E216: Plan of Action When Starting a Physical Products Business from Zero

We received this question from Brenna Olsen for our Under the Hood segment:

My product is pre-launch so my biggest questions are what plan of action would somebody put into place if they were starting from zero? No email list, no following, first physical product.

While this is Brenna's first time launching a physical product, she is not a stranger to entrepreneurship.

She started her entrepreneurial journey back in 2009 when she left corporate to start her own freelance graphic design business. From there, she created a subscription design service aimed at the restaurant industry.

She did all this while starting her family.

Born out of necessity

Like all moms, Brenna lives by the rule of thumb that kids should have an extra layer of clothing on them to keep them warm.

But on cold days, how do you keep a blanket on a squirming little kid? This dilemma gave birth to her patent-pending brainchild, the Chilly Child.

The Chilly Child is a special kind of blanket that keeps kids warm without restricting their movement. Kids can round around in the park and the Chilly Child would stay on.

Launching an original product

In this episode, Brenna and I address the issue of how to best sell a product that's original, that no one has ever sold before.

Here's a highlight of the key topics we discussed:

• How to build a following from zero
• Reaching out to influencers
• How to deal with very large MOQs
• Effectivity of Kickstarter campaigns
• Instagram ads
• Where to focus on, Shopify or Amazon?

We hope this episode will help you, especially if you are in the same situation as Brenna.

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Thanks for listening! Until the next one, happy selling.