Turning Pro

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The demise......

Three reasons:

The high-end market dried up. Successful high-end dealers became high-end home theater dealers. They no longer needed small companies. The small high-end dealers folded.

The magazines helped ruin it. Poofters telling the guilible want to listen to, and ergo, what to buy.

The internet: It sucked up a lot of discrectionary income. People who were "coming of age" discovered MP3 players. So who needs $1200 CD players, or $3000 DVD players.

So......take one rich doctor high-end bigshot wanna-be.....and a downturn in the economy........his salary drying up due to reduced Medicare payments........an unhappy home life........all this compounding......ending in divorce, no money in the bank, no house (all due to divorce) and you-know-who ends up with the assets. Which didn't amount to more than the name and a handful of parts to stuff I can't sell.

Repeat process numerous times for other close friends.

Jocko
 
Folks,

This is an interesting read; I learn something and thank all contributors.

Bernhard asked me to contribute as someone who two years back decided to turn my life's passion into a business.

It's probably best to be dispassionate about it, and list the pros and cons as I see it.

PROS

1. I'm finally doing something I absolutely love.
2. I am finally developing expertise which I think is world class (my opinion, YMMV!!)
3. My enthusiasm for audio is as strong as ever.
4. I get quite a kick out of negotiating parts deals.
5. I have met some truly outstanding people with a huge array of skills and abilities - and many friends with whom I'd be very happy to spend idle time in conversation.
6. I'm enjoying palpable excitement as the outfit grows.

CONS

7. Considerable contamination of home life with the business; it's always in my head from 7am to 11pm each day.
8. A toll on my health due to long hours at the keyboard.
9. Much larger workload due to documentation (I'm into DIY kits), including digital photography, than I ever expected. For every hour spent in design, another is spent in writing up the documentation - and this reaches hundreds of intensive hours. I feel like I'm flying and maintaining a bloody helicopter!
10. The occasional customer who takes a very tough view of the deal (I'm being charitable) and to whom one must bow for a huge variety of reaons too numerous to mention here.
11. Breathtaking customer ineptitude with sensitive circuits which is often corrected at my expense.
12. Very slow return on capital invested.
13. Huge administrative overheads due to tax law, international postage documentation, import aspects, and customer records.
14. Customer engagement via email; it's too demanding, and kills the viability of many sales because of time factors. Many like to 'have a chat' and while this is pleasant, its usually not productive from the business standpoint. OTOH, I love some of these conversations and many are fruitful.


As humans we have many unrealistic aspirations about our profession. We might want to be a brain surgeon, or a nuclear physicist, but only in rare cases are these options available to us. Fortunately, everyone has an aptitude and a skill; essentially we have to identify it and exploit it, because otherwise we cannot be competitive in the marketplace which is filled with people who love what they do. Human achievement is related to passion; you'll rarely be successful in anything unless you love it and give it 110%. I was never good at corporate politics, but I can be successful as an audio designer and as an audio entrepreneur; the former I'm passionate about, the second, I'm prepared to learn and work at. With guidance, I should survive and prosper, but it's a fallacy to imagine one has all the answers.

On the matter of customer care, I will say this. When a customer has a problem, yes, it should be solved. However, it should be solved at the lowest possible expense, in time and in labor. There is a balance. The best outcome is the one which does not cost much, and takes little time to resolve, but like everything, it must be sold to the customer. If it means profuse apology, agreement with all he/she says, then do it. Risking getting the customer off side cannot be compensated with money or effort; attitude is important. The one human characteristic standing in the way of this is pride; the seller has to swallow his pride, and get on with it, otherwise the customer is turned off, and future sales could be lost. This is tough, as we all have pride.

I have a recent case coming up in two weeks, too complex to talk about in detail, and customer is, in my belief, wrong. However, I will resolve it completely in his favour because I want him happy, and I have figured out a way of doing it which will cost me three hours of labour and hopefully put the issue to rest forever. It is not worth him bad mouthing the product because I failed to put in those three hours, even if those three hours should have come from him. Bad publicity is poison, worth far more than three hours labour. This are the frustrating cases, and they must be negotiated, but they are relatively rare. The truth is that when people pay you money for something, an emotional debt is incurred, and you need to do everything right to minimise that debt. It carries obligations discharged only by correct attitude, good manners and swift response. Customers are not just valuable, they are essential to survival as they pay all the bills.

I think we are in the right business when we can say 'Yes, I'll do this until I retire because I love it.' It's a bit like working in a large corporation; you are foolish if you live for the compliments of the boss - your payment each month is your reward, that's the way the company sees it and so should you. A promotion is a bonus. Each salary payment is emotional and financial recompense for your successful performance. And so it is in business; if people continue to buy your products, and the income stream is maintained or even grows, then you're doing something right. That should be compensation enough. If people say nice things about your product, then that's cool, but you should never count on it, because this is ego, and ego is dangerous as it makes you drop the ball. OTOH, when someone says something terrible, it's not personal; customers have an extraordinary ability to identify the difficult aspects of any design in minutes, and without actually knowing anything of the technical difficulties, they are happy to condemn outright. Standards are very, very high. The trick is to fix the problem, and ignore the negative vibes. This takes a lot of emotional maturity.

Harry (I think?) makes the interesting comment about listening to music. Hell, I never hear the music these days. But I sure know a lot about the sound! My pleasure is taken in the design process; even if I were deaf I'd still be doing it. I love it!

Cheers,

Hugh R. Dean
AKSA Research/Technical Director
Aspen Amplifiers P/L
www.printedelectronics.com
 
Thank you for your insight Mr Dean, sounds just about right, but you are obviously one of a lucky few, congratulations!

Here's one to get the mind ticking over, why dont a select few of you "experts", ie your H.H, Jocko, Grey, Bernhard's (sorry to any that i left out, these guys are examples only) get together and have a go at starting a conglomeration of all aspects of audio under the one brand. Harryjockgreyhard! well, maybe not, but you see my point. This system would certainly reduce capital expense, and would increase expertise 10 fold, and would allow expansion into various aspects of audio. Problems lie in my #1 rule of business - DONT DO ANY BUSINESS WITH FRIENDS OR FAMILY!
 
All,

i would like to add a pro and a con.
Con:
working "at home" requires you to be self-disciplined. Yyou have noone to kick you in your *** to get on the bounce, you have to do it yourself. Relaxing is addictive, it is not sufficient to kick your *** once a day, you have to do it all the time, everyday.

Pro:
it is your office. You can listen all day to music while working. Be it Jimi Hendrix' machine gun, Metallica, Beethoven's op.131, Bach's Fuga alla breve from the 3rd violin sonata, Schoenbergs pieces for orchestra op.9, an elaborated composition for organ from Max Reger, Coltrane playing Ascension or Om, whatever socially incompatible music it is, you can listen to it until you, noone else, want to switch it off. And you can walk your dog whenever he pesters you.

Try this as employee. And tell me, I sit in a small hut besides and sell tickets for the event coming. :)

This listening to music all day long is not only fun. It is necessary for me to find out whether an audio component is long-term listenable or makes want to escape. A piece of gear spoiling my concentration during solving differential equations or figuring out a p2p wiring or 3D-modeling at the CAD while i listen to the Fuga is a piece of gear i do not sell. Question of honesty.

So: listening to music: a moot point for me. I do it all day. Ask me about details concerning LvB op.131: DON'T, the thread might go out of hand. I cannot count how often i had it spinning in the background. But it is years ago i sat down to listen to it.
 
The one and only
Joined 2001
Paid Member
Since you ask me....

For the record, Threshold fell apart after I left. I sold my
interest in 1987 and departed in 1991.

Also for the record, every operation I ever ran made money,
not always a lot.

And just so you understand, I have never considered an
alternative to building amplifiers; as far as I'm concerned,
there aren't any.
 
Pick your partners carefully

With the permanent banning of Harry, and one of my ex-business partner's marital strife spilling over into my life.......again! Today is one of those days.

So....what can go wrong if you pick the wrong ones?

The one with the money turns out to be an immature, irrespoponsible klutz who still needs his mommy to clean up after him.

The who is the front man turns out to be an irresponsible goofball who disappears for weeks at a time, to go out into the woods to play "army", and ride dirt bikes. At the worst possible times.

The one who designs the stuff is a REAL goofball, who manages to almost die on more than one occasion.

Jocko
 
Jocko,
you may be dead right with what you post.
The one who designs the stuff is a REAL goofball, who manages to almost die on more than one occasion.
i have another version: the one who designs the stuff is considered as a half genius by fellow engineers in real life but drowns in permanent headache and hence is incapable to get anything out of the door on schedule.
I look on my last post here and its posting date, then i look on my schedule, then i feel inclined to give up. Up to you to observe if i do.
 
diyAudio Senior Member
Joined 2002
GO PRO

Grif,

I admit I haven't read the entire thread so if my opinion has been expressed before,so be it:

FWIW,life is short.;)

The older you get the shorter life seems.
I've always been lucky to be able to do what I like for a living.
Nobody can do it as well for you as if you'd done it yourself.
You can find as much information discouraging you as encouraging.
Me,I would never hesitate to do it,deploy all my talents and go for it.
The more information on this (on fiscal and accounting aspects) you can gather the more you will feel secure.
My experience with this is that a lack of knowledge on how to run your own business is the killer,not a lack of knowledge in the field of business.
It is of course always a good idea to be just that bit paranoid and cover your behind.

If you're afraid you'll be listening less to music,that may well depend on your professional occupation.
Can you get paid for listening to music?I think so,up to you to figure out how and whom you'll charge.
Another side effect is a nice gain of general percieved value in society:after all you'll be the president of that company.
No company is likely to garantee you that status as an employee.;)

Last piece of advice:try to provide for a fallback in case economy plummets.

In a nutshell,nobody can make this decision for you.

Err,and sorry if this a mess to read.I'm rather tired.:xeye:

Wishing you the best of luck,:)
 
Thanks for the great reply Frank, I have come to a decision on the matter because of it. Tell me what you think of this, as soon as exams are over, hope to get into Melbourne university to undertake a Commerce degree specialising in Management or something similar, and at the same time registering a business name and setting up the appropriate channels of supply, also setting up an internet shop front and possibly send some product to the local street press, the Herald Sun's Connect etc. This was I figure that even if the business sinks like a stone, I will still have the qulifications to get a well paid job.
 
Ex-Moderator
Joined 2002
Just to stick my oar in...

I have been self employed for 15 years, and have had some good times and some bad times along the way. I have never earnt enough money to be any more than comfortable, and sometimes a lot worse than that, but would I change a minute of it....No...

I have had a wonderfull time meeting new people, travelling the world, and helping create some wonderful events that made a lot of people very happy, and being very satisfied when a design concept comes to life in reality, rather than in my head.

But I have learnt one major thing in that time, as a small business, the only thing you can rely on is what's in your head- kit and designs can be, and are copied and sold cheaper than you can, suppliers will stitch you up at the first opportunity, and rivals will steal your clients as soon as you set a foot wrong.

So- in conclusion- if you want it you can do it- but its damn hard work, much harder than working for someone else, less well paid, more stressful, but extremely satisfing when it all comes together!
 
I prefer working for someone else full time and after in my free time do my own work at home.
No stress, minimum working hours, no responsibilities, good pay.
The extra hours I would work if I had my own company I work at home and make a few extra bucks as a hobby.
You have the best of both worlds.
This is not allways possible in all jobs. Just have to find the right one.
 
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