Starting out as a new manufacturer can be brutal. Whatever sector you choose to get into, you will always find a lot of competition from already established players who can make it very hard for your new venture to even be noticed, let alone sell anything. But there are ways around this huge hurdle for those that are determined to carve a niche of their own.
We are going to explore some vital survival tips for new manufacturers, look at the things they can do to even the playing field, and ensure they keep their customers for a very long time. If you are planning to open a manufacturing firm anytime soon, then this is for you.
Reinvent your Products Regularly
Before you make a brand name, you will need to involve yourself in a lot of legwork in the form of reinventing your products as many times as you need to. This trial and error is very necessary as that’s the only way you will know what works and what doesn’t.
Whether you are running something as technical and skill intensive as a table base factor or something as delicate as a pharmaceutical manufacturing firm, you need to keep reinventing your products in all aspects until you find the winning formula.
Keep Track of Competitors
You are always in competition at all times, no matter how good or big you become. This is why big companies keep investing heavily in advertising as they understand well how opportunistic their competitors can get. If you are new to the game, ensure you keep track of your competitors.
This doesn’t mean that you mirror their every move, but you should have countermeasures when they try to gain an advantage over you. It doesn’t matter how far apart you may be from them; the market is now global. You could be an LED bulb manufacturer in China competing with another LED manufacturer from North America for a market in Africa. Never blink for a moment.
Get the Right Branding
Your brand is what people interact with for the first time when they are engaging with you. Being your first line, you need to design a brand that is not just easily recognizable but should match the nature of the industry you are in.
The logos and the colors you chose to go with should match your nature of business and want you are trying to represent to the point where a single look is all someone needs to know exactly what you are dealing with when they look at your logo. Simplicity is the way to go here.
Maintain Focus
Do not be a jack of all trades, as that will stretch your resources and manpower too thin for you to make anything substantial. Having a focus and concentrating all your efforts on one niche will lead to specialization, and that, in turn, will lead to expertise. You will be more versed in making certain products, and your reputation will be built on that.
Handle Everything In House
Being new, there’s a high chance you may be constrained in terms of capital. By the time you set things running, you will probably be out of cash for anything else. This may tempt you to outsource some services, and that could be the worst mistake you can make.
If you can handle every single princess in-house, then you will reap more as you will be ensuring that everything runs uniformly. This means creating your products from scratch, branding them, conducting quality control, all the way to manufacturing your own cardboard box printing for packaging to distribution. Controlling every arm of the production process is good for overall quality and efficiency.
Invest in Your Employees
You could do everything right, from getting the right product, the ideal location for your factory, and even securing the right markets to supply, but without the right staff to handle all these processes efficiently, you may stumble along the way and mess everything up.
Getting the right staff will go a long way in ensuring that everything runs as smoothly as possible within the set timelines. Hiring the most talented people may cost you in terms of remunerations, but in the long run, it is totally worth the pain as you will have quality work at the end of everything.
Conclusion
New manufacturers go through a lot before their businesses pick up, and it takes a lot of patience before they break even. The first 6-12 months are the hardest, and most new companies fail here. With the right guidance, you will be able to weather this storm and emerge better and stronger from the other side. Therefore, if you are planning to get into any manufacturing space, follow the tips outlined above and see how far you can go.