[papito]

That's the least of your problems. To fire up an assembly line for even the most trivial of products you are going to be looking at initial expenses in the range of $1M, if you are lucky. Even if it's China, in which case you will also have to know how to navigate the industry there.

[starky]

The only way $1M makes sense is if you are describing the entire project cost for a fairly basic electronics product including tooling, salaries, marketing, compliance, manufacturing fixturing, etc.

What I would consider "firing up a manufacturing line" would cost maybe in the tens of thousands of dollars.

[schappim]

This does not align with my experience at all.

[molsonhart]

This is wrong.

[OnlyOneCannolo]

This is not a very informative comment.

[molsonhart]

What do you want me to say? I can't tell you how much it cost because it varies by product, but to get most physical products of the ground in China costs less than $5k.

[OnlyOneCannolo]

That.

[triangleman]

How about if you don't want to go to China?

[molsonhart]

That's fine, but you should go if you're serious.

[triangleman]

I guess my question is, aren't there domestic manufacturers who can help with prototyping and everything? Or has China completely taken that over?

Note that I'm not talking about electronics in this instance, let's say gardening equipment.