The other options taken, but if one is a lone designer/entrepreneur that is bent on taking the mass market retailer route, one has to have a product in final representation in order to have a buyer commit to a product, no matter how good your idea is.
Someone is going to say make a good model I bet. But that also cost money(or much time). As designers trying to break out from behind the scenes into their own businesses, we need to be more strategic/creative in how we approach retailers and factories. There are ways to partner up with factories and ways to get the attention of buyers from various retailers.
I just want to give a balanced view of this approach. I would like to see more design minded people at the helm of companies.