How We Make Stuff Now: Turn Ideas into Products That Build Successful Businesses: Turn Ideas into Products That Build Successful Businesses

by Jules Pieri

Overview

This step-by-step DIY guide shows today’s entrepreneurs how to create and launch new products, package and market them to consumers, and build a thriving business.Thanks to high-speed Internet, game-changing technology, and innovative new platforms, individuals with vision and heart can go from idea to marketplace on a shoestring budget. In How We Make Stuff Now, Jules Pieri—cofounder and CEO of The Grommet, a product launch platform that helps innovative products reach a community of millions—takes readers through the entire consumer product creation process, showing how individual Makers, inventors, and entrepreneurs have utilized technology, the Maker Movement, and perseverance to turn ideas for innovative consumer goods into thriving businesses, breaking the rules of traditional retailing in the process. Jules details what goes into each of the steps they take: ideation, education, research, design and documentation, prototyping, funding, manufacturing, packaging, marketing, distribution, logistics, payments, customer service, financial and inventory management, and growth. Using case studies of successful startups, she reveals how entrepreneurs overcome obstacles, solve challenges, and rise above them to deliver innovations.If you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, Maker, or inventor, the first crucial step in your journey to turning your ideas into products that build thriving businesses is learning How We Make Stuff Now.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781260135862
Publisher:	McGraw Hill LLC
Publication date:	04/19/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Jules Pieri is cofounder and CEO of The Grommet, a site that has launched more than two thousand consumer products since 2008. The company’s Citizen Commerce™ movement is reshaping how products are discovered, shared, and bought. Jules started her career as an industrial designer for technology companies and was an executive at Keds, Stride Rite, and Playskool. She was named one of Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs in 2013 and Goldman Sachs’ 100 Most Interesting Entrepreneurs in 2014. She is currently an Entrepreneur in Residence at Harvard Business School. Jules frequently speaks on consumer trends and technologies, design, and entrepreneurship. She has presented at HBS, SCAD, MIT, and at conferences including SXSW, PwC Women’s Conference, Internet Retailer, and the Conference on World Affairs. She’s also been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fortune, and many other media outlets.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction xi

Starting Your Business

1 A Brief History of Consumer Products 3

2 Where do Great Ideas Come From? 13

3 Educating the New Entrepreneur 23

4 Tapping Established Expertise 37

5 Market Research 51

Building the 16 Competencies for Success

6 Design and Documentation 63

7 Intellectual Property 79

8 Prototyping 91

9 Industry Access and Exposure 103

10 Funding 115

11 Manufacturing 135

12 Packaging 149

13 Marketing 165

14 Retail Distribution 181

15 Direct to Consumer (DTC) 203

16 Logistics 219

17 E-Commerce and Payments 231

18 Customer Experience 241

19 Financial Management 257

20 Inventory Management 267

21 Growing into the Future 279

Conclusion 297

Notes 303

About the Making of the Book Cover 307

Index 309