Hey guys,
I’m Noah Sherman, and I have just recently started a YoYo company, Stellar Spins.
We have found a manufacturer and everything is going Great!
Except we don’t have all the funds we need, That’s why we started a KickStarter,
We would really love if you guys could check it out, i will post the link below.
Thanks So Much
Please Read Up and Coming Manufacturer Rules Before Posting Links.
Thanks,
Garrett
A yoyo company requires about $[insert secret money value here] to get a run of 40 aluminum yoyo’s anodized, boxed, and bearings and pads. Don’t tell me you want $20,000, unless it’s super long term. In the mean time, maybe make your goal $2000, or something a bit less. Yoyo companies aren’t built in a day.
For 50 yoyos with the manufacturer we are using and all the stuff we want, it will be around $2500 to make. That would mean if used the same stuff as us, you are trying to make 400 yoyos.
It is implied that they want to do injection-molded, but clear information would be better. The CAD seems to show a yoyo with thicknesses better suited for aluminum, not injection molding. So yeah, overall it’s pretty confusing.
I definitely did not use the correct term. I don’t get email notifications, it just appears in my “Show new replies to your posts.” I was totally not clear about the sense in which I’m now stuck to this thread. Haha!
Anyways, what Steve said earlier applies here perfectly.
Five Things You Should Do If You Are Starting A New YoYo Company
Shut up. Seriously, do not announce that you intend to do anything. Just start doing it. Give yourself ample time to figure it out. It’s harder than you think, guaranteed, and you are going to screw up more than you are going to do right. The louder you are at the beginning, the bigger the audience you are building for your most spectacular failures. Once you actually have something legit to show, THEN start making noise.
Under promise so you can over-deliver. You think it’s gonna take a month to get that production run out the door? Tell everyone it will be ready in two months. Are you packaging it with cool extras? Say NOTHING about them until you can show them. Better yet, don’t tell anyone and let them show up with the product as a pleasant surprise. Over-promising and then nothing working out is the fastest way to kill consumer confidence and lose fans before you even have any.
Shut up. Seriously. I know, it’s exciting to start a new thing and you wanna tell everyone about it but trust me, you’re better off getting 10x further along than you think you need to be before you say a darn word.
Have a story. Don’t just jump out the gate with “We have a name, does anyone want to make a logo for us we’ll give you a free yoyo if they turn out LOL”. Have a plan. Have a visual identity, or at least the plan for one. Here’s a great exercise: turn your brand into a person. What to they wear? What do they eat? How do they talk? What music do they like? What movies do they like? Figure out exactly what your brand should look like from all possible angles before you say one single word publicly from that brand.
Plan to fail. Just because that machine shop makes everything else for everyone else doesn’t mean there isn’t a problem with your design. Just because that anodizer does everything else for everyone else doesn’t mean they won’t screw up yours. Expect catastrophe, have a backup plan, and if you followed steps 1 and 3 you don’t have anything to apologize for yet.
We need information. It’s not a good idea to come out of nowhere and say “I’m starting a yoyo company, and I need $20,000”
EDIT: I think I know him from instagram. He’s under the age of 18 for sure, so I don’t think he has any background with engineering or machining.