{"id":3318,"date":"2014-06-07T11:45:52","date_gmt":"2014-06-07T17:45:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ramblindan.org\/?p=3318"},"modified":"2014-06-07T11:45:52","modified_gmt":"2014-06-07T17:45:52","slug":"no-fun-breaking-the-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ramblindan.org\/?p=3318","title":{"rendered":"No FUN, Breaking the Rules?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"breakrules\"<\/a>I broke my own business rule and decided to invest time and money into \u201cme too\u201d products in my The Hobbyist Machine Store<\/a>.\u00a0 A \u201cme too\u201d product is a non proprietary item purchased at dealer discount and then offered for sale near the retail \u201cstreet\u201d price which is always less than the factory price.<\/p>\n

The problem is I am just one of many other \u201cdealers\u201d, including the factory that sells the exact same product. So that makes me a \u201cme too\u201d dealer. Where is the \u201cfun\u201d in that?<\/em><\/p>\n

If you have ever watched \u201cThe Shark Tank<\/a>\u201d, a TV program where very small businesses try to convince business \u201csharks\u201d to invest money in their product and company, I don\u2019t even qualify for a first interview. My problem is I don\u2019t offer anything (as a product) that is truly unique.<\/p>\n

Every successful entrepreneur has an idea or a new product that they totally control. They start small and grow because they have control of both the supply and sales side. A \u201cme too\u2019\u201d doesn’t have that ability.<\/p>\n

So I am literally paying the price<\/em><\/strong> for breaking my own business rule. I should be advertising my business and not other people’s products, but my present business plan is to offer the same products which are available from many other sources. I have limited \u201cvalue added\u201d that I can provide.<\/p>\n

I sell mostly small items (bits and pieces) for low profit with a lot of administration time and cost. I really don’t have a good business plan as far as product choice. Bigger ticket (more costly) items help but are slow moving in a hobbyist market. Price really drives the decision making of the hobbyist customer. I offered a quality lathe for several years in the +$2K range and sold less than a half dozen per year. Not worth stocking.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time for me to make a change. I feel I am not on the right track. Pure retail resale works very well for large well stocked and multiple product line retail stores. I don\u2019t have enough items and variety to really make a profit in reselling standard products. I am not having a lot of fun either…<\/p>\n

The door will stay open for awhile longer on The Hobbyist Machine Store<\/span>. I am presently promoting a large ticket item of around $1K in price. It is a Taig CNC micro-milling machine. The only value added service I can provide is to have them in stock. Taig (factory) doesn’t stock inventory so drop shipments are notoriously slow.<\/p>\n

But I can’t afford to tie up cash resources in a slow moving high cost item until I can determine demand. I am in a bit of a \u201ccatch 22<\/a>\u201d with a fickle retail market. I am unwilling to make a big cash investment until I can prove there is a fast moving market.<\/p>\n

So I am now taking initial steps to move my business efforts to a small creative manufacturing operation using the machines, tools and assets in which I have already invested within my workshop.<\/p>\n

I want to become more creative and produce items of lasting value that are totally my efforts. No more selling \u201cme too\u201d price fixed merchandise. Custom and one of a kind feels like an enjoyable plan to me. No plan to become a zillionair, just a plan to enjoy what I like and put the fun back into what I do<\/em>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I broke my own business rule and decided to invest time and money into \u201cme too\u201d products in my The Hobbyist Machine Store.\u00a0 A \u201cme too\u201d product is a non proprietary item purchased at dealer discount and then offered for sale near the retail \u201cstreet\u201d price which is always less than the factory price. The problem is I am just one of many other \u201cdealers\u201d, including the factory that sells the exact same product. So...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[147],"class_list":["post-3318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-thmstore","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ramblindan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ramblindan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ramblindan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ramblindan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ramblindan.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ramblindan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3318\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ramblindan.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ramblindan.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ramblindan.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}