Unless you plan to handcraft every product, your next step is to perfect the design and then find a manufacturer to mass-produce it for you.

But even when you find that “perfect” manufacturing partner, you still might want to hold your breath. All it takes is one bad shipment for you to be out of cash, out of product, and back at the drawing board.

“We went to reorder more product.. and I don’t know why they even sent what they sent, but the products were mangled. On the outside, it looked fine, but if you looked inside, the pouches were sideways and upside down [and] completely ridiculously unsellable.”

That’s Robert Patton, an Army veteran and the founder of SHEATH Underwear.

He has faced one manufacturing misstep after another. And while each stumble was tough to swallow — financially and personally — he’s persevered through the hard times, learned from failure, perfected his processes, and built a business that is growing every day.