Starting Supplement Brand

[Torro]

First things first, I am a 19 yr old college student looking down the entrepreneur route. Looking at the Tim Ferris model of BrainQUICKEN, and my own supplement/nutrition knowledge, I feel developing a simple supplement is a good place to start.

1. Product- An up-and-coming fat burning ingredient, combined with 1-2 other thermogenics depending on cost. I feel strongly about the success of this single ingredient.
2. Sales Medium- A simple website with a simple domain name and contact email.
3. Marketing- Start off locally with the assistance of local gyms and personal trainers combined with bodybuilding forums online (no monetary cost, only time), then expand advertising through media in Florida college towns (Tallahassee, Gainesville, etc.), and finally through PPC and different online advertising.

Whether you agree with the approach or not, I feel that the biggest hurdle is the initial product development. I would appreciate if anybody who has been down the supplement road has any insight. With a single ingredient (+ either 1 or 2 depending on cost), what are the rough startup costs am I looking at for production? What is the amount I need to purchase up-front for this to become a reality?

If anybody has any information at all, please do not hesitate to post.

[kamakiri]

Creating the product is the simple part. There are thousands of literally off the shelf brands that you can private label. Tim mentions thousands of studies. Do you think he initiated them and funded them? Of course not. He chose tried and true ingredients that had reams of backup support data.

You were doing great until your marketing strategy. Local marketing is not any way to sell a 4HWW product, in fact it is the opposite. You want customers who live far away, ones that you can't see every day. Heck, if you want that, then sign up for Pharmanex, you will make more money.

With that kind of a marketing plan, you are trading your time for money. You need to concentrate on the internet to leverage the 24/7 nature, and let automated systems do the work for you.

[Torro]

1. Thank you for bringing that to my attention, I completely agree.

2. I already have researched the studies, and have the ingredient(s) that I want. I meant to say that privately labeling my product was the hurdle, as I did not know where I could get the ingredients into a capsule, then have bottles made with a label.

Since the first post, I have found customcapsule.com. Does anybody have any opinions on this? Anywhere better/cheaper?

Although they did not have the specific ingredient I wanted, it looks like I can put something together that, if bought in bulk, would only be around $7/customer. That doesn't come with the labeling though.

[kamakiri]

Okay. You are going the wrong way. You aren't working on your business at all. You have no business to work on yet, and wasting your time. Go back and read the book. Doing the steps out of order is foolish.

Your product doesn't matter. You need to do what Toyota did with the Prius. Create the marketing first then the product. You need to get a web site up and start split testing with google ads, gauge the demand, then work on your product. Go back and re-read that part of the book, you will save yourself a big hassle.

[tomswiftjr]

Okay. You are going the wrong way. You aren't working on your business at all. You have no business to work on yet, and wasting your time. Go back and read the book. Doing the steps out of order is foolish.

No need to be an asshole about it. Care to share your accomplishments in muse creation? So far as I can tell, you spend most of your time on this forum insulting others under the guise of honest criticism.

While I agree that you should do your marketing before you create your product, it's definitely not a bad idea to do some upfront research to make sure you can create the product at all. To use your own example, I can create some amazing marketing for an electric vehicle that goes 5000 miles on a single charge and costs $999, but when it comes down to product creation, I'm going to have a big disappointment on my hands.

Regardless, what do you think you're accomplishing by insulting people?

[webgal]

OK, let's chill out. No need to be reactionary or be critical in a way that someone can perceive is insulting.

First, you don't just do marketing without a product or do a product without thinking how you will take it to market. It's actually a dual process.