I need some advice. I am a product designer and a local company is interested by one of my invention. They've sent me a list of manufacturers located in Taiwan that I should contact to make a prototype or licence the invention
Here's how I would approach this:
Try to get some kind of commitment from the local company, i.e.: "If your product will meet our [specifications] and the price delivered to our distribution center in [location] will be no more than [number] of euro, we will [distribute/market] your product. Based on our knowledge of the market, we estimate we can sell at least [amount] in the first 12 months.
@Vigilante - what do you think of the above?
If they agree to that, then find an EU mfg/distributor who will then be encouraged to take on the product, and will license it from you - in which case they'll do the mfg.
If you can't find a company that can do that, THEN you need to figure out how much it will cost for the prototype route. Since you are a designer yourself, I'm sure you can get a design ready to be made in very small quantities, and have the company put them in one store. (You must be there too, with your product, when it is in the store!) and see what the responses from customers are.
Then, both you and the company will have a better idea of your expectations and you can go look for financing to take it to the next level.
In my opinion, the advantage to this approach is that you have market feedback first. I guess it's not hard to find companies to work with you / invest once you have a customer w/some initial sales and a forecast.
Save the cost of a trip to the far east for an uncertain outcome, and invest it instead in getting real hard market feedback.