I’m feeling antsy. I’ve been pacing around my dining room this Sunday morning and decided to write a post. I’m about to launch a product that I essentially half-assed. Of course the voices are telling me it won’t sell. That I just wasted eleven thousand dollars of my own money. Two-thirds of the money I spent was on a patent attorney and paying a relative unknown to do a fifteen-second product video next week. I’m organizing everything completely off the cuff and making stuff up as I go. Ideas are coming to me with such frequency and intensity that it’s all I’m thinking about lately. I can’t watch anything on Netflix. I can’t sit long enough without looking up some product launch-related topic. I can barely eat and I haven’t showered today. I tried going for a short hike and found myself approving package designs I made up earlier this morning. The electronic motors buzzing from the two 3D printers in my dining room table running almost 24/7 for the past three weeks has become my new white noise. I’m thinking about an offer I made to a designer of one of the parts of my product who ghosted me after giving me conditional permission to sell the design. I’m the developer, the marketer, the advertising, the sales, the logistics, the manufacturer, the legal team, the whole shabang. I’m on my own. I see that I’m suffering and worrying about things that haven’t even happened. I keep stalling because all the lights are not green. The lights will never be all green at the same time. I took each light one at a time and here’s what I’ve learned.
The First Light: Numbers
The ability to estimate is more important than exact calculations. I’m not a huge numbers person. I barely got through college algebra and the last class I took was statistics many years ago. I find that an obsession with numbers detracts from my ability to think creatively. I use estimation to free my mental resources from that burden. I thought of a product I wanted to sell so the first two numbers I need are: 1) how much will it cost to make? and 2) how much I can sell it for? I like to use Tim Ferris’ eight to twelve times cost-to-price ratio. Just to keep things simple I go for a 10x. I did the math and the product will cost me about ten dollars to make myself. This makes my sale price one-hundred dollars. Is that a reasonable price? My five minute research on Amazon and my personal experience as a consumer within my target market says yes. The light is green for this idea. Time for the next light.
The Second Light: Legal
Now I need to make it difficult for people to take my stuff. On Amazon I like registering a new brand with Amazon for each product idea I come up with. This is a relatively simple process that just requires a trademark application to be done with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). It just has to be filed and within a week, I register the brand using the application number and get approved for a category. To create a listing for the product, I create a UPC barcode on my account on the gs1 website. I still to this day don’t know what gs1 does for me. All I know is that it lets me put something in the “GTIN” required field when creating a new Amazon listing. Now I can decide if I want to file a patent on a product. My general rule of thumb is if the product is so niche-specific that a normal person wouldn’t know what it is, then I probably don’t need to patent it. The people within my niche are probably too specialized in the hobby or niche that they probably don’t possess any real product development skills and scaling. If it is a product closer to mainstream and an average person could understand or even use the product, then I would get the patents filed. I figure if it becomes a mainstream hit and someone else makes it big off the idea, I can litigate them for a share of the profits. Now that this light is green, I can finally start creating the product or conduct market testing. I’m lazy so I skip testing and go straight to market. I’m a see what happens and adjust course on the way kind of guy.
The Third Light: Sourcing
I spend an hour on Alibaba looking for products similar to what I need. Contrary to popular belief, I go for quality products. I do want to keep costs low, but I have a bit of pride in the products I sell and try to make it perfect. I never achieve perfection, but I get close enough as I can to it and start selling. On Alibaba, I find something similar and ask them if they can modify or brand it. For one part, I discovered I can print with a 3D printer and decided to do that. Now the cost comes down to my labor, maintenance, and repair of the assets I’m using to generate income. I had no idea how frustrating 3D printing a product can be! I’m finally hitting a groove and things are running smoothly but it took hell to get there. Taking apart printers and troubleshooting was a crash course I wasn’t expecting. I almost gave up a few times. But I persevered and now there’s about 100 products sitting in a box next to my dining room table full of finished products. I’m my own manufacturer! This model of business is starting to appeal to me greatly and will transition towards this moving forward. I sourced my other Alibaba pieces and awaiting for the last shipment to arrive next week. I measured the products and did a box design on Packlane and presto! Green light.
The Fourth Light: Marketing
This is the part I have the least experience in. I’ve never marketed a product to the masses before. I’ve run into some luck of filling a need in the market without needing to market. I knew this product was different and I need to convince people they need it. I have some general ideas and they all seem good. I created some bold statements and claims. I broke down the steps of how to use the product in three rhyming sequences. I positioned the brand and item for a niche market who are already familiar with the terms and slogans. I’m borrowing a Rosetta Stone slogan proven to work. I’m thinking of social media but this is my brick wall of experience. I do not use social media so I plan on outsourcing this project. I chose one keyword I will run on a PPC campaign and hopefully capture some of those searches and conversions. I decided to forgo the private product website but reserved a domain in case I change my mind. I decided to run it exclusively through Amazon. Mostly because it involves less tax paperwork with the infamous California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA) whom by personal experience, I hate to work with. I rather let Amazon deal with them and all the tax issues that come with e-commerce. I sat down with a referral of a friend who does videography and storyboarding. I liked her ideas so I hired her. We’re doing a fifteen-second product video, wrote a script, and getting ten stills for the product page and all in time for my first shipment. Last green light. The product is ready for launch.
The Final Lights to Success
Everybody launches a product with the hopes of making millions. My initial goal is not so high. My goal is to recover my initial investment and allow the product to give me returns long past the time of anxiety and uncertainty. I realize that if I could get through these first four lights, I’m golden. Whether it succeeds or fails depends on the the lights or obstacles that come after this. I think it’s a waste of time if I sat and waited to think of moves for every obstacle I might encounter. I rather think of it when it happens. By making sure I cover these first four lights, I know I’ve positioned myself for a pretty good launch. I also know that if I keep on keeping on, I will eventually get my money back. After that, it will be pure bliss knowing that I created a product that makes money while I’m sleeping. I can sleep having the peace of mind that I solved an issue for people within my niche and have improved their lives in some way. This product will pay for my current dream of paying off debt and quitting my job to create products full-time. I’d like this experience to help me become a venture capitalist because I love ideas and want to be surrounded by them. I want to help bring ideas to the market. I think I’ll get a good sense of what works and what doesn’t here in the school of hard knocks. Hopefully this product will be my graduation diploma. Keeping hustling.