Getting into industrial and home design is easier now than ever before and one hot market for budding entrepreneurs happens to be faucet design and manufacturing.
These essential components of every household come in a variety of types and styles but, best of all, is that they are a part of a new movement to elevate niche products to the status of market leaders.
In other words, small businesses have great leverage competing with the bigger players based upon the ease of outsourcing manufacturing, smaller designers’ willingness to experiment with form and function, and the consumer market’s insatiable lust for anything new and novel.
We’ll discuss the various types of faucets out on the market, how you can design your own, and then outsource their manufacturing to a trusted supplier.
After that, we’ll give you some advice on how to sell and market your faucet designs online.
The Four Primary Types of Faucet
Ball Faucet
Ball faucets are typically found in kitchens or other areas of the house where exacting control of hot and cold water levels is unnecessary. Manufactured with a single knob for both hot and cold, these faucets contain a ball mechanism within them that opens and closes the water valve. A simple yet elegant design, ball faucets are some of the most common in kitchens and other work areas in the home or in commercial settings.
Cartridge Faucet or Two-Handle Faucet
Cartridge faucets are distinguished from ball faucets by their use of an internal cartridge to regulate the flow of water rather than a ball mechanism. These can be one-handle or two-handle faucets though they are commonly two-handle faucets with designations for hot and cold being separated between the two.
Disc Faucet
Usually marked by a single lever atop a wide cylindrical body, disc faucets use a ceramic disc to control water flow and have a chamber for mixing hot and cold water within them. The dial on a disc faucet can be either like those with a rotary dial or a lever that is turned to the left or right to indicate the intensity of various water temperatures. This faucet type is the newest type of faucet and one very commonly found in modern bathroom sinks.
Compression Water Faucet
The oldest design, these faucets often have two handles for hot and cold and require turning to release water and tightening to shut the flow of water off. Though they are old, they are often preferred for being cheap. Some common issues with compression water faucet styles are that they are more prone to leaks than other designs.
How to Sell Faucets?
Now let’s discuss the art and science of selling faucets. We’ve broken down the process of outlining your business and getting its operations up and running in 11 broadly outlined steps.
Find Your Niche
Are you going to deal with commercial or home-use faucets? Do you want to sell designer faucets or something more entry-level? Will your customers are individuals or companies and what kind of individual or company do you want to target?
Draw Up a Preliminary Business Plan
Once you have some idea of what kind of niche you are targeting in the market, start writing down a preliminary business plan. This can include a list of to-do items as well as other suggestions.
Get Expert Advice
Seek out the leaders in your field and model their behavior. Find faucet stores online that you like and copy what they are doing if it is working. This is called benchmarking and it is one of the quickest ways for a startup to get going in the market.
Sketch Out Your Finances
How is the company going to fund itself and what will be its income streams? Will you need to rent space or is will you house your business out of an existing property you own? Will you need a loan or credit line of any kind? Answer those questions at this stage.
Figure Out Your Business Location
This is in reference to being an online play or and online plus brick-and-mortar outlet. While there are obvious costs associated with having a physical location, there might be huge benefits as well – especially if you plan on working heavily with local contractors and firms.
Devise a Company Structure
Outline how the company is going to organize itself and what the chain of command ideally would be.
Name the Business
Come up with a name that makes sense and, if possible, tells the customer something about your business. Of course, if you want to design and market your own faucets, the name can be a critically important aspect of your business.
Set Up Financials
Open up a checking account, establish a credit line, and get all of your other financials up and running so that you can begin building your faucet business.
Think About Branding
You may want to enlist a marketing and design expert to help you with the logos and branding of your business. Again, this is doubly important if you want to market your own ideas.
Establish an Online Presence
Consider hiring an expert web designer and e-commerce specialist to help you build out your online presence.
Build Your Team
While some work, in the beginning, can be farmed out to others (such as your website and even your payroll), you may need staff to assist you with other aspects of the business. Consult your business hierarchy chart and adjust as necessary if you find you need help at some point.
How to Source Faucets?
If you are selling the faucets of other faucet manufacturers, working with a faucet wholesaler to secure your inventory at the best market prices. We encourage you to use multiple vendors and to use price competition among them to your advantage. Always remember that vendors are willing to offer discounts for large quantity purchases but don’t forget that you still have to sell those.
How to Market and Promote Your Product Lineup
But let’s say you want to design your own. Fortunately for you, that is now easier than ever before. With things like 3D printing, you can now design and prototype your own faucets. If you don’t have any experience designing the actual faucet, you can farm that work out to an engineer while you just concern yourself with concept design.
Of course, if you lack design expertise, you can also hire a design expert to help you out. We also recommend you establish a web and social media presence for your company. Naturally, you might want to consider hiring a marketing firm to help you acquire new business.
The Advantages of Designing Your Own Faucets
If you decide to make your own faucets, you can make a lot more money than you would if you were selling other manufacturers’ products. The reason for this is that your margin on a product you own and manufacture is much higher.
Since you are trying to make money off of retail arbitrage either way, the more you can increase your ownership stake in the product being sold the more money you will make. And given how easy it is to manufacture your own wares now, coupled with the sky-high demand for niche and unique products, doing it yourself makes more sense now than ever before.
Getting Your Faucets Made in a Factory
Whether you are in the design stage or you have something ready to go, there are many specialized faucet manufacturers out there ready to help you make your dream a reality.
When deciding on a faucet factory, you should think about whether you want to work local or go global and outsource it. Either way, here are some of the best resources for small businesses with custom products that they need to get made:
VOLI is a professional faucet manufacturer in China, this company has been focusing on faucet manufacture since 1996. It provides custom kitchen faucet, bathroom faucet, and commercial sensor faucet manufacturing service to global clients. The premium quality and competitive factory direct prices have attracted a lot of customers.
Launched in 2012 to help businesses connect with factories, Maker’s Row provides support at every stage of the process.
Global Sourcing Specialists (GSS)
GSS is a comprehensive directory of domestic and international factories willing to partner with small designers.
You might not think of it, but Alibaba is a great resource for connecting with overseas manufacturers/
MFG.com is an online directory of resources to help you find the factory right for your faucet.
Fine, that’s all. Do you know how to start your faucet business now? Any questions please contact us online or send emails to us.
