Have a business idea that you want to bring to life? The journey from idea to reality can be a treacherous one, especially if your experience in your chosen industry is limited. One wrong move could be your downfall, taking your hopes and dreams with it.
The good news is that there’s a much easier and lower-risk way to go about things…
How? With private label manufacturing. From product creation to marketing and selling, read on as FLPL explains how to navigate the path to success with a private label manufacturer by your side.
What is Private Label Manufacturing?
If you aren’t familiar with the concept of private label manufacturing, here’s a quick recap…
Private label manufacturing is when you team up with a third-party company to produce your products. Your private label manufacturer will help with the entire manufacturing process, saving you from the stress of doing it all yourself.
In addition to making your life easier, private label manufacturing comes with a few other advantages too, such as:
- It can often be more cost-effective to use a private label manufacturer rather than working directly with factories yourself
- Lead times from factories are usually faster when you go through a private label manufacturer
- You’ll often have a choice of factories and locations. At FLPL, for example, we work with factories in both the USA and Asia
- A private label manufacturer will likely have more experience in your chosen industry than you. This knowledge can be invaluable when starting up a business
- Some private label manufacturers, like FLPL, will help with other aspects of your business too. From packaging design to marketing, teaming up with a company that offers the full package helps to ensure your path to success
Now that you can see all of the benefits offered by private label manufacturing, let’s talk about how to get started:
Start By Identifying Your Niche
The very first step in launching any business is to identify your niche. This will determine the focus of your business while also helping you to hone in on your target market.
Generally, the smaller your niche, the better. For example, choosing skincare as a niche is a good start but is also too vague. Narrow things down even more by carving out a micro-niche for yourself, such as skincare for dry skin or organic and sustainable skincare.
One way to develop your micro-niche is to do some market research after identifying your main niche. This will give you vital insights into what consumers actually want. Sure, you may want to focus your product creation efforts on cosmetics designed for a certain demographic, but if that demographic doesn’t actually want or need the products that you have in mind, then your business is going to struggle.
At this stage, it can also help to pay attention to current trends. While it’s not usually a good idea to base your entire business on a trend (after all, trends can come and go pretty quickly), understanding where the latest trends lie will, once again, teach you more about what consumers want.
Develop a Business Plan
Now that you’ve identified a micro-niche for yourself, you can move on to developing a business plan. This may seem like a hassle but it’s so important to get started with this early on in the process. A good business plan will guide you through each of the stages of launching your business. It will give you a structured framework that you can follow, keeping you on track as you make various decisions.
In addition to providing you with goals to aim for and guidelines to abide by, a business plan will also help you to evaluate your progress. If you’re hoping to attract investors in your business, then a business plan will aid in this too. In fact, it’s pretty much essential. An investor will want to see these detailed plans for your business before they hand any money over.
Finding a Private Label Manufacturer
Now that you have the foundations of your new business in place, it’s time to find a private label manufacturer. With the concept becoming increasingly popular, you now have more choices than ever!
With that said, there are a few things to keep in mind to ensure that you make the right decision…
Firstly, make sure that your private label manufacturer has plenty of experience in your chosen industry and, ideally, your niche too. You don’t want to work on product creation for a cosmetics brand with a private label manufacturer that specializes in F&B. Sure, they may say all of the right things to gain you as a client but your business will only end up suffering from their lack of expertise.
One way to learn more about the specialties of a private label manufacturer is to check out the brands that they’ve previously worked with. With FLPL, you’ll see that all of the brands we’ve partnered with in the past are beauty-related. We’ve helped with the product creation of everything from hairstyling tools to bath care products, making us perfectly placed to work with new cosmetic brands.
As we mentioned earlier, some private label manufacturers do so much more than just manufacture your products. FLPL has teams that can work with you on marketing, branding, selling, and more. If you would benefit from the extra assistance, find a private label manufacturer that can provide this.
Product Creation
Now for the fun part – product creation! This is when your initial ideas will really start to take shape.
When working with a private label manufacturer, product creation is relatively simple. You’ll start by discussing your aims for your products before narrowing down the types of products that you want to create.
If you’re working with FLPL on a cosmetics product line, you’ll appreciate the vast ingredient catalog that we offer to clients. This makes it easy to ensure that your products align with your niche. For example, if you’re focusing on clean beauty, you’ll be able to pick and choose from an array of natural and organic ingredients. Meanwhile, if cutting-edge skincare is your niche, you’ll love all of the advanced, science-backed ingredients that can be incorporated into your formulas.
Once everyone is on the same page, your private label manufacturer will then produce samples of your products. You’ll be able to try them out for yourself and could even conduct some extra market research, giving consumers the opportunity to test your products out. Depending on the feedback you receive, you may want to make a few tweaks to your formulas at this point.
Either way, once you’ve approved your samples, they’ll then be sent off for mass production. With a reputable private label manufacturer by your side, you won’t need to worry about this part at all. Everything, from liaising with factories to quality control, will be taken care of for you.
Branding and Packaging
Product creation is only one aspect of launching a new product line. You’ll also need to consider packaging creation. While some view this as an afterthought, your packaging should be designed in a way that encompasses your branding and your business’s ideals.
Say you’re creating a clean beauty brand. Going with plastic packaging that can’t be recycled isn’t going to be a good look for a business. The same goes for a luxury brand that makes use of cheap packaging materials.
The good news is that some private label manufacturers, including FLPL, will help you with packaging and branding too. The two go hand-in-hand together, which is why it’s best to work on everything under one roof rather than appointing different companies to handle each task.
Our branding team will also help you to create a logo and other branding materials that will help to set your business apart from the competition.
Marketing and Promotion
Marketing is a huge part of launching a new product line. After all, if people don’t know that your products exist, they’re not going to buy them. Good marketing will tell the world what you and your products are all about while persuading them to give your products a try.
You’re probably aware of how large brands spend hundreds of thousands on marketing campaigns. For a new brand, this isn’t feasible. However, thanks to digital marketing and social media, this isn’t always necessary. Instead, so long as you have a clever marketing team backing you up, like our marketing department at FLPL, you’ll be able to find a way to set your brand apart from the crowd without handing over huge chunks of your budget.
Sales and Growth
Once your products, as well as your packaging, have been manufactured, they’ll be sent to either you or your private label manufacturer. After this, it’s time to sell!
Your two main selling options are online or offline, or both. Online tends to be the easiest way for new brands to get started, as well as the lower-cost option. At FLPL, we can help you to set up and run an e-commerce store, where you’ll be able to sell your products to people all over the world. Of course, if a brick-and-mortar store is what you’re after, we’ll be able to point you in the right direction for organizing this.
With a good idea, a unique niche, and a credible private label manufacturer, you should have no problems getting your products to sell. However, once the sales start rolling in, it’s important to not get complacent. At this stage, you need to start looking to the future. Growing your business is key to long-term success. For many brands, this encompasses launching additional products. Again, with a private label manufacturer by your side, this becomes so much easier. You’ll be able to hand over the reins to them, enabling you to focus on running your existing business.
Private Label Product Creation With FLPL
There’s no denying that private label manufacturing can really help a new business to succeed, which is why more and more companies, both big and small, have been turning to private label manufacturers. If this is something that you’re interested in finding out more about, get in touch with FLPL today and we’ll answer any questions that you may have!
