When you’ve got a great idea, it’s easy to immediately picture your product, packaged up, and waiting to be shipped to enthusiastic customers. But once you begin working out how it’s actually going to be made, the gulf between your awesome idea and that finished product can feel enormous.

But don’t be daunted – in reality, there is a series of manageable steps between your idea and a fully operational, cost-efficient production process. So let’s dive in.

The path from game-changing idea to final manufactured product will look a little different for every new business, depending what you're making, your timescales, and your budget. But all of the routes share a few things in common: first, you’ll need a prototype of your design, and then you’ll need to explore different manufacturing options. For many businesses, manufacturing abroad will be the best choice, so we’ll focus on helping you find a suitable foreign manufacturing partner.

Creating a prototype will help iron out some of the kinks in your design – that way, you’re left with the best possible version of your idea. Although creating a prototype may sound intimidating, the process itself doesn’t have to be. How you should go about it will vary depending on the type of product you’re looking to manufacture, as well as your own expertise and resources.

If your product isn’t too high-tech, you may be able to create a prototype yourself, or with help from friends or family. Kat Samardzija, founder of Locker Lifestyle, began designing and producing her wrist wallets in her mom’s bridal store: “I met with her seamstress and was able to do everything: buy the fabric and the zippers, and make everything from scratch.”

For many other types of products, making your final prototype at home won’t be possible —but that doesn’t mean you can’t get quite a long way through the process. Typically, you’ll want to begin with a detailed drawing of your idea. Depending on the type of product, you may also want to create a 3D model to help you visualize your product in the real world. There’s a lot of software out there that you can use to do this yourself, or you can hire someone to make it for you.

DAHLIA ON CHINESE FACTORIES

“The first year was really about developing trust, and developing ground rules for how we work together”

Now we’re getting to the fun part: creating a physical prototype based on your design. Again, how you go about this depends on a number of factors. If it’s made of fabric, and you know your way around a sewing machine, you may be able to create it yourself. Or, if you’ve gone to the effort of making a 3D model, you may be able to generate your prototype using a 3D printer. Different types of products may need the assistance of a designer, carpenter, or even a professional prototype developer.

Once you’ve got your prototype, the next thing to consider is whether you want to manufacture at home or abroad. For many people, this will be primarily determined by what they want to manufacture, but for others, there’s a choice to be made – and it’s not the simple ‘cost versus quality’ equation that many people assume. In many cases, manufacturing abroad can give you higher quality goods, with shorter lead times, and at a better price. To decide what’s best for you, you’ll need to do some research to investigate your options.

If you’ve decided to manufacture abroad, the next thing is to find a factory. You’ve got lots of options here, from searching for factories directly on sites such as Alibaba, or just using standard Internet searches, through to working with an agency, which can manage the entire process and relationship on your behalf.

It goes without saying that identifying a factory yourself is the most time-consuming and challenging approach, but for those who do it successfully, a strong direct relationship with a factory can lead to a really positive experience. Dahlia Rizk, founder of Buckle Me Baby Coats, has been working with the same factory in China for four years: “They’ve been really wonderful to me. The first year was really about developing trust and developing ground rules for how we work together. Since then we try to meet each other’s needs. I feel they genuinely want to be helpful, and it’s more than a business transaction.”

If you do decide to go direct, you’ll need to do your research to find suitable factories and then begin to narrow it down. For Dahlia, this process was fairly straightforward: “I found a sourcing agent on Upwork and he contacted companies for me overseas, got estimates, and then samples. When I found a sample I liked, at a price point within the normal range, I would start researching the factory’s background.”

CHRIS ON REJECTION

“It’s difficult to get a supplier excited about shutting down a machine that’s making them money”

Dahlia found piggy-backing on other companies’ due diligence to be a good way for smaller, budget-constricted entrepreneurs such as herself to vet potential manufacturing partners’ ethical practices, as it was impractical to visit all of the factories personally. Her research included asking questions like “who else works with them, do they have a sustainability model, do they have an ethical model?”

Also be aware that, just because a factory produces the right type of goods at the right price, there’s no guarantee that they’re going to want to work with you. Many manufacturers are used to working with larger brands, and it can be hard to persuade them of the value of taking on a new client. If you want to start with a relatively small run, you’ll need to either be able to persuade them that you can scale quickly or be willing to pay a higher-than-advertised price.

In Dahlia’s case, after lots of rejections, she found a factory who were willing to take a chance on her: “They kept asking questions about my story, and what I was planning, and they finally agreed to do a run for me. And I think that they were kind of banking on the fact that I was going to grow, and they wanted to grow with me.” But, according to Chris Schell, Account Manager at Sourcing Allies, this isn’t always possible: “It’s difficult to get a supplier excited about shutting down a machine that’s making them money today, to run a small batch that will hopefully make them more money someday down the line.”

And there are other challenges to working with manufacturers abroad. Despite having an overall positive experience with her manufacturing partners, Kat has experienced some difficulties: “I have to talk to them at 2am, because that’s when they’re up. And there can be a language barrier, although everything always gets figured out. You also often have to rely on photos of things, instead of being able to feel and touch fabrics and products in person. If I want samples it takes three weeks. So, it’s definitely more difficult.”

No ordinary business podcast

Kat and Dahlia are regular guests on Making It Work – your no-nonsense, straighttalking business podcast.

One of the benefits of going through an agency is that you avoid many of these difficulties. Chris says that companies who’ve had poor experiences working with factories abroad “generally share in the fault due to lack of clear specifications or not knowing best practices”. He adds that the long-term relationship that sourcing agents are able to have with factories generally makes it much easier to work through issues, and, of course, they do all of the due diligence on your behalf.

Whether you’re going through an agency or contracting directly, you shouldn’t stop your search as soon as you find one factory that you think you’d like to work with. Kat advises, “even if you find one factory that you like, always find a second one, so that when you get into sampling, pricing, lead times, things like that, you can at least compare them with one other. And you can also use it as a bargaining tool.”

Dahlia agrees, although she’s more worried about insulating her business from the potential impact of factory shutdowns or political turbulence: “When I was only doing small runs of 200 coats it wasn’t that risky, but now that I’m getting into runs of 20 to 40 thousand coats, it just doesn’t make sense to have all my eggs in one basket.”

As with all business relationships, there will always be new issues and concerns to work through, but laying the groundwork upfront can save you a lot of future headaches. Dahlia’s final piece of advice is to rely ultimately on your own judgement: “Trust your gut as you’re having conversations, because that will tell you a lot about what it’s going to be like to do business with them.”

Once you’ve found a manufacturer, find a second one – this means you can compare them and use it as a bargaining tool.