inventing a product – Business Plus Baby

Many mums have found that a baby isn’t their only new creation and go on to invent a new product too!

Often, inventor mums find themselves frustrated with the baby products on the market and invent their own product to fill a gap – just take a look at the mumpreneur profiles here at Business Plus Baby for some great case studies. The trouble is that the next stage – getting your product manufactured- is daunting, especially as most mums have never done this before and it usually involves working with manufacturers overseas.

Here are five tips to help you along the road to getting your product manufactured:

1. Start with the internet

As with most things these days, the internet is a great place to start learning about getting your creation manufactured. For many product inventors, Asia is going to be the best place to find a manufacturer, especially if you want large numbers and your product’s design isn’t likely to change much over the next few years. But for items with a design that changes regularly where you need smaller batch sizes (e.g. fashion), a local manufacturer might be the right choice. The internet can help you weigh up options like these when you’re in the early stages of your project.

2. …but don’t rely on the internet alone Continue reading “Five tips for getting your product manufactured”

Tell us a little about your business

I’ve always wanted to start on my own but never really had the opportunity or an idea that I thought was worthwhile. But in late summer 2009 the pieces fell into place and I started my company called eleventyone Limited, which focuses on developing practical and useful products for the children’s market. I initially came up with a product that I eventually had to put on hold due to development issues, but almost simultaneously I invented and designed a new educational toy calendar called Circa that helps children understand the concept of the calendar in a more intuitive and tactile way. I have a third product in development and the plan is for Circa to hopefully pay for costs towards that product. Continue reading “I started a business with a baby: Melinda Holohan of eleventyone Limited”