It’s official Dorm Co, www.DormCo.com has launched.  Most of you know I launched Yak About It back in August 2009 (the same month I sold my first company).  Now after 5 months of intense planning I am pleased to say Dorm Co, (my second take on retailing college dorm essentials) has launched.

Being excited to launch may not surprise you.

What might surprise you is if I told you I don’t care about sales for the first 1-2 months.  Sure, getting sales is a good thing, but it’s not the focal point.  What is the focal point is ensuring the company and website foundation is strong enough to take on a large amount of orders.  Many entrepreneurs aim to race for the quick sale only to leave the entire company vulnerable to faltering long term.  My best advice is to build for long term success and to create a company that puts you in the best position to sell in the future or grow into a large functioning entity.

If any of my fellow entrepreneurs have feedback for me regarding Dorm Co please feel free to share the good or the improvement ideas at Jeff@DormCo.com.  In kind I would be happy to review your website and/or products and offer my opinions.

Thanks for helping me take the first couple of months to make a strong company foundation!

While flipping through an outdoor magazine, I found an article about a new product. The article was about a guy who turned a “passion” into a new product.  A regular guy with a regular job (Repo Man) that invented and developed a new product for hunters. The quote that hit me like a freight train was: “By time it was all said and done I had around $90,000 in the (plastics) mold.” A chill went down my spine.  I could see this poor guys future.  To ad “salt to the wound”, the magazine got the guys web site wrong.

Checking out his web site, the product (as demonstrated by the inventor on video) seemed difficult and clumsy. It really wasn’t, but the inventor was so impressed with all the product features he thought were important, he forgot what was important to the consumer… “What can it do for me?” Then I saw the packaging… A simple cardboard box with green and yellow markings. The pricing point was $24.95.

My first inclination was to send him a copy of my book, Invent-onomics 101, and beg him to read it. But after seeing his web site (very nice and expensive), I realized he was already well down a path that had a high percentage of ending in heartache.

Where to start: 1) The market size for a product like this is about 5,000 to 10,000 units tops, assuming you get it into the large retailers. 2) The Chinese would have made the same tool for about $15,000 and reduced his per unit cost by up to 60%. 3) His pricing point ($24.95) is too high… his retail competition is less than $10.00 and could be done easily for free.  4) His packaging hides the product and is too easy to rip open on the retail shelves. People won’t buy a new product unless they can see it and the retailers won’t replace the “ripped packaging” product on the shelves until it sold off… Etc., Etc.

The bottom line: Most of us only have one shot at this… Before you start spending your life’s savings, read a book, ask somebody in the industry, work in the industry to see what’s required to actually sell the product… Look at the market and see if it can support your cost structure.

I hope I’m wrong and this guy’s a huge success… But this isn’t my “first rodeo.”  I’ve seen too many people think “if I build it, they will come.” History shows that 99.9% of the time, they don’t. Do your homework first to avoid blowing your shot at success.