Did you know you can create a product to sell in 10 weeks?

When I started out it took me a lot longer. I had no idea what I was doing, went down various rabbit holes on Youtube and wasted a lot of time and money. Fast forward to my subsequent products when I knew what I was doing, and I had a checklist; well the whole process was a lot more efficient, and I was making money from the product a lot sooner.

It can be done, so in this episode I share with you the fundamentals of how you can create your very own product to sell in 10 weeks.

EPISODE NOTES

Listen in to hear me share:

• An introduction to the topic (00:22)
• Get my free checklist (02:57)
• Week 1 - Get clear on your product idea (03:31)
• Week 2 - Validate your product idea (06:16)
• Week 3 - Data gathering & thinking about pricing (12:29)
• Week 4 - Prepare your supply communication (16:19)
• Week 5 - Research credible suppliers (19:15)
• Week 6 - Tracking responses (22:42)
• Ordering samples (26:00)
• Week 7 - Shipping & logistics (28:30)
• Week 8 - Finances (30:52)
• Week 9 - Placing your order (33:13)
• Week 10 - Creating a marketing & launch plan (34:05)
• Join me in my group programme (35:45)

USEFUL RESOURCES:

Read the accompanying blog post

Free Product creation weekly planner & checklist

Free Validate your product idea

Podcast: How (and why) to validate your product ideas

Podcast: Should I source my product overseas?

Podcast: Shipping & importing your products

Podcast: Where to sell your products online

Join the group programme waitlist

Book a Power Hour with me

LET’S CONNECT

Join my free Facebook group for product makers and creators

Find me on Instagram

Work with me 

Mentioned in this episode:

FREE call for Amazon Sellers

I’m running a free call on 26 Feb for anyone selling on Amazon (or planning to) who’d like some practical support and a chance to talk things through together. It’ll be very relaxed - a mix of updates from me on upcoming Amazon policy changes, Q&A and discussion about what’s working and what’s not right now. It’s fine to come along and chat, or to just sit back and listen. I’d love to see you there if you’re able to join.

Amazon Sellers Support & Connect

FREE call for Amazon Sellers

I’m running a free call on 26 Feb for anyone selling on Amazon (or planning to) who’d like some practical support and a chance to talk things through together. It’ll be very relaxed - a mix of updates from me on upcoming Amazon policy changes, Q&A and discussion about what’s working and what’s not right now. It’s fine to come along and chat, or to just sit back and listen. I’d love to see you there if you’re able to join.

Amazon Sellers Support & Connect

Welcome to the Bring Your Product Ideas To Life podcast, practical

advice and inspiration to help you create and sell your own physical products.

Here's your host Vicki Weinberg.

Hi, wherever on whenever you are listening to this, I hope

you've had a wonderful week.

Um, so this is another solo episode, just me today.

And I want to talk about creating a product to sell.

When I created my very first product, which was about six years

ago now I wasted so much time.

Um, I'll be honest.

I had no idea what I was doing.

I had no plan to follow.

I went down loads of rabbit holes, spent way too much time on YouTube.

And I also wasted a lot of money as well.

And that's not to even to mention all of the missed sales during the eight or nine

months, it took me to get my product live because of course the sooner you can get

your product ready to sell the sooner you can start making some money back.

So for subsequent products, because you may know I had a brand of baby products.

So that was my first product, which was Bamboo baby swaddles that

took ages and ages to get live.

But for subsequent products, I had a process.

I knew what steps I needed to take.

I knew which order to take them in.

And I even created myself a checklist in Trello to work through and subsequent

products I was launching somewhere between, I don't know, six and eight weeks

depending on the product and, um, that's not including obviously the production

time in terms of going from, okay, this is products I want to add to the range to

having it sort of, you know, ready to go.

That was a time scale I was looking at, which was obviously significantly cheaper

and cheaper and quicker I should say.

And, um, that really is all about just knowing, um, what to do, um, when to

do it and yeah, the steps to take.

And so that's why I wanted to share this episode with you, which is how you

can create a product in just 10 weeks.

And if you're listening in lifetime, that means by the end of 2022, the end of

this year, and the reason I'm recording this episode now is a few reasons.

One, because if you do it now, it is doable to do it by the end of the year

in case you're wondering why 10 weeks when I've just told you that I've done

it myself in six or eight, I'm kind of going for the worst case scenario.

Um, or maybe not even worst case, but you know, I'm trying to build in

time for you to take things at your own pace, knowing that you might

have busy weeks where you don't have a lot of time to get anything done.

Um, obviously converse, you might have weeks.

You've got a bit more free time and you'll be able to to get more done,

but I wanted it to be achievable and manageable and best of all, once you

know, the steps involved in creating a product to sell, you can repeat this

process time and time again, anytime you want to add a new product to your range.

And as I say, it will get quicker and it will get easier, um,

because you'll be more confident.

You'll know what you're doing and you'll have, you know, have

improvement to work before.

Before I go any further, I just want to tell you about a new

free download I have for you.

It is a how to create a product in 10 weeks planner that goes through everything

you need to do each week, step by step.

And it's got little boxes for you to tick off your progress.

So it ties in really nice with this episode.

And you can get that by going to checklist.vickiweinberg.com/planner.

That's checklist dot V I C K I W E I N B E R g.com/planner.

And of course that'll be linked in the show notes as well.

So let's get going.

And of course, because I'm doing this in order I'm going to start with week one.

So week one is about getting clear on your product idea.

The very first thing you want to do is define what your product is and who your

product's for and I want you to really take some time to think about this.

So what is your product?

Um, and rather than just saying, well, it's a towel.

Okay.

Well, what sort of towel?

Um, who's who's what problem does it solve?

Who might buy a product like this?

Who's it for?

You know, it might, is it for children, but you are expect parents to buy it.

Is it a towel for swimmers?

Is it aimed at, um, a different demographic?

Have a real think about your product.

Is what's what's it made of or what makes your towel different?

Are you making a towel that you can change underneath for people

who do open water swimming?

Are you making hands free towel for mums with small babies, have a think through

all of this and jot down all of your initial thoughts about your products,

whether that's how or what it's made of.

How it works, how it's packaged and don't know, worry if you don't know

the answers to everything now as well.

So if you know, okay, I want to create a towel for, um, parents

with new babies, and I want it to be sort of hands free in some way,

but I don't know quite how I do it.

That's fine.

Just make a note of everything that you know right now.

And as we go through the process, we are going to start to refine.

I also think about what's your USP or unique selling point.

This can, and probably will change when you start to do some research

in later weeks, but it's always good to get your initial ideas onto paper.

Also think about why you want to create and sell this particular products.

Maybe this is your USP.

Maybe you've been in a situation where there was something

you desperately needed.

Um, it wasn't available and you've decided to create.

Knowing what your USP is, might also come in useful, further down the line when

you start to talk about your product.

So for example, in your marketing, your social media posts, maybe if you get

any press, so definitely worth taking the time to think this through, you also

need to be thinking about your customer.

So who is your customer?

What problems or concerns they have?

How would your product help them?

And a final, very useful thing to think about is where your ideal customer shops.

So for example, do they shop online?

Do they shop in person?

Do they shop via social media now?

Are they likely to buy things on Instagram posts or do they shop

on other online marketplaces?

For example, Etsy.

Knowing this also helps you decide where to sell your

product further down the line.

But I should just say, if you don't know this now, do not worry because

this is something you can ask you know, once, next week we are going to talk

about validating your product idea.

We're actually talking to potential customers.

So if you don't know where they shop, make a note and we can, we can

ask people that when we get to it.

So that's week one.

In a nutshell, it's about getting everything down out of your head, on

to paper, all of your initial ideas for your product as a starting point.

Week two is about validating your product idea.

And I'm going to pre-warn you that this is a big week.

I think we went in for hopefully fairly easy with week one.

That's something you could probably do in half an hour to an hour.

If you've got a bit of quiet time, but week two, there's quite a lot to do.

So there's two stages to validate a new idea.

The first one is customer research, knowing who your customer is,

is key, which is why we spend time on that during week one.

It re it helps you to ensure that you are creating the product your customers want.

The product they need.

And it also makes it easier to be sure you're speaking to the

right people this week, when we're starting to validate your idea.

I should say that I've spoken about validating your product, your ideas a lot.

I have a free guide with have lots of free ideas, and I have

a whole podcast episode on this.

So if validating your product idea is something you want to know more about

there is more information available.

If you can't find it, drop me an email and I can send you over the links.

Um, but there will be links in the show notes as usual as well.

So what we don't want you to do here is just ask your

family and friends for input.

So you, you know, you've got great idea for a product.

Um, and of course, we're not saying, I'm not saying don't share it with

people, but your friends and your family might not be your ideal customer.

And asking them can be tricky because you might find that actually they

say what they think you want to hear.

Yes.

Yes.

That's a great idea.

Go ahead.

You know.

That sounds like a wonderful product and actually they don't

know because they're not the person that would buy it or use it.

Or you might find that they go the opposite way and they were a little

bit cautious and they put you off and they say, is that a really good idea?

Would somebody really buy that?

So I'm not saying don't listen to their opinions and I'm certainly not saying

don't talk to them about it, but I am saying unless you've your family

or friends and this possibly won't apply to all of them, you might just

have a few family members or a few friends who are your ideal customers.

If they're not the person who ultimately your product is targeted at, you

have to take it with a pinch of salt.

To give an example from real life, when I was trying to validate some

of my ideas for my branded baby products, I had one friend who I know,

I should say I wasn't asking for her thoughts, but I was telling her about

my products and what I was planning.

And she was saying, well, I don't know if people would buy that.

And I, that seems a bit expensive.

And this person I was talking to wasn't a parent, and I'm not saying

that means her opinion wasn't valid, but she definitely wasn't the person

that I was targeting at that time.

And yet, of course I still was quite hurt by the feedback.

Of course I was, because this was my business and my brand.

And you know, you, you only want to hear nice things, but I did have to sort

of a little chat with myself and say, okay, she isn't someone who's likely

to buy this anyway, which doesn't mean her opinion isn't valid, but for the

purpose of my research, I need to talk to people who, you know, potentially

might buy my products in future.

So maybe, you know some potential customers for your products

personally, if so, great.

If not go and find them, you might be able to find them in Facebook groups

or other online or offline groups.

And once you do find them, you need to ask them some questions.

So you want to ask things like, um, have they ever bought

a product similar to yours?

And if so, what they thought of it, if they have never bought anything

similar to your product's idea, you could ask them whether they'd consider

buying it, what reason they'd be buying it for and what they'd expect to pay.

One of my favorite questions to ask is if you were buying an X,

whatever it might be, what would it need to do or be to exceed, or

even maybe meet their expectations.

And you can do all of this without giving away too much, because I know that you

might not be comfortable sharing all of your product plans and ideas just yet.

You don't need to go out there and say I'm going to sell and

whatever it is, what do you think?

You can ask all these questions, hypothetically, and just

gather a bit of research.

And as I say, a lot of this, you can do online as well.

So if you, again if, you don't need to be setting up focus groups, you don't need

to be walking into a room and speaking to people, if that's not your thing, you

can perhaps find Facebook groups with, as I say, if your product was aimed

at swimmers, maybe you can find some Facebook groups without demographic and

maybe check with the admin if you're not sure, but I can't see anyone would object

to you going in and saying, I'm just wondering if anyone has bought a, whatever

it is and can I ask a few questions.

So the second phase of validating your idea is to carry out to

market and competitive research.

And by this, I mean, look at other products.

This is really easy to do online.

Again, you don't have to, this is time consuming, but you

don't have to do it in one go.

This is something you can definitely do in little chunks.

But the key thing here is to keep notes and be meticulous on this.

I like looking at Amazon to do my competitor research.

And even if you never intend to sell there, because I know you might not,

you can really learn a lot because so there's whole range of products on Amazon.

And a lot of them have reviews.

For some reason, it seems to be a marketplace where people really do

leave reviews..If you're listening to this and you sell there, you, you know,

you might be going 'really?' But you know, it, it is hard to get reviews.

Um, however, for whatever reason, you do tend to get more there

than you would somewhere else.

If your products are handmade, then Etsy would be a good place to look.

And what you're going to be doing is search for products similar to yours.

And it might be that your product is completely unique, but

there's likely to be something comparable or kind of similar.

And you are going to be looking at those product's features, um,

how much they're selling for.

You can look at their photos.

And importantly, you're going to take the time to read the reviews

because they will tell you a lot.

If you are short on time, um, because depending what kind of niche you're going

into, that, you know, there might be lots of similar products on the market

already just read the one star and five star reviews, because then you get

to find out why people really dislike products and why they really like it.

And as I said, make sure you do keep notes.

So when I do this, I have a spreadsheet.

I write down the name of the product.

I include a link to it.

I write down what the price is, and I have a column for what people like what

people dislike and the features as well.

And this will really help you design and refine your own product.

So this week is all about data gathering.

When we get to week three, you're going to write your product specification.

So you are going to use what you found out during the last two weeks to make

your product the best it can be and write up a detailed specification.

And at the moment, this is just for your use.

While you're doing this.

I think there were two questions that you can give some thought here.

One is how can my product meet my customer's needs because

you've spoken to your customer.

Hopefully you've got an idea of what they're looking for.

And the second question is how can I improve on the

products already on the market?

Because remember now, you know what other products are already out there.

You know what people think of.

How can you make yours better?

So coming back to my towel example from earlier, maybe you've been looking

at similar towels and everyone said, oh, they were a bit scratchy or they

were a bit small, or I wish they were brighter colours, or maybe I wish they

were more camouflaged or whatever it is.

You can see what people are actually asking for and create

a product that meets that need.

Also, even if you're making products yourself, I still believe

a product specification is helpful because you may still have to

source ingredients or components.

So if you make candles, you might need jars for example, and it's always good

to have something to refer back to.

Of course, if you're, if you're making something really creative,

like art or jewellery or photography, then perhaps you work intuitively

and you can skip this gap.

I'm going to leave that to you to judge.

But if you are creating a product that you intend someone else to make

for you, you really need to do this.

So this is about taking your initial ideas, everything you've learned, really

taking some time to think it through and getting something down on paper.

I also think that this week is a great time to make a decision on price.

I've spoken about this before, but I'm going to talk about it again.

I try and keep it brief.

I like to think about what I might sell my product for at

this stage for a few reasons.

Um, main one being, in my opinion, I'm most likely to get it right?

Because I've just been looking at the market.

So I know what other products are around and I know what they're selling.

I know how my product compares against theirs, because I've

just done my specification.

So I know, okay, all my competitors are charging this,

but actually mine's a bit bigger.

So perhaps I can charge a bit more.

And I've also asked my ideal customers for their opinions about what

would you expect to pay for this?

Um, and what, you know, what do you want from the products?

I think this is a really great time to think about what

your selling price will be.

Because the danger of pricing your product later is that you're basing your price on

the production price, or maybe your time.

If you're making your product with the aim of making a product, a

profit, which means that the price you choose might not be viable.

If you price your product this way round, when you start to get the price for it

to be made, you can see if a profit is possible right away based on the price

you've already decided you're selling it and if not, if you start getting prices

back and you realize, actually this product is not going to be profitable,

then you can do something about it.

So you can look at other suppliers, maybe look at sourcing in other countries.

Maybe you can tweak your specification.

But the one thing I don't think you want to do is to say, okay, well, I

can't make a profit unless I sell my product for X amount and then price

it so high that nobody buys it because remember people, actually for you to

make a profit you have to make sales.

And if you you're, if you're pricing your product, just to make a profit

without thinking about where it fits in the marketplace, then that's, you

know, that's, that's a harder sell.

So a little word of caution.

I do have a whole podcast episode on this, which I will of course link to in

the show notes, um, where you can hear me well, basicically saying what I'm saying

now, but in a bit more detail, but yeah, bottom line is, think about the price now.

I think it's a great time to do it because you've just done all this research.

Really good.

So moving on to week four this week, you're going to prepare

your supply communication.

So you did most of this work last week when you finalized

your product specification.

So this week is a really good time to put it into an email template

you can send to potential suppliers.

So I recommend writing a standard email that you are going to send to every

supplier that you contact via email.

Because even if you are looking at suppliers in the UK and you think,

well, I can just phone them up.

Most of the time they'll say to you, oh actually, can you

send that over on an email?

So just saves them, writing everything down.

Also, if it's in an email, there's no ambiguity, you know, no one can

say, oh, you didn't tell me this.

Or I wasn't aware of that because it's in writing.

What you want to include in this is everything.

A supplier would need to be able to quote for your product directly and

accurately without giving everything away.

So at this early stage, I think that you, you know, you might not want to be

sharing designs or blueprints or, you know, whatever your products consist of.

You basically just want to be giving enough information

that you can get a quote.

So that might be, I don't know, that that might be a fine line, but I

think you'll, I think you will know.

Um, and if you don't know, of course you can get in touch and ask for help.

You might want to think this week about whether you need a patent

or any other protection as well.

If you haven't thought about that already.

Because I think when you are starting to think about how much you're

willing to share with suppliers that might throw things up or you go,

oh actually maybe I should see, um, if I need some sort of protection

before I start speaking to anybody.

So what I suggest including are the key requirements for your product.

So that's everything that's fixed and you won't be swayed and then

asking the supplier, in turn, your sort of deal breaker questions.

So these might include things like, do they handle the packaging in house

because maybe you need to find a supplier who can do packaging for you.

Um, you might want to ask, what are their current lead times, because

it might be that if they can't, you know, if they can't work to a certain

schedule, then that doesn't work for you.

Um, if you do ask this, it's also worth asking whether there were times of

year when this significantly changes, because for some products it does.

And you also might want to be asking about their minimum order quantities,

because it is quite likely that, you know, you are going to have a budget that

you can spend for this initial product.

And if they want you to order a thousand, that might just not be feasible and

it might just rule this supplier out.

So think about what you, you are going to, what they're going to need

from you in order to give you a price and what you are going to need from

them to establish initially wherever you could potentially work together.

Because the first thing you're going to be doing, once you start contacting

suppliers, is ruling them out.

Um, that's how it tends to work.

You sort of rule them out, rule them out, rule them out until you

end up with hopefully with a couple where you think this could work.

So week five, I suggest is a good time to research credible suppliers.

And then perhaps towards the end of this week, start to contact

them if you're doing really well.

You know, if you've managed to get your supply communication done right at the

beginning of week four, maybe you move on to this a bit sooner, but let's say,

you know, you've only got limited time.

Week five is when you need to start your research.

The first thing to think about, and I'm sure you have thought about this

already potentially, is where you ideally would like to source your product from.

Um, and by this, I mean, are you looking at the UK or are you looking abroad?

Um, I do often get asked what's better and I have to be honest, it really depends

on what you're looking to sell because you can't get everything made in the UK.

You, I suggest that you weigh up the options and maybe even

look into multiple scenarios.

So if your product could be made in the UK or it could be made abroad, or

it could be made in a few different countries overseas, it might be worth

looking at suppliers in different locations so that you compare the cost.

You can compare the quality and the lead times, obviously depending

how much time you have and which, you know, what's important to you.

Because for example, it might be really important that your

product is made in the UK or if not, as close to home as possible.

Um, or actually the most important things to you might be that you

can get it for the right cost and those things don't tie up.

So think about what's important to you when you're making this decision.

And remember that this also applies to any sort of components,

packaging, ingredients, anything you need for your product.

So even if you're making your product yourself, presumably you are going

to need, source, you know, whatever you need, to make your products.

And I think the same things apply.

My key piece of advice here is to be really thorough.

You can work with sourcing agents if you want to, but you don't have to.

This is definitely something where I think you can save money

and you can do it yourself.

Um, the one thing to know is that it does take time, um, using your

networks is a good way to get recommended supplies, manufacturers,

nothing wrong with asking around.

Some people will tell you who they work with.

Some won't.

But then, you know, there is no harm in asking.

You also might find someone, you know, knows somebody who works at a factory

that does this or that or whatever.

So do ask around.

I also think there's nothing wrong with Google for finding and

verifying potential suppliers.

Particularly if you are looking to source products out of China.

If you're looking in China, I always recommend using

Alibaba, um, is a sourcing site.

I've got episodes on this.

I won't go into details now, but it's good.

It gets better all the time and it's a good way to find suppliers there.

But if you're looking in the UK, there's nothing comparable and Google

is definitely the place to start.

So what you want to do is end up with a short list and actually it

should be quite a long short list.

I'm thinking you want for maybe initially 15 to 20 suppliers to

contact and, um, yeah, once you've got this list, start contacting them.

You're going to use the email template you already created.

So hopefully it's just a case of finding an email address on the website, perhaps

following it up with a phonecall.

Depending where they are and see what you get back.

Um, and one final thing, and this is just on the side.

If you haven't already, this week might be a good time to think, okay, do I

need someone to help me with design or branding or anything like that.

By, I'm well aware this is a big week so this may, this might be enough for you.

So when we get into week six, we're talking about tracking the responses.

So I'm going to make an assumption that it took you a lot of time

last week to research suppliers.

It should take a lot of time.

It shouldn't be something that you do in half an hour because, um, well, if, you

might find really great suppliers doing that and if you have that's amazing,

but in my experience, it does take quite a long time to research suppliers

that can do what you need them to do.

Um, are, you know, you can verify they are who they say they are.

And yeah, it can take a while basically, especially because I do, as I say, you

really want to be contacting 15 to 20.

You could probably find one very quickly, but I, I do think the

more you contact the better.

One of the reasons being it gives more choice.

So even if you contact 10 and all 10, let's say can do what you need, it gives

you a bit more negotiating power because you're going to get 10 prices to compare.

Rather than two or three, and you're going to know, um, it gives you a

better idea of what you should be paying because you might not have any idea.

I know that I used, I certainly didn't in the early days.

And I found that the more quotes I got, the more I got a sense

of what the price could be.

Um, and you find that, you know, say you get 10 quotes back, you'll find

the most fit into a kind of ballpark.

And then you'll get a few outliers that seem really high or really

low, which to me is a red flag.

If you're only contacting two and one's really high, one's really low.

You might think I'll go for that one because it's the lowest without realizing

that actually that's way too low.

And if you contacted a couple more, you'd realize that.

So, yeah, I think I went off on a bit of a tangent then, but

yeah, contact lots of suppliers.

And I would say that this week you should start to receive replies.

And by the way, if you are really ahead of this then well done, because this is the

part that I think some people can struggle with, because it is a lot of work and it

is very time consuming and it's possibly something you've never done before.

And I think it's a bit daunting as well.

So let's say there's supplies are start, the replies are starting to come in.

I'll also say if they're not don't panic, it can take a couple of days because

you never know how busy suppliers are and how many inquiries they're getting.

So once you start getting replies in, I would suggest immediately disregarding

anyone who can't meet your specification.

This sounds really obvious, but it can be easy to get swayed.

I think I've shared the story before that I wanted my baby

products to be made of bamboo.

But when I started sourcing, I got lots of people come back and say, I can't

do bamboo, but I can do organic cotton.

And I did find myself going, oh, organic cotton doesn't sound too

bad, but no I'd said bamboo and I shouldn't have even thought about it.

I should have said, you can't see bamboo?

Okay.

Thank you for getting back to me, but no, thank you.

I also suggest disregarding any suppliers where communication is an issue.

So whether that's a language barrier or whether, you know, they've simply

not been good at responding, you know, you're waiting, you know, a couple of

days, every time to get a reply, or maybe you feel like your questions aren't

being answered because you're looking for a long term relationship here.

And if you feel like there might be communication difficulties from the start,

that's not really a good way to begin.

So in short it's time to be ruthless.

I am rubbish at being ruthless, but this is one time when I can do it.

Because it's really important.

You might, towards the end of this week, want to think about

ordering product samples, depending how conversations are going.

I suggest ordering two or three samples from suppliers that you feel that you

would be happy placing an order with.

Assuming the sample is up to standard, because to me, the

sample is the final thing.

It's like, okay, I've got this group of suppliers, you know,

the communication's great.

They can deliver the product.

The price is okay.

The minimal order quantity you know, everything's okay.

Now, I just need to see, you know, the product for myself.

And even if you're just looking for materials or components for your

products, I still think this is important if you're looking for, so

your component, it might be actually, you don't need to worry about samples.

You can just place more order and get the, whatever it's you're looking

for and, and see what it's like.

But if this is a custom product, you, I would suggest a sample.

Um, whether that means you need a custom sample or not, it, it really

depend on what your product is and every case will be different.

I think only you can know that if I'm honest.

Um, so you're going to order a couple of samples and then I think what you need

to do is compare them with each other.

And I should also say if you are ordering a custom sample and it's

expensive and you think, actually there's no way I can afford two or

three because it's really high price.

Um, then I would just order one from the company that you, you know, most

like, you know, the one that you feel actually is the front runner.

And I would then perhaps compare that sample tool to similar products at home.

If I had them or see if I could borrow something from someone, or maybe I would

order something similar online with the intention of returning it, to compare them

to just, so that you, you know, I think it's very hard to look at something in

isolation and go, is this what I wanted?

But once you put it side by side, it's, it's a bit easier.

Whatever your product is.

So if it's something that you can use wear, um, whatever, then do the thing,

you know, wear it, wash it, play with it.

What, whatever your product is intended to do, do that thing with the sample you

receive, because you need to see how it stands up to day to day use, and you need

to find any issues before a customer does.

So if you get a lovely product sample, please don't just keep it in the box.

Looking pristine, actually use it and check that it does what you need it to

do, because if it breaks the moment you handle it, you need to know that now not

when you've ordered a hundred of them.

So week seven, um, is about shipping and logistics.

And I've, I, I suggest you do this this week because it might be actually that

narrowing down suppliers and ordering samples does take more than a week,

so that can be carrying on as well.

You might be having conversations with suppliers, but at the same time you

can be thinking about your shipping.

So if you're sourcing your product abroad, in fact, wherever you're

sourcing your products from, you need to figure out how are you going to

get them from the supplier to you?

There is a whole podcast episode on a blog post on shipping products,

shipping and importing products, I should say, from abroad, which is well

worth a listen as it is a minefield.

And there is a lot to get your head around.

Um, and if you only listen to one other episode, I do think this is a useful one.

Um, I do think that you need to think about this before you place your

order, because the method you use to ship your products will impact

on your final product cost and potentially your lead times as well.

So, you know, you have to weigh up how quickly do I need this

product to be here and how much can I afford to pay to get it here?

You need to have an idea of, you know, are you going to pay an input fees and what,

you know, how much is that going to be?

Um, how are you going to clear customs?

All of this stuff.

And I'm not trying to, um, I, put you off at all here.

You know, that's not my intention, but I do feel that you, you need to be

thinking about this now, rather than when you know your products are ready.

And then they say, okay, so how are you getting over?

And then you think, oh, I haven't even thought about that.

So do think about this now.

Um, this would also be a good time to think about logistics once

your product is ready to sell.

If you have the head space to do that now, and I fully appreciate you might

not, but at some point you need to also think about where you're going to store

your product when it gets with you.

And actually if you're looking at your shipping this week, um, maybe

you do need to decide that because you might need to tell somebody

where they're actually sending it.

And the other thing to think about is how you will ship to customers.

So will you send out products yourself initially?

Will you use a third party?

It might depend on the marketplace you use, for example, if you're going to

sell products on Amazon, you might think I'll send them to an Amazon warehouse.

If you do think that, don't send all of your stock ther., I

have an episode on this as well.

Um, but you just need to have, just think this kind of thing through.

And the other reason to do that is that it will all impact on the

finances, which is what we're going to talk about during week eight.

This week I want you to check and double check that you've included

everything in your costing, and you're comfortable with the profit margin.

So, you know what it's going to cost to make your product, you know what it's

going to cost to get your product to you.

Even if you haven't got like exact cost down to the penny, you know, you

you've got a good idea by this point.

Um, I also think you could think about any future costs.

So for example, um, let's say, you know, you're going to sell on Amazon and there's

an, there's a, there's an account fee you have to pay, find out what that is.

Um, maybe you are going to set up a website.

You haven't done that yet.

Well, there'll be a hosting fee.

You might have to pay for a domain, find out as many of these costs as you can.

Don't worry if you know, there's, I was going to say, don't worry

if you miss anything, because without being pessimistic, it's

really easy to forget one thing.

Um, but let's, you know, let's not make it a big thing.

The biggest cost is going to be the product cost, potentially the shipping

cost as well, depending on where your product's made and the packaging,

make sure you have all of those costs.

If you forget, it's going to cost you, I don't know, 20 pounds a year for

a domain don't panic about that now.

Well obviously if you can, include it now.

But if you don't, don't panic.

Um, but you know, think about all these costs and, you know, are you

going to need boxes, packing orders?

Are you going to need, how much are you going to pay?

You know, are you going to be sending orders to customers

and it's going to cost you?

I don't know.

I don't know how much it costs to post things.

Two pounds 99, an order, for example, anything, you know, you're going to

be spending including a spreadsheet so you can work out, work it.

This might not take you a whole week, I should say, but in my experience,

it's a task that can often take people a while to sit down and actually do

for many reasons, unless, you know, you've got a real head for numbers.

So for some people I know this is fun, for me it's definitely not my favorite.

This is a task I personally tend to put off for as long as possible,

but it is really important.

Please, please, please, don't skip this step because before you place

your order, which we're going to do next week, you need to know where

you are financially, you need to know where your money is going and you

need to have a good idea of whether you're going to get any of it back.

So week nine is decision time, placing your order.

So hopefully now you've found a supply that you're happy with.

You've agreed all of the terms, all the numbers add up and

it's time to place your order.

Before doing that I would just ensure you're really clear on everything.

So for example, the product price, lead times, packaging, how the item

will get from the supplier to you.

Everything that, you know, you need to be nailed down before confirming the order.

And I also suggest having this in writing.

And even if that's just an email where you email over and say, okay,

so we've agreed X, Y, and Z, please.

You know, email me confirmation that, that, you know, this is your

understanding, too, whatever it is, try and get it in writing.

We can say I'll make it easier in the very unlikely event that things go

wrong further down the line and say, there you go, your product's ordered.

I say, there you go, where this has taken nine weeks.

And there's been a lot of work, but celebrate because

it's exciting then week 10.

So you might be thinking, okay, well I've just placed the order,

you know, hard work is done.

Well, actually there is a lot to do while you wait for your product to arrive.

Two things.

I think you want to be thinking about is creating a marketing and launch plan

because you need to start thinking about, okay, you've got products arriving.

You need to start building excitement for it.

Perhaps you're going to start taking preorders.

There's, you know, there's a lot to do.

Um, you also need to think about how and where you're going to sell your

product and start to get prepared.

You, you know, maybe you know where you're going to sell your product but

what you need to start doing now is opening up accounts, online marketplaces.

If you haven't yet set up your social media and your website you

might want to do that now and just plan out all of your next steps.

You will also need to be thinking about writing your product

description,aranging product photography.

Um, there are lots of things you'll be wanting and needing to do.

These are just some of the big ones for the full list you can download

my product creation weekly planner.

As I mentioned earlier, is completely free linked in the show notes.

Um, and I also gave you the web address at the top of the episode and you know, this

is it really, this is, this is 10 weeks.

This is what's involved.

And I I'm aware that I've whizzed through this fairly quickly because

otherwise it'd be a very long episode.

I can't possibly cover off everything here.

I should say that you might feel that actually you can do this quicker

than I've, you know, I've laid out, for example, you know, you might

be able to do multiple things per week and that's absolutely fine.

I think I said right at the top of this episode this is all intended as a guide,

you tackle it however suits you best.

My intention was just to make this as manageable as possible if you're short

on time, but you could work through the planner at your own pace, whether that's

faster, slower, whatever suits you.

I still think it's a really good resource.

Um, and I should also mention that if you wanted to work through this,

not alone, and you wanted a bit more input from me and from other people,

I do have a wait list for my group programme, where we're actually going

to be going through this as a group, creating your product in 10 weeks.

In, in a very small group, it will be capped, you know, to keep numbers small.

So I can spend, you know, a decent amount of time with everybody.

If you're interested in that programme, I have a wait list.

The wait, the address is checklist.vickiweinberg.com/waitlist.

So it's checklist, all one word.

Dot V I C K I W E I N B E R G.com/waitlist.

And if you are interested, it's a, you know, it is going to open up

in a couple of weeks and this is the first time I'm running it so

it's going to be a reduced cost.

And if you go for the programme now, starting in September, you

will have your product ready by the end of the year, which I think

is a fantastic position to be.

And so if you want to create a product this year, you haven't yet done it.

It is still possible.

You can work with me, we can do it together.

Um, if you have any questions, you can always contact me.

It's vicki@vickiweinberg.com.

Ask anything you like, if you're not sure if it's for you because

of course I only want you to sign off if it's something that, you

know, genuinely will benefit you.

So I hope, you found this episode useful.

I feel like I've talked quite a lot in the last half an hour.

Um, and yeah.

Do remember to share the episode with anyone who might enjoy it and

always come back to me with any questions and I will see you next

week with another fantastic interview.

Thank you so much for listening right to the end of this episode, do

remember that you can get the full back catalogues and lots of free resources

on my website, vickiweinberg.com.

Please do remember to rate and,review this episode if you've enjoyed it

and also share it with a friend who you think might find her useful.