Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hello everyone,
Great forums. My question involves actually producing products once the
"concept"product is complete.

The company I envision focuses on aviation education products (for
learning to fly) that have a more interactive, colorful image than what is
currently on the market. As a flight instructor, I have noticed a need for
these types of products as students find current market offerings to be
dull and boring.

My problem: I can easily come up with product ideas, but how does one
go about producing the products? Diagrams, for example, are easy to
design and lay out (I have graphic design experience as well), but what
about mass production?

Just wondering if anyone has experience in these areas. Is outsourcing
the ticket or is it better to try and keep it in-house?

Thanks!

"aviation education products"

Could you be a little more specific. I never learned to fly
Is this books, software, or some kind of model, or a device of some kind?

also, a big factor (always) is how much do you in-vision making.

Hi there,
The products I am looking into include printed diagrams and some
interactive software ... because I think that is where the market is lacking.

Thanks for the reply!

Clear skies,
Casey

I see a lot of machinery and could give you an idea of cost depending on what you want to manufact. Contact me anytime.

matthatcher@yahoo.com

Hi Casey
I`ve never done this type of work, but I think I can give you some pointers.
When you say outsource, I`m going to  assume you mean finding a manufacture outside the USA.

Diagram printing should be done in the US.  There is simply no labor advantage to going overseas. Your quantities will be too small, and there are plenty of ways to get lost in translation.

Creating interactive software will be your biggest cost. Depending on your knowledge level, you may decide to have someone on eLance (world wide)  work on your project, or you might hire a local programer to write this for you. You might want to post again with more specific software questions. There`s a lot of people here that can help you.

Once you get the software ... you can have it replicated by a group like diskmakers.com onto CD or DVD

After that,  there are dozens of fulfillment houses that specialize in literature and DVDs.

Other that the cost of the software, this sound like an interesting venture.

Jeff,

Thanks for the response. I guess by "outsource", I simply meant having it done elsewhere (besides at my place of business). I can see where overseas would be a major disadvantage.

Great tips on the software - that is along the lines of what I was thinking.

I hope it is an interesting venture!

Clear skies,

Casey

Casey,

Unless you want to develop an online business that compiles and sells all the best that is available for aviation education,(Which is a great idea in and of itself)  I would highly recommend you concentrate on your best and most simple product to get your ball rolling.

I too have dozens of product design and marketing ideas, but I  can`t give the necessary effort needed to all of them so I concentrate on a couple at a time.

As far as getting something manufactured, if you have a protected product idea, I like to take it to a company that already specializes in similar products and could benefit directly from its production and sale. They can help witht the expense of production. Work out a licensensing agreement and you are on your way.

Have fun with it!

~Eric

 

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~Eric
JE Design Group, LLC
If all you do is what you`ve done, then all you`ll get is what you`ve got.
www.jedesigngroup.com

Eric,

Thanks for the reply. I have also toyed with the idea of simply putting together an e-commerce site to sell aviation education products that I felt were really worth having. Higher quality, I guess you might say. I wonder if there is a decent market for something like this that focuses strictly on the educational side of aviation and not so much the other "toys".

- Casey

Yeah, They exist, but I haven`t seen any really comprehensive and appealing 1 stop all aviation education resource where you could get just about anything as it appeals to the education behind flying aircraft. A place where you could find anything you could want from a  book to a lap clipboard to a pen light, to a training hood, to a map, to software, to an instrument decal, to a......you get the picture..

www.asa2fly.com is OK but it could be so much better.

www.studentpilot.com/ is great and has a chat room but the products section is a redirect to a huge shopping mall. www.pilotmall.com and deals with far more than the straightforward education of pilots.

It`s not hard to find them out there but maybe you have a better plan. I say go for it. Take it to the next level.

-------------------------

~Eric
JE Design Group, LLC
If all you do is what you`ve done, then all you`ll get is what you`ve got.
www.jedesigngroup.com

Eric,
Again - great ideas. I agree that those sites are not necessarily the best and they don`t focus on any given product. Perhaps if a site became known as the "one stop shop" for everything education related in aviation, that would be possible.

Now that you have my interest, I have to research how to get something like this off the ground as far as building inventory and such... I don`t have any experience in that area. The web design portion is not such a major issue, but rather the logistics, for me!

Thanks again,
Casey