Last night I watched the Young Female Entrepreneurs Live Stream, “Guys as Guests” guest, Cody Shea of Five Mile Longboards. If you haven’t checked out YFE, do so at YoungFemaleEntrepreneurs.com. Their Live Stream is similar to the weekly Small Businesses Do It Better Live Stream on Tuesday nights, where you can watch live, interact with other viewers and ask the host and guest questions.
I talk with a lot of business owners, with all levels of revenues, many of them however, seem to always have a hard time getting their initial manufacturing going. Five Mile Longboards has quite the success story so I thought I’d take the opportunity to ask about getting started in manufacturing.
Cody and his partners couldn’t find a manufacturer under a reasonable price point so they were forced to start out making their boards themselves. There was one advantage to manufacturing the product themselves – they built the boards for themselves, they knew what they wanted, and they were their own consumer. The industry is catching up and there are now manufacturers who will make their boards at a reasonable price which allows them to drop their overhead costs.
“If you have a product that other people want all you have to do is push it and find the right places”
A big tip: Do research. Use the internet to find out who is already making products similar to yours, or companies in the industry who may be able to make your product easily. Search everywhere. If you do know someone within your industry, go to them first. Watch the episode with Cody Shea on #YFEtv
Thank you for sharing Carissa! Thought your question was a good one- especially considering all that they went through to create a product that people wanted.
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