7 Tips to Start Small Scale Manufacturing | Business Ideas for Product Makers

TOPICS AND TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Intro
1:01 New Startup Opportunities
Talking about the new middle ground path between big businesses and small business that allows you to scale up your manufacturing with less risk
2:16 How We Started
Our own story, what products we first tried, how we started building our robot army
3:29 Small Scale Manufacturing
How small scale manufacturing is getting more accessible and better
5:32 Example Walk Through
Walk through the steps of one of our products that we designed with small scale manufacturing in mind
6:58 Product Design
Tips and ideas to keep in mind when designing products so that they can be made via micro-manufacturing
10:07 Competitive Advantage
Tips for your small business products to stand out against big business products
11:04 Outsourcing
Tips for when you’ve outgrown your home shop and you need to scale bigger

TOOLS / MATERIALS (affiliate)

FILMING GEAR (affiliate)

STAY UP TO DATE

MUSIC
FN by David Cutter Music
3 Times by David Cutter Music

THANK YOU TO OUR TOP PATREON SUPPORTERS!!
■ Katelyn’s Mom
■ Kit Low
■ Corey Ward
■ Corso Systems
■ Brett Hollifield
■ Matt Knopp
■ George Partin
■ David Ingram
■ Brooke Boen
■ Matt Baker
■ Jason Kaczmarsky
■ Cameron Dorsey
■ David Granz
■ Elliot Iddon
■ Maxine Denis
■ Francisco Peebles
■ James Allen
■ Kyle C

[StonesAndSand]

Former tool & die maker / engineer / tech-ed instructor in another life...and I 100% verify Evan's point of view of "bringing it all home" with a small-scale manufacturing. My morning commute consists of walking down 13 stairs to get to the shop. Kudos E&K for such an inspirational video.

[BradParler]

Omg! The progress bar with the points being made is pure awesome!!! Thanks so much for putting epic content out there like this, have been plotting a new massive build that will require a lot of time, big-ish machines, and that all means a few nice loads of cash, re-thinking and planning now!

[katzmosestools]

As someone who's used all the steps you covered, this video is spot on. I now have several products in various phases of these steps and the only thing I would caution people on is those cnc financing plans. Usually they're worse than your credit card. When I was looking into them they were about 32 percent interest.

[fathertimepower]

This video is so spot on. I'm currently working through my business degree and alot of the stuff mentioned in this vid are things they teach or at least mention in business 101. This will benefit so many people out there looking for help with their business.

[John-Adams-Can]

Absolutely great video on small business! Well done. I work in the auto industry as a Mechanical Designer and am starting a side business and the piece of advice you touched on that is most important is "design for manufacturability". Even tho the company I work for makes multimillion dollar machines, it's core is to remove metal as efficiently as possible and reduce the complexity such as removing multi processes (IE when it has to go from a welder to a machinist to a powercoater instead of just waterjetting a piece of aluminum in the first place). As you also touched on working with an outsourcer on your designs is critical. Use their knowledge to your advantage. Also, if you do want to scale up later, put the time into learning the design software as opposed to making chips (wood or metal). It takes seconds to correct a concept (and little money) but hours and big dollars to correct an actual physical product. As always, thanks for the content!

[inventables]

Great advice, you two! Thanks for bringing us into your world!

[BruceAUlrich]

That was a cool concept with the different sections. It was very clear what was happening. And great information! Especially with the points about using some limitation of a machine to add to the design like the spirals in the ring dish.

[dr.diggle]

You guys should do a video on taxes and accounting for your manufacturing company

[StudioJLT]

Income diversification is such a big part of small business as well. I see you guys doing it well with content generation, merch, patrion, and products. Multiple product lines are important as well.

[SouthernStyleDIY]

Those are fantastic insights!! Love the concept of taking how something prints/cuts and making it a feature rather than something to work around.

[bigbearcanada]

Great solid logical advice. I have been in the apparel business for 25 years and the same principles apply. We design, develop and begin printing & embroidery in house and sell from our store... then we outsource the good ideas and wholesale to other customers. That is the entire goal during the design process. I am looking for other ideas and landed on your video by you tubing "garage business ideas"

[sequillawilliams]

I have re-watched several portions of this video several times not because I am having problems understanding and following what you're saying but because I love the way you to interact with each other it seemed so genuine and I just love you 2

[LXWiseman]

I really liked this, it was helpful and informative and a great jumping off point for somebody like me who isn't sure how to begin. Thank you both!

[ellisstuart]

Such a helpful video, it's the kind of information I've been trying to find for a while. Thank you 😊

[ttulip]

This is the first video of yours that I have stumbled upon in my search for how to manufacture a new product. First of all, you two are absolutely adorable. How lucky you are to have each other? My ex-husband didn't have a creative bone in his body and didn't respect any of my ideas. Secondly, I want to thank you for the information. I subscribed to your channel and plan on spending the rest of the afternoon watching your videos and learning. I'm doing this all on my own and it is scary But like you mentioned I am at the point where I'm more afraid NOT to take the leap. Best of luck to you in your business ventures and thank you, again for sharing your knowledge.

[Goatfellas]

LOVE THIS! i started the same path hoping to sustain myself through college. all the best to you two

[heyimamaker]

I think what overwhelms people is that they see where they want to be, or know that "I want to be successful" but they don't know how to get there.

This is a very good video, and the thing I love about Making is that you can substitute wood with an app, or website, or recipe.

The principles are generally the same.


Well done!

[FreeUp]

Awesome video Evan and Katelyn specially for those who are just beginning in their businesses. You should also consider outsourcing if you want to scale more. With outsourcing online - you can outsource non value adding tasks such as customer service, accounting and others then you can focus on growing/scaling/expansion, sales and more important tasks of your business

[isaacmadhavan]

Great stuff in this video; thank you so much!
I knew the whole outline --- sort of obvious by observing how companies work and with a little bit of reading.
*However, you guys shared an incredible amount of details such as examples of how you did things, little tips & tricks, and, IMHO, the best advice --- to attempt to make artifacts of the manufacturing process into features of the product. *

[K.A.Ralph]

This was amazing information. I definitely needed to know this before thinking about creating a small scale manufacturing business. I am so thankful for you guys giving your full breakdown to helps us new comers that may think of it as being to overwhelming and fearing that it may fail. God Bless You Guys, and may you continue to prosper!!!🙏🏾❤