Griff and all,
i have read quite some naysaying in ths thread and i feel urged to speak up against it. Getting on your own feet is risky, no question. And it does not necessarily make a person rich. But if it is atleast successful enough to make a living from it, it is very satisfactory, it creates a happy person. So please, noone intending to turn pro should get discouraged from what he read here, warned and get alert maybe, but not discouraged.
Has anyone thought of turning this hobby into a profession?
yes, i have. I am quite deteremined.
I have been warned, i don't care (not meant as disrespect or offense, Jocko

).
I am unemployed and a change is not within sight and reach. I have nothing to loose. And i feel the inner urger to provide good gear and to earn serious money with it.
"Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what cannot be done and why. Then do it". To anyone planning to turn pro: listen carefully to those wha have failed and try to grasp why they failed and how you could avoid this failure. But do not let them guide your decision whether to turn pro or not.
Listen carefully to those who succeeded and ask them why they believe they succeeded and what it takes to succeed. Do let them guide your decision whether to turn pro or not.
Let's ask Nelson Pass to that topic!
He is successful !
Jocko,
as you know, i myself plan to start an audio venture. As an entrepeneur it is not sufficient to do a terrific engineering and e.g. technical manual. I know i must do every and any aspect of my entrepreneurial activities right. I really do not want to track later what messed up my success, was it engineering, manual, customer treatment, bad rep, careless handling of finances, taking the wrong risks, handling my 1st employee wrong, being once impatient (once is once too much) with a non-responding bank clerk, whatever. If i have to start to track my mistakes as an entrepreneur, i start being the effect. Effect of my mistakes and circumstances caused by it. I do not want to be the effect, i do want to be the cause, that it why i start my own business. Right? And as i am the cause of my success, i happily can enjoy the benefits.
Unfortunately success is impossible without appreciation of others. So if i make my customers happy (maybe successful in what they want to achieve?), i make me successful.
I may fail but my strong intention is to never snort at a customer or to be disrespectful to him any other way. He pays my living.
See, i am quite competent in what i am doing. but that doesn't mean i am competent in other fields. My customer maybe be utterly competent in his field.
So who am i to snort at him?
Admitted, there are customers asking for way more than they are willing to pay for. And there are "customers" not intending to pay at all. They must be shaken off gently and in a way the fall on their feet and keep their face.
They must be "given notice" only of nothing else helps.
But to topic. Reading what you posted (sorry that i have to be that merciless in public, no offense meant) gives me a rough understanding of one main reason why your audio venture failed.
You wrote:
You have 3 basic consumer types to deal with:
Mass market- they will buy Sony. You don't want to compete there anyway. Commodity is the rule of the day here.
DIY types- they won't buy much, except maybe kits, and there is not much money there. OK for a hobby business. Could be fun, as long as you keep your day job.
Audiophiles-neurotic, insecure twits that need to be told what they should think. Fickle, easily swayed and duped. You don't want to hang your sucess on the whims of these types.
Your attitude forms your reality. These guys sense how you look at them, they do not feel respected, neither of them, and they let you suffer for it. They sense nosiness and arrogance pouring out from all orifices, they turn away..... so you created your reality by expecting it.
Let's face it: customers are the entrepreneur's employers.
Would you dare to expose your disrespectful to your employer? Maybe suicidal.
Jason,
good advice! I'll read that book. And i agree totally with the conclusions you described.
jjasniew,
i am very grateful for your post. You backupped from what your discussion partners said a thing i had in mind as a foggy concept. Supplying total service, supplying the customer with a complete system.