What ideas do we all have for a small cottage or home based electronics related business?
Perhaps something that would generate a few hundred dollars per week for a day or two's work.
- Design a widget, build it and sell it - depends on if you can come up with an in-demand saleable product.
- Consumer electronics repair - unless it's a niche product that you have experience with eg hi end audio amplifiers or musicians effects pedals I wonder about the viability of this.
- Prototype hardware construction - limited demand.
Done the second one, got given a ton of equipment fixed most of it, kept what I wanted, sold the rest on ebay.
Downside it was specialized, you couldn't rely on something selling in a certain timeframe to be income, it was worth the trouble when it did.
Currently doing the third for someone I consider a friend, one off product. I help them anyway, they are providing parts/support.
Was going to make something like it anyway, so it's all good Still no money out of it directly.
The first one, working on that also. Despite what many believe, there are still people out there for who made in China is too questionable in quality/design to be useful.
At the end of the day, you really need only to:
A) pick something you understand, not just technically but how and why
B) if there is no competition, find out if it's because others are fools, or simply as there isn't enough money in it.
C) if no one else understands how something works, or how to build/repair it, that's probably a good thing. Downside is you have no one to ask advice from.
D) reverse engineering other people's stuff to figure out how it works, should be an electronics 101 subject.