I finally got the project I was working on into a box, and now it's working great. It doesn't look so hot, in that the cutouts for the LCD and keypad were done by hand, but it's operational.
I know there's a market for this thing, and I was wondering how would I go about selling this as a kit or a completed device. Should I do a Kickstarter / indiegogo campaign, or see if an existing hobbyist site like Sparkfun or Adafruit would sell it? I'm working up a bill of materials and trying to figure out the best way to get the holes cut a little more professionally, but while I was doing that I'd ask the brilliant minds of the Arduino Forum what their opinion was.
It's a portable network tester. You plug in your network cable, and you can ping any IP address you wish, scan any IP address for open ports, and set an IP address manually. The only "competition" is either a full-on laptop (that can break) or something from Fluke Networks (that costs over $500 USD). Both do a TON more than this thing, but if I can get the price down to a reasonable level it should be pretty popular.
Most resellers will want to see a prototype at least, if not a (pre-)production model, and will want to test it before they stock it. They may even want to test it to destruction, to see if it is likely to produce many 'returns'. Returns = dissatisfied customers = poor business reputation for them and you. In other words, they don't want to sell rubbish (not saying your product is rubbish, just pointing out their position).
Bear in mind that you'll also need an instruction manual (written in correct, simple, English and, possibly, other languages) and some packaging to ensure safe delivery. The packaging should also be eye-catching, to attract customers.
Is there a magazine where you are (USA?) that would cover your product idea? If so, send them a sample to review. If they like it, you've got FREE publicity! This worked for me when I wrote a program for the Sinclair Spectrum, many years ago. A couple of free samples to the relevant magazines (one published with a glowing report, the other didn't even comment) got me some sales.
Henry_Best:
Most resellers will want to see a prototype at least, if not a (pre-)production model, and will want to test it before they stock it. They may even want to test it to destruction, to see if it is likely to produce many 'returns'. Returns = dissatisfied customers = poor business reputation for them and you. In other words, they don't want to sell rubbish (not saying your product is rubbish, just pointing out their position).
Bear in mind that you'll also need an instruction manual (written in correct, simple, English and, possibly, other languages) and some packaging to ensure safe delivery. The packaging should also be eye-catching, to attract customers.
Is there a magazine where you are (USA?) that would cover your product idea? If so, send them a sample to review. If they like it, you've got FREE publicity! This worked for me when I wrote a program for the Sinclair Spectrum, many years ago. A couple of free samples to the relevant magazines (one published with a glowing report, the other didn't even comment) got me some sales.
I'm sure there is. I'll look tomorrow. Also, instead of just magazines I can use the magic of the internet to showcase it. Get on some blogs and such.
Are you going retail or specialty? If retail, you need some $$ and you need to be able to supply volume with low margins. If you're going specialty, then find some people who actually do the testing, give them samples. If your product is any good, they will spread the word.
It depends on where your break-even is.
I'm sort of in the same boat; I need to sell between 300 and 1,000 units a year if I'm going to have a viable product. Fortunately I'm in a high-margin high-service market, so it's possible if I can get some good reviews initially. If I can get in the right market with the right reputation, I can get margins of 75% but that means service, service, service.
I should say too - check with your state employment office if you're in the US. Where I live, the state will provide significant support to small business startups, training, business plan, financing, even financial support while you get up and running.
It doesn't look so hot, in that the cutouts for the LCD and keypad were done by hand, but it's operational. smiley
With the advent of 3D printing and laser cutting this can be solved. There are people offering custom made cases with laser on the forum once and a while.
As a first approximation you should assume that the price will double at every step in the supply chain.
If you sell to a wholesaler for £10, s/he will sell it to the retailer for £20 and the retailer will sell to the public for £40.
If you have a retail price in mind and work back from that you may find yourself with very little profit.
The smaller the market for the product the greater the mark-ups because of the risk of being left with unsaleable stock.
If there is some way to sell your product direct to customers (perhaps through an EBay store) you will probably make most profit (if your product is a success) but you will also have a lot more work.
It's not easy to become a millionaire, or even a ten-thousand-aire.
If you have an idea for another product it might be worth selling the first product cheaply to establish your reputation.
Unfortunately fancy packaging is worth far more than good product - look at clothes and cosmetics.
If mass market is your aim, I would say Kickstarter/indiegogo would be the way to go. That allows you to gauge possible market before you go through all the work of marketing, manufacturing, packing, shipping, etc. First of all you have to make sure your design can me manufactured in needed volume at low enough price. (When Digistump was making the Digispark, after overly successful Kickstarter project, the needed processors suddenly sold out so they had to pay extra charge to be able to actually make the product in time.) There are whole lot of logistics to the thought out, like the fact that your design is made on Arduino does increase the cost of the product and therefore the final price. You have to buy a whole Arduino instead of few components and a custom PCB, but custom PCB is expensive in low volumes.
When thinking of pricing it is worth noting that a general rule of thumb is, that after certain price point every 10% increase in price cuts sales by at least 10%, thereby reducing profits. If you sell the product at loss, increased volume will not turn that into profits. Any extra charge will come straight out of the profit. If you plan on selling 500 units with 10$ profit margin on each (5000$) and something comes up which costs you 5$ on each unit, like if Arduino replaces the Mega you're using with another product that costs 5$ more, your profits are cut by 50% but your work stays the same or increases.
Given all those obstacles to successful sales I would say it might be worth more to make it open source at your own webpage and offer prebuilt units for sale. Or make 5-10 units at a time and offer them on Tindie or similar. On the other hand, going through the whole process is a valuable experience and looks good on your CV.
I would like to have a sturdy compact network tester in my toolkit (give it 2 ports so it also works as cable tester that not just looks for correct wiring but also quality of wiring).
