[sdiy] small business idea

[Oakley Sound]

I was wondering whether to reply to this thread for fear of putting 
anyone off. However, Doug's idea was pretty much the same as mine and I 
should think a great many DIYers who would wish to expand their hobby.

The key thing is that the moment you try and make money from your hobby 
its stops being a hobby. The enjoyment that you have as a hobby may just 
disappear and it may just become another job.

I originally trained as an electronic design engineer and worked in the 
industry for seven years. Before University I was keenly interested in 
hobby electronics and built numerous things on Vero as well as my own 
polysynth and other sound making devices. But the moment I started 
working for Marconi, building class-D power units and optical interface 
electronics, my hobby essentially stopped, I wasn't interested in 
playing with PCBs at home when I did that at work. Besides there were 
other things to do, playing in a band for example, kayaking, 
fellwalking. Not to mention curries and beer.

In 1991 I retrained as a Physics/Technology teacher and I moved to 
Cumbria. When the school got an internet connection, that piqued my 
dormant interest in musical electronics and I started building up my 
synth collection again. I have Rick Jansen's Moog filter circuit to 
thank for that.

Making PCBs and fixing the odd guitar amp was originally a sideline 
whilst I took time off work my teaching job to look after my new born 
daughter in 1998.

The repair side of my new business took off so well I decided not to go 
back into teaching and later my wife decided also to leave work and look 
after the children full time. We were now fully dependant on repairing 
amplifiers and now synths.

Interest grew in my PCB projects and the release of a MOTM compatible 
format modular, the Oakley Modular, in 1999 started to impact on my 
fledgling repair business. By 2002 the PCB side of things was bringing 
in half my income, but actually taking around 80% of my time.

We decided to do ready made modules later that year and this in the end 
was the biggest money spinner for us. The profit margins are higher on 
ready made units, although the number of units sold is considerably less.

Full kits were not an option. I couldn't compete with Paul or John. UK 
component prices are too great and by the time I add UK sales taxes and 
my own margin I couldn't compete in the kit market. Bear in mind that 
over 80% of sales are to the US. The UK was the second largest.

Ready made units were a good money spinner, but I still earnt more per 
hour doing repair or the odd bit of personal tutor work. I thought the 
solution to this was to speed up the manufacture process. This I did and 
introduced a rolling 'upgrade' of all the modular PCBs. The 
interconnection time was dramatically cut by the use of MTA connections. 
My wife, Rachel, was now also more involved and was pretty much in 
charge of all the PCB and parts orders.

Two important things happened in April of this year. Firstly, the tax 
returns had to be filled in. From this is was obvious that even doing 
one day of repair work and four days of DIY/synth manufacture, I was 
still not making enough to warrant the amount of effort involved. The 
second thing was that, with both our children now attending full time 
education, Rachel decided to go back to work. That meant I would have to 
take on all the parts orders, building, designing, repairing and 
everything else myself. For the amount of money I was getting this was 
'less than optimal'.

Something too has to be said about RoHS, but this was not a main player 
in any decision I made. The lack of a decent supply of compliant OTAs, 
transistor arrays, connectors, cheap PCB, pots was off putting. And 
redesiging PCBs to keep up with these trends was costly, but these are 
not insurmountable problems if the sales figures were high enough.

I now do repairs full time. I enjoy it for the most part. But its a job 
to me and it pays fairly well. Nothing like what I was on as a head of 
department in the school, and nothing like what I would have been on had 
I stayed in the electronics industry. But there is more to life than 
money and right now I could not be more happier with my decision.

Fortunately, I think I have gained a good reputation as a repairer and 
this keeps me busy enough. However, location helps, and where I am, in 
rural Cumbria, is not terribly good for business. I am about as far as 
one can get from any major city. But as I look outside and gaze at the 
surrounding scenery I cannot ever regret moving here.

I no longer build anything solely for fun, and I haven't done for quite 
a few years. In fact, a few years ago I would look at a circuit and 
think; how could I make a module from that and how many people would buy 
it. Those times are behind me. And I am happier for it.

I still play music. Mostly on VSTi and Reason, although I still own a 
Prophet 5 and my modular. I also am starting to dabble in some musical 
code too. I can hear a few of you chuckling in the back... yes, I know 
what I said...

But life is too short to not try these things. If you want to do it, try 
it out. But always remember to have a Plan B.

Tony

www.oakleysound.com