Product Launch & NDAs
The past week just flew by with a product launch and NDAs involving quite a bit of prototyping that should actually start in the coming week or two.
It’s always easy to underestimate just how much time will be spent officially launching a product, that being my Drais BMT, not only building the website, getting photos made and the videos but also the general reach to get dealers involved.
It was probably about a month of testing and prototyping before the final design of the Drais BMT was crystalized but that was honestly the easiest part, once the gauge of the metal was chosen and the design elements fleshed-out so that mass production could start within the tight spec requirements.
Launching a new product involves far more than production, I then had to switch on my marketing hat and do extensive mailouts of both orders and samples to big companies that could actually add this to their catalog.
I’m very happy to have a lot of that initial heavy lifting behind me but the Drais BMT product launch wasn’t the only thing taking-up quite a bit of time, CNCROi.com also had a few projects that required a “proof of concept” in order to secure a few mass production deals in wood.
That custom pencil holder above was actually a prototype reject, the second of what ended-up becoming a series of five each with changes based on the customer’s requirements and I’m so happy that this is behind me as well.
Running a custom fab shop is a lot of fun, not only do I get the opportunity and honor to bring other people’s dreams to reality but also get to do the same with ideas and concepts I develop through those interactions.
For instance, it took a few months to flesh-out the concept of TeaLightBox.com and now that it’s a stand-alone site, I can send clients who don’t have the money or time to go ahead and go full-on custom for their special occasion but still benefit from the work I did before to get a little something custom in their lives.
The launch of MetalBounty.com and the associated videos with all that product launch stuff is a little similar to TeaLightBox.com in that it’s a quick and easy way to get something custom by CNCROi.com without having to jump through all the costs and challenges of bringing some metal items to market in not enough volume to make it affordable.
Make no mistake, its expensive bringing a concept into reality but it really doesn’t need to be if I have websites and other business models to send potential customers to whom that cost is shared among thousands of others.
What I especially like are the volume corporate orders the Drais BMT is starting to gather and that will only grow as MetalBounty.com grows in product selection and choice both at the consumer and dealer level.
Don’t forget that I put a crazy amount of time developing TeaLightBox.com and before that, CNCKing.com‘s relaunch so this summer has actually been extremely productive for me and the clients these sites will attract over time back to CNCROi.com.
CNCROi.com is all about creativity and I’ve allowed that to brand out to other sites with ideas but at the end of the day, they all feed back right to this site and more specifically, the capabilities that we have as a business to not only invest in ideas but also relate personally with some of our customers who are at just that point of bringing their own ideas to market.
It’s really a lot of fun to be able to play with so many different materials and production methods, wood through plastic, metal through virtual that really, one becomes a vacation to the other.
Just yesterday we finished-up 5 HUGE rubber stamps, I told the customer I’d love to share that on my site and blog but due to NDA, I only shared content with them specifically as we agreed to from the onset.
A product launch allows me to exercise new muscles in my mind, to try to find new approaches and streamline things, it’s quite different making thousands of Drais BMTs and always shipping out the same product compared to CNCROi.com which also ships stuff out daily now but in packages ranging from a simple white envelope to big cardboard boxes weighting close to 40 pounds.
The world of custom has its challenges but also great rewards, finding new suppliers for materials that a customer must use for a project down to converting what a client tells me into a model that we can then quote and build from.
Never a dull moment in the shop with all that’s going on!
Need something custom? Contact CNCROi.com!