Industry question

I like the story about the guy who goes to his 20 yr high school reunion.
Everybody remembered him as being a slow learner and they were surprised at
how well he'd done financially.
"Well, I knew I wasn't as smart as the rest of you so I looked around for a
simple product and found one that I could make for $1 and that I could sell
for $5. You know, you'd be amazed at how fast those little four percents add
up."

I'm a retired architect in San Diego, CA. After some expensive lessons in
product design & mold engineering I decided to get some machine tools and do
molds myself. (Lagun FTV-2 mill, Emco-Maier maxi-mat 11 lathe) As a means of
learning to use the machinery, I made shop accessories. (for tap alignment,
a knock-off Burr-Beaver, lots of stuff) It takes 3 or 4 prototypes to get it
right and then I made finished drawings to sell.

I advertised my website in HomeShopMachinist. My cost was $1/sheet and I
priced the drawings at $15 ..... $20 if it involved a motor. I figured that
a lot of basement machinists would be interested in plans for useful shop
stuff and that trial & error would exceed the cost of the plans. Well, to
make a long story short, even with that mark-up, no inventory, no tooling or
overhead........ I broke even. It wasn't worth the effort. Advertising is
the killer.

In summary, I really don't know what the answer is to the selling part of
the equation. Once you get bit by the invention bug, it's hard to let
go....... booze & women are a less expensive addiction ;-)

Good luck Paintball.



"LCT Paintball" wrote in message
news:a8Z0e.2760$NW5.1868@attbi_s02...

In my opinion..........
Market it yourself.
Get yourself a website. Costco seems to have a good program -
costco.com/services/Web Site Hosting & Design Tools.

You mean like this one www.lctproducts.com ?


Advertise your website in magazines aimed at your audience........
boats,
planes, fishing,etc.

I looked into that. A one month add in a popular womens magazine can cost
over $100,000. I'm not sure I could get enough orders to cover that kind
of
expence.


That's the key..... advertise your WEBSITE w/ a teaser describing your
product. A website is the cheapest way to get the information to the
people
out there. Advertising can kill you.

I've even given away free product for clicking on an add. Again the cost
of
advertising usually excedes the number of orders I get.



Forget about getting your product into Home Depot, Costco, Sports
Authority,etc. ..... they really don't want to hear from you
because.....
A) they have 35,000 sku numbers and they can't deal w/ 35,000 vendors
B) they don't buy "sole source".... meaning, from only ONE vendor/
manufacturer
C) somebody in the company has to back your idea as a good product.....
unlikely.... because if it bombs, that's not good for their career
D) whatever price you want, it's too high
E) if you could afford to put a million dollars of product into their
pipeline (for free) you wouldn't be in the game
F) I thought this was interesting..... stores don't own anything except
the
cash registers .... all the merchandise doesn't get paid for (to you)
until
60 to 90 days after it's been sold BY THEM. Neat, huh? In the mean time
you've re-stocked their shelves.
G) Forget about selling your patent to a big outfit like Stanley. They
don't want to hear from you either, for a different set of reasons.

Ah,, I see you've done this before. I decided my product would go great in
the grocery store right beside the taco products. Just like you suggested,
large chains don't want 100,000 different vendors. Most of them buy from
one
of about 4 major wharehouses. In order to get your product into their
wharehouse, you have to "rent" the space from them at around $10,000.
Then,
you have to convice each individual store to place an order. And, for some
of the large chains, you have to "rent" the shelf space too. I can afford
to
produce the product, and wait 3-6 months for payment, but I can't afford
to
grease all the pockets. ;(



I'm wishing for a surface grinder and an EDM machine and struggling w/
the
question...... should I build an RV-7A .... or .... continue ****ing
away

You've come to the right place. I've got a manual EDM for sale that has an
orbiting head on it that lets you produce undercuts like threads for about
$7,000... Or, I know a guy that has a large old machine that runs that
he'd
give away if somebody would hall it off. Both machines are near Kansas
City,
Mo


time and money on "bright ideas" and molds. The plane is a sure thing,
developing products is more creative and potentially could pay for a
Bonanza...... see the dilemma?

Yep, I LIVE the dilemma.


Above all, KEEP YOUR DAY JOB.
Do it yourself. The fewer people you have to deal with, the better.

My day job may be tough to keep. Mold work is heading to China. ;(
Anybody want to buy a mold shop?