Following the Ten Rules for Maker Businesses

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By John Baichtal
Posted 2012/02/22 @ 7:00 am
Category Makers

Pete Prodoehl of Milwaukee, WI, who runs a web development company, is branching out into the DIY biz by selling his Button kit, which creates a one-button keyboard used for, among other things, triggering photobooths. Along the way he’s blogging his experiences following Chris Anderson’s Ten Rules for Maker Businesses:

Make a profit.
It takes lots of cash to stay in stock.
Buy smart.
Basic business rules still apply.
You get no leeway for being a maker.
Be as open as you can.
Create a community to support and enhance your products.
Design for manufacturability.
Marketing is your job.
Your second most important relationship is with your package carrier.

So far Pete has blogged #1: Make a profit and #2: It takes lots of cash to stay in stock. I look forward to reading the rest!

BY John Baichtal

My interests include writing, electronics, RPGs, comics, scifi, hackers & hackerspaces, 3D printing, building sets, & toys.

In the Maker Shed

Arduino Uno Rev 3 (Make SMD Version)

Tux Case for Raspberry Pi

Getting Started with Arduino Kit v3.0

MAKE Rovera 4WD Arduino Robot Kit

2 Responses to Following the Ten Rules for Maker Businesses

Hank on February 22nd, 2012 at 8:38 am said:

If you are looking to make any real return from your product shouldn’t rule #1 actually read: “Have a product(s) that others will actually be interested in purchasing”? For example, if you invent and make some gizmo that helps store and organize your soda straw collection that you built and can duplicate, how many others would actually be interested in purchasing said gizmo? While you think your gizmo is great and, in your case useful and needed, your potential market might be rather limited. If your product has an exceptionally limited target audience the hassles of ramping up to go into even limited production may simply outweigh any potential monetary gain or profit.

That being said if your heart is really into your creation, and who’s isn’t, and you don’t mind only making a few dollars profit in your total annual sales go for it! After all beer money is beer money…

And, for the record, I wholeheartedly agree with the remaining points as listed.

Reply ↓
- Pete Prodoehl on February 22nd, 2012 at 9:07 am said:
  
  Hank, indeed demand for a product is part of the whole equation. I didn’t even consider any sort of “production run” until I got more and more requests from people, and the fact that more people said they didn’t just want the instructions (or had problems doing the programming) and just wanted a finished product that worked, nudged me into actually following through.
  
  Reply ↓