From conception to reality: Creating and selling a product
If you are any like me, you have probably read several books about how starting your own business and product line is the best to reach to the stars and unlimited wealth.
Well, I knew that it didn’t work anything like that, but I was willing to put it to a test and the following story is everything that I went through from the conception till listing the item.
If there is a thing that almost every book mentions are that anyone can transform a passion into a profitable business. It is true, with a lot of work, it can be done, but not everything is as simple as it is.
Conception
The 1st step is to do your homework and by that I mean, you gotta first decide what you will gonna do and put that on a paper. Have a plan.
My plan was simple: Being a photographer I have probably spent thousands in gear that it is mostly unused. Why? Well, photography is somewhat like a drug, the more you have, the more you want (so they say).
Day after day I use the same set of gear. They are not only my favorite but they are also the most necessary and, it was based on this knowledge, that I have created the “Photography Starter Bundle”.
As soon as you purchase your first DSLR you will see that it comes into a small box with (or without) a lens and neck strap. If I could pledge to Canon, Nikon and the all the manufacturers of cameras to not send that kind of strap, I would. Fact is during the day you will have a camera that weights with the lens somewhat 30oz on your neck. Trust me, that ain't comfortable. Besides, carrying becomes an issue when you want to put it elsewhere. This is where the bag comes into play. A bit more you start noticing that you are placing your lens cap on your pocket every now and then and it will be very likely for it to be lost. I have lost easily 3 of them (that’s $24.00 worth).
Considering all of this I have added all my experience, good and bad, on an idea and put it to work. That’s when things became complicated.
Buying the products
Now that I had an idea on my head the product search started and I, like many others I believe, went to the big and famous Alibaba. The business to a business superstore that anyone can buy, as long you have some cash and guts.
Searched for what I wanted, vendor after vendor, image after image, description after description. It was exhausting. Asked for details, prices, if there were lesser amounts and so forth.
This is when the 1st issue appeared: the shipping.
We are in the USA and the products are in China. There is a whole planet between the 2 countries and as you can guess, shipping isn’t cheap. Regardless of the product size, you are looking at anything from $80.00 to twice as much. If you need more than one product, that can become an issue. The solution is what you can expect, get everything from a single vendor so you can cut shipping costs down. This automatically generates another issue, not every vendor has the same products as the other, so now, your choices are either limited or you accept the cost of multiple shipping.
You talk to the vendor, prepare the payment and done. Money is sent electronically across the planet and you realize that you need to wait and trust that nothing will go wrong for you to receive the goods.
Note: If you suffer from anxiety, like me, heads up, you might need a lot of vino to help out.
From idea to reality
The great day has come, the products have reached their destination, it is time to start creating the bundle.
You open the box like it is Christmas in August and start unpacking the goods. A careful revision is worth here. Even if all was sent as it was supposed to be, shipping can cause damage, so reviewing the items is a necessity.
It was at this moment that I have realized: how will I ship these products? It needs a box, obviously.
Another roadblock that any experienced businessman would have predicted. Christmas is over and now I had to purchase boxes. Unfortunately, you can’t find certain types of boxes on the local hardware store around the corner. After all, these boxes aren’t for moving. Gladly you can find it all over the internet nowadays, but then sizing becomes a secondary roadblock.
How can you purchase the right box size without the goods inside? What I did was to get a box that I received from Amazon, pack them as desired and got a measuring tape. Now that you have an idea of sizing on your hands you can buy the boxes and cross your fingers that you measured it right.
A week after the boxes came and I managed to construct the first bundle. It was beautiful. A lot better than I expected. At this moment a sense of pride fills your heart. It is the realization that an idea is now a reality. For me, being a software engineer, I never have the chance of touching my products, after all, they are digital, but this one, I could touch and appreciate. This is a unique feeling.
Adjusting, improving and getting it ready to sell
As a software engineer, I follow by heart the engineering cycle (see image above) and I used while developing this product. I wanted it to be perfect or at least I wanted for people to like it as much as I did and for that, you will need to swallow your pride and look at the product with a critical eye and see its strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats (SWOT). After that, I did find some opportunities that really did make the product amazing. A few things that aren’t displayed on the main picture (on the top of the page).
It was ready, now I could put it for sale and here is where things get complicated. The first thing you must know is that you will need professionally taken pictures. Gladly, I didn’t need to pay for that. You will also need a logo and a name, after all, you are creating a brand. There are several ways of doing that, one of my favorites is Logojoy but if you can afford, hire a designer.
Pricing
If you have been paying attention so far you probably noticed that there are dollar signs all over the place. Each decision will have a cost and the trick is keeping the costs low.
There is a rule on pricing things and to learn this I had to talk to my brother that owns a clothing brand back in Brazil.
I won’t tell how I precisely got the prices here, although what I have added is a very fair price considering the cost of everything but, I will add the rule.
To properly price your product you will need to calculate it like this:
price = cost of goods x 2 + profit.
What really varies is the profit. It can be high or it can be low, all depends on what is a fair price for the product. There will be products which you will have more profit and there will be products where you will accept to have the minimum profit so you can get people in the store.
Find a selling platform
Who never dreamt of selling on Amazon? The multi-billion dollar company that rules absolute on the internet. This was my initial platform of choice until I found out that it is not as straightforward as you could expect and, honestly, I became quite disappointed.
If you ever purchased anything from Amazon you know that it is super easy. If you search the word easy on the dictionary you will find Amazon attached to it. Buying things on Amazon became so easy that it is only the normal expectation that selling it is the same. Truth is that it is not.
You can only sell at Amazon products that hold a UPC and if it doesn’t have a UPC you will need one. Yes you could ask for exempt of not having a UPC but the fact is there are 2 things that Amazon Seller platform doesn’t have:
- customer support of easy access
- a platform that is easy to understand what is going on
As a comparison, if you are a software engineer like me, it is a similar difficulty as their AWS platform.
I started looking on how much it would cost to be able to hold a UPC and all the sudden I was looking on registering a company, paying for a UPC (that can cost $250.00 for starters and yearly renew fees) and there was still the cost of selling at Amazon that is not cheap.
Disappointment stroke my heart like an arrow. After all that work, I didn’t have the platform of choice for my product unless I was willing to make the cost of it even higher.
That is when I realized that I need another way. There were options, plenty actually, but I needed to see if all of this would work and this is why I chose eBay.
eBay for selling is easy peasy right? Wrong! I never sold anything before so whenever registering on eBay and posting the listing up for the first time it was taken down with no notice. eBay has a form of verifying accounts so they can ensure that the seller is really who he says he is and the goods being sold are true and not a scam.
That happened to me after I had sent a notice to all my friends for them to check it out. I’m quite glad that I haven’t paid any ad to publicize the bundle because it would be a dead end.
A couple of phone calls and I got it sorted out. Finally, it has been verified and now it can be published.
This is the end result: https://www.ebay.com/itm/312247920035. I have done it!
Time flies
2 months have passed since I first started with this idea. It wasn’t easy but it was an amazing experience. From the idea, through the process, getting it created and now being listed for sale, it is a unique experience and if you are thinking about doing it, I hope this article helps you at any form.
Now that I have created this bundle and know what to do and how to do it, I got another idea in mind. Guess that is the end result of going through this process and one can really apply the principles of books like The power of Broke, 100 Dollar Startup and Badass your Brand and build something amazing.
To you, I wish good luck and if you had gone through this process, please use the comments section on this article to tell your experience. I’m sure that we all can learn from each other.
Till a next time.
Update
Almost 3 weeks after creating the first link on e-Bay I have managed to add the product on Amazon, but it required a lot more than I expected. One of Amazon’s Seller Account rep, Eric, contacted me to ask why I haven’t added a product on Amazon and I had a good story to tell him.
With his help and direction I was finally able to ask for UPC exemption and register the product on Amazon to be sold. It is exciting to have any product to be sold at Amazon and now, I will keep monitoring and adjusting. I’m certain that there is a lot more for me to learn on this.
As for the link of the product, here it is: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JD5NRS5
