Build an MVP (Minimum Viable Product).
Don’t think ‘factory’ at this stage – this is more about infrastructure, once you know what your market wants – think more about your market, and how that should guide your offering.
In terms of a working space, you should be thinking of any options that require zero commitment – where there are no minimum lease terms, no expensive rent, and no business rates.
Do you have a garage or a room in your house you could convert into a workshop? If not, do you know of any friends or family that might provide you with this space?
The last thing you want to do at this stage is start elevating your fixed overheads. Build your basic infrastructure in the most agile, low-cost manner. Anything that can be borrowed, favours that can be called in, areas that could be outsourced from the outset – look at everything that will allow you to keep your fixed overheads as close to £0 at this stage, as possible.
Then, once you have the most basic setup you need in order to create and deliver your furniture products, you need to focus your energy and attention on understanding your market.
What type of furniture do they want? What features are popular right now? What styles are ‘in’?
The most cost-efficient model you can adopt at this stage is ‘made to order’.
Perhaps have some visuals made and build a basic website (or if you have a friend with programming skills – you could go one better and build a furniture-customisation tool for your site, so people can design and visualise their own pieces).
Maybe the process could begin with them selecting the type of furniture they are looking for (drawers, table and chairs, cabinet, wardrobe, bed frame and so on), then they could select the wood or other material, then move on to sizing, then onto styling and features, then finally paint colour and finish type.
If you ensure the algorithm is fed with the right pricing information for every material type and the time it will take, roughly, to produce each piece, then the end-result could be a fully-visualised, fully-priced piece of furniture, with a specified leadtime on delivery, that the user can then either save to their account, or process through an online checkout.
Not only is this model the most efficient. Provided you ensure you have the skills to deliver on any customisation that your customers request, it could also be the most profitable model, since anything custom is seen as premium, and you can price your pieces accordingly.
If you’re taking online payments, and requesting that it is all paid up-front prior to production getting underway (or using a consumer-finance provider like Klarna), then it’s also a great model for your cashflow.
This is a streamlined, super-efficient model that you can take to market for little expense and commitment (especially if you have a programmer-friend or you choose a freelancer carefully on Upwork.com).
Then from here, if your initial vision and plan for the company was to wholesale pieces for resale in furniture retailers, you can use the customer order data from your bespoke order system to guide your focus in terms of furniture types, materials, and styles.
When you start to look at mass production, this is when you either need to explore outsourcing (if you want to maintain the agile model you started out with), or you can begin to scale things up in-house by purchasing or leasing a factory, employing staff, and so on.
This is way, way down the line though and not something you should spend too much time thinking about right now.
Now, your objectives should be as follows:
- Create the basic infrastructure you need to be able to manufacture a small range of bespoke furniture pieces
- Build a streamlined order model online (preferably one with visuals, to enhance customer experience and conversion)
- Promote your website and furniture visuals across social media channels, maybe explore paid ads, PPC search ads, and so on (dedicate some seed financing to exploring paid channels of promotion, to discover what converts and where you should focus your promotional efforts going forwards)
- Scale beyond this in a market-driven manner (use the data you collect from your early sales to guide your offering and the direction of the business)
I hope this helps you to get started, and I wish you all the best of luck in your new venture!
If you need any help along the way, feel free to drop me a message via my blog Gavin Edley – Build Your Own Online Business With Me in 4 Weeks or check out my step-by-step business startup course on Udemy Fast Track Entrepreneur.