Do you want to manufacture your own brand products? Manufacturing business may seem like a cost consuming project, but it’s not any more. I want to show you the simple to create and manufacture your own brand products now,

Before now, many entrepreneurs think manufacturing their own brand product is difficult. Well, from my observation and experience, it’s much more simpler than you think. I have done it several times and still do. It has been the success crest of many importers in Alaba market and International trade fair market.

So I have not only proved that it’s possible but that it’s also simple. I’m also going to show how you too can do it, in a precise and straight to the point writeup for even a newbie to quickly read through and begin to apply the steps successfully.

Meanwhile, What I’m showing you here is a small business way to starting out in manufacturing business. This will get you started with less cost and even no manufacturing equipment cost.

Before You Manufacture Your Own Brand

Let me enlighten you on what’s happening in Manufacturing Business in Nigeria. There are different classes in product business as operated in Nigeria. The classes are Manufacturing, importation, logistics, distribution, marketing and sales.

You are either going to be involved in one of them or you can choose to climb the ladder till you get to the topmost, which is manufacturing. Most importers have moved into manufacturing because of its many benefits.

As a manufacturer you have the advantage of the monopoly of your brand. You gain a share of customers who love and buy your brand. You can control and determine, how, where, when and who gets involved in your product. Most importantly, you can make more money Manufacturing your own brand product.

However, what has dominated the manufacturing industry today is not factories but brands. There are more brands than manufacturing companies in existence. If you think what I’m going to show you is how to plan, buy and setup your own manufacturing equipment, you missed the point.

How to Manufacture Without Your Own factory

These days, manufacturers no longer build factories. They only create and build brands, while they outsource the manufacturing of their products to big and established factories somewhere around the world; preferably in China.

You can also outsource to other manufacturers here in Nigeria. As long as the have the expertise to produce your product in the best quality you desire. You can use any manufacturer anywhere that’s cost effective and convenient for you.

The main work you have to do when Manufacturing your one brand product is creating the product you want and building the brand in the market. If you get the product right, with the brand perfect, then Manufacturing is just as simple as tap water.

Step One: Choose The Right Product

The main problem with picking a product to manufacture is picking the right product. This may seem the hardest thing to do, but this is the most important decision in manufacturing your own brand product. It shouldn’t be something you struggle alone to pick.

Your product would make or mar your manufacturing dream. That’s why it’s the most important step on how you manufacture your own brand product. Hiring a consultant to help you at this stage may be the right decision to make. If you get this right, you will have it easy pushing the product into the market.

The best products are not necessarily the product nobody else is manufacturing. In fact, it’s safer to manufacture a better version of what is already selling in the market than trying to introduce a new product that nobody knew before. Unless the new product is solving a major need that most people have and are willing to pay to solve it.

Also, your choice of product should be based on the solution it provides in relation to the vast number of people that it’s solving their problems. Its also better if the products would be in demand for a longer time. That way your success will not be cut short.

And if you are choosing products that are already being sold in the market, I will advise that you work on making your products better or finding out the solutions that the current product is not offering but are needed by the consumers and add them in your own product.

Step Two: Create Your Brand

The brand is equally important when Manufacturing your own product. Remember, the key part of this manufacturing business is having your own brand. So, the brand part has to be done well. Branding is more than just having a a name and logo. It should have the right customer appeal that translate to sales.

It’s not that easy anymore to just pick a brand and starting building your product on it. There are a lot of factors that comes into play when picking a brand name. While you can choose any name you want, you have to consider if it’s available to register as a business name, domain name, for trademark, and if the social handles are not taken yet.

Until all that is sure, you cannot say you have a successful brand. That’s why it’s advisable to hire a consultant for the job. Although, it’s not a cheap option because you have to pay consultancy fees, but it’s better if you want to build a big brand.

Let’s look at steps you need to take to create a brand:

• Choose a brand name
• Design a brand logo
• Buy a domain name
• Create social media handles
• Design your brand website

Choose A Brand Name:

But the first step in creating your own brand is picking the brand name. A name is key to branding. Choosing the right name with the right brand image doesn’t just come so easily. It’s involves lot of brainstorming and checking to verify its available to use.

In today’s world, it can take years to come by. However, the fastest way is to create a name that’s not existing. If you are looking for brand names like Google, Amazon, eBay, Apple, you may never find one.

After you have found the right brand name, register that brand for trademark. Don’t forget this part. If your brand is not registered, you may lose that brand to another person. And if someone else infringe on that brand you can sue them and get compensated.

Buy A Domain Name:

Another way to finding a brand name is finding the domain name first. This could be the fastest way to find your own brand name. A brand is as good as its domain name. But good domain names are not easy to come by these days.

Your best bet is to buy it from domain resell sites like SEDO. These domain reseller sites are marketplaces where those who have domain names for sale can offer them to those who want to buy them. So, you can browse the huge directories of these sites and pick what domain name you want.

Design A Brand Logo:

The brand logo is as important as the brand itself. Your brand image is the brands identity that defines how the brand is perceived by the customers. You have to do a great design to represent the brand well in the minds of the customers.

Hire a top designer for this job if you want the best design. Who does your design would determine the result you get. The bottom, get the right desire for your target customers.

Create Social Media Handles:

This shouldn’t have been a part of the plan. But in today’s business, not having social media handles may be a major disadvantage for your brand. Your brand has to be better represented on all the major social medias that your target customers use.

Design Your Brand Website:

Your website is where all the important things concerning your brand live forever. Your website is the life blood of your brand online. Anybody can clone your brand, but your website is one place your customers should find you undiluted.

It’s easier to design beautiful and functional website in today’s world. One thing you must focus on is to design a website that’s interactive and usable by your customers. If possible, include eCommerce capabilities to help your customers buy your product directly from your site.

Step Three: Find A Manufacturing Partner

After you have done all the needful for your brand identity, the next step would be to find a partner who can manufacture your products in the best quality and price. Don’t take this steps for granted. Some major brands before you are doing the same thing. Brands like Apple, LG, Binatone, Samsung, etcetera, all are using contract manufacturers.

They do not have a factory of their own. They all use manufacturing partners. You should follow the same step, especially if you are a newbie in manufacturing. But the process of choosing one may not be easy at all.

Sometimes you may need to work with a manufacturing partner to produce your first sample before you can conclude on starting the full production with them. And if you are interested in visiting their factories as well to be sure of what they are promising you, then you can visit before you kickstart the full production.

You can find manufacturers online on alibaba.com. You can also hire a consultant to help you get good manufacturers and create your first sample. This will save you from poor quality products. If your product is poor quality from beginning it may not win the customers patronage.

Create Your First Sample Product:

If possible, create your first and second samples. If you are going to hire a consultant, which I advise you do, the quality of your product is determined from the sample work done. And don’t mistake the name sample, it’s costlier to produce sample if you go about it the best way.

Let me explain briefly how this works and the impact on your brand product manufacturing. A sample helps you see how the final product works and what customers can expect from your brand.

However, after the first sample is done, it’s not the final product. You will need to hire an expert to analyze the parts used and recommend specific quality parts if required to ensure that your product meets quality standards.

Note that China is home for any kind of quality and if you don’t decide the quality you want, they will give you any cheap quality they can find to make more profit and that will harm your brand badly.

So, an expert will analyze the parts used and recommend quality or better parts and the manufacturer will now quote a new price based on the new recommendation. Then you will produce the second sample based on the quality parts recommended. The two is then tested to prove any difference in quality, functionality and what have you, in relation to the kind of product being manufactured.

Step Four: Start Your Production

Once the prototype or samples are certified ok, the next step will be to begin first batch of production. I always recommend that you do not produce more than five thousand units.

For some products I recommend just one thousand or even less. This is the job of a consultant to help you make this decision based on the type of product you are manufacturing. You should know that if you make a mistake of over producing it can harm your business and tie down your capital as well.

And being a new product it’s always wise to go with a small order at first. If you noticed I used the word start your production. That is because I know that it may take some time to produce and as a business you shouldn’t be doing nothing while your manufacturing partners are producing your first batch of products.

So, we will be discussing what you should be doing during this time in the next step.

Step Five: Start Your Marketing

Notice that I didn’t use the word advertising for a reason. Marketing and advertising are not exactly the same. While marketing has to do directly with markets, advertising deals primary with mediums of promoting your products.

So this time, I want you to focus on the markets that is how I want you to start your marketing. I will recommend you hire a marketing consultant for this job. For your brand products to gain instant acceptability and growth it needs grassroot guerrilla marketing strategy and not media hype.

You can decide how many states distributors you want at first or you can choose to cover the whole country. It’s entirely dependent on your marketing budget. Your marketing consultant would give you the cost when you are ready.

But the reason for this kind of marketing is to help make your products available everywhere and build a proper network of distributors and retailers in every city. You can even start getting orders before your products arrives into the country. That’s what I call success.

Step Six: Start Your Advertising

Now I can recommend that you give your online marketing a boast as well. That will increase your online presence and start bringing in sales. Remember you have distributors and retailers nationwide already or in the cities you marketed to. Now, it’s your job to promote your products and direct your customers to your retailers location nationwide.

This kind of advertising has two impact, it will make your retailers who have not stocked your products to quickly rush to the distributor to buy stock. Also the same for the distributors, once they keep getting order request from retailers they will quickly place more order.

You know distributors order is big. So each time customers go asking for your products you will get a big order from the distributors. And once they have ordered they have to sell them.

The other thing is that customers will already be able to get the product in their city and save themselves the cost of online shipping if they have to only get your products online. And if you marry the two very well, your. Haines will grow very fast in such a short time than you can imagine.

Conclusion

Finally, this is supposed to be just about manufacturing your own brand product but I have also covered marketing strategy. If you want to progress and take advantage of what I have shared with you here or even ask questions use the comment box below or email me directly.

You can find many products available in the market to start Manufacturing your own brand. The key here is not really about the product but about your own brand. Look for a product with huge potential and produce it with your brand. Period!