[sdiy] small business idea

[Laurie Biddulph]

I concur with Ken's comments. The pricing of my kits and pcbs covers the costs of said items, postage and packaging. The time spent designing and experimenting with the products, the time spent putting together kits and supporting documentation, overheads (electricity, internet fees etc) is basically free.

In a previous life I was directly involved with a home-office-based Internet mail-order company and the red tape, government taxes, procedures, monthly reports and other `stuff' make running a small business a very time-consuming and frustrating job and you spend more time doing the `business' stuff than you do working on the real stuff. And that is a home-based business. Go out on the street and you have rent and employees to cover, work-cover, insurance....... plus to work your street location must be financially viable or you need stores in every major city.

I would love to and have wanted to for some time run such a business but the politics has always one out which is why I have concentrated on the Internet mail-order approach and rely on the volume of work not requiring too much of my time. To maintain a high-enough volume of work to consider an assistant requires a lot of faith in the market or, more sensibly, introducing a bread-and-butter product that you CAN rely on being in demand. This is why stores like the Dick Smith Electronics you mentioned don't supply just electronic kits. They have to have computers, phones, games, books, toys.............. just to stay competitive.

If TK is in Australia then maybe we should look at something together

Best Regards

(Mr) Laurie Biddulph
Mobile: 0404 846 943

Elby Designs
ABN: 70 022 727 605
http://www.elby-designs.com

This e-mail and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended for the addressee only.
If you are not the addressee you may not copy, forward, disclose or otherwise use it, or any part
of it, in any form whatsoever. If you have received this e-mail in error please notify the sender
and ensure that all copies of this e-mail and any files transmitted with it are deleted. Any views
or opinions represented in this e-mail are solely those of the author and do not necessarily
represent those of Elby Designs. Although this e-mail and its attachments have been scanned for the
presence of computer viruses, Elby Designs will not be liable for any losses as a result of any
viruses being passed on.

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Ken Stone 
  To: synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl 
  Sent: Friday, November 04, 2005 9:06 PM
  Subject: Re: [sdiy] small business idea


  >The question always boils down to: "How little are you willing to  
  >work for?"

  or more to the point, "how much are you willing to subsidize the project?"

  A number of SDIY suppliers are successful only because they DON'T make money
  on their projects. If my "business" failed tomorrow, I would not be
  financially affected, because I make enough money selling boards to pay for
  more boards and the parts involved in prototyping. My time? That will NEVER
  be covered. I do SDIY for fun. I design things I want that I am happy to use
  my free time developing. I then share it with others, thereby adding "value"
  to the time I spent. That value is allowing others to benefit, afford things
  they couldn't normally afford, or get things there is no other way to get.

  Ken

  >On Nov 4, 2005, at 4:09 AM, Tony Kalomiris wrote:
  >
  >> hi list, lately I've been thinking in earnest of starting my own  
  >> small synth shop.
  >>
  >>
  >> I've basically been doing this work out of my house for some time.
  >> I have alot of questions and few answers.I know I get alot of  
  >> encouragement from friends but I don't want to go into this
  >> without doing some "market research"/business plan etc.,
  >>
  >> My goal is to provide a diy approach, get the kids into building  
  >> music circuits kind of like a Dick Smith Electronics for music lovers.
  >>
  >> The one's who've undergone their mid-life crisis will understand  
  >> where I'm coming from.
  >>
  >> Stay Hungry
  >> Stay Foolish
  >>
  >> TK
  >>
  >>
  >> -- 
  >> No virus found in this outgoing message.
  >> Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
  >> Version: 7.1.362 / Virus Database: 267.12.7/155 - Release Date:  
  >> 11/1/2005
  >>
  >
  >
  _______________________________________________________________________
  Ken Stone   sasami at hotkey.net.au or sasami at cgs.synth.net
  Modular Synth PCBs for sale <http://www.blaze.net.au/~sasami/synth/>
  Australian Miniature Horses & Ponies <http://www.blaze.net.au/~sasami/>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://synth-diy.org/pipermail/synth-diy/attachments/20051105/76959b08/attachment.htm>