I would like to hear any advice you/others have about finding a product in your niche to manufacture!
usually you find a market by scratching your own itch. helps if you have breadth of knowledge and experience in a variety of fields also. interdisciplinary solutions still have plenty of untapped market potential other than that there is no magic formula that i know of. its kind of one of those "if you have to ask..." type things.
To expand on this, make sure you itch like people with lots of money but no time/knowhow.
For example, hang out at small-town airports or boat harbors, or with lawyers and doctors. If you can find some small part that would help them use their boat, then $300-500 for it might not even be an extreme price especially if they see you using it first.
(This is not an argument to go buy a boat and plane).
I've given this advice elsewhere, and I'll give it here. Go look at the small business initiatives by each branch of the U.S. military; many are now posting lists of open contracts that you can bid on for an incredible array of things. Browse through those lists and find something you can build. I really believe the U.S. military is in the midst of a large scale transfer of military spending from traditional large de…
What type of issues are involved when you don’t deliver to the government on time?
You might get paid extra to complete. Or you might get investigated by the Feds and The Congress.
I started making jet ski tread mats out of astro turf in my garage last year. Dead simple to cut, margin is super high ($60 for a standard set of three on ~$8 worth of material), and time spent per unit from roll to package is something like 15-20 minutes. It was fun and made about $30k over the summer months but I stopped when I moved back to the west coast. I could have handled the whole operation in a spare bedroo…
Out of curiosity, how did you determine which skis you'd make mats for? Did you have to generate your own templates? Also, where did you sell?
Have you ever seen a MagLite flashlight? (Or a clone)? The batteries are kept in place by a threaded cap which is spring loaded. My neighbor manufactures the caps, alone, in his garage. Cuts the threads and installs the spring. As far as noise I do hear his air compressor occasionally. You can buy quiet air compressors but they are orders more expensive than a standard unit.
One of my favorite ideas was told to me by my uncle who works in the die cast industry. He met a guy who made lug nuts for Semi tractor tires in his garage. One item, and he made a living off of it. I have always thought that this idea was the perfect example of how to get started in an industry. If you were ambitious you could start adding more spare parts one at a time.
To expand on this, there are entire "fan clubs" around old military trucks - for example https://www.steelsoldiers.com - so you could infiltrate said groups and find what parts are starting to become rare/hard to find NOS anymore (new old/original stock) and start making replacements.
I've given this advice elsewhere, and I'll give it here. Go look at the small business initiatives by each branch of the U.S. military; many are now posting lists of open contracts that you can bid on for an incredible array of things. Browse through those lists and find something you can build. I really believe the U.S. military is in the midst of a large scale transfer of military spending from traditional large de…
While most local governments will post a Request for Quote list, and this often includes IT related services. I disagree this is the good choice for a first business project, as missing a deadline can incur egregious fines.
Local specialized custom hr/tax/legal/retail/city software is always popular, as it is region specific and constantly changing. ;)
Former DoD contract specialist here, Sam.gov is the correct jumping off point for both information on how the process works and for where to find opportunities. The small business set aside is very important, since the regulations require that small businesses be considered to the maximum amount practicable, before larger companies can even be considered (Federal Prison Industries gets first dibs though). Veteran, wo…
Note that the "minority veteran woman" thing can be gamed a bit (and is) - I know of a few small businesses that are officially owned by the spouse of the actual leader so that they can qualify higher. So even if your spouse doesn't check all three boxes, having the company officially be owned by your wife can help.
Yep that's almost standard practice by now, so there's lots of competition in that space. And most of the time you (the person researching/drafting/approving the contract) can't really verify it. For me I didn't mind, since it's on them if they committed fraud, not me. Plenty times I would ask to speak to the owner and find out it was "co-owned" with the wife's name on the business license to get woman-owned, and the husband's name (or wife's name, in many cases) to get veteran-owned. Hey, fine with me. Mostly all I wanted was that the work was to spec and delivered on time. If you can game the system without sacrificing legality or quality, go for it!