How to start a business from product idea to mass production

Starting a business, especially when it has to do with inventions or equipment manufacturing, can be difficult. After making that great invention and seeing how good it works. You face another problem of producing it in mass for public consumption. How do you go past the business idea to the mass production stage?

Dragging your feet for too long when it comes to executing your business idea or moving forward to the mass production stage could cause you a chance in the market. You get to see someone else doing all you should have done and living your dream.

How do you prevent someone from taking your spot? How do you grow that business from the idea stage to mass production? Here are a few tips:

What is your selling point?

Every product in the world has a selling point. In essence, products have a gap that they fill. Products don’t exist for the sake of fun. They are there to fulfill a need. So, before going to your workshop to start working on the big idea that recently flashed your mind, make sure you have answered the question of what benefit would your target customers derive from using the product.

It is reasonable that every entrepreneur conducts a “know your target audience” analysis before moving on with their business idea. You should have an idea of the problems they have before looking for ways to solve them. Observation is the real key to building a business empire that will last for generations.

When you can identify the value you’ll bring to your prospective customers; you’ll have a clear idea of how to go from there to mass-producing. You’ll understand if they need the products in large or small quantity, whether it’s a seasonal thing, etc.

Get a 3D CAD model

The next step to take after ensuring your business idea is in other with the market, and your customers are crafting a 3D computer-aided design model. It is especially necessary if you are original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) startup.

You should contact a professional designer to design this model because any error will reflect on your prototype, which could ruin or delay your progress. If you wish to handle it yourself, you can check for different software tools online to use. But be careful not to create something that will misrepresent your idea.

Make a prototype

The market and your consumers are going nowhere. As long as you are sure of the value you are offering to them, don’t be in a hurry to rush off your production. Take every step with caution at this point to prevent problems.

It is crucial to create a prototype before going all the way into mass production. Avoid skipping prototyping to go straight into production because some mistakes can never get fixed and you don’t want your prospects having any negative sentiments about your product on the first trial. It ensures your product’s functionality, fit, aesthetics, and other features.

It is fantastic to be confident in your idea and product, but it’s unreasonable to think you can make a perfect product at the first trial. You save a lot of money when you create a prototype to see your idea in reality and know where to make necessary fixes. You cannot equate this advantage to a typical design on paper.

Test your product

Before release your product to the market for sales, you need to continuously test your product and ensure it is in line with what your target customers consider as a solution to their problem. After making the prototype, develop it until it becomes a minimum viable product (MVP). When it’s an MVP, you can get your friends who are natural critics to test it.

Testing before mass production is necessary. Even if you are going to make your existing customers or prospects test it, the fact that you’ve not produced it massively will reduce any risk.

After offering your MVP for testing, survey to find out if your solution is something they fell would make a difference in the already saturated market. Remember to involve only those you know are critics or pessimists in this survey.

Do some tweaking

If you’ve followed the steps until the fourth, the fifth one should be easy. It involves tweaking your product after getting all the feedback from those included in the survey.

However, if you had a bad review all through, you might want to consider a significant redesigning of your model or coming up with a fresh idea. Don’t be afraid to start all over; it is far better than trying to sell something already dead on arrival. But if the result of the survey points toward the need to change some features, then get to work immediately. Don’t feel it’s something to overlook.

Some people are detail-conscious and would easily spot what everyone ignores, and this would leave a negative impression on your product. They might even go further to tell everyone that cares to listen to what they found out; probably also create a website or YouTube channel to discuss it. And this might ruin your chance of making a statement when you enter the market.

So, apply all changes from the feedback you’ve gotten to your prototype before planning the big step of mass production.

Create a temporary website

The function of this website is to create further awareness of the product you are about to launch. You would want people to get information from the grapevine about the new product entering the market so that they don’t have to entertain rumors from some unethical competitors about your product.

You can monitor the activities on your website through the Facebook pixel, which is easy to create. The goal here is supplying your existing customers or prospects information about the product.

Mass producing

Finally! Mass producing is the last step to starting a business from product idea to mass production. It is usually where all the essential decisions concerning manufacturing and product distribution get made.

If you have enough funds to produce, by all means, develop your production line. But if you have a strict budget, you might want to get into a partnership agreement with a manufacturer who will take care of the production and marketing. Ensure you have all the paperwork sorted out for the deal, so no one takes advantage of you.

Originally published at https://indepthbusinesswriting.com on July 22, 2019.