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Starting your own small business

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nctnico:

--- Quote from: Ice-Tea on May 09, 2018, 07:22:14 am ---Make sure you have a good and concise agreement in place with your companions. Equal shares sound great untill someone is not willing or able to do an equal part of the job (or just stinks at it). Who gets to decide stuff? What if you buy a cheap Rigol to do your measurementts and your brother in arms figures he needs an 8.5 digits Keithley to do his job? Etc. etc...

--- End quote ---
This is good advice! Also think about rules in case one of the owners dies. It might be a good idea to arrange things in a way that the remaining share holders can obtain the shares from the deseased without much hassle.

vk6zgo:
Not to do with the generic "starting a business" stuff, but if you are making stuff, don't get so enamoured by the way you do things that you refuse to improve your product to industry standards.

I worked at a (strangely, quite successful) company that persisted in doing things in the most tortuous way possible.
This entailed strange legacy circuitry which no longer had any function, one of which was a whole subunit full of relays intended to changeover twin PSUs which were no longer used.
Another instance was not checking OEM supplied sub units (automotive multifunction switches) prior to installation, necessitating a partial tear down of the just completed units when the switches were faulty (20% were).
Even when this was brought to Management's notice, they did nothing about it!
(All it needed was a bloke with a DMM to spend an hour every time we got a shipment)

This company got away with stuff because the customers were non technical.
If they were marketing to the Electronics industry, thing would have been different.
Firms who make crap become well known among the technical community, who will do their best to discourage the Boss from buying their products.

This comes across as a rant, but wasn't meant that way.
All I am saying, is every now & then, step back & take a look at your product & production procedures.

Shock:
The business repairing/refurbing/selling vintage computer parts? It's not like you have kept it a secret on the forum.

It's a big step being a hoarder/collector to actually operating a business. Did you manage to find a cheap oscilloscope to buy yet and get some practice in?

Halcyon:

--- Quote from: Shock on May 10, 2018, 03:15:18 am ---The business repairing/refurbing/selling vintage computer parts? It's not like you have kept it a secret on the forum.

It's a big step being a hoarder/collector to actually operating a business. Did you manage to find a cheap oscilloscope to buy yet and get some practice in?

--- End quote ---

Nope, not at all. Good guess though! It's an idea I've had for a few years on and off and have only just now managed to get to know some people well enough who have the necessary technical skills to help me pull it off. I haven't made any public comment or dropped any hints about it. All I will say is that there is a pretty big hole in the market and no one really seems to be filling it.

I haven't yet bought a scope, but it's not something that's necessary for the business. The scope was just for me to play with and learn in my own time.

Shock:
I'd be surprised if it was a new type of business. You can provide a ton more information to get specific advice without giving out any info, like if it's software/app or an electronics invention, or you're manufacturing or just reselling products etc.

But with regards to partners and employees doing development. If it looks like an easy way to make money, expect your idea to be stolen by them. This is why contracts and NDAs are made (and they are still stolen).

It's hard to get free employees but if it's your idea and they are only supplying X amount of hours of work, you don't want to start throwing out the "partner" word at every opportunity. A good way to lose your business if it turns a buck.

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