Silicone has become one of the most widely used materials for many industries like healthcare, automotive, electronics, etc. Naturally, silicone only managed to achieve this success due to its highly desirable qualities. The popularity of silicone products has facilitated the creation of better supply chains, so you’ll now find it super easy to source silicone products.
Due to the better supply chain, starting a silicone products business is now easier than ever. Large and small businesses alike can incorporate silicone products among their services. You could even begin entire enterprises based solely on silicone products. Today, we’ll discuss some possible business ideas currently popular among entrepreneurs.
Silicone-based products aren’t necessarily confined to one or two specific niches. Silicone is versatile and encompasses many industries, so the product range of silicone is extensive.
While the entry into the silicone business is more accessible than before, that doesn’t mean it’s without any issues. In general, there are three possible paths for a silicone business.
The first path is selling already manufactured goods. This strategy requires extensive knowledge of sourcing material from various manufacturers and marketing knowledge to resell those products for a profit. Still, this is a relatively hassle-free business model.
The second option is to set up a manufacturing facility yourself. In this case, you’ll need to find ways to source raw materials and turn them into products you can sell. This process is significantly more complicated because even small-scale manufacturing has a lot of legal hassle since you’ll need to follow many regulations and regional policies.
The third option is to source finished products through manufacturers and then use your crafts knowledge to alter them to make in some way make them more appealing to your customers.
While Silicone products aren’t restricted to one niche, you’d want to promote your products while focusing on a specific one. If your customer demographic prefers healthy, eco-friendly products, then highlight those aspects of your silicone products during your promotion.
Now that you have a general idea of what to do let’s look at a few specific business ideas based on silicone products:
Crafting, gardening, and other indoor activities have become very popular in the past few years. This phenomenon is very peculiar and may or may not have something to do with a plague that swept the whole world.
Regardless, the point is that hobby-based arts and crafts is a very lucrative business opportunity right now, at least for startups. Resin molding and crafting are trendy right now. One of the things that resin craft requires a lot of are molds, workspace, containers, and other tools. So selling those supplies can be a good business venture.
You can take it a step further and sell specialized, pre-made molds. Many people find making the molds from scratch to be messy, so sometimes they’ll buy custom molds directly as long as they fit their needs. Here’s a short video on how to make silicone molds.
Selling phone cases is one of the easiest startup business ideas. Such ventures tend to have low upfront investment and a high-profit margin. And the only thing you need is some social media marketing and a website.
Phones are essential commodities these days, and more people are willing to go the extra mile and make their phones look pretty. One of the easiest ways to do that is to get a nice-looking phone case because it’s generally cheap enough that most people can afford one.
There are two ways you can operate a phone case business. The first would be to print your phone case, which will require you to own the necessary machines and learn some crafting skills, as shown in this video. The other option is to subscribe to a print-on-demand service.
The second method is more viable for newbies because you’ll outsource your orders to a separate facility on a print-on-demand business model. The manufacturer will handle the shipping. You won’t need to own any inventory this way, so you can focus all your energy on advertising and marketing.
Silicone accessories are massively popular due to their durability and affordability. There’s a trend of replacing accessories and clothing every month or two, so the market for cheap goods is more popular than ever.
But paddling accessories aren’t a viable option because this niche has too many large competitors. Small businesses and solo entrepreneurs can’t compete with large online marketplace platforms. But you can mitigate this issue by adding a little creativity into the mix.
Wholesale silicone accessories usually don’t have much artistic value. Sure, they are cheap and durable, but they also look plain and unimpressive.
You can take these plain accessories and print or engrave artwork and designs on them to increase their value. The lady in this video is doing something similar with a laser engraver. Depending on your crafting and marketing skill level, you could charge a premium for these things.
Business goes beyond just making and acquiring the products. You’ll need to consider a whole host of other things to run a successful business. Before going ahead with a business idea, make sure to do some research on your locale for your target demographic. People in certain places are more likely to buy certain things.
Depending on similar logic, they’ll also abstain from buying certain things. So, thoroughly research what you can and can’t sell to your target demographics.
Do ample research on what other silicone-based businesses run in your area. Take note of what they sell. Take note of the products directly competing with what you plan to sell. If there’s too much competition, opting for a different product will be the better option.
In most cases, you’ll need to adjust your business model based on your capital. If you can’t afford a large upfront cost, then you’ll likely need to outsource your products to independent manufacturers. Doing so will net you less profit, but that’s just something you’ll need to live with.
Hope this guide gave you some ideas on starting a silicone products business. Feel free to contact us if you have more things to ask.