The old MRR adage "If you want to make a million manufacturing model railroad products, you need to spend (2) million" I haven't seen too many MRRing manufactureres driving in pimped out cars or flying on private Lear jets, so it must be true.
One word of advice: QUALITY it has to be so good that the buyer would throw up their hands and say "I can't build it any better, guess I 'll just buy it" Other than that, they will do it themselves. The best place to start is to do some trend research and find out what's in demand or lacking. That's not always easy. What you may think is cool may not be for others (the gamble part of the business). Coming up with new sellable ideas is tricky. Find a niche'. As one of my dad's friends once told me "Don't get into a business that anyone else can get into easily". Makes sense.
MRR's tend to be very thrifty to downright cheap. So, as far as price goes, it has to be so low for the potential modeler NOT to round up his/her own materials and do it themselves. There's a narrow margin of profit and all manufacturers have to offer a whole line of product to balance out the sales vs no sales.
I manufacture MRR stuff as a side business (see sig below). Believe me, I'm not quiting my day job anytime soon, but it pays for itself and it's fun. Although my molding and casting techniques are typical and used by pretty much everyone doing the same kind of work, my edge is in my patternmaking, which is an offshoot of the pen & ink drawings I have been doing for years and making teeth for dentists.
I actually thought about doing what I do now 20 yrs ago, but at that time I didn't have the background and am glad I waited. When I did do it, it was all by accident. By that time, I had perfected my drawing/patternmaking techniques, got a manufacturing background and then, everything just seemed to naturally flow into place.
The best part of manufacturing and selling is the research. The more research, the better the product. Well, most of the time. It still has to be in demand.
Hope that helps
