First, our grades:

1. Product

So far we've sold a few hundred pieces from our web site and on eBay. Out of all of those customers, 3 have written back with product questions. Cushy Tushy includes a removable plastic ring sewn into the product that is key to keeping it snugly fitted to your toilet. This ring is connected by a small plastic connector that can become disconnected. If you don't know about it, you might think that your Cushy Tushy is broken. In reality everything is just fine, just needs to be reconnected.

This is the only product complaint that we've received, so we grade our product high.

Grade: A

2. Operations

Operations refers to how our company works internally. Since we have a good system in place for processing orders, including mailing, banking, accounting, etc., we'll give ourselves another high grade. But since we have not been tested yet with high volume orders, there is probably room for improvement.

Grade: B

3. Marketing

For Cushy Tushy, marketing is limited by our budget. Our activities include:

- Facebook advertising

Our Facebook ads target women in the US and are limited to a few dollars in "clicks" per day. At first we received great exposure, but that quickly dropped off.

- Google advertising

We run targeted Google ads, but so far have not been able to reach the right audience. We'll get into this more later, but basically it is difficult to use Google ads effectively when selling a low-cost product such as Cushy Tushy.

- Facebook product page

We also set up a Facebook product page, but so far we only have three followers!

- Packaging insert

Inside every order we include a flyer introducing The Cushy Tushy Co., offering a discount on future orders, and asking customers to help support us on Facebook. This is a great chance to talk directly to actual customers, which is a great opportunity. Unfortunately, we haven't seen any evidence that customers are looking for us on Facebook or using the discount. The flyers need to cause customers to take an action. How do we do that?

We are putting a lot of effort into marketing, but the results are not there.

Grade: C

4. Sales

Our goal is to sell 10 pieces a day, but we are far from reaching our goal. We have approached many retailers and distributors but so far we've been turned down every time. Part of the problem is that the large chain stores dominate our market and it is difficult to get shelf space for a small-time manufacturer. They are not in the business of taking chances, and who can blame them? It is a bit of a Catch-22: for Cushy Tushy to be sold in the chain stores we need to prove that we're successful on our own. If we could sell successfully on our own, we wouldn't need the chain stores.

For any company, regardless of the good or services you're selling, the ultimate measure of success is your sales number. Either you are selling or you are not. As a small business run entirely by us, we can't put the blame anywhere but on our selves.

Grade: F

Summary

We have the products and when we get orders we have the means to deliver, but the orders just aren't there. We need to make changes to our marketing plan in order to increase sales. Next posting we'll tell you a little bit about our new plan.

The exact labeling that is required for your product is going to depend on exactly what your product is. Are you importing electronics? To go the web site of the FTC. Importing drugs or cosmetics? Check out the FDA site. It can be a mine field looking for this information, but you have to have it.

Another option is it to look at what your competitors are doing. If they are selling product in a reputable retail store you can assume that they are following the law correctly.

All goods, whether made in the US or made overseas and shipped in, have the same basic marking requirements. Examples of what you should expect to include in marking your product could include:

- country of origin (this is always required)

- materials used to manufacture (100% cotton, for example)

- cleaning instructions ("hang dry")

- electrical requirements (input 110 volts 60 Hz)

- safety standards attained (hmm, drawing a blank)

There is a trend in marking to use universally recognized symbols instead of words. Take look at the care label inside your jeans and you'll see what I mean. Or take a look at the power adapter that came with your cell phone. Lots of little icons, right? The benefit of using icons instead of words is that the label can be understood by non-English speakers. If you only plan to ship in the US, using icons could help you easily transition into the Canadian or Mexican markets. With NAFTA, it's easier than you think to cross borders even as a small business.

You should know that labeling and marking is going to be required both on your product and on your packaging - two places. Consumers look at packaging before they buy and once the goods are home they throw the packaging away and are left with only the product itself. That's why, in almost all cases, marking must be done twice.

There is one exception that I'm aware of. If it is impractical to put a sticker or label on a product the requirement is waived. For example, you're importing small hair pins. Obviously you can't put a label on a hair pin. But the requirement for labeling your packaging still stands.

The first line of defense for confirming you marking (besides yourself, of course) is the US Customs Service. You have to assume that they will open your shipment and inspect your goods. Of course they are aware of all the regulations put in place by the other government agencies.

If your labeling/marking fails at US Customs it can be expensive to rework your product or packaging. You might not be allowed to officially complete the importing process until the problem is rectified. That could entail having the rework be performed in a bonded area, at your cost. Each day of storage at US Customs will also be charged. If it takes a week to make new labels, find someone to apply the labels and do the work, that's a weeks worth of storage. Ouch. Long story short, do your homework and get it done right the first time.

After doing all of your online homework and checking out your competitors, don't be shy about calling the US Customs Service directly and asking for advice. It could save you lots of time and money in the long run. You may even be able to have your marking pre-approved before going into production.

First you need to consider exactly what your packaging needs are. Do you have any plans to sell your product on retail shelves, or will you be 100% online? For strictly online retailers, packaging could be limited to whatever is necessary to protect your goods during transport and whatever legal requirements you need to fulfill. 

For Cushy Tushy we don't have any plans to sell anywhere but online, yet we decided to use store-like packaging. Why? Mostly to give our customers a good impression of our product and our company. Our product is not yet well known in this country so we are hoping for good word-of-mouth buzz. (Still waiting!!!)

Also, plans can change and we wanted to have packaging that would work in a store. The only thing missing from our packaging is a bar code. We skipped the bar code for now just to save some money but we left a blank space on the packaging so that we could ad a bar code later, if needed. We'll talk more about bar codes later.

While it was always our plan to do as much of the work as possible in bringing Cushy Tushy to market, we also recognize the limits to our abilities. I know what I like in packaging, but I can't do the design myself. After sketching out a few designs on scratch paper I went to the place you can find anyone to do just about anything - Craigs List. Search on key words like "packaging" or "product packaging" and you should get a few names freelancers and web site links with past work to look at. Poke around until you have a few candidates and then start calling or emailing. If your local Craigs List doesn't have anyone you like, try the SF Bay Area Craigs List. These days just about anything can be done over the Internet so physical location is less important than you may realize. 

Any good product packaging professional will know the lingo of the industry so don't worry that you don't. Just go in with your ideas and be as clear as possible about what you're looking for in terms of artwork and also what the requirements are of your manufacturer. If you're still evaluating manufacturers you may need to ask talk to several of them about their requirements and limitations. Your designer will want to know about package dimensions, folds, print bleeds, etc. Many years ago product packaging was printing from expensive films that were used as a master impression. Then films were replaced by Photoshop files. This was a big change but frankly it was still a pain in the butt if you were not a Photoshop-head. These days it has gotten to be very, very simple. Most likely your packaging designer will do all of the design in Photoshop, just like before, but will send you a PDF file of the finished work. A PDF file can be opened using a free app, Adobe Acrobat, and so is much more portable than the proprietary graphic files of the past.

For Cushy Tushy we cared about two things, the size and shape of toilet seat that could be covered and the thickness of the material. (Thicker being more comfortable, a key selling point for us.) After a little research we decided that nearly every potential customer in the US would have an O-shaped toilet seat and the size would be either 16.5" or 18.5" in length. So that became our design point. How did we learn this, you might ask? Easy. We found a leading toilet seat manufacturer, Bemis, and looked at their sizes. (When in doubt check the web site of a company you trust. I will write more about this point in the future, but it is a good tip to keep in mind throughout this process.)

Regarding the thickness requirement for Cushy Tushy, this was a little more difficult to specify. Can you measure the thickness of a towel or sheets? Not really. Eventually we figured out that the manufacturer measures thickness by using the weight of each piece in grams and they had 30g, 50g and 80g versions. We settled on both 50g and 80g versions so that we could have a standard weight and a premium weight to sell. We realize that most Americans have no idea what 50 grams represents, but they can compare 50 to 80 so by comparison the 80g version has more value. 

For your products you're going to need to do some research unless you already know how products in your field are measured at the factory. If you're going to spec plastic goods, you will need to educate yourself on the qualities of plastics that get measured. Sturdiness? Strength? Clarity? If you're going to be sourcing electronics you will need to do much more research and decide many more specs than we had to define. Whatever it is, start to document your needs and keep updating it until you are comfortable with how you've defined your product for the manufacturer or manufacturers that you will be working with. When you receive your first lot of 5,000 pieces and they are 80% of what you had in mind you will be sorry that you hadn't properly defined the remaining 20%. 

One more suggestion. If you have a product similar to what you are sourcing (could be a competitors product, by the way) send it as a sample to the factory to use as a model during the product definition stage. Usually a sample in hand can convey to your overseas partner much more clearly than anything you could write in an email. Most likely you're writing to someone whose native language is not English so photos, drawings and samples can be very helpful.