This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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How can you go from a prototype into a manufactured product? Now this is a little bit more complex than some of the business models we talk about. This listener wants to sell non-screen entertainment kits for kids. So she's got a concept, she's got an idea. How do we go from here to an on the shelf product?
So we often look at all sorts of money making ideas. This one comes from a personal experience and solving a problem, which is good. Kids may not think it's a problem, of course. It can be difficult to get them away from their devices, but for a lot of parents, guardians, teachers, everybody else, it certainly is a problem. So we have this interesting idea, definitely a market in terms of the parents.
So what comes next though? Like how do we go from this idea, as I said, to actually creating a manufactured product? We have a prototype in this case. So she's handmade the prototype, that's great. That's a great start, lots of steps there.
She's already come that far. So to go to the next level of getting them made overseas, that also has a number of steps. I'm gonna do my best to make it as simple as possible. Hopefully it'll be helpful for our caller. Her name is Paige, as well as anybody else out there as well, who's thinking of making a physical product, one that requires overseas manufacturing.
All right, detailed question from Paige and my answer coming right up. [Music]
Hi, this is Paige from Brisbane, Australia, and I've been a long time fan of your work in 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 kit 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 on 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 quantities low 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 this. Thanks, Chris. - Hey Paige, thanks for sharing the idea. Let's break it down. So we're talking about kits here, portable kits to sell non-screen entertainment, well, non-screen entertainment kits for kids.
I suppose maybe the first thought is kits can mean a lot of things. So I don't know exactly what this one includes, but when we first researched this episode, it brought me back to episode 989 of the show, SwitchPod Camera Tool raises $400,000 on Kickstarter. And in that story, basically two guys had this great idea for a camera tool and they didn't necessarily know how to bring it to life. They had a great idea. They had a track record of executing in different industries, but also like it's a new industry.
Like how do you actually get the manufacturing right? So in their case, they ended up using a service called product.com. It sounds like product, but with a U. So like P-R-O-U-D-U-C-T.com. It is basically just a concierge or go between for people like Paige or my friend Pat in that original episode 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.
I'm sure there are some other companies and brands that do something similar. You can also tackle it yourself by beginning to kind of go through different vendors that you find through Alibaba and just beginning the process of contacting them for quotes, sharing your idea and such. You want to get a lot of information. You really want to learn like how much will it cost for the kits fully assembled? How much will it cost for them to arrive unassembled?
And you do the final assembly. How much time will that require? How are you going to handle fulfillment? How are you going to actually get these to the final end user? If a fulfillment center, any other party is going to do that, then maybe there's an argument for buying everything fully assembled.
So there's lots of different things to do from there. I think personally for me, since this is not a field I have a great expertise in, I would try to work with a company like Product, basically someone who is a concierge. And I kind of think of it like having a literary agent. I have that for my books. And of course that person takes a percentage, a commission, but in my view, it's well worth it because he's doing some things I don't want to do.
And he has expertise and skills that I don't have. So in this kind of world as well, the concierge service, yes, they're charging a fee, but hopefully they're going to be earning that fee by getting me the best possible deal and also just providing the security that I need, if I'm going to be ordering products from overseas, 'cause that's a big thing. So that has a lot of value. That's what I would start with. I would do some research in that area, jump off from there, page, let us know how it goes.
Good luck listeners. Good luck to you as well. I hope you take action on an idea today. If you have a question and update, a comment, sidehustleschool.com. You can access the complete archives of the show ever since January 1, 2017.
They're all there. You can download or stream them all for free. The new episodes out of course, every day, wherever you get your podcasts. Seven days a week. My name is Chris Guillebeau.
You're listening to Side Hustle School. [Music]
