Want to create your own line of cleaning products? It’s not as easy as it sounds. If you want to create your own line of cleaning products you’ll need to figure out the “why” and the “how to.”
You’ll need chemical manufacturers with a specialty in cleaning supplies. That will involve consultants, training, chemists, and Safety Data Sheets.
How to create your own line of cleaning products is different from how to pitch your product to distributors. You’ll need to know sales, marketing, and inventory management. You’ll have warehousing and shipping and handling. And you’ll need a fulfillment staff and an accounting dept.
You’ll have to price your cleaning products for profit. But keep prices low enough consumers will buy with the steep competition.
Listen: How to Create Your Own Line of Cleaning Products
Watch: How to Create Your Own Line of Cleaning Products
Hey there, I’m Angela Brown, and this is Ask a House Cleaner. This is a show where you get to ask a house cleaning question, and I get to help you find an answer. You can find this and 400 other answered questions in this series on our YouTube channel.
How do You Create Your Own Line of Cleaning Products?
After being successful for many years in house cleaning, some cleaners want to branch out and create their own cleaning chemicals.
But how do you go about that? There are many things to think about before you even take the first step in creating cleaning products.
Chemicals are complex, and they can even be dangerous. So, you have to understand that before you can get started. This won’t be a cakewalk.
Find Someone Who Specializes in Cleaning Products
I’ve done a bunch of research and I have a friend that specializes in shampoos and conditioners.
So, I went to him. I said, “What is the process for getting involved in creating your own product line of cleaning chemicals?”
His first suggestion was to find someone that specializes in cleaning chemicals. This is because all chemical manufacturers are a little bit different. Just like house cleaning they all have different specialties.
So, you might be a specialist for garages only, right? So that’s not the person you want to hire to come and pet-sit your dog. You want to hire the person that specializes in the garages.
Hire Someone That Specializes in Cleaning Products
You want to hire somebody that specializes in what you do.
All the chemical manufacturing companies have chemists on staff. That’s something that they specialize in.
A company like KAFKO, in Chicago Illinois in the USA, they specialize and cleaning chemicals. So, they have a whole line of products that are ready to go.
Talk to Someone About Creating Your Own Cleaning Products Line
So, what you do is go in and sit down with a consultant and you say this. “I am considering creating my own product line. I want the glass cleaner, the furniture polish, the furniture cleaner, and the pet odor remover. These are the four products that I want to market.”
Then, they will help you decide how you are different from other products that are on the market.
So, you want to know what your unique selling proposition is because it’s going to be in all your marketing.
Why Do You Want to Create Your Own Cleaning Products?
Why do you want to start your own business again and compete with all the existing products that are already on the market? Once you’ve answered that question then you have to answer another. “Is there enough money margin in it for me to get involved in this business?”
Now, before you go and actually sit down and talk to a chemical manufacturer, there are some other things I want you to think about. Some of them are warehousing, inventory, and shipping.
How to Get Your Own Cleaning Products Line to the Market
Okay, so for you to get a product to the market it’s not just, “Hey I’d like a couple of bottles of this.”
What they’re going to do is they’re going to help you create a custom bottle. Now, if you walk down the aisles of the supermarket there are different shaped bottles out there. Every container has its own different unique shape.
Then you have to look at the color schemes. Packages in stores come in all different colors. You want to go with a color scheme that’s going to pop but is going to compete with the other brands that are on the shelves.
How Will You Market Your Own Cleaning Products?
How are you going to market your product? Are you going to sell it on supermarket shelves? Or are you going to sell it to a multi-level marketing group that will go out and sell it to the consumer directly? There are different approaches.
You might even decide that for your product you want to have an infomercial that shows all the different features and benefits of your product.
Create Your Own Cleaning Products Logo
The next thing you want to think about the logo that you’re going to use because every product has its own face. So, you might need to register a whole bunch of different trademarks for the brand you’re making.
Then you have to check the slogans and make sure no one else is using that tag-line. You don’t want to go so far and have your product in a warehouse in huge quantities with someone else’s words on it. Now you’re getting sued for copyright infringement. So, you don’t want to do that.
Warehousing Your Own Cleaning Products Line
When we talk about warehousing this is not just you storing a couple of bottles in your basement. You’re going to have a warehouse full of supplies.
This is because when you get to the task to create a product line, they’re going to create a special bottle for you. It’s not cheap to do this. It’s not just like print on demand with Amazon where you print one copy of a book as you need it. You have to have many copies of the bottle.
Create a Supply of Your Cleaning Products
You have to create some kind of supply. Then you have to think about how fast can you get the supply back if you sell most of your warehouse?
There’s a lot of stuff to think about, but that isn’t the end of it. Then you have to put it inside a box. It has to have been packed so that it ships the right way and it doesn’t bust open or leak on the way to the consumer.
Starting Your Own Label for Cleaning Products
So, there’s a bunch of stuff that you’ve got to take into consideration. There’s a company called Midlab and they stood out for me a little bit from some of the other companies out there. In case you’re interested in starting your own private label.
Like my friend Matthew said. “You want to go to a company that specializes in the exact product line of what you do”.
Midlab does have chemists on staff, they’ve been mixing and blending chemicals for years. They can create SDS sheets for you. They know exactly what they’re doing.
Don’t Reinvent the Wheel Creating Your Own Cleaning Products
So, don’t reinvent the wheel. It’s not cheap to go with other companies to sell your products. So, save money and do it the right way because you can’t wing-it.
This is a huge brand that you’re building. You’re building an empire and that’s not cheap. And it doesn’t happen overnight.
There’s going to be a lot of research that you’re going to have to clear with the Environmental Protection Agency. You have to make sure it’s safe. There will be associations and organizations you have to clear with.
Selling Your Product to a Multi-Level Marketing Company
So, if you’re going to turn around and sell it to a multi-level marketing company you need to be ready. Standing in someone’s living room and giving them a bid estimate on a house is small. Standing in front of 30,000 people saying this is how you sell this product, is much different.
It’s a whole different set of skills. You’re going to end up needing to know professional selling and speaking. You might need to know how to use a PowerPoint presentation.
Midlab Helps You Create Your Own Products Line
Midlab stands out because they teach you how to sell your products. And they help you with all the marketing and selling. You can turn around and sell it to either the distributors.
Then they take it to all the grocery stores for you. Or if you’re going to sell it on a commercial basis and you’re going to make 55-gallon drums of it, they’ll do that too.
When you go to sell it to wholesalers it’s a different sales process for each different outlet that you sell it too.
You Have to Know How to Sell Your Own Cleaning Products Line
So, you have to know how to sell. And so, if this is new to you, you can take a selling course to get better.
Take a marketing course, take a business course. Get involved in what comes next because this is going to be a huge commitment.
It’s not just whim kind of thing. If you create a product and it’s here to stay, you’re going to be here years from now. This is a long-term commitment. And you will be competing with all the other products that are out on the market.
And so, how are you different? What is it that you’re selling? Why are you selling it? And can you be here 50 years from now?
Customer Service is Part of Creating Your Own Products
If you’re willing to have a warehouse and an inventory then you can’t do it alone. You have to hire people to do all the bookkeeping, accounting, and take the orders.
They have to call people back when orders don’t clear and confirm that the orders are shipped. If you’re willing to do all that stuff, God bless you because that’s awesome, but it’s also tough.
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