Finding a maufacturer

[CharLee]

Is there anyone out there that has contacts or knows of someone in the manufacturing business that help me get my concept of a new type of kitchen garbage pail into production. I have been searching the net, contacting companies, even someone at QVC, and been having no luck in finding anyone who is interested in this project.

I am hoping that one of my sisters out there might have the contact that I need and be in the position to help me find a manufacturer for my pail. If any of you can help me it would surely be appreciated.

[Paulette]

What you're looking for is an industrial or product designer. That is, someone who knows how things are manufactured. A patent attorney might also be of help, but they usually charge for advice, or insist that you need to invest your life savings into it.

In the San Francisco area you'd look for somebody who goes to Maker Fair - where the geeky make and invent things, all kinds of things, and love to show them off.

Your local college will have people who teach design, and they are in the business of telling people how to do it. You might be having problems because yours is not a new idea, or new enough to attract interest.

[CharLee]

Sorry Paulette but your off base. I have a patent and product design along with a website showing details of how the pail operates. Some have shown interest in the pail but don't manufacture such items.

[DonnaT]

http://www.quirky.com/about" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[CharLee]

Thanks Donna, but I already checked them out and found out they do 90 - 10 split of the profits in their favor so I wrote them off my list.

[Ralitsa]

So are you looking for someone to mass produce the pail, or someone to buy the patent from you, or someone to market it after it's been produced, or someone to carry it in their stores? Do you have a business plan?

I take it that it will be manufactured from injection molded plastic. There are companies that will build small runs, either for prototyping or when you might want just a couple hundred for a marketing campaign or something. Unit cost is high that way, but that's what you get with small runs.
There are also plenty of manufacturers of injection molded plastic stuff, but you need to pay for the tooling up front and then unit costs are low.
So then you can have them make a good 10,000 or so and stack them up in your garage, what then?
You would need to do all the marketing, product placement, figure out distribution channels, all that. Is that what you want to do?
If it were me I'd jump at the 10% and figure I was a lucky girl, before I went through all the grief of becoming the garbage pail sales lady.
But I do know of a small manufacturer of injection molded stuff in northern Wisconsin, name of North States Industries. They make a lot of stuff that nobody else does, and may possibly be worth talking to. Brentwood Industries in Reading Pa (that's the Reading on the west side of the big salty mud puddle), they do thermoforming of plastic which probably is the wrong method for a garbage pail.
You don't really need any contacts or connections I think, as much as you need a good business plan and marketing plan.

[Anita]

I take it that it will be manufactured from injection molded plastic. There are companies that will build small runs, either for prototyping or when you might want just a couple hundred for a marketing campaign or something. Unit cost is high that way, but that's what you get with small runs.

I have read that 3-D printers are cutting the cost of making the initial prototypes.

[Paulette]

Yes, 10% sounds pretty good to me, too.

I'd back that up with performance criteria in your contract, where if they don't achieve sales/distribution of x units in y months, with recurring quarterly sales of z units, all rights revert to you with existing inventory for sale to you at q% of demonstrated historic wholesale price.

I've run a small publishing company since 1974, specializing in diagnostic and assessment materials for handicapped kids. The market is easily identified and reached, and I plastered it with journal ads and catalogs for years. Now I survive off reputation alone. I also sell a line of circus arts instruction and props, and that needs constant advertising. So the circus arts stuff languishes because I'm no longer willing to market it outside of the web. The web sites bring in enough to keep me going, but that's it.

This is why unproven authors are given 6% or less in royalties and no advance unless they've done a really good job of promoting to the publisher. Marketing and distribution are intensely time and cash expensive, ideas are cheap. If you can let someone else do it and take all the risks for you, you're much better off. At some point it has to be time to let that one go to a marketer, and pursue your next big idea.