(just to make it clear - I applaud ChrisCables business idea, even more so, if it is financially viable - just wondering, how is avoiding all those addional costs, that make smaller business ventures in the electronic business almost impossible)
As a final note: His public offers do not have an imprint, statement of WEEE registration number and EPR (waste) registration. Now that is a great way to save money. Don't get caught though, penalties start at tens of kilo EUR. Per issue. Per country.
As a final note: His public offers do not have an imprint, statement of WEEE registration number and EPR (waste) registration. Now that is a great way to save money. Don't get caught though, penalties start at tens of kilo EUR. Per issue. Per country.
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Every product does have its own set of selling circumstances. Speakers are a good example, so you’re going to buy a pair of speakers without listening to them, good luck with that sales model. I do not think I’d want to get into the game of selling speakers online with full refund/return policy in effect
That is desk photo.
Show me your balance sheets of year 2023. Without personal info, I don't need it. You should have them by now.
Seriously, drop your drawers and show us what you’re made of 🙂
I actually have orders to fill rather than respond to this any further which does make me a dime
I actually have orders to fill rather than respond to this any further which does make me a dime
I have NOTHING to prove to anyone else but myself and my bank manager.
Just be assured that my business is healthy and prospering and that my only regret is not starting it years earlier.
😉
The clue is in my forum name friend. You simply don't need as many certifications, permits and licenses in my particular sector.
I also complete and submit my own tax returns and do my own accounts/admin as is allowed in my country - hence it's not an additional cost for me. I have very low CAPEX/OPEX which helps to keep my margins relatively high.
I totally get that those requirements you stipulated are required for electronic devices and they should be included in any business plan as an operating cost or part of CAPEX, but has the OP actually declared what he is intending to produce yet and whether those are actual requirements?
Congrats Chris. I've run my biz for almost 25 years and am all but retired. You do need to be a jack of all trades. I also did everything including taxes etc. Not sure how it is in EU, but in the US I did protect myself with an S-Corp and biz insurance. People sue for anything here. In your case, if you supply to large firms, watch the PO terms. They may include a provision where you have to pay them to buy someone else's product if you fail to deliver the quantity specified in the time allowed. I saw that in Microsoft's terms and I'm sure others do it too. I sell software so that was a big don't care to me. I can make another one at 0 cost to me.
Thanks Mike!
No, I'm strictly a low-volume / made-to-order producer with a very low operational risk landscape.
In my former life as a program manager (nuclear/aerospace) I've been used to imposing penalties on sub-contractors when they fail to deliver and will never put myself in that position. It's an ikky place to be.
But it's certainly good advice for anyone to have applicable insurances in place!
Tubelab Inc. (a Florida "S" Corporation in the USA) is not my first business venture. I got started when I was a kid in the 60's making guitar amps and "fuzztone pedals" with germanium transistors taken from scrap radios. People heard me playing them and bought them. I kept on making guitar, HiFi, and car stereo amps through the 90's but never really tried to sell them. Somehow, they sold themselves, and I made a bigger and better one. Most were based on the SWTPC Tigers. Ditto computers. Sales of PC clones paid for the extras (fees and books) needed for the two college degrees that Motorola paid for.
In the 70's a friend and I started DMA Engineering which was my first "real company" since we got a PO box and a business license. It went nowhere since the DIY computer industry in the 70's changed far faster than we could follow along. Our SS-50 (SWTPC) bus stuff was old news once the S-100 bus arrived with a different CPU. Game over. In the early 90's a friend brought me a little "magic box" and asked me to clone it. It did what it was supposed to but was a total mess construction wise. I redesigned it with a PC board and a PIC chip thus G&S (George and Sherri) programming was born. Again, a PO box and a business license kind of operation that totally blew away our expectations but died when the box went obsolete.
Tubelab got its name from the vacuum tube breadboarding system I used to design my amps. Since I planned to sell DIY amp kits which required the use of lethal levels of electricity, I was advised to incorporate the business so that the corporation could be sued, but I was not personally liable unless there was "gross negligence" or "malicious intent." Now things begin to get expensive, a lawyer is generally needed to properly set up the corporation. Yearly filing fees are usually involved, and an accountant is advisable. Since I moved out of Florida 10 years ago, I must now have a registered agent in the state of Florida and a legal business address. Those used to be a friend's business, but his business failed two years ago, so I now have to rent a space and agent. It is wise to dig into all of these little things that add up and slowly eat into your revenue margin.
In the 70's a friend and I started DMA Engineering which was my first "real company" since we got a PO box and a business license. It went nowhere since the DIY computer industry in the 70's changed far faster than we could follow along. Our SS-50 (SWTPC) bus stuff was old news once the S-100 bus arrived with a different CPU. Game over. In the early 90's a friend brought me a little "magic box" and asked me to clone it. It did what it was supposed to but was a total mess construction wise. I redesigned it with a PC board and a PIC chip thus G&S (George and Sherri) programming was born. Again, a PO box and a business license kind of operation that totally blew away our expectations but died when the box went obsolete.
Tubelab got its name from the vacuum tube breadboarding system I used to design my amps. Since I planned to sell DIY amp kits which required the use of lethal levels of electricity, I was advised to incorporate the business so that the corporation could be sued, but I was not personally liable unless there was "gross negligence" or "malicious intent." Now things begin to get expensive, a lawyer is generally needed to properly set up the corporation. Yearly filing fees are usually involved, and an accountant is advisable. Since I moved out of Florida 10 years ago, I must now have a registered agent in the state of Florida and a legal business address. Those used to be a friend's business, but his business failed two years ago, so I now have to rent a space and agent. It is wise to dig into all of these little things that add up and slowly eat into your revenue margin.
I get boards in batches when needed but keep inventories low. I spent 41 years at Motorola starting on the assembly line putting HT220 walkie talkies together and left in 2014 aa a "principal staff research engineer" now retired. The success or lack thereof by Tubelab only affects my itch to build things and blow stuff up!
Cool, but I can't figure out if they're supposed to be decorative or a part of your hifi system.
http://www.chrisscables.com/
The metal thing is really a bad thing for cables... but it doesn't matter, does it? 😉
//
Nices cables, but doesn't your company name present a trade mark issue (I'm no expert), and make it harder to find you via an internet search. I would assume a more unique company name would bring some benefits. Some people use a blend/hybrid between forename and surname for their company name. Best wishes
You're in Canada? Hence just one tax registration serves the entire country.
Same thing in the US.
Big countries, big markets.
Note how the OP is indicating he's in the EU and thus all of the comments about multiple tax/business registrations in the nations of the EU. That drives up the cost.
BTW, as a consultant I've been in the business side of start ups and product development at big companies. The costs can be huge. If you build your own parts from scratch, almost impossible nowadays, your costs are astronomical. If you outsource any part or assembly task then you are at the mercy of your vendor business decisions.
Even in a large company... you see... in the R&D side, product development is handled as if the group were a small company, with a budget for overhead, taxes, R&D, labs, facilities, manufacturing, distribution, sales, support, warranty, etc... those costs need to be factored into product decisions, including the nice salaries for us engineers...
Ask Nelson Pass about his source of VFETs. There went a fair share of R&D. And he has a nice small company selling very expensive products... I assume he's profitable, at BAF24 he was clean, seem freshly showered, had shoes on... but then, maybe he can't afford a haircut and a shave? ;-D
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I'm sitting in my chair, at my "workbench", with no cassette in sight... with an Ultra Wide curved 35" screen, a 17" i9 laptop, two i7 machines, a Raspberry 4, a Nuforce Class D amp, two Acoustic Energy AE1s... making money by writing firmware. Using a VPN to a lab 1600 miles out East where the hardware sits.
My business is actually quite good nowadays... just down to a one man show, pure per hour profit. Lawyer's wages, better actually. No hardware, no shipping, no nothing, just sit in my PJs all day long, drink good coffee, check out DIYAudio and write network device drivers for an SMP implementation.
No longer having to sit at meetings, fighting to add a 50 cent piece into the BoM while the bean counters insist that we can afford to spend $1M of R&D costs for the additional design to work around if we go with the 5 cent part.
I had bought a 49" screen but it was not plug and play and I needed to install custom drivers, which I didn't want to do, so I returned it.
The good thing is that it preserved the space so I can likely replace the Nuforce AMP/DAC with an F5 and a better DAC.
Oh, yes, reading the likes of you pontificating.
..
You see, you and I both have pretty much a One Man Shop. IMHO, the OP is thinking of a larger company selling through a established distribution in the EU. Quite a different thing, huh?
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A considerable part of my career and subsequent consulting activities has involved interfacing with PD both as a stakeholder and manager.
As long as you have a suitably well thought-out and considered PD curve defined that has elasticity and mitigations in place to avoid cost/risk increases, scope creep or anything detrimental to the overall enterprise then theoretically there shouldn't be any limitation to establishing viability for any aspect of the execution of the project.
If you can calculate and then justify the risk and expense of in-house supply of anything in concert and agreement with your stakeholders then there shouldn't be any issues and it becomes a controllable aspect of the project. I always insist on gated go/no-go decisions involving stakeholders, which also means they share accountability.
Outsourcing components or subsytems can easily be managed if you have sufficient checks and controls in place. Having a second-supplier is always something I advise to implement, as although it can be a considerable cost-component it can save you a hell of a lot of issues in the future when you go to production and if your first-supplier goes down or cannot supply for any reason. You don't have to be at the mercy of anyone- it's a visible and obvious risk that you just need to pre-empt and mitigate for.
Of course it's different. You and I can get up and start working in our PJ's, set our own agendas, stop when we want etc, easy - less constraints/risks. He has those same freedoms but he just has a different set of operating variables, costs and potential risks. For me, it's not that complex a venture and it's more of a 'scale' aspect that he has to deal with.
Thanks. But issue in what sense?
Haven't had any complaints or 'cease and desist' letters from anyone in 2 years.... I'm not worrying.
My biggest 'issue' currently is that I don't have any form of brand identity. I mean there's nothing whatsoever! I really need to get something instigated.
I'm simply known as 'Chris Cables' via my selling platforms and some forums etc.
Turnover is currently at a 'manageable' level but it becomes difficult around sales promotions when it ramps up. 52% of sales come from existing customers and I'm busy 6 days a week.
I'm actually reticent to get my website up and running out of fear that I won't be able to satisfy the additional demand that it 'might' bring, but I know I need to get it going eventually...
chriscables.nl
On outsourcing and second-supplier.
Do you remember the quake in Japan in '11? Honda's global manufacturing almost shutdown due to a lack of critical components.
Turns out that even though they had back up vendors, they had not though about geographically dispersing their vendors, so when the big quake hit the area, ALL their vendors shut down.
So, even very large companies with well thought out plans and supply chains with back ups will run into serious issues... For Honda, this meant no production of certain models for almost a year!
I think you underestimate his "scale". Just the management side... as some point you have to move away from the product itself and start managing other people and relegate tasks to others.
OTOH... at our size, the biggest issue is what kind of coffee grinder I need.
Do you remember the quake in Japan in '11? Honda's global manufacturing almost shutdown due to a lack of critical components.
Turns out that even though they had back up vendors, they had not though about geographically dispersing their vendors, so when the big quake hit the area, ALL their vendors shut down.
So, even very large companies with well thought out plans and supply chains with back ups will run into serious issues... For Honda, this meant no production of certain models for almost a year!
I think you underestimate his "scale". Just the management side... as some point you have to move away from the product itself and start managing other people and relegate tasks to others.
OTOH... at our size, the biggest issue is what kind of coffee grinder I need.