Establishing myself...

[mnordbye]

I'm in the thinking/preparing process of starting a little one man company, if you could call it that. I will have 2 standard models(pedals of course ) and maybe offer them as kits as well. But before i head down that road, i want to ask you guys some advice. I think there's more than one of you who already are doing the same, or been thinking of it.

Well, any of you have some general advice for me?

Also, any advice on legal subjects? Allthough this can be a bit hard to answer, since we all live in different countries, with different rules.

Thanks in advance.
Magnus Nordbye

[theehman]

Rule 1)  Standardize.  Use the same parts in each pedal as much as possible.  Use a standard drilling for all or most of the holes in the chassis.  You'll find that saves a lot of time.
Rule 2) Determine what parts you use the most and buy them in larger quantities.  You'll not only have a good supply but you'll save money in the long run.

Other rules as I think of them.

[Krinor]

I guess you are located in Norway? I am in my first year of business myself and I have one advise for you: save yourself the hassle of even trying to sell pedals outside of Norway! The extreme postal rate for sending a single pedal to a foreign country eats up a large amount of your income. The prices start at Nok 240 and in addition you have to pay extra for the weight. I recently sent two pedals to the states and it cost Nok 330. Thats about $66. So unless you plan to sell your pedals dirt cheap I suggest you concentrate most of your efforts on the home market. I'm not trying to seem pessimistic here, I'm just being realistic. Our postal rates are, besides France, probably the highest on the planet.

[axg20202]

You should search for this on the forum - it comes up a lot. Even though I've never tried to do this for living myself, best tip I could offer, without trying to sound negative/defeatist, is don't expect to make a living from it. Harsh, but probably true. It is very difficult to make a living from building and selling your own effects. Larger companies make their money from economies of scale - they make thousands of units, so can order parts very cheaply in bulk. They also use cheap labour to put them together. If you're building them yourself, you could argue that the labour is free, but this isn't true at all - you have to eat, I imagine.

Sit down and do the sums, put together a proper business plan and project what your likely turnover and profit might be, taking into account your overheads and other outgoings, and see if it all adds up to make financial sense. Obviously, you will also have to take into account any setup costs, space rental, new equipment needs etc, which might well mean having to make enough money to turn a profit at the same time as repaying a business development loan, paying rent, bills etc etc.

You will also need to do at least some basic market research. There are lots of pedal builders out there struggling to make ends meet by selling to what is a small proportion of guitar players - most people buy mass-produced kit. Therefore, you have to have an edge of some kind, be it novel circuits, funkier design, some kind of functionality that nobody else offers. If your pedals don't offer anything new, then you are setting yourself up for a fall right away.

Failing to plan is planning to fail, as someone once said.

For the legal/moral aspects of using other people's designs for profit, see previous posts. There are many. In summary, you shouldn't. In reality, people do.

[mnordbye]

I'm not gonna do this for a living (unless some guy orders 500 pieces of some sort  ), so it's more like doing my pedal-building hobby, but being able to develop and sell some to others. You can say it could be an extra income of some sort.

Shipping rates in Norway are insane, yes. But if i get a customer outside of this remote country, who's willing to pay the costs, of course i'll ship. But one thing at the time, working on the home market.

About copying others work. I really don't think much good about the cloners, unless they're only into the artistic and exterior part of pedals, which would be rather strange. The 2 designs i will begin with will be 2 of my own creations. I've already done a booster (have to learn eagle soon!), and the other a simple fuzz or smooth overdrive. Something unusual, but still something the man (guitarist?) in the street could use.

Thanks for all the advice so far! Keep 'em coming!

Magnus Nordbye

[axg20202]

In that case, more power to ya!

Agree with the comments above on consistency of output. Also, take nothing for granted with parts. If you buy bulk of something and, when ordering more, you are forced to buy a different but equivalent part, be sure to test it fully in the circuit. A good thing to do would be to get some free samples from a bulk supplier and then use them for parts orders. You can save a lot of money by using bulk components dealers rather than on-line retailers. You just need to find one that is willing to sell the parts you need in low quantities (hundreds).

The only other legal thing I can think of that might be important in selling to European customers, which you will be, is the possible need to be RoHS compliant, but I don't think anyone's going to start knocking on your door about it if you're selling 20 pedals a year to private customers.

[mnordbye]

I've been thinking about the RoHS thing too. Guess i have to sit down and write a "before-starting" plan. Preparation is a key factor!

Magnus Nordbye

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

Anyone producing a number of the same pedal, should keep a 'reference' pedal so you can easily compare voltages when one doesn't sound right.

If there are any crucial components (like coils or unbuffered logic used in a linear way) it's good if you have a test unit that you can swap parts into, in case the new batch of CD4046 have a slightly different operating range.

[caress]

Anyone producing a number of the same pedal, should keep a 'reference' pedal so you can easily compare voltages when one doesn't sound right.

If there are any crucial components (like coils or unbuffered logic used in a linear way) it's good if you have a test unit that you can swap parts into, in case the new batch of CD4046 have a slightly different operating range.

this is GREAT advice...

[earthtonesaudio]

I did this as soon as I built my first pedal.  Yes, I was a solder jockey, or at least I tried to be.  I put up a web site and put some pedals in one store locally.  I haven't really tried in earnest to make money at it yet, so I don't have much advice on the business side.  But I remember what Craig Anderton wrote in his book about making a career out of it, something like, "work two jobs, do whatever it takes but do something, and don't expect things to really get going until after ten years of hard work." 

+1 to the advice about standardization and keeping a calibration pedal on hand.

As for the legal/ethical stuff, there are 3 areas (I think) that you need to consider:
Patents: probably not, since most stompbox stuff is from the dark ages and the patents have long since expired.  But a patent search couldn't hurt.
Trademarks: don't call your pedal a "Fuzz Facktorie" or a "Toob Screamer" ...be creative.
Copyrights: don't use someone else's artwork (pcb layout, etc) without their permission, in writing, signed and notarized.

Good luck!
-Alex

[solderman]

Hi Magnus

I've read you're wishing to become a boutique pedal manufacturer. I don't want to shred your dreams but I agree with the others that this is a "do and die" business. But I have an idée on how you could earn money from your hobby. If you, as you say, have actually made your own constructions then you probably have more knowledge in low voltage analog audio designing than most. So earn money by spreading you're knowledge to the ever growing DIY stomp box cooking community instead of on you're soldering labor. Here's what you should do:

1. Start an education company that gives evening courses in effect design and building.

2 put together a plan for a 2-4 times 2hours lessen (over 2-4 weeks) evening course and charge $150 a pp and say you can have a 15 pp class. That will earn you $2250 for aprox 12 hours work, not that bad. Of cause you have to throw in some starting hours to make and copy some studying material and planning but that goes for all enterprising.

If you also put together a couple of pedal kits and sell them as mandatory practicing material (self cost as you advertise) with all components and pre drilled enclosures and all, and if you by the stuff in reasonable big quantities you should be able to do 50% on the material. Lets say you put together a two knob distortion and sell it for $40 (the same type of kit at generalguitargadgets is around $50) you will do about $20 times 15 witch gives you an additional $300 on this sale. You have just earned yore self $2550 on aprox 40h of work. That's about $64 an hour. Not bad ehy for a hobby

Of course you have to chip in some starting money for baying 15 sets of soldering irons, pliers and cutters etc. and rent a classroom but that's a deductible cost in the book keeping. :-)

The upside is that you can pack your gear in a bag get your but on a flight to Los Angeles and conduct courses there too and, that way, work your self around the globe as a traveling stomp box designer/manufacturer teacher. Who knows, maybe some day you'll be as famous as Aron, R.G, and the other giants.

Keep up and let us know when you plan a course on Bali or the Samoa isles, I'll book one then.

Keep on building
Solderman

Ps. There is a company in Sweden (www.moodysounds.se) that operates in a similar way. If you are from Norway you will of cause be able to read the "odd Wiking thug" on the site.

[soulsonic]

My only advice is that you build a high-quality product at a reasonable price. Don't rip people off with cheap junk. Look at the bad examples set by the other boutique companies and make sure you do better than them. I think the whole boutique industry should have higher standards for quality.
If it's no better than a Boss pedal, then what's the point in doing it?!
Build stuff that's unique and valuable! Have the value come from quality and not from hype. And not just sound quality either - anyone can build something that sounds good - you must compete for overall quality. To me, craftsmanship should be the main selling point of a boutique product.