by Nigel Hilton

Starting up a business these days is considerably easier than it was over ten years ago. Part of that ease comes with the multifunctional tools and services that we have access to today. For instance, if you wanted to start a business selling shirts, then you have a plethora of online services that can help you start a store, print shirts and process payments with little to no effort.

Unfortunately, these services are typically designed with a single purpose in mind. While they’re effective for smaller businesses, it takes a lot of work to tweak them to work with a much larger business. Whether you run into user limits or weak features, there are a number of signs that you should look out for that show you should be moving on to bespoke solutions.

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1. You find it hard to locate the hardware you need

Most businesses can make do with off-the-shelf products, but there are certain situations where you may need industry-level hardware. In this situation, you might find that manufacturers don’t actually have pre-made products that are ready to ship. A great example of this is a custom wire with specific shielding and length requirements to fit a very specific purpose in your business. If you can’t find something that fits your spec, then you’ll need to go with a bespoke solution.

2. You want to save money by purchasing something in bulk

An obvious advantage of a bespoke solution is being able to buy in bulk. If you need to purchase several thousand of something, we highly recommend looking for a bespoke solution.

3. You’re in a niche industry that doesn’t have a lot of suppliers

There are a couple of industries that don’t have many suppliers. For example, you might be looking for industrial essentials like doors and windows but are having a hard time finding a local supplier. While you could ship products across the nation or from another country, we highly suggest looking for a bespoke local solution instead. You could potentially save a lot of time and money by looking for something local.

4. You have enough capital to take control of your production process

You’ll eventually reach a point with your business where you can start thinking about taking control of the production process. The production process is usually something that is dominated by flexible factories that are cheap to hire and produce great results. However, sooner or later, you’ll run into an issue where you’ll want more control over the process so that you can fine-tune specifics. In this case, you may want to look for a contractor or advisor to help you take control of your production.

5. You want to stand out from the crowd

One of the biggest reasons to start going bespoke with your production process and solutions is to help you stand out. Only the finest businesses in the world have a completely customised process for product manufacturing. It’s typically tailored towards a company’s exact needs and can even save you money in the long run while boosting productivity numbers.