my idea for a side hustle is making some fun but educational bath toys. I've got ideas for several different games in my head. I've already done drawings of how these would be.
But what I'm wondering about is really going from that to creating them, getting them manufactured. I'm wondering whether I should just go onto alibarbar.com and start speaking to potential manufacturers and work with them to develop the toys. Whether I need to somehow find some sort of prototype designer to help me make a good model before I get in touch with manufacturers. I'm wondering perhaps it depends on the complexity of each set. Some of them will just be printed phone with others will be custom capacity toys.
So they might be a bit harder to explain to a manufacturer abroad, I'm not sure. So if you could give me any guidance at this stage, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks a lot and thanks for all the great stuff you do to inspire us all, bye. - Millie, thank you for the question. Thank you for all you do.
I'm sure being a primary school teacher this year has been quite the challenge. So I'm sure many people are grateful that you've been showing up for them. And I'm so glad you're doing something for yourself as well. All right, so here's what I think. Millie is on the right track in terms of thinking through her options, especially about considering the specific product, which is really key.
Because sometimes the answer really is quite specific depending on what it is you're trying to make. And so rather than just say, well, the question is to Alibaba or not to Alibaba, here's what I would think about first in a situation like this. I would ask Millie, how much of a vision do you have for these toy sets? Do you know exactly what you want to create? Can you picture what this bath toy set looks like?
Do you understand each element, each component? Or let's say at least 90%, like do you have a very strong understanding of what it's gonna be and you just need help kind of making it? Or do you need help hashing out that design, that process? Like this is an important fork in the road, I think because if you're not 90% plus certain, I would say a prototype designer could be a big help here. It might be worth a small investment.
So first of all, is there a maker space near you that might have a referral? Like could there be somebody local? And also remember that you can find these people online as well. Like in case the local option seems cost prohibitive or you just can't find somebody, potentially through Upwork, like there's a lot of product designers out there and people who can do a prototype through CAD drawings or maybe even just talk it through with you. Like sometimes the right advice can be worth a lot, especially at this point.
Like this is the point to get that advice. They might show you something you haven't considered. They can advise about the specific products much more than someone like myself could. Another thought is, can you start with one product at first rather than a whole line of products? And this is often good advice for a lot of people.
It's not universal of course, but just generally speaking of all the different bath toy set ideas that are, well, let's say floating around in your head, which do you think is the best? When I say the best, consider both how cool the idea is, like what do you think is most attractive, compelling, interesting, as well as the feasibility of making it. And ideally there's some kind of intersection there. Ideally it's like, oh, this thing is really feasible and really cool. Well, that's what you should do first.
Now lastly, as for the order of steps, there's nothing at all wrong with going straight to Alibaba. It's just that like as we've seen in some other stories, it's gonna be a high touch project. It will require some money, right? Like it's not going to be a $0 startup. And so because it's going to be a bit intensive in that way, like the more you can learn upfront, the better.
The better educated you can be going into the process, the quicker everything is going to be, the more likely it is you can head off some potential mistakes of the past and so on. Well, that's what I think about that. How much of a vision do you have for these toy sets? Let's start with that and go from there. But thank you again, Millie.
And listeners, thank you for being out there as well. You are awesome. I'm so grateful to be able to make this show for you every day. If you have a question of your own, if you have a comment, if you have an update, a challenge, a success, a failure, you know, whatever it is, I just, I would love to hear from you. Come to sidehustleschool.com/questions.
We're gonna feature more and more of our listeners throughout this year. And I hope that we can do something that is helpful, useful and beneficial for you. Ultimately, that's what I think about every day as I make these episodes. And guess what? I've got one coming up again tomorrow.
Be sure you're subscribed. Wherever you get your podcasts, my name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the "Onward Project."
