Self-doubt. Ubiquitous and accepted. A crux and a crutch that justifies our inability to take action and just do what we really want to do. We didn’t always feel this way, though. No, as aspiring innovative invention makers, we once had dreams and ideas to improve the world we live in.
Of course, this was before all those hiccups along the way that made us question if starting a business is worth it. Truth be told, there was a lot of this kind of thinking that Kevin had to fight through when building MAKO Design + Invent.
Successful entrepreneurs or innovative invention makers will tell you that there are some lows that come with the highs – it’s just part of running a business. On the What Makes Them Tip podcast, Kevin gives a candid account of the challenges he faced in the early days of establishing MAKO Design + Invent. He provides insight into how aspiring entrepreneurs can manage pessimism to keep pushing to help get their business to the level that they want it to be. Because all that effort is absolutely worth it!
Hosted by Jeff Ford, every episode of the What Makes Them Tip podcast features a business leader and innovative invention makers who share their startup story and the critical moment of insight or inspiration that made everything possible; the tipping point, if you will.
The Tipping Point
What helped Kevin push MAKO to the next level? Well, one of the tipping points for MAKO Design + Invent was that he thought about scaling prior to growth.
“One of the best decisions I made was building absolutely every process in our company into the cloud,” states Kevin. Let’s say you double in sales and need to hire a second or third person for a specific role. Having existing processes will help innovative invention makers actually service the client rather than fight the battle of figuring out how to manage an influx of clients and the other challenges of growth.
“Managing five projects is very different from managing 200,” says Kevin. “But if your goal is to get to 200, it’s far easier to start implementing your systems when you’re at five than when you’re at 50 or so on. It only gets exponentially more difficult to modify every single piece to fit within a new system.”
Kevin shares even more anecdotes from his twenty-plus years of experience in growing MAKO. Don’t miss out on the other “tipping points” in this episode. This episode especially provides some great information on how entrepreneurs and innovative invention makers can push themselves to the next level. So be sure to check out the full podcast on your favourite podcast player in the link below!
What Makes Them Tip – Episode 56: Physical Product Development with MAKO Designs’ Kevin Mako
About: MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop-shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, patent referral, prototyping, and manufacturing services. To assist our startup and inventor clients, in addition to above, we help with business strategy, product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories. Also, our founder Kevin Mako hosts The Product Startup Podcast, the industry's leading hardware podcast. Check it out for tips, interviews, and best practices for hardware startups, inventors, and product developers. Click HERE to learn more about MAKO Design + Invent!
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