EP 329 Manufacturing Your Kickstarter Project in China With Josh Fairbairn

Funding the Dream

How do you choose a manufacturing partner in China for your Kickstarter project? You ask Josh Fairbairn.
Josh delivers specific advice to help those looking to work with Chinese manufactures for the first time.
His first piece of advice? Don't make a decision based on pricing. There are other, much more important qualifications rather than pricing.
He qualifies this with an understanding that when you are creating a few thousand units, a few cents of savings is not going to help your project be successful, it will actually contribute to its failure. You will end up creating a bad product and have a bad experience.
Instead, you must focus on four main areas to evaluate a manufacturer:

1. Communication, Communication, Communication - Language, Culture, Distance, and Time Zones means the opportunity for misunderstandings are high. Become proficient with WeChat and watch your initial communications carefully for indications on problems that may arise in the future.
2. Process - How they make the product and how they work with you to bring it to market are critical
3. Quality - This is where price focus can hurt you. Be sure to look for good quality in the early prototypes...if there is a problem with the prototype there will be a problem with the final product
4. Quality Control - After you have signed off on everything, keep the communication going to ensure that the quality stays high through the entire manufacturing process.

Josh shares other excellent pieces of wisdom and advice. If you are doing business in China I strongly recommend you reach out and connect. You can find Josh on Linkedin here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuafairbairn/
And his website is https://www.morphomfg.com/