Learn to Make a Product

Expert Consulting for Product Entrepreneurs

Payal Singhal and The Desai Foundation Share 3 Steps For Making Products That ‘Give Back’

This article originally appeared on our Forbes blog

When leading Indian fashion designer Payal Singhal and New York-based nonprofit president Megha Desai connected at a Mumbai fashion event last year, a conversation around women’s empowerment spurred an idea: could they create beautifully designed products that would delight clients and improve the livelihoods of the women responsible for making them? The answer, it turns out, is yes.

Social entrepreneurship is a growing field that all business leaders can explore. Here we breakdown how Singhal and Desai combined forces to produce “bags for good” and how their success is giving socially-conscious product entrepreneurs (and entrepreneurial nonprofit leaders!) an inspiration to follow in the process.

Step 1: Start With A Great Idea

The Desai Foundation’s mission is to empower women and children in India and the US through various community initiatives, while the Payal Singhal brand is known for its fashion-forward dresses, sarees, and other special occasion attire. In preliminary discussions about their partnership, Singhal and Desai decided the foundation’s vocational sewing program would naturally be the focal point. Training sewers to produce produce certain Payal Singhal products would provide the women with skill-based work while adding a philanthropic component to the brand’s supply chain.

The final result is the PS x Desai Foundation collection, which includes lenghas, scarves, and tote and makeup bags in a stylish lotus print reminiscent of the nonprofit’s logo. The proceeds from the bags go directly to the Foundation (along with a portion of revenue from the rest of the line), and the sewers making them receive fair wage compensation, in fair working conditions, as well as flexible hours to meet the needs of village life.

Step 2: Build A Solid Team

To set up the supply chain, the pair traveled to one of the Desai Foundation’s sewing centers in Valsad, Gujarat with Monica Dogra, the face of the partnership. Once there, they hosted a communal event to introduce the sewers to the leadership team, brief them on the purpose and scope of the project, and explain the specific benefits they would receive by participating. “We wanted to ensure that they felt like they were a part of the process, so we had a great launch day which got the whole community excited,” said Desai.

To ensure technical expertise, the sewing team completed a 3-month preparatory program, during which an American seamstress was flown in to teach high-end cutting, sewing, and finishing techniques that would satisfy the brand’s international audience. While quality control on the products is of the utmost importance, the Desai Foundation is equally committed to ensuring a high quality of life for each worker. Maintaining open channels of communication with the women to ensure their financial, emotional and physical needs are being met is essential to their production process.

That said, the logistics of any production operation can present challenges. For example, shipping to and from the center, which is located in a rural village, can take a long time. Setting up a successful joint venture requires communicating about these potential pain points up front and ensuring both parties are on the same page. Doing so will help nurture a collaborative attitude towards challenges should they arise.

Step 3: Make It Sustainable

“Great partnerships happen when both parties have shared values and shared goals,” says Desai. The lasting power of such a partnership comes when those principles and aims are part of a self-sustaining system, which the PS x Desai collaboration executes perfectly.

By joining forces, Singhal has access to a transparent, ethical production solution (a challenge for many apparel brands) and can offer her clientele beautifully-crafted products while simultaneously making a philanthropic contribution.

The Desai Foundation’s mission is equally supported, as the union creates exactly the type of jobs women in their program need. And since the foundation receives a percentage of all PS X Desai Foundation sales, this built-in revenue stream sustains and grows the initiative.

This is social entrepreneurship at its best: a great idea, a sustainable business model, and clear benefits for all parties involved.

Three Ways To Lower Your Manufacturing Costs

This article originally appeared on our Forbes blog

When you factor in the cost of labor, raw materials, packaging, shipping and quality control, manufacturing a physical product is often more expensive than anticipated. Especially if you’re producing domestically or in small quantities, as many new makers do. While the quickest and easiest way to reduce per unit costs is usually to increase production volumes, not everyone has the budget to scale up. Here we discuss three ways to trim expenses without having to up your order quantities.

Tweak Your Design

It’s natural to get attached to your original product design (they’re called “idea babies” for a reason!), but the design decisions you make while initially developing your product are not necessarily the best in the long-term. For example, you may have chosen a material without fully understanding the cost implications, or opted for a customization during manufacturing that requires higher minimums than you can regularly afford to meet. By selecting different raw materials and components, changing the way your product is constructed, or even eliminating a few bells and whistles, you can reduce costs and increase profit margins.

The best sources of advice on making a product more cost-efficient are your supply partners. Reach out to your main assembly factory and ask them to explain the most labor-intensive aspects of your design. Find out if any of your material sources could be replaced by something less expensive without compromising the item’s integrity. Put their knowledge to use!

Take, for example, my client who has a line of pet clothing. After seeking advice from her factory, she reduced her costs by 5%. All she had to do was choose a less slippery fabric! It seemed her originally selected material was proving difficult to manage on the shop’s cutting machines, requiring more time and oversight, and a higher than average defect rate (meaning, perfectly good fabric was getting thrown away). Until she reached out to the factory, the designer was completely unaware of this issue. You may wonder why a factory partner wouldn’t offer up this useful information to begin with. Though some certainly will, others assume you’ve done your due diligence and research and want them to adhere to your exact specifications. In short, they won’t interfere with design instructions unless asked.

Remove Packaging

Are you mostly selling your products online? If so, removing excess packaging is a simple way to bring down overall costs. The purpose of packaging is to inform and motivate a sale, which, in an ecommerce setting, is accomplished by the marketing copy and great photography on your sales page. Anything the customer sees after receiving their order (such as packaging) is extra!

True, nice packaging adds to the overall perceived value of your brand; however, you can communicate value in other ways. For example, some makers remove all packaging on the product itself and focus on branding their exterior mailers and boxes with a catchy tagline and brand logo. This eliminates the labor cost of affixing packaging solutions to individual SKU’s (such as hang tags, cardboard sleeves etc); boxes and mailers have to be packed regardless, so adding a logo does not increase handling fees.

Remember, it’s okay to use different packaging for your ecommerce inventory versus items that will be physically displayed on store shelves. This may require a little extra logistical configuration, such as having your factory label separate boxes of inventory (one with retail packaging, one without), but in the long-run, it will reduce costs.

Negotiate with Suppliers

Asking your factory point blank to reduce their prices is usually effective only if you have information to back up the request. Before attempting any negotiation, make sure to secure a handful of reference quotes from similar suppliers. This will tell you where your current supplier falls within the overall ‘pricing landscape’ and what type of reduction (if any) it would be realistic to request.

For example, let’s say you’re an entrepreneur making painted wooden photo frames. You would price out your exact design (at the same order quantities you produce with your existing partner) with three other factories. If two of the quotes come back 10%- 15% lower than your existing factory’s pricing, you now have a specific range to shoot for with your current partner. It’s much more powerful to enter into negotiations with a realistic target, supported by competitive research, than it is to make a weak, open-ended request.

It’s okay to share the quote numbers you receive from other suppliers to strengthen your negotiation, but for privacy’s sake, don’t share vendor names and contact info.

Planning On Preselling Your Products? Read This First

This article originally appeared on our Forbes blog

Preselling is a great way to launch or grow a new business with physical products. Because customers pay for goods upfront, before a large batch of inventory has been made, entrepreneurs can escape the pressure of funding their own manufacturing expenses. Revenue generated by presales can be used to cover the cost of materials, production, and more.

Though the presale model may sound ideal, it does come with some risks. While seasoned brands have had time to test and refine their manufacturing process, new makers are still operating on a learning curve. Beginner’s mistakes can lead to production delays, defects and quality problems, and, in a worst-case scenario, a total loss loss of inventory. The latter can be disastrous, particularly if a brand lacks the resources to re-make the product or issue refunds.

Thankfully, there are a few things you can do to minimize the likelihood of problems when preselling.

1) Complete the Sampling Process With Your Manufacturer

In my work with clients, I’m surprised at how many people don’t get fully finished samples before starting to presell. This trend is due, in part, to the ease with which designs can be presented before they are actually made. The ability to retouch imperfect samples or create life-like digital renderings means that a concept can be partially flushed out or exist solely on paper, but still make for compelling website photography!

Going through a complete sampling process with your manufacturer of choice will ensure that your design doesn’t have weak spots and that your supplier can make the product at the level of quality you desire, in a reasonable amount of time. Getting semi-finished samples–or worse–waiting to sample until production starts (after you’ve sold inventory) leaves you vulnerable to unwanted surprises, such as poorly performing materials, assembly defects, and slower than anticipated turnarounds.

2) Perform Product Testing

Whether you are sending your finished product to a testing agency or performing your own set of tests, making sure your design functions as its supposed to is an integral part of the making process. Certified agencies are great for tests such as seam strength, material toxicity, choking hazards, and other metrics that require special equipment and precise measurements. Informal tests, such as simply using a product sample for an extended period of time, or repeatedly washing a garment according to the care instructions you’ve set, are great ways to understand if design changes are needed before you produce.

With either method of testing, it’s crucial that you’re 100% confident in the way your product will perform before sinking other people’s money into making it.

3) Build in a Buffer

The age-old advice to build a cushion into any budget or timeline is especially true when manufacturing a product. Add even more so if you are a beginner! Things often take longer and cost more than anticipated, which is fine (albeit frustrating) if you are answering only to yourself. But promising finished products to customers and then either running out of money to make them, or falling significantly behind schedule, will cause extreme stress and strain.

In order to preserve your sanity, reputation, and wallet, build at least a 20% buffer into any time and cost projections. This includes the total investment you anticipate will be required to manufacture your pre sale inventory, as well as the delivery date you set for buyers.

Real World Advice For Protecting Your Product Idea

This article originally appeared on our Forbes blog

There are few things more nerve-wracking for product-entrepreneurs than the thought of being copied, especially if you have an innovative idea. This fear is most present when it comes to manufacturing partners, as they learn about your concept before it hits the marketplace and you’ve handed them detailed instructions about how to make it!

Legally protecting your intellectual property can be complicated and costly. Trademarks start at several hundred dollars (if you do it yourself), while patent and attorney fees range from $3,000 to upwards of $15,000. The generic Non-Disclosure Agreements many new entrepreneurs rely on are often too broad, or worse, not legally binding when working with a supplier in another country. Even if you do jump through all the correct legal hoops, the cost of enforcing any of the above provisions in a court of law (particularly in a foreign court) is usually prohibitive for those on start-up budgets.

Further complicating matters is the fact that many people simply aren’t eligible for a patent, the most basic way to prevent someone from replicating your design. You may have a clever idea, but if the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) doesn’t deem it an “invention” (you can read about the requirements here), patent laws aren’t helpful.

So what are new makers to do? If legal protections are available and affordable to you, then by all means, follow through with them! But for those who can’t afford protection, don’t qualify, or who want to take extra precaution when working overseas, there are some non-legal, budget-friendly best practices that can limit your exposure.

Learn to Make a Product | Real World Advice For Protecting Your Product Idea
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Use a “Dummy” When Talking to Suppliers

Searching for a manufacturing partner means having conversations about your product with lots of different people. Most makers I work with speak to between 5 and 15 suppliers before landing on their final partner. While you’ll obviously need to provide potential manufacturers with some basic design information to confirm their capabilities and interest, it’s not necessary to share the nitty-gritty about what makes your product different.

I recommend people use what is called a ‘dummy product’ when speaking about their concept during this phase. The dummy product is another item on the marketplace, similar in materials or construction to your design, minus your ‘special sauce’.

For example, if you are making a special type of jeans that accommodate the wearer’s weight fluctuations, you could show suppliers a photo of another pair of jeans (like the ones you want to make in terms of style and material), and simply make a note that the design of your waistband differs in that it would require sewn-in elastic. This is enough information to get confirmation about whether the factory has the equipment to produce your product; the more technical aspects of the design can be shared once you’ve narrowed down your list of factories based on general criteria, such as their minimum order requirements, reputation, quality control program, and ease of communication.

Be Vague About the Product’s End Use

People are often so involved with their idea they can’t imagine anyone else looking at the design and not ‘getting it’ right away. But in some cases, the product’s end use is not actually obvious unless it’s explained with detailed verbal or visual descriptions.

Take a designer making a specialized equestrian product – a saddle pad made of unique cooling fabric . When shown on a horse, the purpose of the pad is obvious, but when shown as a flat piece of quilted fabric, it’s function is not necessarily apparent. During the preliminary sourcing phase, you can take advantage of the ability to be vague with potential factories, revealing only what is necessary.

Sometimes you can’t hide what your product does, but you can still withhold what makes it unique (and enticing to copy). For example, a smart maker may opt to source the above-mentioned cooling fabric separately and simply not divulge its special properties to the final sewing facility that would be putting it all together.

Two things to note: people employing this approach will sometimes use a private email address to communicate with suppliers so as not to link to their company’s website. Further, this type of “selective sharing” doesn’t need to be a long-term strategy. Once you’ve developed a trusting relationship with your manufacturing partner, it’s okay to be more transparent.

Search for Reviews

People who get ripped off are usually pretty mad about it. Because factory searching is mainly done on sourcing platforms which allow users to leave reviews, it’s a good idea to search the major sites for negative comments about the partners you’re considering. A simple web search for ‘sourcing database’ or ‘find manufacturers’ along with the name of the country where you are producing should yield a list of sourcing platforms to search. It’s also a good idea to do a general search of the supplier’s name.

Split Production Into Multiple Locations

Breaking up production into different locations can require a bit more legwork and some added logistics costs, but for makers with high-tech or highly sensitive products, it can be worth it. Let’s say you have a design with 3 main components. Instead of having one factory do the entire job from start to finish, you hire 3 different partners to perform different processes, so that no one supplier has the specifications or materials necessary to make your entire product.

A company might give Supplier A instructions to make two of the components, hire Supplier B to make the third, and then instruct Supplier C to assemble all three pieces prior to shipping. They may also utilize a hybrid sourcing model, where overseas suppliers make certain parts and a domestic factory (under local legal jurisdiction) is tasked with final assembly. Those who are really concerned about IP might even complete the final step in their own private warehouse.

Focus on Branding

There’s no shortcut or quick tip to achieving great branding, but it’s the ultimate IP protector. Consumers buy product due to a mix of motivators; the most influential factors being compelling branding, great photography and/or copywriting, and high media visibility. And these are all things that you, the passionate, creative force behind your product, are in a unique position to excel at! A factory that specializes in machinery and quality control and logistics? Not as much.

Whether you raise outside capital or invest in hardcore sweat equity, focusing on branding is one of the most important things you can do to crowd out those who may try to copy you.

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