How To Start A Manufacturing Business In 8 Steps

The manufacturing industry significantly contributes to most developed countries economies. Further, it also holds much significance to the sustenance of society.

Starting a manufacturing business can be a lucrative endeavor as it requires you to do thorough market research and plan, network, and stay motivated.

Starting a manufacturing business comes with a level of commitment in terms of resources that is both intangible and financial.

Entrepreneurs need to look into factors such as demand, availability of raw materials, location and geography, transportation, and production costs, as they are essential for starting a manufacturing business.

One of the main challenges of creating a manufacturing business is that most entrepreneurs lack the appropriate knowledge to maneuver around this competitive industry with little or no funds.

Whether you are wondering how to start a manufacturing business at home or already have enough funding to buy manufacturing equipment, this blog will give you a step-by-step guide through the basics.

Advantages of a Manufacturing Business

1. Growing Industry

Sectors like airport operations, aviation, semiconductors, and robotics are witnessing a growth spurt globally. This means that there will be a high demand for manufacturing businesses in the future.

If you manage to become a well-known manufacturer, then there are chances your company can handle the production side of things for many famous brands or conglomerates.

Selecting which product to manufacture will largely determine whether your business is on track for success.

However, if you start a manufacturing business with a proper strategy in a constantly growing industry, there is a high chance that the company will be profitable in the long run.

2. Enhanced Customer Service

Customer service is a vital part of any company’s success. Consumers today are aware of the choices available to them.

To live up to the high expectations of new-age customers, manufacturers need to leverage technology to deliver quality products and provide the best customer experience.

Advanced technologies and social media have created a connected ecosystem between manufacturers and consumers. Adopting a more customer-centric approach can help manufacturing companies increase customer retention and win over new customers.

3. Profitable Business

Once your manufacturing company determines how to make quality products, you can maximize profits with little to no investment. The manufacturing business has always been a lucrative field globally.

It may demand reasonable investment initially, but it fetches heavy, consistent profits once established. But to make your manufacturing business profitable, you must streamline your processes and spend your marketing budget wisely.

Forecasting the business’s future sales can help you maintain the right inventory levels and estimate the future growth of the business.

4. Scalable Potential

Many manufacturing businesses partner with other established businesses to level up manufacturing. But the company’s scalability depends upon the revenue and consistent growth over many years.

Scaling your business in the manufacturing industry often requires a deep dive into the current state of your company, noting any areas that could need improvement. Once you identify them, you can easily create the right work processes to resolve them.

Challenges in Manufacturing Industry

There are numerous challenges that businesses need to consider when they enter this sector:

1. Inventory Management

Inventory management is one of the most difficult challenges that manufacturing businesses face. It involves manual stock checks, prone to errors such as shortages, excess, and unidentified losses.

Technological advancements like automation software have made it easier for professionals to be more efficient and reduce the time one would put on manual tasks.

2. Shortage of Skilled Labor

There is a lack of workers with the technical skills and experience needed to operate machinery and perform other specialized tasks. This can lead to lower productivity and reduced output, leading to lost business and lower revenues.

Automation may have solved repetitive tasks, but you still need professionals trained in management and problem-solving to resolve challenges that might need human labor.

3. Keeping Track of Sales Leads

Another challenge that manufacturing companies face is managing and evaluating sales leads. Sales leads tend to be different regarding persona, preferences, and requirements.

Sales representatives must organize scheduled follow-ups, monitor the sales funnel, and practice lead scoring. Professionals can pursue appropriate actions to move the lead to the next stage and close the sale.

4. Cost of Improving Productivity and Efficiency

In the manufacturing industry, productivity is directly correlated with revenue. If your business is not producing the right quantity of products, it can affect the costs and profitability of the business.

Ensure you implement technology to improve productivity, increase efficiency, and reduce your budget.

5. Government Regulations

Every country has different regulations for manufacturing companies. The rules and regulations are constantly changing regarding standards around employment, permits, safety, and offsetting pollution if you must comply with the laws and regulations set by the government and have all the necessary licenses.

6. Improving Manufacturing Plant Efficiency

Manufacturers have been constantly looking for practical solutions to reduce costs and increase efficiency at their factories until now.

Companies must make a genuine commitment to look for all the essential information that can help them increase quality and stay ahead of the competition.

Improving manufacturing efficiency requires eliminating waste, evaluating your production line, and enhancing employee training practices.

Steps for Starting a Manufacturing Business

Step 1 – Conduct In-depth Market Research

Market research is the first and foremost step any entrepreneur must take before they start a manufacturing business. Learning about the manufacturing sector will give you a holistic view of the market dynamics and your competitors.

This will help you understand how different manufacturing companies operate and learn about the things related to the business, such as the size of the plant, location, and investments.

During this phase, you need to find out what the market needs, the gaps in the market, and how your company can fill that gap. It will also help your team decipher where and how to advertise and market their business.

Market research can mitigate business risks, identify harmful trends in your sector, and discover valuable sales opportunities.

Remember that you do not want to commit too early to a particular product. Also, do your due diligence and allow this research to guide you in the right direction.

Here are a few areas of study that a manufacturer must look into:

Product – Once you know what type of product you want to manufacture, analyze the costs involved in different production stages, including necessary facilities, logistics, raw materials, and machinery to manufacture the product.
Customers – Find out who is going to purchase your products. Conduct research to identify your target audience and develop an effective marketing strategy to communicate with them.
Competitors – There might already be established players in the market, and doing a competitor analysis will help you identify the gaps in the market. It will also help develop the right products, employ strategies, and uncover market trends.

Step 2 – Determine Your Niche

There are numerous manufacturing niches; you must find the category or industry you wish to set up. Choose a manufacturing business with a significant demand, small entrance cost, and good room for margins.

If you are manufacturing a product already on the market, figure out what makes your offering special. Is it affordable? Does it offer more features? Is it of higher quality? Does it introduce a new-age solution to an old product?

There are endless possibilities as to which niche you can choose. At the same time, niches like electronics, industrial, and pharmaceuticals are among the profitable niches in the manufacturing industry.

An example of niches that have a massive customer base includes consumer goods like appliances, utensils, phone cases, clothing, and beauty care.

Before you start manufacturing, assess the product based on market demand, supply, future demand forecast, availability of raw materials, and manufacturing costs. During this stage, you need to determine things like:

What product are you making?
Who is your target audience?
What is the USP of your product?
Where are you making and selling your products?

Step 3 – Write Your Business Plan

One of the most vital steps of business planning is writing down a business plan. A business plan is a type of document that defines in detail a company’s objectives and how it plans to achieve its goals.

It essentially tells people what your business is going to do and how. It includes an executive summary of the plan, company description, market analysis, marketing plan, and competitive analysis financial documents (like forecasted income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements).

This is where your in-depth market research comes in handy. An effective business plan can help your team identify the goals, determine whether they are attainable, and sketch out a roadmap to attain those goals.

It will help your team understand the required raw materials, facilities, and machinery needed, your manufacturing process logistics, and the management modules you want to implement.

A business plan is also an essential document a business needs to have when they seek funding or partnership.

Since starting a manufacturing business requires funding, create a well-planned business plan that answers all the more pressing questions about your manufacturing business.

A business plan template will help you write a business plan quickly and efficiently. Once you finish the business plan, you can contact consultants in various fields, including finance, accounting, and manufacturing, and get their opinion.

Step 4 – Get Funding

Once you create the perfect business plan, you can start looking for funding. However, getting money to fund your business comes with many variants.

You need to figure out the total cost, which depends on your market, product, and scale that you want to get started with. For instance, the funding requirement for manufacturing candles will be less than that needed for manufacturing furniture.

Even if your item is low-cost, you may still require some funding to get off the ground. The general rule is that the more expensive your product is, the more funding it will need to get your business off the ground.

Thankfully there are numerous ways to get funding for your manufacturing business, including savings, family, friends, a bank, crowdfunding, angel investors, and venture capitalists.

These are the most popular funding options:

Bank loans are the standard route entrepreneurs take to fund their businesses in the early stages. Many banks even offer multiple options for collateral-free business loans.
Venture Capital – These are the funds that you receive from established startups and big corporations. Most venture capitalists provide mentorship to help your business reach its goals.
Self-funding – This is a form of funding where entrepreneurs invest their savings into the business or get their family or friends to contribute. This type of funding comes with flexible interest rates allowing you to focus your time and attention on growing your business.
Angel Investors – These are individuals that provide capital for startup businesses. They also offer relevant market insight to help you start your business.

Step 5 – Find the Best Location

Many factors go into selecting the right location, especially for a manufacturing plant. The location must be ideal for bringing in raw materials and shipping your final product to your customers.

Most importantly, you must consider the required space size for your operations. When choosing a location for your new manufacturing plant, start with these considerations:

Raw materials – The materials your products are made from and how frequently you will need them.
Infrastructure – This depends on power, water, communications, and transportation factors.
Labor force – This depends on whether you have skilled workers or workers needing training.
Costs – This depends on whether you want to lease or purchase equipment, taxes, and the worker’s salary.
Governmental policies and incentives – Some locations may have strict rules and regulations for manufacturing plants. This may also include the licenses and certifications required for starting a manufacturing plant.
Logistics and distribution – This determines your product’s journey from manufacturer to end user.
Sustainability and climate – Here, you must check how your manufacturing plant impacts the environment.

Step 6 – Purchase Equipment

Equipment is the most vital part of any manufacturing business. Therefore, once you finalize the location for your operations, you can start purchasing the necessary equipment and supplies for the business.

Creating a capital expenditure plan and conducting a cost-benefit analysis will help map equipment purchases to your company’s long-term plan. Remember that the machinery and equipment you purchase will depend on how much space you have at your disposal.

The equipment and machinery must also be within your team’s budget or the funding you receive. Based on the investment, one can opt for manual, semi, or completely automated machinery.

Consulting with an expert will help make the right decision regarding this process. Another tip is to take a test drive to understand how the equipment looks, feels, and operates clearly.

Step 7 – Hire Skilled People

Manufacturing is a labor-intensive industry and requires a skilled and well-trained workforce. You will need a team and employees trained to do specific tasks to build a successful manufacturer.

Come up with a strategy to hire a top-notch team. What traits do you want your employees to have? Will they fit in with your work culture?

Hire experienced workers and those who believe in the goals of your manufacturing business. Set up a financial and HR team to allocate a budget for the employees you want to hire.

Your company’s productivity depends on your human resources skills; therefore, train your workforce in various manufacturing practices.

The skills you need to look for while hiring workers are:

Ability to work well under pressure
Problem-solving skills
Attention to detail
Communication skills
Critical thinking
Good leadership skills

Step 8 – Promote Your Business

One of the most essential steps for starting any business is correctly promoting its products and services. Your company might provide better quality work than competitors, but that does not mean the prospects know that.

Therefore, spreading awareness about the business will help build brand identity in the customers’ minds.

Since digital marketing is essential to promote your manufacturing business, create a functioning website and build a presence on social media.

You can also partner with professionals in your niche or industry, allowing you to help each other’s business. Reaching out to other companies might help you gain business traction.

Some of the effective manufacturing marketing tactics are:

Build a robust website – Create a seamless, easy-to-use website to provide a better customer experience for your prospects. Check if our links, buttons, and other functionality are on your site. Ensure that the website is mobile-friendly and investigate the loading speed of your landing pages are good.
Email marketing – Email marketing is one of companies’ most effective marketing channels. You can send an email newsletter that lets you capture qualified leads and nurture them till they convert. The email can be automated based on the action your prospects take. Remember to include eye-catching subject lines and actionable CTAs to boost engagement rates.
Employ SEO – Following the right SEO practices will help you rank on the SERPs. This will help you generate organic website traffic and outperform competitors. SEO is a cost-effective way to increase organic visibility, boost credibility or even maximize PPC campaigns.
Integrate social media – Create social media accounts on your target audience’s most active channels. Social media can help you increase brand awareness and customer loyalty and build connections with industry experts in your niche. If you have a B2B target audience, choose social media platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter.
Build partnerships – Reach out to people with a good reputation in the field and use it to get referrals and feedback. You can meet these experts at conferences, forums, and social networks.

Do not shy away from approaching venture capitalists and sharing your business ideas with them. Not only will networking provide you with the much-needed capital, but the perfect way to network is by joining social networks and forums with people with the same interest. It’s advisable to attend as many conferences and business events as possible.

Conclusion

The manufacturing industry is booming, with numerous opportunities to scale your business. A manufacturing business plan and a trusted group of experts can help you take advantage of the flourishing industry.

Remember to stay motivated throughout your research, planning, networking, and budgeting. Starting your own manufacturing business is a significant milestone that presents challenges and learning opportunities.

We hope this blog gives you manufacturing business ideas and helps you build a successful business.

Author’s Bio:
Alvin Wiseman is the Sales and Marketing Manager at DataCaptive. He has been the backbone of our company, researching and developing marketing opportunities along with planning and implementing new sales plans.

He is also very passionate about imparting knowledge and expertise on topics like lead generation, B2B marketing strategies, email marketing, etc. through his blogs. You will find him reading, gaming, or exploring new places in his free time.