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Greetings!
This issue has part 2 of our great new series called: How Can I Sell My Product. Everyone eventually wants to sell their product and this series will give you a lot of good options for that. Don't miss out on this great information.
We also have part 3 of our taste of Sourcing Smarts. Read this taste to see if Sourcing Smarts is a something you need.
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How Can I Sell My Product? - Part 2
Private Label and Licensing You have a great idea, you
do the market research, product design, apply for a patent, find a
manufacturer to make your product and then you think: How do I sell my
product? There are many ways to sell products, really you are limited
only by creativity, yet many inventors get stuck in thinking they need
to sell to retailers. What other options are there? We will discuss
some of these options, and which products work best with them, in a
four-part series called How Can I Sell My Product. Read on...
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A Taste of
Sourcing Smarts
Taken from Chapter 2 of
"Sourcing Smarts: Keeping it Simple with China Sourcing and Manufacturing"
by Edie Tolchin, Don Debelak and Eric Debelak, here we address one of
several issues that should NOT be overlooked when sourcing and manufacturing
your product in China:
Product Design Evaluation
with an independent testing/safety lab: Yes, you believe your product is
safe, but does it conform to the various regulations for imported products? There are so many US government
agencies that oversee imported products, and each of those agencies has its own
rules to follow; doing this research on your own can cause a whirlwind in your
brain! You've got the Federal Trade
Commission (www.ftc.gov ), the Consumer Product
Safety Commission (www.cpsc.gov ), US Customs and Border
Protection (www.cbp.gov ) and many more. How do you make sure your invention
meets these various standards? The
CPSC has a list of independent testing/safety labs listed on their website. Contact several (there are many) and ask
if they specialize in evaluations of new inventions. If so, then describe your invention to
them (i.e., electronic, plastics, textiles, toy, etc.), and ask them for a price
quote on having a Product Design Evaluation done.
"Why," you ask, do you need
to work with an independent testing/safety lab? "My invention is perfectly safe!" It sure looks like that to the average
consumer. But these labs are
trained to look for issues that you or I would never ever think about. Use the example of a new type of
children's plastic craft scissors, with rounded (safety) tips, etc. Seems safe enough right? Not to the safety/testing labs! What type of plastic is used? Are there any hazardous, environmentally
unfriendly chemicals used in the components? Are there any parts that can come loose
and pose a choking hazard? Has it
been "age-graded" so that (for example) if you intend for it to be used by
children ages 3 and older, what happens if 15 month-old little sister Susie
grabs hold of them and bites off the handle!?!?!?! Has it been properly marked to show
country of origin (as required by US Customs and Border Protection's
regulations)? The list goes on and
on.
A Design Evaluation is my
favorite tool for beginning theproduct development of your invention. The labs will thoroughly review your
product for any "red flags" or possible safety issues and provide a list of
recommended modifications to get your product into compliance. They will also address the numerous
labeling, packaging and other government regulations for imported merchandise,
all to beoutlined in your report.
The last part of the evaluation will be a thorough list of recommended
production testing that should be done in one of their satellite offices in
China, once your order has
been placed with the China supplier. Although the headquarters for most of
these labs may be located in the USA, most labs have satellite offices in many
cities throughout China, which will frequently be very
close to the factory where your order is being produced. It is advantageous to have the tests
done in the China affiliate
offices rather than at the US
headquarters because the costs for production testing are frequently less
expensive in China than in
the lab's USA offices. There is also less transit time and
shipping expenses involved in sending the samples for testing to another office
within China rather than back
to the USA.
With report in hand, you
now know the modifications which must be done to your prototype, and are armed
with production testing information to bring your invention into compliance with
the various US government agencies' seemingly infinite requirements. This also helps with Product Liability
Insurance, which every new business selling consumer products should have. And, your goal with proper
production testing and addressing all safety issues is to make sure your new
product NEVER appears on the Consumer Product Safety Commission's Product Recall
List! (go to http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prerel.html ). A Product Recall can make or break any
new business!
Stay tuned for more of a
Taste of Sourcing Smarts in our next newsletter! To purchase
"Sourcing Smarts: Keeping it Simple with China Sourcing and Manufacturing"
by Edie Tolchin, Don Debelak and Eric Debelak, go to www.egtglobaltrading.com, www.sourcingsmarts.com, or www.amazon.com.
 Here is Edie Tolchin at a recent book signing in New York.
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