Cost management can be the difference between a business succeeding and a business crashing and burning after going into debt. True, that’s the worst-case scenario, but keeping costs down is an often overlooked way to maximize profits.
While you don’t want to sacrifice quality, employee care, or customer satisfaction, it is important to look for ways to reduce your costs in every aspect of your business, even product design and production.
Kill Your Darlings
The term “kill your darlings” is often used by writers and artists.
Essentially, you might have an idea that you really like, but for whatever reason, it just doesn’t work for your business. Don’t get overly sentimental about your product designs, but listen to what your market research and your customers say.
If a design isn’t working, change it. You can always develop new ideas and designs later down the road, and you might even be able to implement an older idea in a new and more effective way.
Free Design Software
If you’re able to design product concepts yourself, you already have a massive headstart when it comes to saving money.
But design software can be incredibly expensive, especially if you use premium software and don’t have the backing of a large business behind you. For smaller businesses and startups, these early costs can swallow up any potential profits before they even make their first sale.
However, there are other options that you can learn how to use. There are some genuinely brilliant free design tools that you can use when coming up with ideas for your product and designing it.
These tools are also great for creating graphic designs for marketing campaigns and branding. This allows you to get your product design onto paper, and sometimes without paying a penny.
Choosing The Right Materials
As well as designing how your product will look and function, you need to consider the best materials for the product.
There’s no hard and fast rule about what materials to use, because different products have different needs. What matters is how you consider the best materials for your product. If the cheapest materials happen to work perfectly, fantastic. But find a balance between cost and quality.
As well as performance, think about the customer experience. Adding some more expensive materials will raise the costs, but it can also raise potential profits and result in a better product.
Outsource When Needed
Doing as much as you can yourself can save money, but it’s not the only option. Unless you have a fully functional factory in your garden shed, you will need to either invest in equipment to manufacture your product or outsource to manufacturing experts.
Think about the materials you use and the type of product you create, then choose a company that specializes in these things. For example, an injection moulding company is ideal for plastic products that you can’t safely make without specific equipment and training.
So, choose your battles and choose when to outsource some tasks for the best results.
