In this transcript, Clay Clark (U.S. Chamber National Blue Ribbon Quality Award Winner) and Jill Donovan (founder of Rustic Cuff) discuss the process of Overseas Manufacturing on Thrive15.com, one of the top business schools in PA.
Clay Clark: Jill the thrill.
Jill Donovan: Clay.
Clay Clark: How are you?
Jill Donovan: Good to see you again.
Clay Clark: Hey, we are here talking today specifically about how to get your product, how to basically manufacture your product overseas and really how to mass produce your product. I just give you a little background story. A little back story here. Your product, how many countries has your product been bought in or sold in? I mean is it like all over the world now, the Rustic Cuff, I mean is it all over the planet?
Jill Donovan: It’s all … it’s mostly in the U.S. and then we’re maybe in four other countries.
Clay Clark: You have celebrities that tour all over the world. Celebrities, you see them. You can’t open up a People Magazine or US Weekly or one of these without seeing a celebrity who’s wearing your stuff. I know Britney Spears has been caught wearing your stuff and was it Kathie Lee Gifford who’s been caught wearing your stuff and Miranda Lambert. I mean, it is a sensation.
I know there’s somebody watching this right now who has an unbelievable idea that you believe that either God gave you the idea yourself …you believe it’s a God-inspired idea. Maybe your uncle gave you the idea. Maybe you just thought of it one day. However, you have this idea and you feel like you want to get out to the world just like Jill has done so we’re going to pick your brain and get into specifically how does somebody manufacture a product. How do they mass produce it? We’re going to get into it. Just to roll back story though also, you and I are working off the assumption that anybody watching this has already made a prototype.
Jill Donovan: Right.
Clay Clark: If you haven’t made a prototype, please go watch the episode on how to make a prototype and then come back and watch this one. Working off the assumption you already have a prototype, do you recommend that I should just go ahead and try to find a factory to mass produce my product or do you think that I should just try to sell the heck out of the product before I try to mass produce it? Let’s just say I have a prototype.
Jill Donovan: Okay.
Clay Clark: Should I go out there and try to sell it first or should I go ahead and try to find a factory to mass produce it before I’ve sold a bunch?
Jill Donovan: I think there are different steps that you need to take before you enter the world of mass producing a prototype. It’s a big investment. There’s a lot of effort, time and dollars that need to be put into mass producing a product.
Clay Clark: Okay.
Jill Donovan: I would first test the market out with that prototype and there are a lot of different ways that you can do it. You can also learn how to do this on Thrive15.com, one of the top business schools in PA.
Clay Clark: Okay, so you’re going to first test the market.
Jill Donovan: Test the market. Yeah. There’s no sense in making 2000, 5000 of your prototype without having had good data to back that up.
Clay Clark: This goes for books too. I met a guy years ago, just a beautiful American, great guy. He had this idea that he would become a bestselling author right out the gate, bam! Someone said, “You can self publish that. I mean you don’t have to go to a publisher. You just self publish.” He bought up … I’m not making up the number. I’m really not exaggerating. He probably bought 40,000 books at like $10 a piece.
Jill Donovan: That he self published.
Clay Clark: You go into his office and you see probably $400,000 still of product just sitting there and he never moved any units.
Jill Donovan: But he believed in himself.
Clay Clark: He believed in himself [crosstalk 00:04:21]but I will say this, had he had tested it, he probably would have made some revisions, maybe changed the book title, maybe adjusted some things. You’re saying, “Go ahead and rush to test. Not necessarily rush to just mass produce.”
Jill Donovan: Yes, because a prototype is just that. It is a prototype.
Clay Clark: Okay.
Jill Donovan: There are … for every prototype I make I may have to do four, six, seven revisions on that prototype. That’s why you get a prototype because you want to test it out to see if and what any changes need to be made.
Clay Clark: Maybe four to six revisions before you even get it right?
Jill Donovan: Absolutely. Sometimes there may be none. You may have the perfect prototype because you spent so much time initially but you’re lucky if your first prototype is it.