Purchasing Electronics From Factory Without Design?
Greetings,
I have been interested in the idea of starting a business for several years, but had not really looked into it much due to lack of knowledge (which obviously could had been remedied), lack of starting capital (still a little bit of an issue), and lack of an idea.
Well, I now have an idea.
But first let me preface this: No, I don't know anything about reselling. No, I don't know anything about purchasing products direct from manufacturers. No, I don't know anything about marketing. All I have right now is an idea, and before moving forward with the process of becoming educated on these topics, I would like to determine whether it is even possible for it to be carried out, due to the reason explained below.
I would like to purchase and resell USB flash drives with hardware write protection switches. They are a bit of a niche product, and are pretty much unheard of today (and are thus rather expensive), but I believe that there could be an un-tapped market for them in my current location (due to the insanely high rate of computer virus infections... Last year I was teaching computers here at a high school, and at least 50% of student flash drives that I came in contact with were infected with some kind of virus). We are good friends with the owners of one of the largest retail stores in the area, so if this turns out to even be a possibility, I intend to discuss it with them to see if there might be interest.
What I would like to do is have it manufactured, branded under my company name (a company I have yet to start), and have custom retail packaging.
Here's the main problem: I have absolutely no electronics design knowledge. As such, I am not capable of coming up with the design for the flash drives. How would one go about finding unpatented designs for this type of flash drive that could be manufactured?
Also, what kind of MOQ do electronics manufacturers usually have? Would they consider a quantity as low as 100 or 200 to even be worth their time?
Thanks!
NRamsey
I have been interested in the idea of starting a business for several years, but had not really looked into it much due to lack of knowledge (which obviously could had been remedied), lack of starting capital (still a little bit of an issue), and lack of an idea.
Well, I now have an idea.
But first let me preface this: No, I don't know anything about reselling. No, I don't know anything about purchasing products direct from manufacturers. No, I don't know anything about marketing. All I have right now is an idea, and before moving forward with the process of becoming educated on these topics, I would like to determine whether it is even possible for it to be carried out, due to the reason explained below.
I would like to purchase and resell USB flash drives with hardware write protection switches. They are a bit of a niche product, and are pretty much unheard of today (and are thus rather expensive), but I believe that there could be an un-tapped market for them in my current location (due to the insanely high rate of computer virus infections... Last year I was teaching computers here at a high school, and at least 50% of student flash drives that I came in contact with were infected with some kind of virus). We are good friends with the owners of one of the largest retail stores in the area, so if this turns out to even be a possibility, I intend to discuss it with them to see if there might be interest.
What I would like to do is have it manufactured, branded under my company name (a company I have yet to start), and have custom retail packaging.
Here's the main problem: I have absolutely no electronics design knowledge. As such, I am not capable of coming up with the design for the flash drives. How would one go about finding unpatented designs for this type of flash drive that could be manufactured?
Also, what kind of MOQ do electronics manufacturers usually have? Would they consider a quantity as low as 100 or 200 to even be worth their time?
Thanks!
NRamsey
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