Pedal sales business models

[ElectricDruid]

That's where the patent system starts to turn into a nightmare though, isn't it? There are lots of stupid and indefensible patents granted for stuff that should never have been given a patent - because of "prior art" or whatever. So then you have a choice: do you try and work around a patent because it exists, or do you decide that the patent is indefensible and therefore you don't need to worry about it? Nightmare.

Side line - Interestingly, you don't need to show that an idea is in any way workable or practical to get a patent. There are several patents for anti-gravity drives or various types!

[Mark Hammer]

I used to be an inveterate reader of the Review of Patents that would appear every couple of issues at the back of the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society.  These were single-paragraph synopses of patents applied for and granted, sometimes with an accompanying drawing from the patent application.  And since "audio engineering" covers a lot of ground well beyond what we think of here, the patents included might be for architectural developments to subdue subsonic vibrations, hearing aids, phonograph cartridges, digital mixers, and kids' toys.  Some of them were way out there.  Some were giving you a heads-up about what would be mainstream in 5 years.  And some made you tilt your head like the RCA Victor puppy, and think "Why on earth would anyone want or need that?".

[Phend]

After getting around the patent thing, the hardest part of my business was "what should it cost".
Lets see, 1 cent per resistor 5 cents for a capacitor, put it in a spreadsheet and add it up.
Easy, then multiply that by 2 or 3 or 4 or whatever. Hard part is how long does it take and what are you willing to work for in money / hour ?
Two hours of assembly, at 15 , 20 ,30 ,60 an hour ?  Add all that up. And here is where I missed the boat, is packaging. How long does that take ? What does the package cost, can't just put the stuff in a lunch bag (like I do) . Plus what else will be available for sale ? Fuzz X Fuzzy Y Compressor X19 ?
In my design end of the business, working to a fixed quote stinks, always ran over estimated time, mostly because of documentation. That should not take long right ? Not.
All of this has been fun for me, paid the bills.  Looking back if I were to have set up 10 lasers and went full blast I would have made more but other factors may not have been fun.
Well that is my 2 cents (or should I charge 3 ?)