Your first year, month by month
Updated
Sequenced around the two things that take calendar time: stability testing and packaging minimums.
Weeks one to four
Decide cleaner or pesticide, in writing, before anything else.
Pick one product, not a range. An all-purpose spray is the usual first.
Buy small quantities of two surfactants, a chelator, a preservative and a fragrance, from a repacker.
Make small batches, vary one thing at a time, and record everything.
Months two and three
Settle a formula and remake it three times to confirm it reproduces.
Then start the clock on the things that need calendar time: fill bottles and start container compatibility, run freeze-thaw cycles, and put samples somewhere warm.
Meanwhile work out the label content: identity, net quantity, name and address, cautionary labeling if the formula needs it, directions, and the ingredient list.
Check whether the formula crosses a child-resistant packaging threshold, because that decides the closure.
Months four to six
Read the stability results before ordering packaging in quantity.
Order a small run of labels, accepting a poor unit price.
Build the ingredient disclosure page, which is a compliance requirement for California and is useful copy everywhere.
First sales somewhere with direct feedback: a market, local shops, a few businesses.
The rest of the year
Add a second product only once the first reproduces and the stability data is in.
Get a challenge test done before approaching wholesale.
Commit to packaging volume only now, when the design and the formula have stopped moving.
And revisit the claim question, because a year of writing listings and posts is how a compliant product drifts.