This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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How do you avoid a garage full of unsold inventory? If you are selling a product, should you spend months growing followers or risk your cash on inventory right away, might there be a test thin pre-order strategy that can actually prove market demand, which allows you to pay for production upfront, builds your email list as you go. That actually might help you avoid the situation of having a garage or a living room or a closet full of stuff that you can't sell. That's what we're gonna talk about today. Manufacturing can be unforgiving.
You have to pay upfront and then hope for buyers later. And meanwhile, if you're like audience first, like if you're thinking, let me build the audience first, that's great. But the audience by itself doesn't actually bring in any income. So if you're trying to make income, which is good, how do you manage this? So we're gonna hear from a caller in Jacksonville, Florida today.
He's navigating this situation in real time. His product is a bike repair toolkit. So he'll explain that a little bit, but then also he's like, okay, how much inventory do I need to stock? Do I need to order these parts? Or should I focus entirely on building audience?
So I'm gonna do my best to provide a helpful answer. Hopefully it'll help somebody else out there as well. If you're trying to figure out what do I do next, that's what we do. That's why we make these episodes short, daily, action, packed, and something inspirational for you. Detailed question from Jonah and my answer coming right up.
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Hey there, I'm Jonah in Jacksonville, Florida. I've designed a compact bike repair toolkit that I believe is a game changer. I know some people say I need a big audience before launching, but building content for months with zero revenue feels risky. On the other hand, if I manufacture without demand, I could end up with a garage full of unsold kits. I need some help.
Which approach wins for a physical product? Audience first, product first, or some hybrid? And how do I decide based on limited budgets and time? [Music]
Jonah, I actually think there is a way to manage this. It is a hybrid approach, basically.
Step one is to prove strangers care. Like, is there actual demand for this? And one way you could do that is to shoot a 60 second demo. Like, let's see a roadside flat tire fixed in record time by somebody who doesn't know what they're doing, that would be me in this case, with your toolkit. And then post that in the bicycling subreddit, for example, like on Reddit, in the bicycling subreddit, or maybe on TikTok or Instagram Reels.
You're not really hunting followers yet. You're just testing whether cyclists stop scrolling and say something like, "Oh, I need that." Do you get any kind of positive response at all? And if you do, try to capture interest. So as you start posting more of these demos, perhaps every clip links to a simple landing page. Get early bird pricing when we open pre-orders.
ConvertKit, MailerLite, other tools like that will let you do it. It will let you do it for free or for very low cost. And then as you're doing this, you set a simple go/no-go number. And maybe you say like, "If 150 people join the list from my first 5,000 video views, then I have proof of demand." If you hit the number, that's great. If you don't, you refine the pitch a bit and work on it some more before you actually start manufacturing.
And then there's a couple options from there. You could have a pre-order campaign. You could start creating more content. Or you could just say like, "I do feel comfortable proceeding here. And now I'm not gonna have to worry about like having manufactured a whole bunch of product without demand 'cause you know you have interest." If you see no interest whatsoever, then I do think you go back to the drawing board and say like, "Is this the right thing?" Like, "I thought it was a good thing, but if there's not interest, then that doesn't really matter what I think." I think that hybrid approach can serve you well.
So it's basically like a small amount of content to get some proof of demand or at least interest. You spend moderate time, minimal cash, and you learn quickly. In my view, that's your best bet. But of course, let us know what happens. Listeners, if you have a scenario, a question, a comment, sidehustleschool.com.
We'll continue to feature listener questions along with updates from other listeners as they launch and grow their projects. Thank you so much for being part of this community. This was episode 3,216. It's my honor and privilege to make it for you every day. My name's Chris Guillebeau.
You're listening to Side Hustle School. [Music]
From the Onward Project.
