Page 102 - 597 Business Ideas You can Start from Home - doing what you LOVE! (Beginner Internet Marketing Series)

Step 5: Manufacture Your Idea into a Product 93

Quality assurance, or quality control, means checking each
product before it is shipped and making sure it is not defective in
any way. Quality control begins with the first prototype. This step
is so important because your reputation is on the line. If you say
your product is well made, it better be!

Although the job is tedious, it is critical. Yes, you may have to
check out thousands of pieces, but instead be proud that you are
selling that many. No one wants to have product returned, and
negative word of mouth is not good for business. If your manufac­
turing company gives you some defective products, you have a few
options . First, you could ask them to repair it. If that's not possible,
you should receive a credit for all defective pieces (unfortunately
you will have to absorb the loss of the actual materials).

Never send out anything that has any sort of material defect
or even a typographical or alignment error on a tag. If a buyer or
account sees that you don't care about the little things, they may
think you are sloppy with big, important details as well. So run a
tight ship and send out only quality goods.

Inve ntory Management

Inventory balancing is an ongOing challenge that plagues even
large, well-established companies (you've heard of things being "out
of stock," right?). When you receive an order, you want to be able to
fill it, yet you don't want to have your garage full of inventory that
just sits there getting old and dusty. There is a fine line in balanc­
ing supply and demand. But once you have regular accounts, it is
important to stock up on your inventory and to keep track of it.

How to Use Software

You can buy software programs for managing inventory (of
course initially I made my own "custom" charts). If you start out
selling only one style of one product, your inventory system is sim­
ple accounting. You will initially produce say 1 ,000 units and will