How to grow a small business that makes an actual physical product/specialized tool?

[whirlygirl]

Hi there,

My name is Boris Braun, founder of Untwist Tool, tool designed to speed up the creation of custom Network Cables . After almost two years designing this specialized tool, we were able to start with preorders mid November, 2020 using Shopify platform.

Untwist Tool was designed in a way to easily separate the twisted-pair wire, using slight pressure and centrifugal force. The tool uniquely integrates grooves on the outside wall that are used for straightening the wires.

Untwist Tool is 3D printed in the USA using the HP Multi Jet 3D Printing Technology, which allows us to deliver high standards and to achieve the precision that is required for Untwist Tool to work flawlessly.

To find our more check out our website and to see us in action, our YouTube channel and Instagram profile.

I would appreciate any type of feedback or advice in order to grow organic followers on Instagram or be pointed in the right direction for collaboration work with Tech YouTube cannels and slowly grow the business. Most of our customers are actually coming to our website from these two platforms and I believe we are on the right track.

Thank you in advance!

 

[whirlygirl]

We are happy to announce the Untwist Tool V2. Please check out the demo video.

 

[snaptikappmefr]

@whirlygirl Off the top of my head:

1. Contact Telecom (e.g. AT&T in US, BT in UK etc.), Networking companies (e.g. Cisco, Dell, HP, Microsoft, etc.) and IT/Networking department heads in Fortune 1000 companies.
2. Send units to IT/Networking journalists (find them on Twitter)
3. See if there are any IT influencers you can contact to get exposure

For any of the above, don't just write your own emails/messages. Research the best ways to compose your outreach for maximum response. (Google is your friend.)

HTH

 

[whirlygirl]

@snaptikappmefr Thank you for you reply. I did all those steps you mentioned, some of them replied back, some didn't and that is completely fine. However It seems that I should have done my homework a bit better because I have send only emails/messages. Thank you for pointing that out. Appreciate it!

 

[snaptikappmefr]

@whirlygirl Congrats for taking action.

What I would suggest is when you connect with any of the businesses, organisations etc. is rather than being in "sales mode", is tell them about the product (in a non-hypey, non-salesy way) and ask if you could send them a couple of units to evaluate as you're always looking for feedback to improve them.

You'll get one of

1. No thank you. (worse case scenario)
2. They evaluate them, find flaws you can rectify which you might never have encountered unless you used them at scale in a real-world environment
3. They love them and want to order more.

I'd start at the bottom of the Fortune 1000 list continually improving your comms and product (if necessary) so by the time you get to the Fortune 500, Fortune 100 and Fortune 50, you've got your comms and product completely dialled in.

 

[austinsugden]

@whirlygirl 1: do you have a patent?

2: do you have any sort of budget for outreach?

3: are you on LinkedIn?

3b: be on LinkedIn in. Post your videos. There are numerous LinkedIn marketing companies that automate outreach. Full disclosure, I run one.

3c: build a campaign that reaches you market. Set aside 100 units to give away as testers. Only give to people in position to okay purchases

4: success

 

[whirlygirl]

@austinsugden Hi there, Thanks for the reply.

1: I do have a PPA.

2: Yes, I do.

1. No, Untwist Tool is not on LinkedIn

3b: That is a great idea. Thanks for mentioning this. This is good to know.

3c: I did send close to ~30 samples before we started with preorders.

4: Thank you!

 

[austinsugden]

@whirlygirl

Good luck! I hope it works out

 

[lightangel]

@whirlygirl I just created a directory of growth strategies case studies. The entries are divided into over 20 different strategies types (Eg: Twitter, Giveaways, Influencers etc).

You can download the database and get strategies from other founders.

 

[whirlygirl]

@lightangel Thank you for you reply. I will definitely check this out.