Manufacturing your own product is both heady and frightening. All the unknowns make it fearsome, particularly when it comes to the financials. You’ll most likely need help in the early stages of your business.
Fortunately, much of that help is available locally and much of it is free.
Small Business Development Centers
The SBDC assists small business owners. It provides a variety of free and low-cost services, such as:
• Training classes on business topics.
• Counseling with business consultants.
• Assistance with creating business plans.
• Information on Small Business Administration loans.
SCORE is a national network of 10,500 retired and working volunteers who are experienced entrepreneurs, corporate managers and executives.
SCORE offers free, confidential, face-to-face and online business counseling.
They can show you how to create financial statements and balance sheets and how to figure start-up expenses, profit projections and cash-flow statements.
Reference librarians are familiar with directories, trade journals and other materials that can help determine your market. The in-depth knowledge you can gain from this free resource can help to give you an edge over your competition.
Public libraries also offer online resource databases you can access from home, including:
• ReferenceUSA, a trove of information on businesses and people.
• EBSCOhost, a collection of databases containing thousands of journal articles on a variety of topics.
• Reference sites GALENET and Facts on File.
Bare Necessities
Here’s what you’ll need to be your own manufacturer:
Business Plan
Craft one for free with help of your local SBDC or SCORE.
Money
The general rule-of-thumb is that you will need enough to run the business for six months. Obviously, you will need that amount in addition to the amount you need to live on. Only you can determine what those amounts are, but you will need to do that to have some sense of security as you start out. Again, SBDC and SCORE folks can help you calculate start-up costs. Business Name
The name you select for your business is your DBA, short for “doing business as.” A DBA designation allows you to legally operate your company under a name other than your own. If you are using your own name but you are adding something to it such as, Tom Smith Auto Parts, that would be a DBA. Declaring your DBA is a simple matter of going to your county clerk’s office and paying a small fee, usually less than $100.
Bank and Merchant Accounts
You will need proof of your business status, such as your DBA documents or your certificate of incorporation, to set up a business bank account. You may want to set up merchant accounts to accept credit cards for purchases of your product. The only cost here should be the money that you deposit to open your account.
UPC
If you plan to sell your product through retailers, you will need a uniform product code or UPC. This is the little bar code you see on virtually all retail products. The Uniform Code Council provides information on its Web site about how to get set up.
You will need a council membership for your company. The cost depends on the size of your projected business. For most startups, it’s less than $500.
Once the council has assigned your company’s identification number, you can take it to companies in your area that specialize in creating bar code labels and stickers.
If you intend to sell exclusively through the Internet, through catalogs or through your own storefront, you won’t be required to use barcodes and won’t need to join the Uniform Code Council.
Warehousing
You’re going to need to do the legwork on your own. Only you know how much product you will need to store, how much space it will take, and how much you’re willing to pay. But, again, the folks at the SBDC and SCORE can help you figure that out.
Sisters Mary Russell Sarao and Barbara Russell Pitts are co-authors of “Inventing on a Shoestring Budget.”
Contact them at www.asktheinventors.com
