Templates & Tutorials

Must-Have Tools To Grow Your Product-Based Business

CHECKLISTS | VIDEO TUTORIALS | BUSINESS TEMPLATES

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1-2 times a month I send out a curated list of tips, resources, and opportunities specifically for the maker community. We focus on useful, actionable items that will help your business grow. This is an email you don’t want to miss! The Maker’s Digest is only available if you subscribe to our email list.

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Education for product entrepreneurs.

STEP-BY-STEP GUIDES | VIDEO TUTORIALS | TEMPLATES | RESOURCES

Use our tools & expertise to bring your product idea to life!

STEP-BY-STEP GUIDES

Complete instructions to launch your product, including vendor suggestions and other helpful resources!

The Complete Maker's Guide
"Made in the USA - $59.99"

Get a step-by-step action plan for launching your Made in the USA product. Includes a suggested workflow, money-saving tips, and resources for finding the best partners.

The Complete Maker's Guide
"Made Overseas - $79.99"

Get a step-by-step action plan for launching your made overseas product. Includes a suggested workflow, money-saving tips, and resources for finding the best partners.

TEMPLATES

Download and apply directly to your business! Each template includes a summary, video tutorial, completed sample, and fillable PDF or Spreadsheet.

Complete Product
Outline - $19.99

Guide your design and manufacturing decisions with a professional product outline.

Organize Sourcing
Research - $24.99

Manage contact info, follow ups, quotes and more.

Supplier Vetting
& Evaluation Tool - $24.99

Learn how to narrow down suppliers and choose the best partners for your biz.

Supplier Contact
Database - $19.99

Capture everything you need to know about your supply partners in one place.

Costs & Profit Margin Simulator - $24.99

Calculate costs, enter prices, and simulate your revenues and profit margins.

Professional Factory
Purchase Order - $19.99

Edit with your name and logo and review maker-specific terms & instructions.

Sample Sign-Off
Sheet - $19.99

Lock up quality control by creating a formal process for approving samples.

Material Tracking &
Inventory Projections - $24.99

Keep track of ‘materials on hand’ and organize purchasing and production.

VIDEO TUTORIALS

Learn how to vet suppliers, how to decide where to produce, best practices for managing quality & more!

Fundamentals of
Product Manufacturing - $29.99

Learn how product design and manufacturing actually works. A must-watch for new entrepreneurs who want to understand how physical products are designed, sourced, made and shipped!

COMING SOON!

Fundamentals of
Sourcing & Vetting - $29.99

Everything you need to know about finding the perfect factory partners. Learn where to search for suppliers, what to ask for, vetting tips to avoid ‘bad apples’ and more.

Fundamentals of
Quality Control - $29.99

Avoid production mishaps and defects! Create a simple, effective quality control program for your business.

Fundamentals of
Negotiating & Cutting Costs - $29.99

Reduce costs and improve profit margins with these insider tips! We’ll cover a variety of cost-reduction strategies, including the art of negotiating with factories.

RESOURCES

Legal
Incfile: Need to file an LLC? Register your trademark? Incfile is one of the most affordable ways to get legal help.

RocketLawyer: Get access to customizable legal documents as well as (affordable!) advice from attorneys. This is a great place to secure an NDA for your product idea, start a provisional patent, create a licensing agreement and more.

Graphic Design & Branding
Fiver: Fiverr is great for accomplishing low-cost, project-based work, such as a logo or social media graphics.

99Designs: Let graphic designers compete for your business! Host a design contest for logos, branding guides, product artwork and more.

Design Crowd: Crowdsource your graphic design project, including print design for tee shirts and other apparel items.

Build a Story Brand: If you do nothing else from this list, read this book! It will help you clarify your brand message so that people buy your product. Enough said.

Sourcing
Maker's Row: A great place to find factories in the USA.

Aliexpress: You can use Aliexpress to find easy products to private label, packaging solutions, and other materials that can be ordered in lower quantities.

Ecommerce
Shopify: The benefit of Shopify is that you get a super-professional, functional website, that's easy to manage on the backend, and that connects with a bunch of helpful shipping and promo apps. They have great DIY templates, although we recommend hiring a web developer to "make them yours" (you'll still save money going this route versus creating a site from scratch).

Fulfillment
Shipmonk: Want to make money while you sleep? Use a site like Shipmonk to handle all your fulfillment. Just ship finished product to their warehouse and they'll do the rest.

EasyShip: Another great fullfilment provider with accesible minimums. They can handle the shipping portion of your crowdfunding campaign.

Email Marketing
Mailchimp: Everyone needs an email list. Mailchimp has a great free option to get you started.

ConvertKit: Another email service provider, but with expanded functionality. For example, when someone checks out with a product on your website, you can assign them a certain tag, and then trigger a series of automated emails (i.e suggest more products, collect feedback etc) over days, weeks or months.

Tech Packs
TechPacks.co: Create a tech pack to manage design specifications and provide factories with a blueprint for making your product.

Upwork: You can use Upwork for a range of professional services, such as help with tech packs, photography, and digital marketing.

Finance
QuickBooks Online: It's VERY important to track your expenses, even when you're just starting out. Plus, if you're an LLC, you'll need to submit a P&L and Balance Sheet to your accountant when it's time to do taxes. Quickbooks automatically connects to your bank account as well as selling platforms like Shopify and Paypal.

Square: Want to process payments on the go? Attach Square’s card reading to your phone and take credit card payments at fairs, trade shows and other live events.

Please note, none of these companies have asked us to promote their products. While some pay a commission since we send a lot of people their way, all of these resources are things we would 100% share regardless. We hope this list helps you grow your business!

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About Learn To Make A Product™

Learn To Make A Product is an online incubator for physical products. We give entrepreneurs the mentoring, connections, and resources they need to launch and grow successful product-based businesses.

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Templates & Tutorials