The first five steps to starting a product business, in the order you actually do them.

1   Pick your product

2   Choose your business name

3   File your LLC

4   Decide if you need a patent

5   Protect the brand with a trademark

✓   You have an idea in your notes app and no idea what step one actually is

✓   You are not sure whether anyone would actually buy the thing you want to make

✓   You have a brand name you love and have never checked if it is free

✓   You have thirty tabs open and every one of them contradicts the last

✓   You almost paid a service $300 to file something you could file yourself

✓   You cannot tell what a product should sell for or what you would keep

✓   You keep waiting to feel ready

01
Find a product people are already buying
Start with a problem your person actually has. Then check it three ways: read the one-star reviews on Amazon to find what people complain about, use Google Trends to see whether interest is climbing or dying, and scan TikTok to see if the thing is already moving. When all three point the same direction, you have something real.

02
Work out your price and what you actually keep
What the product costs you delivered, what you can sell it for, and what is left after everything. We walk you through the free margin calculator and show you the one number that has to work before anything else matters.

03
Choose a name that is genuinely free
A name has to clear three checks on the same afternoon: the domain, the social handles, and the trademark register. We show you exactly where to look for each, and what a red flag looks like before you print a single label.

04
File the LLC yourself instead of paying $300
The state portal, the exact form, what it costs, and the fields people get wrong. Then your EIN straight from the IRS, which is free, takes about ten minutes, and is the thing your bank account and everything after it hangs off.

05
Settle the patent question in an afternoon
Most products do not need one, and the ones that might usually start with a cheap provisional. We show you how to search what already exists and how to tell which camp you are in, so you stop losing evenings to it.

06
Trademark the brand, step by step
How to search the register properly rather than a quick Google, which category to file under, what it really costs, and when in the process to do it. This is the step that stops someone else owning the name after you have done the work of building it.

07
The vendors we actually use
Not a sponsored list. Where we source, who designs for us, what we sell on, and who we bank with. The ones our own business runs on today.

08
The Profit First bank setup, in plain English
Separate accounts so the tax money is never accidentally spent, your profit comes out first instead of last, and you can tell at a glance what is genuinely yours. The exact accounts to open and the percentages we split between them.

$4M+ in sales
15,000+ units a month
30,000 women on our list
On the shelves at Erewhon

Do I need a product idea already?
No. Step one is finding one and checking whether people actually buy it.

I have already started. Is this still useful?
Yes, and usually more so. Most people who have started skipped two or three of these. It is the checklist for what you missed.

Do I need to be in California?
No. The LLC portal we link is ours, and we show you how to find yours. Everything else is federal or nationwide.

How is this different from the free guide?
The free guide is the five steps and the order. The Toolkit is every link, every real cost, the vendors, and the bank setup.

Are there refunds?
Due to the digital nature of this product and the content delivered immediately on purchase, all sales are final.