How to Manufacture a Product (in 15 Simple Steps)
June 8, 2022
June 8, 2022
You’ve decided to start a business, but your idea is a product that needs to be manufactured. If you have no idea where to begin, that’s completely normal. We’re going to show you how to manufacture a product.
Some of the most successful business owners have created custom products to delight their customers. Pooch Selfie and Shed Defender are two businesses that work with manufacturers and will share how to manufacture a product with us.
We’ll share the manufacturing process and tips so you can learn how each of these petrepreneurs make more than $150K per year. Get ready to learn how to master how to manufacture a product!
Most estimates say you should expect to spend $30,000 to go through the manufacturing process from start to finish, but depending on the products, it can range from as little as $20 for a t-shirt prototype with print on demand, to as much as $400 million for research and development (R&D) and the prototype of SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets.
You might already have an idea, but there are some things you need to know about product ideas before you go full speed ahead. There are four main things you need to know before you start trying to create your ideas:
If you have a great idea for 10 different related products, it will be hard to be cost-effective. Choose the best idea and go with it.
Work on the other ideas after you’ve:
If you don’t already have an idea, that’s okay because they are all around you. Listen to things your friends and family say they wish someone would create. If someone hasn’t already, you’ve found an opportunity.
Casey Walter, the owner of Shed Defender, told us:
I came up with the idea of a doggie onesie because I got tired of my friends complaining about my Saint Bernard shedding. People used to laugh at me when I created a onesie for a dog, but it didn’t stop me.
Check out his interview below:
Jason Hernandez, the owner of Pooch Selfie, had a similar path to his idea. He told us:
This was really a backyard invention that I created because my dog, Logan, won’t sit still when we’re trying to take a picture of him. He loves tennis balls, but not the camera. Let’s see what happens if we put the two together.
Keep reading for the next step of manufacturing high-quality products.
You can’t start the production process until you create a design or sketch of the product. No one can see what is in your mind’s eye. You have to give them something to help them understand what you need.
If you have graphic design experience, use it to design the product. You can use products like AutoDesk products if you have them already but read about the best product design software before you go spend $355 per month on AutoDesk software.
It’s okay if you don’t feel like you are a great artist, you don’t have to be. This is just to help a local artisan understand your intent. Give it your best and make sure you document the date of the idea to protect yourself if you talk to anyone about it.
You can document an idea’s date through several methods:
Once you have an idea and drawings, you might need to approach someone who knows how to manufacture a product and has done it many times before. They can help you reduce the time to complete the rest of the steps.
You can hire professional consultants or just talk to business owners you know. As long as they are in the same industry, they’ll be able to give you some advice about how to make a product.
Before you talk to them, you’ll need to have them sign some documents to protect your idea. Let’s dig deeper to protect your idea before you have filed for intellectual property protection.
Businesses are notorious for using others’ ideas to make more money. Whether they do it legally or illegally, doesn’t matter. If you want to protect your company idea make sure you have people sign these documents before sharing business information:
You’ll want to have the following documents signed before you provide any information to other people:
Now you know how to protect yourself and your small business against bad actors. Let’s look at sourcing materials for a prototype.
The next step in product manufacturing is sourcing the materials for a prototype. You’ll normally want to look for a supplier of raw materials that will sell in small quantities. Places I would recommend looking include:
The goal here is to get the raw materials quickly and at the lowest dollar amount. Small businesses don’t need a large upfront investment for something the target market might reject.
Finding suppliers should not extend internationally right now unless you can not find another way in the United States. International shipping can end up costing 10x the value of the small amount you need to start producing prototypes.
I had a client that ignored my suggestion to stay local and ended up spending $1,200 for a roll of fabric for his eCommerce business that he could have bought locally for $70. Ninety-nine percent of it was shipping costs.
Do you find that hard to believe? Read this blog about shipping costs from China to understand how something like that happens. You can complete the entire process of starting an eCommerce Print-on-Demand store for the same price as shipping from China.
Once you have the parts for a prototype, it’s time to create your original design. Keep reading to find out how.
Creating a prototype to show your target market, the United States Trademark and Patent Office, and potential manufacturing partners, will be necessary to limit the risks and improve the chance of success.
There are several ways you can make a prototype depending on the type of product. The most common are:
As a new business owner you may not have the skills, resources, or equipment to create a prototype in-house, but if you do, it is a great way to establish the production process so you can specify it when looking for bulk manufacturers.
Once you’ve completed the prototype, there are a few steps you can work in parallel to speed up the process.
You’re heading in the right direction! Now is when the most challenging parts come into play. Fortunately, you can perform the next five steps in parallel. Before you can start mass-producing products, you’ll need to:
We’ll walk you through each of the steps to help you learn how to create a product.
Once the prototype is created, you’ll want to verify that it works properly and that there is an actual demand for it. Use the item to see if you like it because your views of the product can influence success.
After you test it, start performing market research. Market research can be as simple as letting friends and family test it or conducting formal research using a market research firm. Just search “market research company near me” to find ones to work with locally.
Questions to ask will be different for each product, but let’s look at some that Pooch Selfie might have asked:
Check out our interview with Pooch Selfie below!
The goal is to determine the target audience, how to best sell the product, and whether the product solves the problem. While you (or a market research firm) are working on the market research, you can also work on applying for trademarks and patents.
Trademarks and patents are to protect intellectual property(IP). Trademarks protect brand names, logos, and slogans that you don’t want other companies to use. Patents protect inventions based on whether it meets the following requirements:
You’ll want to get protection in the countries you are selling and manufacturing the products. In the United States, apply for trademarks and patents at USPTO.gov. For international IP protection, go to WIPO.int.
Now that you know where to patent and trademark your item, let’s look at creating manufacturer specifications.
When wondering how to get a product manufactured, you’ll need to create manufacturer specifications. These are often called “cut sheets” or “tech packs” and are used in most industries. See the picture below for an example of what a cut sheet for a clothing manufacturer might look like.
Shed Defender would use something similar, but with specifications for different dog sizes, meaning in addition to the neck, armholes (front leg holes for dogs), chest, and waist, they’d need rear leg holes, tail hole, and measurements so the garment allows the dog to tend to its needs.
This document should include:
I figure you might want to know about other industries, too. For example, here is another example from a plenum kit used in HVAC equipment.
Once you have this, it’s time to find a supplier and manufacturer.
Before we provide a list of references, it’s important to remember that the shipping costs from China should be assumed to run $1,200 or more and take months to get here. Commerce.gov estimates that you should expect:
If this occurs multiple times, you might have a real issue with turnaround time. Turnaround time is the time from when you order something to when you receive it. Let’s show how this can play out when manufacturing products:
If it plays out this way, every order will take nearly nine months to produce and cost at least $3,600 in shipping. That is far too long for a small business owner.
In a best-case scenario, you might reduce the time to 67 days and $1,200 in shipping if the supplier and manufacturer are in the same overseas location. You’ll need to have efficient quality control processes though.
You also need to consider how this impacts costs associated with inventory and gross margin. Ready Ratios has industry gross margin ratios by year, but most are between 20-55%.
The formula is:
Material costs + cost of manufacturing + all shipping + labor attributable to sales
= 45-80% of expected revenue.
To justify $3,600 in shipping costs, you’ll need to make at least $100K in revenue.
Run your decision-making through a sanity check before going with overseas manufacturers and suppliers. Financial issues are the #1 reason small businesses fail. Keep that in mind, and start by looking for manufacturing partners in the following order:
Now that we’ve covered this product manufacturing process example, let’s discuss suppliers.
You’ll need to find a supplier to provide any materials you need to manufacture the products. Depending on the type of products, you might need raw metals, raw cotton or fabric rolls, plastics, zippers, buttons, or other products.
It can be hard to find suppliers if you’ve never looked for them before, so we’ve provided a list of places to find suppliers:
You can also search Alibaba’s Gold Supplier list for suppliers who pay extra to be certified by Alibaba. As a Gold Supplier, you know they are a legitimate business that has been verified and inspected by a third party.
Be aware that shipping goods from China can take 37-69 Days normally and up to 6 months for sustainable travel.
The links in the supplier section also help people find manufacturers. This section is going to focus on establishing what qualities make great manufacturers. We’ll look at how to find manufacturers in China and the US.
Start locally to reduce shipping costs, time zone barriers, and quality control challenges that people face when looking for manufacturers. Just search “manufacturer near me” or “Apparel manufacturers near me” to find the ones closest to you. Hopefully, you’ll find a few local manufacturers.
Read the reviews or search for the local manufacturers on the manufacturing sites we listed. Reach out to find out about their limits on small batches, quality control standards, and if you can tour the facility. If they don’t meet your needs, find a manufacturer that will.
Finding a manufacturer in the USA has gotten easier in the last few years because technology and supply chain issues are reducing the competitive advantage of overseas manufacturers. The cost to produce manufactured goods is often competitive when comparing the total cost.
You don’t need the absolute best price because when you manufacture products you need to balance:
Send your specifications to several manufacturers to establish which one will be the best one for you. Hopefully, you’ll have multiple manufacturers to choose from, but when first starting, you may be limited to a single local manufacturer because most have minimum quantity orders.
Now that you’ve found some potential manufacturers locally, it’s time to reach out to a few manufacturers overseas.
Follow the same process as you did for finding local manufacturers, but now you’ll be focused on how to find a company to manufacture your product overseas. Ecommerce entrepreneurs will be able to find more than one manufacturer overseas, but they need to be wary of several challenges:
Keep these things in mind when considering how to approach a manufacturer with your product idea. Most will provide a quote through email, but that doesn’t show what goes on in the factory.
After you have received bids from multiple overseas and local manufacturers, it’s time to compare the costs.
You found a few different potential suppliers and manufacturing facilities, visited them, and got quotes. Now it’s time to compare them. I tend to like using a multi-factor ranking system to compare competitors. I like using the following system in an excel spreadsheet:
You will get something similar to the picture below.
If you want to assign extra weight to each aspect you can but it took including a 5x multiplier on the price columns ranking for me to shift the favor to China in this example. You can see below that the change made China tied with Las Vegasfor the most favorable option.
I hope this has helped you understand why I would tend to gravitate towards manufacturing near me during the early stages of product manufacturing.
When you are negotiating manufacturing contracts, the intent is to have long-term relationships that are mutually beneficial. We strongly recommend you consult with an experienced contract attorney before negotiating the terms of a manufacturing contract. These are the most common terms to negotiate:
Once the terms are negotiated, it’s time to produce the goods with either a local or overseas manufacturer. It’s normally better to start with smaller batches to minimize the risk of custom manufacturing. This may not be possible with all manufacturing partners depending on their minimum order size.
This stage will be handled by an overseas or local manufacturer. If you are personally overseeing adherence to the contract, you’ll need to periodically check in to verify that the specifications are met and the timeline is still achievable.
Once the manufacturing process is complete, the goods will be shipped. You can save some money by picking them up if you are using a local manufacturer, but be prepared to work with customs if using an overseas manufacturing partner.
Go to the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) website to review the CBP importing goods guidance. They are the governing authority for importing and exporting. The U.S. Economic Development Administration also has resources to help businesses.
Once you receive the goods, you need to inspect every piece and verify that each one meets the specifications. Hopefully, your contract had effective risk management strategies included in it, all parties followed them, and any defects were caught earlier in the process, but you should still check.
Reject any faulty products because every faulty product you accept raises the cost of goods sold. You can’t afford to accept faulty products. Using fairly normal eCommerce margins, you’ll be losing money when you sell on your own website at around a 10% defective rate. If you sell online using other platforms, losses will occur much quicker.
Before a product is truly ready to sell, you’ll need to provide packaging. Whether you use branded packaging or generic packaging is highly dependent on what type of product and brand you are trying to create. You can either use custom packaging or generic packaging. Let’s look at each.
You can go with custom packaging, in which case you’ll need to hire a graphic designer on a site like Fiverr or Upwork. Make sure you find someone with experience in product packaging. Then, follow the same process outlined in this blog to have it manufactured.
ThomasNet has a great list of custom packaging manufacturers. Find one that works for you.
If you are looking for generic packaging or companies that allow you to design it yourself, check out Packlane, which has a TrustPilot Score of 4.8 over 355 reviews.
You can also find clear baggies and other generic products on most marketplaces. For instance, Amazon has a pack of 100 9”x12” cellophane for t-shirts for $9.99
This step-by-step guide on how to find a manufacturer and create a product has provided you with the information you need to create your own product.
If you’d rather focus on finding customers, Amazon helps people create their own books, t-shirts, and phone cases, while FastCap pays royalties for product ideas related to the construction industry.
Which parts of the manufacturing process would you like to learn more about in future content?
Brandon Boushy
[su_youtube url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-Hl17zsmuo"]
Are you a small business owner looking for the best business books to help you solve a business problem? There are tons of books on business, entrepreneurship, marketing, accounting, and other topics. But it’s hard to filter through the noise to find the best business books.
Our co-founder and CEO, Serg Belous, made the mistake of believing he could just figure it out as he went. Five years later, he realized that there was information he just didn’t have as a business owner. That’s why he started researching everything he could.
In his research, he’s read close to hundreds of business books. The realizations he came to through his mistakes, research, and participation in mentorship groups led to the founding of UpFlip so others don’t have to make the same mistakes.
This list will help you find the best books on business topics that are worth your time. We have the books grouped into the following topics.
[su_note note_color="#dbeafc"] Read about them all or click the title that interests you most to jump right to it. By the end of this blog, you’ll know exactly which titles you need on hand to educate yourself for business success.
You can find most of the books on the UpFlip Amazon Shop, where we make it easy for you to buy business resources.
These are not just any business books—they’re the best business books of all time! And they’re all detailed for you in this comprehensive list!
All entrepreneurs and business leaders face similar frustrations—personnel conflict, profit woes, and inadequate growth. Decisions never seem to get made, or, once made, fail to be properly implemented. But there is a solution. It's not complicated or theoretical.The Entrepreneurial Operating System® is a practical method for achieving the business success you have always envisioned. More than 80,000 companies have discovered what EOS can do.
This book is designed for busy 6-figure online entrepreneurs who know they are destined for more. If you feel like you’ve been dealing with the same issues over and over again (no consistent leads, cash flow issues, stuck in the weeds, team frustrations), then I’m going to show you the 80/20 of the 80/20 of what you need to know to get more traction in less time and join the top 4% who reach $1 Million in revenue.
This book, called “the business bible” for 6-figure entrepreneurs, breaks down the proven 2X Machine Methodology and teaches you with practical systems and strategies.
Whether you’re thinking about starting a new business or growing an existing one, Ready, Fire, Aim has what you need to succeed in your entrepreneurial endeavors. In it, self-made multimillionaire and bestselling author Masterson shares the knowledge he has gained from creating and expanding numerous businesses and outlines a focused strategy for guiding a small business through the four stages of entrepreneurial growth. Along the way, Masterson teaches you the different skills needed in order to excel in this dynamic environment.
Traffic Secrets was written to help you get your message out to the world about your products and services. I strongly believe that entrepreneurs are the only people on earth who can actually change the world. It won't happen in government, and I don't think it will happen in schools.
It'll happen because of entrepreneurs like you, who are crazy enough to build products and services that will actually change the world. It'll happen because we are crazy enough to risk everything to try and make that dream become a reality.
Performance coach Alan Stein Jr. shares the secret principles used by world-class performers that will help you improve your productivity and achieve higher levels of success.
High achievers are at the top of their game because of the discipline they have during the unseen hours. They have made a commitment to establish, tweak, and repeat positive habits in everything they do. Raise Your Game examines the top leaders in sports and business and proves that success is a result of the little things we do all the time.
FACT: Your brain is being controlled-and you don't even know it.
Because if you think the ads you're seeing today are just pretty pictures with nice, creative copy, you're mistaken. Truth is, you are being powerfully influenced by dozens of proven scientific principles of advertising psychology... little-known techniques of consumer persuasion that go completely unnoticed by the buying public. And they're causing you--and millions like you--to spend enormous amounts of money every day on countless products and services.
But what are these principles? How do they work? And how can you use them in your own advertising?
Prepare yourself for a unique learning experience as author Drew Eric Whitman takes you on a wild, roller-coaster ride through the streets of New York's famed Madison Avenue and teaches you the specific psychological techniques that today's top copywriters and designers use to influence the masses... and how you can use them to rapidly increase your sales, no matter what you sell.
Jeff Bezos created Amazon, the fastest company to reach $100 billion in sales ever, making him the richest man in the world. Business owners marvel at Amazon’s success, but don’t realize they have the answers right at their fingertips as Bezos reveals his hidden roadmap in his annual letters to shareholders. For the first time, business analyst Steve Anderson unlocks the key lessons, mindset, principles, and steps Bezos used, and continues to use, to make Amazon the massive success it is today. Steve shows business owners, leaders, and CEOs how to apply those same practices and watch their business become more efficient, productive, and successful―fast!
Discover the outbound sales process that, in just a few years, helped add $100 million in recurring revenue to Salesforce.com, almost doubling their enterprise growth... with zero cold calls.
This is NOT another book about how to cold call or close deals. This is an entirely new kind of sales bible for CEOs, entrepreneurs and sales VPs to help you build a sales machine.
Achieve "Massive Action" results and accomplish your business dreams!
While most people operate with only three degrees of action-no action, retreat, or normal action-if you're after big goals, you don't want to settle for the ordinary. To reach the next level, you must understand the coveted 4th degree of action. This 4th degree, also known as the 10 X Rule, is that level of action that guarantees companies and individuals realize their goals and dreams.
The 10 X Rule unveils the principle of "Massive Action," allowing you to blast through business clichŽs and risk-aversion while taking concrete steps to reach your dreams. It also demonstrates why people get stuck in the first three actions and how to move into making the 10X Rule a discipline. Find out exactly where to start, what to do, and how to follow up each action you take with more action to achieve Massive Action results.
How to Get Rich is different from any other book on the subject because Dennis isn't selling snake oil, investment tips, or motivational claptrap. He merely wants to help people embrace entrepreneurship, and to share lessons he learned the hard way. He reveals, for example, why a regular paycheck is like crack cocaine; why great ideas are vastly overrated; and why "ownership isn't the important thing, it's the only thing."
Our CEO listed both the original and the revised version of this book in his list, so we’ve included both.
The Greatest Salesman in the World is a bestseller by Og Mandino. His books have sold over 50 million copies. Published in '68, reissued in '83 by Bantam, it's a guide to a philosophy of salesmanship, telling the story of Hafid, a poor camel boy who achieves a life of abundance. A cloth edition was published by Buccaneer Books in 6/93. It takes ten months to read the book. His instructions are to read Scroll I (Ch. 8) three times a day for 30 days. After completing Scroll I continue to II (Ch. 9) & so forth thru X (Ch. 17). The Ten Scrolls I - Commitment Scroll II - Love Scroll III - Persistence Scroll IV - Miracle Scroll V - Time Scroll VI - Emotion Scroll VII - Laughter Scroll VIII - Value Scroll IX - Action Scroll X - Guidance His primary message is to "do it now". In the marking of Scroll IX, "I will act now" appears 18 times. While his messages have Xian undertones, it's still a message of repetitive actions to build good habits.
Four-time New York Times bestselling author Gary Vaynerchuk offers new lessons and inspiration drawn from the experiences of dozens of influencers and entrepreneurs who rejected the predictable corporate path in favor of pursuing their dreams by building thriving businesses and extraordinary personal brands.
In his 2009 international bestseller Crush It, Gary insisted that a vibrant personal brand was crucial to entrepreneurial success, In Crushing It!, Gary explains why that’s even more true today, offering his unique perspective on what has changed and what principles remain timeless. He also shares stories from other entrepreneurs who have grown wealthier—and not just financially—than they ever imagined possible by following Crush It principles. The secret to their success (and Gary’s) has everything to do with their understanding of the social media platforms, and their willingness to do whatever it took to make these tools work to their utmost potential. That’s what Crushing It! teaches readers to do.
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Total Money Makeover and radio and podcast host Dave Ramsey comes an informative guide based on how he grew a successful, multimillion dollar company from a card table in his living room.
Your company is only as strong as your leaders. These are the men and women doing battle daily beneath the banner that is your brand. Are they courageous or indecisive? Are they serving a motivated team or managing employees? Are they valued?
Your team will never grow beyond you, so here’s another question to consider—are you growing? Whether you’re sitting at the CEO’s desk, the middle manager’s cubicle, or a card table in your living-room-based start-up, EntreLeadership provides the practical, step-by-step guidance to grow your business where you want it to go.
I took home more in a year than the CEOs of McDonalds, IKEA, Ford, Motorola, and Yahoo….combined….as a kid in my twenties….using the $100M Offer method. It works. And it will work for you.
Not that long ago though, my business had gotten so bad that I literally couldn’t even give my services away for free. At the end of each month, I would look at my bank account hoping to see progress (but there wasn’t). I knew something had to change...but what?
Over the next 48 months, I went from losing money to making $36 for every $1 spent. In that time period, we generated over $120,000,000 across four different industries: service, e-commerce, software, and brick & mortar.
Master the art of what to say in your funnels to convert your online visitors into lifelong customers in this updated edition from the $100M entrepreneur and co-founder of the software company ClickFunnels.
Your business is a calling. You've been called to serve a group of people with the products, services, and offers that you've created. People come into your funnels looking for a solution to their problems. By positioning yourself as an expert and learning how to tell your story in a way that gets people to move, you are able to guide people through your value ladder, giving them the results they are looking for. This is how you change the lives of your customers, and this is how you grow your company.
Learn how to develop the influence, character, service and vision that it takes to be a leader in every aspect of your life.
First released in 1993, John C. Maxwell’s now-classic work revolutionized the way leaders are made. By examining the differences between leadership styles, Maxwell outlines principles for inspiring, motivating, and influencing others from any type of leadership position--including as a business executive, a church leader, a teacher, or even a parent.
In this thoroughly revised and updated edition, Maxwell includes two new chapters to include the leadership insights and practices he has learned in the decades since the first edition so that you’ll receive everything you need to take a significant step in your leadership journey.
I personally love listening to audiobooks on Audible. It’s affordable and I can listen to them while working, driving, and doing other tasks. Subscribe below to start a free trial and help support UpFlip in bringing you more information to grow your business.
Don’t forget to go check out our Amazon Book List for more of the best business books. We update the list of best business books as we find books we love. If you think there are books that should be on this list, let us know so we can take a look. If we love it as much as you do, we’ll add it to this list.
My motto is:
[su_quote]Never quit learning.[/su_quote]
Which book will you read first?
Dude... you're a monster! I just realized you write all the blog posts on UpFlip(which I found from a YT video). Those are some in depth articles that must take quite a while to research and write. I definitely found a lot of value in the T-Shirt post you posted about 6 months ago. Cameron Priority Screen Printing http://PriorityScreenPrinting.com
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