Best Online Business Tools & Resources

Here are some of the best online business tools and resources we’ve found to help you take your business off the charts.

LIST BUILDING & LEAD GENERATION TOOLS

PopupAlly Pro: Finally, the popup dilemma is over! If you’ve heard that popups increase conversions but haven’t wanted to alienate and annoy your visitors, then this is for you. We’ve build this premium WordPress theme from the ground up with conscious business owners like you in mind: it’s elegant, polite, and it helps you build your list faster, too!

Google Analytics: Ahhh, if there is one free tool I can’t live without it’s this one. Having Google Analytics installed on your WordPress site means you’ll know who is coming to your website, how long they stay, where they came from, and whether they joined your list and bought or not. This is all priceless information!

LeadPages: If you want to create simple and beautiful opt-in pages and sales pages, this is the system to do it in just 5-10 minutes. I’ve been using LeadPages to create webinar invitations, opt-in pages, and thank you pages in my business and I can’t recommend it enough. It’s great especially if you’re not techy but you like things to look professional!

Meet Edgar: This super simple social media management platform allows us to schedule tweets and Facebook messages with just a few clicks. Just start adding content, like your past blog posts, some of your favorite quotes, a few questions to engage your fans… and you’re off the to the races! Then select how often you want to post to each of your accounts, and watch your engagement soar.

CoSchedule: We use this content calendar/social media management platform to schedule our blog posts and social shares across our various accounts. Since it comes with a WordPress plugin, blog posts will automatically show up in Coschedule and can be changed around with a simple drag-and-drop interface. It’s a great time saver and includes stats so you can see how your content continues to perform over time.

RECOMMENDED EMAIL MARKETING SERVICE PROVIDERS

ActiveCampaign: This all-in-one CRM and email marketing platform comes at a pretty affordable price point. It’s extremely easy to set up and use, while still retaining the ability to perform the more complex functions like automated tagging and email sequences.

Infusionsoft: This is the platform I use to run my online business ecommerce, email marketing, and customer database. It’s infinitely flexible and it has awesome features for segmenting people based on their actions, and it has great automation built in. Getting set up with Infusionsoft can take awhile, but they do have great training videos and support. Read my comparison of Infusionsoft and Ontraport here.

Ontraport: This is the alternative to Infusionsoft, which doesn’t have as many of the bells and whistles in regards to automation, but it does have other perks. One of them is the built-in membership plugin that comes with their packages. Get the full review of Ontraport versus Infusionsoft here.

Aweber: Aweber is the first email marketing service I ever signed up for, and I stayed with them for many years before making the switch to an “all in one” system. It’s dependable and delivers your emails, plus it’s pretty straight forward to set up. I feel like it’s the system that grows with you.

Mailchimp: This is a great service to get started with for free, when your list is less than 2000 subscribers. But it does have some downfalls, like list segmentation, and designing opt-in forms that are easy to use and that match your site’s designs.

KEEP YOUR WEBSITE SECURE AND SPEEDY

WPEngine: If you’re getting a lot of traffic, then I recommend and personally use WP Engine. It’s a great WordPress specific host, where a lot of the technical stuff is managed for you. No need to be a tech wizard, and they have incredible support staff, too!

Headway: This is my WordPress theme of choice, because it’s the most straight forward drag and drop platform I’ve found. There are even some awesome skins to choose from, and I recommend it to all my clients.

Backupbuddy: If you have a WordPress website, and it’s not hosted on a platform like WP Engine, then you need this plugin. You could rely on your host to make sure they have backups on hand in case anything happens, but having your backups on a local computer means you can be back up and running faster if you need it!

Sucuri: If you’re not hosted on WPEngine then I highly recommend you invest in this plugin to ensure that your site is safe and sound. I’ve seen way too many business owners have their sites hacked, get weird pharmaceutical links placed all over, and it’s just not pretty. Take your business website’s safety seriously, because it’s much easier to prevent than it is to resolve after something happens.

SOFTWARE & TOOLS TO KEEP YOUR BUSINESS ORGANIZED

Asana: Oh, if I could write a song about one tool that has made my days more productive and fun to collaborate with my team, it would be all about Asana! You can read my fullAsana review and watch a preview of how it works, but the best thing is for you to try it because it’s totally free.

Confluence: Confluence is a wiki for your company. We use it to house company operations procedures, meeting agendas and notes, planning documents and more. While Asana is for project management, Confluence is for ongoing knowledge management and overall company communications.

Scrivener: I’ve been using this program since it first came out, and it’s one of the few pieces of software that I have open 80% of the time. It’s where I write my video scripts, my sales letters and emails, and my books. It’s great to help you map out sequences of emails, and keep track of a ton of research all in one place. It’s also pretty minimal, with a lot of functionality under the hood.

You Need A Budget: I’m a recent convert to budgeting. You might think that when you’re making a lot of money in your business you won’t need a budget, but the philosophy of knowing where each dollar goes is way more empowering. I use this software on all my devices, and to organize our family budget with my husband. It’s got cool chart features that show you fun metrics, too.

Dropbox: If you collaborate with others online, Dropbox is a great way to share documents. We use this platform to upload all of our videos before they’re ready to go onto YouTube, and we also use it for documents of all types. It integrates beautifully with Asana, and connects to all your devices, too!

Echosign: If you have a lot of documents that need to be signed, this one service could save you a lot of time and paper, too. I’ve found that we can save at least 10 minutes per contract when we use Echosign, and it makes me feel good that we can do business with people quickly without cutting down more trees in the name of the law.

Many of these links are affiliate links, which means we may get a commission if you purchase. However, none of the fees of these resources have been increased to compensate us. We only recommend tools that we use personally in our business and that we believe are useful and up to our standards.

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Alibaba 101: How to Safely Source Products from the World's Biggest Supplier Directory

In order to start an online business, you need two things, a product idea and supply. If you already have your product idea the next step is finding the perfect supplier. In our global village, it has never been easier to find a manufacturing or wholesaling partner halfway around the world, however sourcing your products from overseas can still seem like a daunting task for new online entrepreneurs.

In today’s post, we’re going to look at how to effectively and safely source a supplier for your product idea using the popular business directory Alibaba. We'll introduce you to the pros and cons of going overseas and show you how to navigate this new terrain so you can lock onto the perfect supplier for your product idea and get started selling online.

Let’s jump right into it.

Advantages & Disadvantages Of Sourcing Overseas

The most common reason many entrepreneurs look to Asia, and in particular China for product suppliers is to take advantage of the low manufacturing costs. Costs of manufacturing in Asia can be significantly lower than North America and other parts of the world, so much so that for many businesses, it could be quite difficult to be profitable if it wasn't for overseas manufacturing.

Cheaper product costs are great, but they aren't the only reason Asia is an attractive place to find a supplier, there are some additional benefits as well:

Advantages

• Lower manufacturing costs
• Suppliers are (generally) much more open to working with smaller businesses and providing smaller quantities
• High number of suppliers to choose from
• For many products, Asia might be the only place that produces the item
• One-stop services like Alibaba have made it very easy to navigate and purchase from suppliers

Along with the advantages of sourcing from overseas suppliers also comes several disadvantages that you should be equally aware of. Some of the biggest disadvantages include:

Disadvantages

• Perceived lower quality from customers
• (Usually) lower manufacturing and labor standards
• Almost no intellectual property protection
• Language and communication barrier can be difficult to overcome
• Difficult/costly to verify manufacturer and visit on-site
• Longer shipping time
• Cultural differences in business practices
• Product importation and customs clearance
• Lower level of payment security and recourse

What Is Alibaba?

If you've decided and are determined to source your supplier from overseas, there's a good chance you will be buying from Alibaba. By the numbers, Alibaba is the largest ecommerce company in the world (bigger than Amazon and eBay combined) and it's also the most comprehensive directory that connects suppliers (mostly from Asia) with buyers from all over the world. Alibaba literally has millions of products from hundreds of thousands of suppliers so there's not much you wont find on the directory.                  

Begin Your Search

Buying on Alibaba and using the directory is fairly straight forward to use and similar to other marketplaces like eBay. Browse the product categories or do a search for the particular product you’re looking for. 

There are two common approaches to doing a search on Alibaba. You can either search for items based on product descriptions, for example: dog collars, which will give you thousands of results for dog collar products. Alternatively, from the drop-down menu, you can select “Suppliers” instead of “Products” and instead search for manufacturers that specialize in that particular type of product.

What to Look for on Product Pages

When starting your search for a supplier on Alibaba, there are a few things you want to look at and pay attention to on the product listing page. Let’s take a look at a example listing for a dog collar listing we found on Alibaba. 

Unit Price

One of the first things you’ll likely want to look at is the price. For this listing we can see a price of $2-$3 USD FOB. FOB stands for Free On Board and means that the seller will pay also costs associated with getting the product to the marine port (the cheapest way to ship products from Asia) and the buyer pays the cost of actually transporting the goods across the ocean to the final destination.

Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ)

Next, you’ll likely want to look at the minimum order quantity. The minimum order quantity (MOQ) is the smallest order the manufacturer is willing to accept. However, it’s important to note that this is almost always negotiable. In our example, the minimum order is 200 units. Multiplying that by the higher-end price of $3 per unit we can quickly see that we would be looking at a minimum order of approximately $600 USD + shipping from this particular supplier, for this particular product. This is good to know for later when it comes to negotiating because it give you a good start point.

Payment Options

After understanding price and MOQ, you will likely want to know how you can pay the supplier. There are several common methods of payment, each have their pros and cons for both the buyer and the seller.

Let's take a look at the most common payment options below and the associated risk level to you as the buyer:

1. Upfront TT (Bank Transfer)
Risk Level For Buyer: Risky
With a bank transfer, the supplier will receive full payment before production starts. This payment method bears a high level of risk to the buyer and generally is not recommended when dealing with an unknown supplier. There is little if any recourse to get your money back if something goes wrong. 

2. Letter of Credit
Risk Level For Buyer: Fairly Safe
A Letter of credit is fairly safe for both parties, however a letter of credit carries some complex procedures and is generally only recommended for larger purchases ($20,000 and above).

3. Western Union
Risk Level For Buyer: Very Risky
A risky payment method for the buyer that's not recommended when it comes to paying suppliers if the payment is not protected by escrow. Western Union generally should only be used when dealing with people you know very well. There is no recourse if something goes wrong. 

4. PayPal
Risk Level For Buyer: Fairly Safe
Paypal is a popular payment method for buyers as it presents a much lower risk, ease of use and generally pretty good buyer protection. Although it's a popular option with buyers, it's less popular with suppliers due to difficulties in withdrawing money, high tax rates and potential charge backs from less than honest buyers.

5. Escrow
Risk Level For Buyer: Fairly Safe
When using an Escrow service, the buyer's money is held by a 3rd party and is only paid to the supplier after the buyer confirms satisfactory delivery of their order. Escrow is a fairly safe payment method for buying and selling online because Escrow protects both the buyer and supplier.

You can read about common payment methods on Alibaba on the Alibaba Safe Buying page. 

Generally, when you are just starting, you’ll probably want to look for or negotiate with suppliers to either accept PayPal or some type of Escrow service to give you the highest level of protection. 

Buyer Beware

As great as Alibaba is, it’s also plagued with some problems that you need to make yourself aware of when you are researching and contacting various suppliers.

Let's take a look at three of the biggest problems with sourcing suppliers from Alibaba:

Middlemen - As mentioned previously, Alibaba has hundreds of thousands of “manufacturers”. However, many of these “manufacturers” are not manufacturers at all, rather middlemen that masquerade, marking up the price, increasing the level of miscommunication between you and the actual manufacturer while providing little, if any real value. 

Scammers - Middlemen are bad but they will only take a bit of your money by charging you higher fees, scammers will take all your money. Although Alibaba has put forth a strong effort to combat and remove scammers from their platform, there are still a good share of dishonest suppliers on Alibaba that you need to be cautious of. 

Quality - Quality is another big concern when ordering from overseas. Many products will be advertised as premium or high quality, however it's not uncommon to find that your opinion of premium quality and the overseas supplier's opinion are vastly different.

Safeguarding Yourself

So how exactly do you protect yourself from middlemen, scams and low quality products on Alibaba? Although no single method is perfect, together practicing several safeguards is your best bet.

Let’s take a look at several things you can do to protect your money when sourcing from overseas:

1. Verify suppliers - Alibaba has their own verification program in place which includes several levels of verification. Below is a chart that summarizes the three different levels of verification Alibaba has. These verification badges will appear on product listing and supplier profiles if they have them. Looking for these verifications is a good first step. 

In addition to Alibaba's verifications, there are also independent 3rd party services located in Asia that will visit factories on your behalf to verify the supplier and product quality. Depending on the size of your order, a few hundred dollars extra for added piece-of-mind may be well worth it. 

2. Ask questions and followup - As you begin narrowing down suppliers make sure to ask a lot of questions about their business and their products. Ask for a copy of their business licensee, ask for a phone number and actually call it. Have a Skype meeting with your contact. Ask for photos of the factory and sample products.

Feel free to ask for whatever makes you feel more comfortable doing business with someone a world away. It wouldn't be crazy for you to even ask your factory contact to take a photo of themselves on the factory floor holding up the current days newspaper and one of their products. 

3. Get samples - It should go without saying that before you invest any significant amount of money into inventory you need to get samples to check and verify quality. Feel free to even contact them through another (fictitious) name and email and get an additional sample so you can compare quality.

4. Too good to be true - Finally, if something is too good to be true, it usually is. Be weary of pricing or promises that don’t seem right or that are way off from other suppliers you've contacted. Always be willing to walk away from a deal if something doesn't feel right.

Contacting Suppliers

Now that you understand how to better protect yourself when doing a transaction on the other side of the globe, it's time to contact some suppliers. When contacting suppliers overseas, email will likely be your main method of communication. In many cases, they will likely be using a translation program like Google Translate to translate your email as well as their reply back to you. Remember, computer translation is still an imperfect art so expect some errors and possible misunderstandings. To make sure communication is as clear as possible, keep your emails short, concise, well formatted and spelling error free. This will not only help the manufacturer but it will ultimately provide you with better replies in the end.

Tip: When asking your questions and formatting your emails to suppliers it's best to number your questions so that they can easily reply to each number. This keeps the questions and communication clean and organized.

Requesting a Quote

Requesting a quote (many times referred to as a RFQ, Request For Quote) is a relatively simple process, however, taking a few extra minutes to plan your email can make a significant difference in the number and quality of replies you receive.

Here are a few important questions to consider for your email:

• Minimum Order Quantities (MOQ’s) - Even if a listing has their MOQ listed, you should double check with them to make sure it’s accurate. If the MOQ’s are much higher than what you know you can afford, you'll want to ask them if they are willing to negotiate the minimums. Make sure to give them an idea of what you can afford. Keep in mind, minimum order quantity is almost always negotiable with overseas suppliers. 
• Pricing For Samples - Samples are important to inspect for quality. You’re going to want to ask what their pricing is for samples right away. Some suppliers that receive a lot of sample requests and may change the full retail pricing, others will offer you samples at a discounted rate, and some may even provide you samples for free if they feel you're a serious buyer.
• Production Pricing - One of the most important questions is how much your products cost per unit will cost. Many times on Alibaba they will give you a range (Example: $2-$3 per unit), but you’ll want to know exactly how much each unit will cost you.
• Production Time - Knowing how long it will take to produce your order is an important consideration and depending your exact business, time can be critical.
• Payment Terms - Many suppliers will require new businesses to pay for the full order upfront. This is important to know since inventory is a major cost for ecommerce startups. You may also want to also ask if they provide payment terms on future orders.

Here's an example of an email template you may want to consider as a guideline when contacting overseas suppliers from Alibaba:

Hi,

My name is John and I am with XYZ Company.

I am interested in placing an order for Widget A. Before I do however, I just have several questions:

1. What is your minimum order quantity?
2. What is your cost per unit and at what quantity levels do you offer quantity discounts?
3. What are your payment terms for new customers?

I would also like to order a sample of Widget A before placing a full order. Can you please send me the cost for the sample including shipping to:

John Doe
80 Spadina Ave., Floor 4
Toronto, ON, Canada
M5V2J4

Thank you.

John,
XYZ Company
www.xyzcompany.com416-444-4444 

As you can see from the sample above, it's short, concise and it's goal is to make sure at a high level that there is a fit between both parties.  

Negotiating

Once you have begun conversations with several suppliers and have a good idea of each of their prices, MOQ's and payment terms, you can begin negotiating with them. As mentioned previously, the minimum order quantities are almost always negotiable, it's simply a matter of asking. Remember, a good negotiation leaves both parties happy with the outcome so push a little but not too hard. 

Weighing Your Options

Once you've narrowed it down to a select few suppliers, you'll want to weigh all your options. Keep in mind that when weighing your options, you'll want to consider more than just price, MOQ and payment terms. Make sure you factor in how well and how quickly each supplier replied to you. Your communication with your supplier can be a critical element of your business going forward so you'll want to make sure you start off on the right foot.

Conclusion

Sourcing a reliable supplier for your product from Alibaba might be a new experience but also a rewarding one. With some basic knowledge and common safeguards, it can be pretty safe. Always do you due diligence and if a deal feels too good to be true, be ready and willing to walk away. There’s a hundred other suppliers you can find in just a few clicks.

Happy sourcing!

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Liquidation vs. Wholesale: What’s the Difference?

PART 1

Posted on August 18, 2016 by Melissa Gieringer

There is often confusion on how liquidation and wholesale differ (or if they do at all). In fact, there is a huge difference between the two. Read on for overview of both.

Liquidation typically means an organization is trying to turn excess, overstock, or obsolete assets into cash, quickly. For retailers, obsolete merchandise costs money because 1) the goods depreciate with age, 2) they take up space in the warehouse, and 3) they tie up capital. Most retailers will end up selling – aka liquidating – 95 percent of this excess inventory on the secondary market to free up capital and warehouse space; it will be sold at a loss.

Historically, large retailers and manufacturers have sold this liquidation inventory in bulk through negotiated transactions with a handful of buyers. These sales are generally at prices well below retail MSRP. Over the past few years however, a shift has taken place: many retailers are bypassing traditional liquidation methods and incorporating technology-based programs for obsolete inventory into their overall business strategy. This includes working with B-Stock to launch customized B2B online auction marketplaces that connect returned and excess merchandise directly to business buyers; the result is a level playing field for all buyers, big and small, to compete for the inventory. Essentially liquidation buyers have access to highly discounted inventory that they were previously never able to buy without middleman involvement. What’s more, the inventory is generally listed at a fraction of MSRP.

Now, wholesale. Wholesale is the sale of goods and merchandise to resellers and businesses. The wholesale price is usually fixed and the amount of product can vary substantially. The goods are usually sold – by the wholesaler – in bulk quantities with the intention of being retailed/sold by the purchaser. Something else to note: true wholesaling is generally not available to the standard consumer.

Wholesalers frequently purchase large liquidation bulk lots from large liquidators, break those lots apart, and then repack and redistribute them in smaller lots to smaller retailers and resellers. Often by the time the smaller retailer or reseller gets it, the merchandise has been through multiple middlemen and price mark ups.

Part 2 Coming Soon...

How to Make Enamel Pins: The Ultimate Guide to Selling Enamel Lapel Pins Online

Over the past few months, enamel pins have exploded into the fashion world and entrepreneurs everywhere are wondering how to make enamel pins themselves and hop on the trend.

These tiny metal pins are highly customizable and can feature any design, including offbeat illustrations, branded logos, and anything else you can dream up. Enamel pins act as an extension of people’s personalities and give them the chance to customize and accessorize jean jackets, backpacks, hats, and more.

From graphic designers to apparel masterminds to major retailers like Urban Outfitters, creatives and makers worldwide have started to build successful online businesses by transforming their unique designs and ideas into enamel lapel pins.

In this post, we’ve put together a comprehensive guide to designing, manufacturing, and selling enamel pins to help you discover how to make enamel pins and create your own online accessory powerhouse.

This guide has everything you need to create beautiful designs, source reliable manufacturers, and build a business that stands head-and-shoulders above the competition.

How to Make Enamel Pins and Sell Them Online

Enamel pins are a fun and fulfilling way to transform your designs into a gorgeous physical product, but making them can seem out of reach if you aren’t sure where to start.

We put together this guide to help ambitious people like you. People who have a dream or an idea for their very own enamel pin business, but aren’t totally sure how to make it happen yet.

Where to Start

Building a new product or business always starts with researching the right resources to get the job done. So, if you’ve found this article: Congratulations! You’ve just completed the first step and you’re already on your way to creating your first set of enamel pins.

With this guide and the right tools at your disposal, making your own enamel pins is easy.

If you’ve never made enamel pins or started your own business before, you’ve probably found yourself asking questions like:

• How do I turn my designs into an enamel pin?
• How do I create products that people will actually want to buy?
• How do I know who my customers are?
• How do I even sell things online?

In this post, you’ll get the answers to all of these questions and more as we walk through the entire process of creating and selling lapel pins from start to finish. We’ve done all the hard work and research for you, so that you can get started as quickly as possible.

1. Find a Unique Niche

Want to know the secret to creating a great product? Find an audience first.

If you can narrow down a unique niche for your enamel pins, the rest of the process will be much easier. Understanding your audience also means understanding how to design a great product and sell it to to that audience.

The best foundation for a successful business is a passion project. When you find a niche that you’re passionate about first, creating and selling enamel pins online won’t feel like work. It’ll still take time and effort, but you’ll enjoy every part of the process if it’s something that you truly care about.

How to Find a Niche for Your Enamel Pin Business

Let’s take a look at how to discover niche audiences and determine if they’re a good fit for your business.

When it comes to niches, there are two basic ways to find an audience: Choose a niche that you care about or find a niche that you either already understand or can easily learn to understand. All it takes is a bit of market research to find a passionate, engaged audience that will be perfect for your brand.

Using Your Own Niche Communities

If you’re already an active member of a niche community, creating a business that caters to their values is a straightforward process. Remember: A niche can be any community with a specific, definable set of interests.

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Remember: A niche can be any community with a specific, definable set of interests.

Not sure which niches you belong to? Take a look at your interests and think about the communities that surround them. Do you have any hobbies? What are your favorite TV shows, movies, or books? What are the things that you’re crazy about?

Discovering New Niche Communities

Targeting your own community can be a rewarding strategy, but sometimes it’s better to find new niche audiences with fresh opportunities instead.

To see what active niches are out there, there are a few different methods:

• Reddit: Using tools like Reddit List, you can discover the most active communities on Reddit. Reddit is a meeting place and message board for some of the world’s largest subcultures which makes researching and validating niche audiences simple.

• KW Finder: Another way to evaluate demand and interest is by using KW Finder to find out how often people are googling terms related to your target niche.

• Google Trends: You can also use Google Trends for a more generic overview of global search volume. While Google Trends isn’t as in-depth as the other two options, it can help you quickly determine the viability of a niche.

Determining Whether a Niche Community Is a Good Fit

Once you’ve done some research and found a set of niche communities that could work for your business, it’s time to determine whether they’re good fits for creating a successful, sustainable product.

Here’s a simple framework for evaluating a niche’s potential:

• Is it a unique niche? Your niche should have defining traits that set it apart from larger, more mainstream audiences. A set of unique traits will make your niche easier to target.

• Is it a sustainable niche? If you’re planning on building a successful business, your target audience should be more than a flash-in-the-pan fad. You’ll want to find a niche that has the potential to stick around for a long time.

• Is it an active niche? Without an active community, marketing to a niche can be a major challenge. If your niche has lots of engaged members, it will be much easier to build an audience that will rally behind your business.

• Is it a scaleable niche? While you might start out targeting a single, small subset of the population with your products, if you’re successful, you’ll want to expand. If you think that targeting your niche will not limit your business’ potential in the future, it’s a good fit.

• Are there influencers in your niche? If your niche has major players that are popular social media influencers, marketing to your audience will be considerably easier. Are there certain members with large followings on Instagram or Pinterest? Even just a few big influencers can go a long way.

2. Create Your Designs

After you’ve determined who you’re going to be selling your enamel pins to, you’ll need to figure out what those pins will actually look like.

Even if you don’t have any design skills, creating beautiful pins is still totally possible. There’s a wide variety of options out there to connect you with talented artists or turn your original designs into physical products.

Let’s take a look at the different resources and tools that you can use to design stunning enamel pins, regardless of your skill level.

How to Design Your Own Enamel Pins

For creating mockups of your lapel pins, using Photoshop or Illustrator is probably your best bet. If you don’t have access to Photoshop, here are some free alternatives that you can use to create your own original designs:

• Pixlr
• SumoPaint
• GIMP
• Paint.NET

...or Find a Designer Instead

Maybe you aren’t confident in your design skills or you don’t have the time to create your own designs. Whatever the reason, there are lots of great options out there for outsourcing your design work to talented designers from around the world.

Here are some great marketplaces for hiring graphic designers and purchasing design resources:

• Creative Market
• Noun Project
• GraphicRiver
• Fiverr
• Upwork

Note: If you’re purchasing design resources, make sure that they have a commercial license, so that you can use them for your products.

Some Things to Remember

When it comes to enamel pins, there are a few guidelines that your final designs will need to follow:

• Your designs will need to only use solid colors which means your enamel pins can’t include gradients or transparent colors.
• Due to the size of enamel pins, you should also avoid using small text or fine details in your designs.
• Normally, your manufacturer will only need a JPG or PNG of your design, but be sure to ask them for details like sizing and bleed area to make sure you’re following their specific guidelines.

3. Manufacture Your Pins

Once you’ve come up with your designs, you’ll need to track down a manufacturer who can take your ideas and transform them into enamel pins.

Even if you’re an experienced entrepreneur, researching and contacting manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors can seem a little intimidating. However, it’s actually a straightforward process if you know what you’re looking for ahead of time.

In this section, we’ll explore a step-by-step process for researching and evaluating manufacturers as well as things to keep in mind once you’re ready to get your enamel pins made.

Soft Enamel vs. Hard Enamel

To make enamel pins that fit your vision, you’ll need to do some research to determine the exact materials that will work for your brand.

Lapel pins come in two different styles: Soft enamel pins and hard enamel pins.

Soft Enamel Pins

Soft enamel is the most popular choice for creating enamel pins and a favorite for beginners. It generally has more color options with richer and more vibrant colors available. Using soft enamel also allows you to get more texture detail into your design, including borders and edges that you can actually feel. However, soft enamel pins are also much less durable than hard enamel pins and they can be scratched easily.

Hard Enamel Pins

Hard enamel is much more durable and rugged than soft enamel, but can be more expensive and generally has more restrictions when it comes to coloring. Hard enamel pins can appear subdued and less vivid than soft enamel pins. Additionally, hard enamel pins use a clear coat of resin on top which creates a flat, textureless surface. Hard enamel is a good choice if your pins will need to withstand the elements and if long-term durability is important to you.

Factors That Influence Pricing

As a rule of thumb, it’s important to try to keep your costs low when ordering pins. Here’s a look at the factors that increase the final price of your order:

• The number of colors used in your design
• The complexity of your design
• The size of your pin
• The quantity of your order

In terms of order quantity, the main cost for manufacturers is building the initial mold for your product. Once they’ve built the mold to cast your pin, the cost to add more pins to your order is not as impactful on your bottom line as the cost of creating the mold. Just something to keep in mind when you’re considering how large of an order you should make.

Finding a Manufacturer for Your Enamel Pins

There are many companies in North America, Europe and Asia that offer enamel pin manufacturing. A quick Google search for enamel pin manufacturers can turn up lots of different results. Here’s a quick look at a few options:

• The/Studio
• Made by Cooper
• True Metal Works

Alternatively, you can use Alibaba to track down a reliable manufacturer overseas.

Connecting with overseas manufacturers is an intimidating process. If this is your first time dealing with manufacturers, you probably have no idea where to start—but that’s totally fine.

Our guide, Alibaba 101: How to Safely Source Products from the World’s Biggest Supplier Directory, has everything you need to know about finding the perfect manufacturer for your product.

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Manufacturing Specifications for Enamel Pins

For enamel pins, there are a few details that you should keep in mind when reaching out to a manufacturer.

Most enamel lapel pin manufacturers will allow you to customize the materials that you use for your pins, beyond hard or soft enamel. You’ll be able to choose the color and texture of your enamel pins’ base before dyes are added, so make sure you ask to see all the options available. You should also ask about the options available for the needle on the back of your pin, including whether the clasp for the needle is steel, rubber or some other material.

Additionally, find out if your chosen manufacturers will also let you customize the way your pins are shipped. Enamel pins usually arrive in small plastic bags, but some manufacturers will allow you to add a custom backing card to each bag for a unique, professional touch. If backing cards are available, make sure you’re given the exact design specifications for them including color limitations and bleed area.

Validating Your Idea

Any trustworthy manufacturer will send you a proof or sample pin for you to inspect before ordering a full run of product. Be sure to thoroughly examine this sample to make sure that your product lives up to your vision.

After finalizing your product design, the next step is to validate demand. Order the smallest run possible first and see how it does. Once you’re positive that there’s a substantial demand for your product, then you can think about scaling up and increasing the size of your orders.

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