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Design Business

How to Dip Your Foot Into the Design Entrepreneur Pool: Make Useful Components, Not Finished Pieces

Think of yourself as a supplier

By Rain Noe - April 26, 2017

If you're not ready to be a full-blown designer/builder, there is a way you can ease yourself into the marketplace. Lately I've noticed a bunch of people are fabricating items to sell on Etsy that are not finished products, but complementary components.

Some examples: Slovenia-based LeatherEU sells these handsome vegetable-tanned leather pulls and binding hardware:

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Vermont-based ThirteenColonies produces different designs and heights of wooden legs, in Cherry and Maple, that have threaded rods that match Ikea sofas. The idea is that end users can upgrade the look of their Karlstad, Soderhamn, Sater, Klippan, Ektorp sofas and more:

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Maryland-based ChristianWoodsTM sells 4'-long edge-glued pine panels, and rounds of different diameters, all for cheaper than I can buy them at my local lumber supplier. (You'd have to factor your local shipping cost into this, of course.)

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Philadelphia-based PhillyFabrication welds up different sizes of hairpin legs made from U.S. steel:

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Like suppliers to the auto industry, these folks are tooled up to efficiently produce simple items that others can integrate into larger projects. If you're not ready to launch your own line of finished objects yet, this might be a good way for you to get started and get some crucial fulfillment experience under your belt.