Regardless of what you do or what you sell in business there will be pros and cons. Just look at selling digital or physical products for example- while digital products require no shipping they can be harder to value and harder to sell than actual ‘items’. But with physical products there are lots of steps that you need to follow to bring your idea from a thought to a final product that people want to buy. If you’re considering doing this, here’s what you need to know.
Perfect the Design
Chances are you already know what your product will be and what it will look like, but you need a professional designer to turn these rudimentary ideas into something that will actually work. You’ll more than likely need to hire a product designer who can take your ideas and start turning them into reality, pointing out what is unlikely to work based on their experience and perhaps providing you pointers into things you hadn’t considered. Choose a professional who has knowledge and experience in the niche that you’re working in for the very best results.
Conduct Market Research
The next thing you’ll need to do is to take your idea to your target audience, the people who will likely be purchasing the end product, and get their feedback. You might think your product is incredible but not everyone will agree, you might have made some serious errors in the concept that you need to address or have overlooked certain aspects altogther. In most cases, you’ll just need to make some minor tweaks.
Create a Prototype and Apply for Patents
Before going into mass production, you’ll want to make sure your product turns out exactly as you envisioned it. Have a prototype made so you can physically check for any flaws or issues, you might want to run another round of market research where people can see the product with their own eyes to find out if there are any further design changes that need to be made. Now is a good time to apply for patents too, once you have the final design figured out if there are any parts that you want to be patented and protected you should look into patent management so you can protect your interests.
Take Stunning Photos
The photos of the products on your website really can be make or break. You might have a great product but rubbish pictures will put people off, or might not show it to the best of its ability. Have a professional photographer come in who has experience with shooting products, as well as pictures of the item itself it’s often useful to include ‘lifestyle’ type pictures too showing it in action. For example, if your products are clothing or homeware then you’d show them on a model, or displayed in a home. Bloggers tend to take incredible pictures these days, so working with a number of bloggers means you can share their content across your social media too meaning more photos of your products in action.
