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<DIV>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.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>If TK is in Australia then maybe we should look at something together</DIV>
<DIV><BR>Best Regards</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>(Mr) Laurie Biddulph<BR>Mobile: 0404 846 943</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Elby Designs<BR>ABN: 70 022 727 605<BR><A
href="http://www.elby-designs.com">http://www.elby-designs.com</A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
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<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=sasami@hotkey.net.au href="mailto:sasami@hotkey.net.au">Ken Stone</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=synth-diy@dropmix.xs4all.nl
href="mailto:synth-diy@dropmix.xs4all.nl">synth-diy@dropmix.xs4all.nl</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Friday, November 04, 2005 9:06
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [sdiy] small business
idea</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>>The question always boils down to: "How little are you
willing to <BR>>work for?"<BR><BR>or more to the point, "how much are
you willing to subsidize the project?"<BR><BR>A number of SDIY suppliers are
successful only because they DON'T make money<BR>on their projects. If my
"business" failed tomorrow, I would not be<BR>financially affected, because I
make enough money selling boards to pay for<BR>more boards and the parts
involved in prototyping. My time? That will NEVER<BR>be covered. I do SDIY for
fun. I design things I want that I am happy to use<BR>my free time developing.
I then share it with others, thereby adding "value"<BR>to the time I spent.
That value is allowing others to benefit, afford things<BR>they couldn't
normally afford, or get things there is no other way to
get.<BR><BR>Ken<BR><BR>>On Nov 4, 2005, at 4:09 AM, Tony Kalomiris
wrote:<BR>><BR>>> hi list, lately I've been thinking in earnest of
starting my own <BR>>> small synth
shop.<BR>>><BR>>><BR>>> I've basically been doing this work
out of my house for some time.<BR>>> I have alot of questions and few
answers.I know I get alot of <BR>>> encouragement from friends but
I don't want to go into this<BR>>> without doing some "market
research"/business plan etc.,<BR>>><BR>>> My goal is to provide a
diy approach, get the kids into building <BR>>> music circuits
kind of like a Dick Smith Electronics for music
lovers.<BR>>><BR>>> The one's who've undergone their mid-life
crisis will understand <BR>>> where I'm coming
from.<BR>>><BR>>> Stay Hungry<BR>>> Stay
Foolish<BR>>><BR>>> TK<BR>>><BR>>><BR>>> --
<BR>>> No virus found in this outgoing message.<BR>>> Checked by
AVG Anti-Virus.<BR>>> Version: 7.1.362 / Virus Database: 267.12.7/155 -
Release Date: <BR>>>
11/1/2005<BR>>><BR>><BR>><BR>_______________________________________________________________________<BR>Ken
Stone <A
href="mailto:sasami@hotkey.net.au">sasami@hotkey.net.au</A> or <A
href="mailto:sasami@cgs.synth.net">sasami@cgs.synth.net</A><BR>Modular Synth
PCBs for sale <<A
href="http://www.blaze.net.au/~sasami/synth/">http://www.blaze.net.au/~sasami/synth/</A>><BR>Australian
Miniature Horses & Ponies <<A
href="http://www.blaze.net.au/~sasami/">http://www.blaze.net.au/~sasami/</A>><BR></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>