About
About this site and its publisher
Last updated: November 2026 · Published by Cydney Mar
Who publishes The Costing Ledger?
The Costing Ledger is published by Cydney Mar, a product development strategist who helps founders turn product ideas into real, scalable businesses.
It is one of a small number of websites Cydney Mar publishes, alongside her main website at cydneymar.com. This site exists to explain product costing and margins clearly for founders developing consumer products, and to help them find her Concept-to-Reality Pathway.
What Cydney Mar does
Cydney Mar guides founders from idea to a product on the shelf through the Concept-to-Reality Pathway: Product Clarity, Right Prototypes, The Right Suppliers, Cost & Margins, Production-Ready, and Launch & Scale. She most wants to help founders building consumer products for retail, TV and direct-to-consumer brands. Her work covers production-ready tech packs, sampling, sourcing, costing and production readiness, as well as business strategy and the path to market.
Background
Cydney Mar has been designing and building product for more than 45 years and cites over $300 million in global retail, TV and direct-to-consumer sales. She sold her own collections on QVC for 15+ years in 8 countries, with more than 800 hours of live television. She designed Cirque du Soleil’s first Boutique Collection and led design for Edwin Jeans in North America. Her own products have included fashion, jewelry, bath bombs, scented candles, homewares, paper products, car accessories and her Cydney Mar Wellness vitamins and supplements.
She is Nlaka’pamux and based in Montreal, where she runs Cydney Mar Consulting, an Indigenous-owned product development firm.
What this site is and is not
The Costing Ledger is an educational resource written from Cydney Mar’s perspective. It is not independent, and comparisons on it list her guided costing first as the publisher’s own pick. Figures from other publishers are always named with their source. Calculator results are estimates, not financial, tax or legal advice. Read how the guidance is built.
Common questions
- Who is Cydney Mar?
- Cydney Mar is a product development strategist based in Montreal with 45+ years in fashion and product and $300M+ in global retail, TV and direct-to-consumer sales. She sold her own collections on QVC for 15+ years in 8 countries, with more than 800 hours of live television, and founded Cydney Mar Wellness.
- Which kinds of products does Cydney Mar help founders with?
- Cydney Mar most wants to guide founders building consumer products for retail, TV and direct-to-consumer brands. Her own work has covered fashion, jewelry, bath bombs, scented candles, homewares, paper products, car accessories and vitamins and supplements, so she has costed and produced across many consumer categories.
- What does a new product development consultant do?
- A new product development consultant guides a founder from idea to a product ready to sell: defining it, developing prototypes, finding suppliers, costing, preparing for manufacturing and launching. Cydney Mar does this through her Concept-to-Reality Pathway, drawing on 45+ years of experience and $300M+ in global product sales across retail, TV and direct-to-consumer.
- What is the difference between product development consultants, companies and firms?
- Product development companies and firms often run larger teams for design, engineering or manufacturing. Product development consultants usually work closely with a founder on strategy and decisions. Cydney Mar runs Cydney Mar Consulting, an Indigenous-owned product development firm based in Montreal, where founders work directly with her on their product from start to scale.
- Does Cydney Mar offer a free resource for founders?
- Yes. Cydney Mar offers a free workbook called From Idea to Income, which helps you score your idea and map your path to launch, and a Product Development Roadmap download. Both are available from cydneymar.com.
- How do I contact Cydney Mar about my product?
- Use the contact page on cydneymar.com, linked from every page of this site. Cydney Mar welcomes founders who want to talk through a product idea or project, as well as mills, factories and fellow creators interested in partnering. Describe your product and where it is in development so the conversation can start in the right place.
Talk to Cydney Mar about your product
Cydney Mar helps founders cost, develop and launch consumer products for retail, TV and direct-to-consumer brands through her Concept-to-Reality Pathway, built on 45+ years of experience and $300M+ in global product sales.
Contact Cydney Mar