This article was written by Samantha Bruandet, Copywriter at MorphoMFG. Morpho has helped manufacture over $2 million dollars worth of Kickstarter campaigns, and other non-crowd funded projects.
Manufacturing with a cheap factory is like flying with a low-budget airline: You always end up paying more.
Be it time or money, and, as we all know, time is money, going for a comparatively cheap-er factory when manufacturing a product will almost always give rise to unpleasant surprises.
Everyone knows what a low-budget airline offers: cheap, actually, unbelievably cheap fares. Sounds too good to be true? That’s because it is.
Flying low-cost also means, amongst other things:
– Having to commute to and from an airport located out in the boonie. It’s far, really far, from the city it is supposedly servicing.
– Check in takes hours, as low-cost airlines usually only have one or two counters to serve all passengers.
– Hidden Fees. If you want to bring a suitcase with you, it will cost more.
– If you happen to be thirsty, or God forbid hungry, that will be extra.
– If you want to sit by the window, and watch the take off or landing, show me the money baby.
– If you don’t want to pay extra to choose a seat, you’ll end up being crammed up in the back of the plane, between the toilet and the pantry.
And so on…
And so forth…
You get my point.
So, when you are booking a ticket with a low-cost airline, feeling all excited and jittery about that crazy-tastic deal you just got, you are basically signing up for a successions of headaches, hidden expenses and overall, a series of frowns that will put a damper on your getaway, from the very start ‘til the very end.
Not such a pleasant way to travel you’d think. Well, if you can bear with me and try to compare that experience with that of manufacturing products, using cheap-er factories, you’ll understand where I’m coming from.
Everyone likes a good deal. Actually, let me re-phrase that, everyone LOVES a good deal. And this is why it is hard to see through “good” deals and understand whether they are good, pretending to be good, or actually pretty bad and will turn out to cost you much, much more in the end.
If the deal seems too good to be true, it probably is.
When manufacturing a product, whether it’s using Alibaba or any other similar platform that will connect you with factories, people like to shop around. And that is normal, actually it’s great. There is a Chinese saying “货比三家” pronounced “Huo Bi San Jia” that literally means “compare the price at 3 different stores”.
So that’s a good thing.
You get to see what different people are offering, what the average cost price of the product you are trying to make is and, you can make better assumptions regarding what your retail and wholesale prices are going to be.
But the bad, really bad, decision that people make, especially when working with a factory located in another country is to pick that one factory offering the cheapest deal.
It’s a very bad idea. Very bad. Really really bad.
First, if you’ve done your work correctly, you’ll notice that the price span you are getting for your product doesn’t digress that much from factory to factory.
If you are working with honest factories, and that is a good way to eliminate the bad ones first hand, all the quotes you will receive should be, more or less, in the same ballpark.
So don’t make that mistake. Don’t be that guy. The ‘low-cost-crazy-tastic-deal” hunter guy. It will shoot right back at you. In the most harmful way possible.
Cheap factories offer cheap prices for a reason.
In the same way low-cost airlines can afford to put these cheap flights on the market, they will:
1. Generally cut corners on quality.
2. Offer to make only one very approximate version of your prototype.
3. That prototype will provide no indication on whether your product will work or not.
If you are unhappy and decide to fly to the factory, that will cost you more. (Unless you decide to fly low-cost, but then again, I’ve warned you on that one).
If you don’t go to the factory and trust them just a little more, they will push you to open molds to see the ‘real’ version of your product.
After the fist batch is out and you are still very unhappy with the product, they will say that the fault is not theirs but yours. Here is a list of the headaches you will experience:
1. If you want to pursue, which you probably will, since tooling is pretty pricey, you will then have to pay extra for changes to the tooling.
2. If you are still unhappy they will often back out in the middle of production and say that none of the money is refundable since the tooling was outsourced to another factory.
3. Other issues will include: poor communications skills, low response rate, and a general feeling that your project is of very low priority on their list.
Without wanting to scare anyone, if the deal is really too good to be true, it’s probably a scam, so don’t send money without being 100% sure of yourself.
If you decide to do it all yourself, and are new at manufacturing, take your time to find a good manufacturing partner. Don’t rush into a partnership based on an attractive price alone. In addition, I recommend reading our previous article on the biggest manufacturing mistakes entrepreneurs make.
Look for responsiveness, good Internet presence, standard prices and some previous work and testimonials if possible.
How MorphoMFG Aims to Help.
If you want to avoid all the trouble, save yourself a plethora of headaches and, “believe it or not” money, hire a professional who works with a network of specialized factories, on a daily basis.
MorphoMFG bridges that abyssal gap between product designers and factories. If you prefer to spend your time making your business skyrocket, instead of thinking about the whole manufacturing part, then Josh, the founder of MorphoMFG is definitely your go-to guy.
Him and his team have helped manufacture well over $2 million dollars worth of Kickstarter campaigns, and other non-crowd funded projects. They are known to have a very personalized, transparent and straight-to-the-point service.
No hidden costs, no surprises, and best of it all, many of their previous clients have sworn that even including the service fees, you will almost always end up spending less than if you had done it all by yourself!
They will save you time, money, and you won’t have to fly anywhere.
That last one alone should be a massive seller!
Sounds too good to be true? Check out our website www.morphomfg.com and scroll down to the testimonials.
Conclusion
We’d love to hear any questions you have in a comment below! For further reading, we recommend the FastCompany Article “Life After Kickstarter: 5 Costly Lessons From A Kickstarter-Backed Designer.”
