Selling a patented product

[Greig Whitton]

I do not know how things work. Do I manufacture the items myself and sell them to a distributor, do one sell your complete idea with injection moulds to somebody and the production and assembly problem is theirs?

Either of these routes could work (and there are other viable options as well). Personally, I would recommend manufacturing and selling on a very small scale first. If you can achieve a market footprint and sustainable demand (however small), then you have a lot more leverage to justify something like licensing fees.

The 500 units is still with me.( I moved from Mpumalanga a month ago)

Have you tried selling them? Do you plan on doing so? It's crucial for any new entrepreneurial venture to demonstrate conclusively that people will actually pay for their product. To be blunt, I wouldn't pursue this any further until you have sold the 500 units that you already have.

An icebucket and coolerbox need ice to work and a mini-fridge need electricity.

According to your website, your product needs electricity too ("Place your ICBlocks in the freezer for a couple of hours.") If I need a freezer for this product, why not just use my freezer to keep my beverages cold or create ice for my ice bucket / cooler box?

[Hein8956]

[

According to your website, your product needs electricity too ("Place your ICBlocks in the freezer for a couple of hours.") If I need a freezer for this product, why not just use my freezer to keep my beverages cold or create ice for my ice bucket / cooler box?

What the freezer part do,is to freeze the ICBlock and then you can place the ICBlock on a table and fit your drinks inside. It will keep your drinks at fridge temperature for over 3 hours. This means you dont have to walk to the fridge every now and again to get a cold beverage. Fridge use is to cool room temperature drinks in almost half the time it would normally take and to keep drinks from falling over/rolling around.
I have also found that a frozen ICBlock will cool drinks from room temperature to fridge temperature placed outside a fridge.

I do feel that you are absolutely correct with the idea to go out and sell some of my products on small scale. I just wasnt in the position to do so the past 3 years.(Working 6 days a week and living rural Mpumalanga life).

Thanx for the advise.

[AndyD]

I'd agree with Greig, don't spend another cent (apart from maybe some packaging) until you've found out how easy it is to sell the 500 you already have completed. Hit the market stalls on weekends, advertise them on Gumtree and your local Facebook groups etc. There's no substitute for the knowledge you'll gain about your product and its market by selling them yourself to start with.

Can I be so bold as to ask what kind of retail price point (ballpark) you had in mind for the product?

[Hein8956]

I am surely gonna follow the advise and it makes perfect sense. Retail I think would be about R70-R75 a unit.

[HR Solutions]

I am surely gonna follow the advise and it makes perfect sense. Retail I think would be about R70-R75 a unit.

What does it cost to make one unit ?

[wynn]

I've seen something similar to this in cooler boxes before.

[Hein8956]

I am not willing to disclose production cost in an open forum, but it is expensive (talking injection moulding cost,seeing its a lot of material and cycle time is high)
The similar product you talk of, might might be the "curvy cooler" from Seagull Industries but it does not function the same way as mine do.

[HR Solutions]

Im not asking for full production costs - I am merely asking for costs against sales e.g. it cost R30 to make and you sell for R75 therefore making it a viable product. You are asking for advise here without giving all the details. So then we have to do it the hard way. If it costs too much to make and your profit margin is minimal - I think you are wasting your time, because as wynn says above there is others on the market. Personally I would not put something like that on a table - I would rather put my drinks on ice so that they are really really cold when I want them. Its a whole lot easier to chuck a bag or two of ice in my container that has the drinks in it.
I would also try to get a feel of the market before proceeding at all.

[AndyD]

I am surely gonna follow the advise and it makes perfect sense. Retail I think would be about R70-R75 a unit.

At that kind of retail price they could easily fall into the 'impulse buy' category. They should sell on markets if the sales pitch and presentation is right so I'd strongly suggest the first step is as Greig suggests and forget the big boys for now, go sell the 500 units you aready have yourself.

[AndyD]

Hi
Thank you for your reply. I did do my homework regarding the place of my product in the market and there is nothing available in SA that serves the same purpose as my product. The product was not known to anybody before I got the product patented. I understand your idea on the packaging side and also feel it is best for now.

The fact there's no identical or similarly functioning products in SA might mean you don't have competition but it doesn't give any indication of the size of the market. Lack of competing products can be a double edged sword, it could be that you're the leader of the pack into an eager market or it could mean that other potential competitors have done due dilligence and found little demand for this type of product.