Tips to go from idea to (commercial) reality? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / projects

author: nickk
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: August 17, 2020, 07:14:05 pm
content: Hi!Not sure whether this belongs here or in the manufacturing forum.In his videos, Dave often encourages people with ideas for commercial products to go for it.Do you guys have tips/hints for the following scenario?Let's say I have an idea for an automotive electrical widget. I've done preliminary market research and it seems there may be a decent niche and demand in the market.On the technical side, I think I could create a prototype without major hurdles (at least for now). It would not be prohibitively expensive either. Don't get me wrong, it's more than just a "weekend project".My biggest weakness at this point is making a sleek case/3d print, in which I currently have no experience (but am very eager to learn).How would you proceed? My idea would be to get the technical and design done in tandem (both are important for the project - the electronics side is not revolutionary or anything). This would involve me learning CAD and getting a 3d printer (I've been waiting for an excuse for years). Then put it on one of the crowd funding sites? Or is that frowned upon given all the BUSTED videos, etc?I'd really like to give the idea a shot - I don't get ideas often :pAny advice would be appreciated!

author: AndyC_772
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 17, 2020, 08:05:29 pm
content: HiThe first thing to do is look well beyond any kind of technical design work. If you have an engineering background, either professionally or as a keen hobbyist, you'll be relatively well prepared to deal with whatever problems the design of the product throws your way, and these won't be the things you'll lose sleep over.Think instead about:- who is your target market, and how will you drum up interest amongst those people?- what price could it sell for? Start with this figure,thenwork backwards to see if it can be made profitably at this selling price, given the costs of production, testing, packaging, delivery, VAT and reseller margins (plus, of course, your fixed costs that do not scale with volume).- where will you have it made? What kind of setup charges can you expect, and will batch sizes be economic?- who will sell it? Your own web site? A distributor? Retailers? Ebay? What will each of these options cost you?- are you able to deal with warranty, support and returns?- does your product require regulatory approval? Do you know what standards apply, and how and where to get it tested?- professional indemnity and product liability insurance?

author: MosherIV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 17, 2020, 09:08:40 pm
content: HiAndyC_772 has made some points i was going to make.Additional thoughts: do you need to do the mechanical/case design?There are design companies that will do thedesign and produce prototypes for you.There is nothing wrong with crowd funding, so long as you are not miss-leading the investors.Does your research include a price that people will be prepared to pay?Costs - rough rule of thumb for commercial companies is that the total build cost should be no more than 25% of the sales price, otherwise it is not profitable. You will be surprised at how many overheads you have not thought of!Sounds like you have only thought of 1st product. What about the next? What will this fledgling company do next? Or is this just a 1 off and you are prepared to wind up the comoany after 1 product.(It is a done thing)

author: cmcraeslo
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 18, 2020, 07:55:20 am
content: - My suggestion would be to not think of 3d print at all and just either go standard case or custom case. 3d print has no real use in any product, especially in automotive environment.- Use reddit or similar platform to test the prototype. You'll get all sort of comments and feedback (if the product gets traction you know you're in the right path)- If you are doing this, just because you can, do it, no matter what the cons might be and seem now. I've started like this and just offered stuff to the public, with everybody telling me this will not sell. We now offer more than 160 high performance motorsport components- Do not try to over-engineer stuff and rather upgrade the products slowly. If you're an engineer, you probably already know that you'll never be happy with the product you're selling. Just make sure it's tested enough so you don't get back-orders, because those are the slowly killing machines. Wise man once said, if you're not embarrassed about the product you're launching, you're too late- Do not worry about the selling price just yet, make few of them and just offer them to the public. You can always increase/decrease the price. It's impossible to get it right before you start selling