Scaling Your Business: When to Work with a Sewn Product Development Consultant
Many business owners who succeed in developing their initial product will quickly be ready to scale to the next level. It's an exciting step, but it can also be a frightening one. Rarely do attempts at scaling succeed flawlessly. Some growing pains are felt, such as losing sight of customer needs while scrambling to meet operational demands.
With sewn products, previously unknown issues can arise as companies start to increase manufacture or add more designs. While these issues may feel out of nowhere, they likely have been there all along. The most common problems that businesses encounter are issues with the pattern, tech pack or both. Working with an expert can help find those problems before they start.
Why You Need to Create a Strong Foundation to Ensure Growth and Success
Encountering issues as you scale can indicate that the development process was lacking in some way. Building a solid foundation from the beginning of your journey is a lot of work, but it can save you time and money later. Luckily, it's never too late to double-check things.
Here at MADE Apparel Services, we specialize in helping businesses create strong product foundations by ensuring development is complete and thorough.
What's Needed to Scale Production?
Step One: A Professional Pattern
A sure way to scale with fewer problems is to start with a professional pattern maker who can create a pattern that is balanced and constructed around a base body size that matches your target market. When you provide a manufacturer with a professional, commercial-grade pattern, they are better equipped to make your product the way you envisioned.
Step Two: Testing Your Product
Before scaling your product, it's essential to test it with your target market. Start with a Sample Batch Manufacture to gather input and feedback from customers, sewists or other experts. Use this opportunity to fix any mistakes in your design that come to light.
Step Three: A Professional Tech Pack
Once you have your pattern fine-tuned, you want to ensure your manufacturer won't have any questions about how it sews together and what materials to use. The pattern alone does not have enough instructions; it's only part of the Tech Pack, not to be confused with a spec sheet, which only contains a limited amount of information. Be sure you understand the differences between the two so you manage your own expectations correctly and communicate better with your manufacturer.
Step Four: Marketing Your Product
When you have all the manufacturing pieces in place, you then need to market your product to the right audience. Your customers want to know how your product benefits them. They're not interested in the fine details you care about; their main concern is their needs. Even if your product meets all your customers' expectations, they will only notice it if you tell them.
3 Reasons to Work with a Sewn Product Development Consultant
Pinpointing the root issue can be challenging when you're having trouble with your sewn product while trying to scale. Working with a Sewn Product Development Consultant is the best way to find the weak spots in your pattern, tech pack, or design and give you peace of mind.
Here are three reasons why you should work with a Sewn Product Development Consultant to iron out the wrinkles in your process before you attempt to scale:
Reason #1: They're experts who know how to ask the right questions and what to review to find the problem.
Reason #2: They bring fresh eyes to your product to find opportunities you may have missed before.
Reason #3: They will offer tips to improve your product development process in the future, causing you less frustration and stress.
What Is Involved in a Product Development Consultation?
It should be clear now why you would want to hire a Sewn Product Development Consultant and when to do it, but what happens when you work together? At MADE Apparel Services, we review four main areas to find mistakes and opportunities in your process.
Part One: A Professional Pattern Review
If there are mistakes in the pattern, it can lead to problems down the line. We'll review your pattern and assess which dress form series best matches your design and whether it's the right one for your target market. We'll then fix any errors and help you evaluate specific problems so they can be corrected, better preparing you for manufacture.
Part Two: Verify and Test your Size Range
Most of the time, problems in the pattern start to reveal themselves in the largest and smallest sizes. We can help by reviewing the grade of your patterns to find and fix those misfits so your design looks and feels perfect for every body size.
Part Three: Test Your Design with a Sample Batch
No matter how small a pattern change may be, it's crucial to resew samples, but you can do a small batch run of only 5-25 pieces - called ‘Sample Batch Manufacture’ to test on real customers first. This will help validate your design and gauge market interest before committing to the high costs of large scale production. Whether it's material validation, colorway selection or to check the sewn construction, Sample Batch will reveal almost any issues right away.
Part Four: Tech Pack Review
Before we send you off to manufacture, or you go back to manufacture with a more perfect design package, we want to ensure you have all the necessary elements in your Tech Pack—this means more than just a Spec Sheet or pattern. We'll carefully review every document to ensure you have exactly what is needed to produce your product the way you want.
Prepare Your Business for Large Scale Production with a Product Development Consultant
Are you ready to fix your mistakes and have a professional review of your product? If you still need to build a foundation for your brand to start with, now is the time to fix your mistakes and remove your barriers to scale. Contact us for more information on working with a Sewn Product Development Consultant.
