Manufacturing Crossroads

Do you stay in the United States? Or do you go overseas? This decision always seems to cause a dilemma. But I’m not talking about where to get that Portuguese Waterdog, Australian Sheepdog, or Chinese Foo Dog (even though I am in the market for a mate). No, the question I’m posing is, where do you go to get your product manufactured?

With the current state of the US and world economies, this is a situation that seems to question our national allegiance. Hey, I’m an American Foxhound: if I were cut I’d probably bleed red, white, and blue. However, sometimes, to help with your country’s economic growth, it does not always mean that the right path is the clearest one.

For us, this was a major decision. We originally came up with 10 styles of CoolZips® zipper pulls that would define our product line and that we wanted to have manufactured and mass-produced here in the United States. We received estimates from a few US companies to produce the tooling that was needed for each of the unique charms. The price was $3,000.00 for each charm for a total of $30,000.00. The quote we received for the tooling from a company in China, who could also take care of the entire manufacturing process, was $300.00 for each charm for a total of $3,000.00.

However, we did have concerns, such as:

• How will we communicate when we don’t speak Chinese?
  
• How do we find a company, let alone the right company, in such a large country over six thousand miles away?
  
• How do we manage lead content in our product and make sure that it is safe?
  
  Just so you know, CoolZips have been lead tested for your child’s safety. All components used to manufacture CoolZips have been lead tested by a certified laboratory in the United States and meet lead safety requirements.

So, even though we would have preferred to keep the manufacturing process here in the United States, we did not have $30,000.00 for this startup venture. Therefore, it came down to either we don’t pursue CoolZips, because the cost for us would put our product’s target piece price too high and make it too expensive to sell, or we go to China to have our product made.

In the bigger picture, our decision to manufacture overseas turned out to be the right path for us. Because we did go ahead and manufacture CoolZips in China, we are now on our way to creating income for many other individuals across the United States (from companies who print our sales sheets, provide shipping materials, US Postal Service, web site provider, Visa, MasterCard, American Express, banking institutions, sales representatives, accountants, to retail store owners across the country).

So, don’t make critical decisions in haste. The United States offers excellent manufacturing solutions and financial benefits to manufacture and produce your product here. However, for some, this path may be different. After all, what if my true love actually ends up being an English Foxhound?