Making an Idea into Reality

For the month of November I had to choose my next module. I chose “launching a business.” I have been interested in entrepreneurship for quite some time and I have had a lot of ideas but never really followed through with them until now. 

For this month’s project I had a lot of different options of where I could go with it.

For example: 

Online services

• Podcast editing

• Website development

• Graphic design

• Content creating

In-person products

• Restored Furniture

• Baked Goods

• Handcrafted items

Online products

• Online courses

• Print-on-demand

• Template downloads

None of these seemed to interest me so I decided to take it a different route. I decided I wanted to create my own product and I knew exactly what. The idea came to me in the summer of 2023. I thought of it while looking at my dog's slow feeder dog bowl. A slow feeder dog bowl is a dog bowl that is designed to slow down dogs that eat very fast so they can have better digestion of their food. I realized that almost all of the bowls are made out of plastic which can leach harmful chemicals into their food. And the ones that aren’t made of plastic do not really have a complex design so it does not slow down the dogs eating.

That is how I found a problem for which I had a solution. When creating a product it is important to think about why you are creating it in the first place and that is because you have a problem and you come up with a solution. That's why products are created because they notice a problem and they come up with a solution to fix their problem and others who have the same problem.

After I figured out what the problem was and how my product would fix it, it was time to build out the business. 

All of my tasks during each week

First week finding customers :

• Reach out to a list of three potential customers

• Research what I would have to do to create the product

• Start thinking of logo 

• Sketch out what I want my product to look like on a piece of paper

For the first week I focused on getting opinions on my product and really finalizing my idea in my head and getting it on paper. I had the idea of what I wanted the bowl to look like. I just needed to get it onto paper and draw out different versions of it. 

Here was my drawn out design of my product:

Part of my idea was to have rubber base also designed that it would not slide on the ground when being used.

Next is week 2 where I get a CAD design of my product.

Second week creating the product:

• Create a 3D CAD file mockup of product

• Start looking at different manufacturers

• Create the logo

This week I got a 3D computer-aided design (CAD) file of my product done. I have not had previous experience using any of those tools to create a CAD file. So I used a helpful tool called Fiverr. Fiverr is a tool where you people with experience build your idea for you. I explained my idea, gave them my drawings, and measurements. I was also able to make adjustments as needed to make sure my idea was exactly how I wanted it. 

My final CAD design looked like this:

Stainless steel slow feeder dog bowl

Rubber base of the bowl

I also worked on my logo this week. I had somewhat of an idea of what I wanted the logo of my business to be. I wanted a dog to be integrated into the logo. I got some help with this as well from someone in my family. 

This is what the final logo looked like: 

Next is week 3!

Third week emailing manufacturers:

• Research manufacturers 

• Emailing manufacturers

• Register the business

This week I focused on researching manufacturers and even emailing some as well. 

I used a tool called Thomasnet which is a website that has a list of thousands of different manufacturers. I was looking for manufactures that work a lot with stainless steel creating the type of product I was looking to create. Once I had a list of different manufacturers I started emailing someone about my product. 

Fourth week getting it done:

• Email more manufacturers

• Contacting the 3 potential customers again to see how they like my idea of my product 

• Write blog post 

This week I emailed more manufacturers and contacted the other 3 potential customers. I got some replies and some were not suited for my product as well. I am currently still emailing other manufacturers and am still waiting for a reply from another one as well.

I wanted to also contact the 3 potential customers again to see how they like the design so far and if they would be interested in potentially ordering the product in the near future when it launches. I have not messaged all of them yet but I have talked to others about it and they have enjoyed the idea and how the product looks so far!

Somethings I would do differently:

While I feel happy about everything I created and worked on this month I do feel like I could have accomplished more within this month. 

I also think I could have come up with a better plan for myself. For example, having a list of the days during the week where I work on certain things.

Wrapping it up

I found this month to be a very fun project to work on and I will continue to work on this project of mine because this is one of my goals is to have this business launched toward the beginning of the new year. I am very excited for this business and what is to come.