Podcast: How to Successfully Develop and Scale Production

Jared Haw, president of EPower Corp, was recently featured on Entrepreneurs On Fire to talk about how to successfully develop and scale production.

Check out the podcast HERE!!

[01:08] – Jared shares something interesting about himself that most people don’t know.

He was an international soccer player and he traveled around the states and the world playing in tournaments.

[02:39] – What was previously available for manufacturing, and how did those options fail in the past?

The biggest thing was lack of engineering support. Manufacturers weren’t able to provide support with engineering.
Also, you don’t want to give your IP to someone who might not be trustworthy
Communication has to be streamlined, and it wasn’t.
Factories need to be proactive when it comes to problems, and this has been an issue in the past.
It all sounds easy, but when you’re trying to bring in components from different factories, things can get messy

[06:50] – John chats about the issues Jared has just discussed

[07:48] – Jared shares the EPower origin story.

They knew they wanted to start something for themselves. They felt they had a responsibility to improve the manufacturing experience for their clients.
The number one issue on the assembly line is quality. It’s actually not that difficult. You just have to check the products before they go to the assembly line.
They had to put all their eggs in one basket, because if they tried to be diverse, and spread out as wide as possible, then they would end up collapsing
If you provide support to your clients, and they’re able to grow because of it, then that means you’re able to grow. The more they sell, the more you sell.

[11:59] – Jared talks about the current status of EPower Corp.

[13:48] – What services does EPower provide that led to their success?

Their goal from the start was to be a manufacturing partner for their clients.
They have suppliers that can deliver at the price and quality they need.
They have quality engineers who understand not just their processes, but also their clients’ processes.

[17:11] – A timeout to thank our sponsor, ZipRecruiter and ClickFunnels!

[18:33] – Jared goes through the process of taking a product idea and walking through the development steps one-by-one.

There’s no one way to bring your product to life. That’s because with every company, there’s always a certain restraint, and we have to work within those restraints
When we look at projects, we never look at the product – we look at the company. The reason being, companies sell products. Products don’t sell themselves.
If you don’t have some sort of proof of concept, then you can’t move to the next step.
The purpose of having a functional prototype is to verify if it works well.
The following step is the golden sample: it’s the combination of the functional and the aesthetic.
The next steps are: the pilot run, then production, then shipping.

[22:34] – How do we properly scale up production?

You have to make sure that the manufacturer you’re working with has the right labor.
Product takes up space. You have to check with the manufacturer to make sure that they have the allowable space – and make sure that you’re able to scale up.
You should also make sure you have machine availability.

[25:57] – Jared discusses the future of contract manufacturing and EPower

The future is diminishing. There are thousands of factories that are failing because they’re not able to provide proper support to customers.
Only the fit survive.
The ones that do survive are the ones that are able to invest in their clients.
For contract manufacturing in China to be alive, we have to be proactive. We have to constantly be providing support so clients feel comfortable with us.
Develop ways to provide solutions and communicate faster. Be the factory that is the fastest, but that will provide huge value to clients.

[29:51] – Jared’s parting piece of guidance

Jared’s FREE GIFT for Fire Nation – Your 3-step Resource Guide to help you get started with contract manufacturing -www.epowercorp.com/fire
If you have a product you want to launch, you just have to take a leap of faith. There’s always someone who can help you on the manufacturing side. There are also so many people who can help you with the sales and marketing side. You are never alone.