How do you put a pedal into commercial production?

[EBK]

Man that sucks cause it has a charge pump!

I'm not seriously suggesting this, but the little devil sitting on my shoulder made me laugh by suggesting:

"Just goop it."

[shawnee]

  If it will save $1500...............

[madbean]

Another vote for selling direct. Set a budget for advertising and spend money on getting well known personalities doing youTube demos. Sometimes this will cost you a pedal. Some have a fixed fee. It's worth it if you get the right people. Get some heat on you before going to dealers (they may even come to you eventually). And, as already mentioned: start small. Put your best idea out there first. An ideal release schedule for pedals is somewhere around 4-6 month cycles. This gives you time to maintain stock levels on current products but also keeps your name/brand out there by putting something new out a couple times a year.

Also, you will get lots of people coming out of the woodwork trying to get free pedals for demos for their "new youTube site/blog", etc. Be polite but refuse. Spend the money and time where it counts.

[shawnee]

Thank you guys! I'm not 100% sure that I want to take this on but you have given me a lot to think about. I guess the first step would be creating a pcb with everything mounted directly to it. My current pedal has two boards with some components mounted on pots and such. Do you typically etch a single layer pcb yourself to test? What format is required to send the design to a pcb manufacturer?

[LaceSensor]

Im gonna add in something here which may have been mentioned but might not have been as I skimmed some responses:

When devising pricing for your product make sure to factor in

1 - lost in shipping (irrespective of insurance on shipping; you may have to wait for a claim)
2 - returns
3 - repairs
4 - charge a price where you actually make money at it (to cover your time, and 1-3 above)

Lastly, keep a stock of spare parts
I think if I were to ever embark on a proper batch production I would look to use footswitch boards with molex connectors, molex to PSU etc -
basically making things modular where possible, because it means if you ever need to repair something its easy to isolate, and plug and play to fix.

When I look at some of the smaller "boutique" people offering direct or via ebay and other channels stuff like fuzzes etc for £50 I struggle to understand where they make a good living at it.

I guess it depends if you endeavour for this to be a sole income source, or a hobby business, or something in between

[EBK]

4 - charge a price where you actually make money at it (to cover your time, and 1-3 above)

Precisely why I don't generally sell pedals.  I could easily charge a price that covers my costs, but if I value my time at anything reasonable over $0/hour, then I'd always be selling at a steep loss or pricing myself out of the market.

[midwayfair]

Pay your taxes. There is no amount of money you can make that will make it okay to fail to report it. If you aren't factoring taxes into your price, your price is wrong. If you don't know all the taxes you need to pay, you need to consider if you can afford a CPA or similar to advise you so that you pay the taxes. If you don't want to pay the CPA and you just want to wing it, don't complain at the end of the year if you owe more than you made.

Comply with laws regarding emissions. If you are using anything digital, any charge pumps, etc., you need to be worried. You can probably get away with it, but all you need to do is piss off the wrong person, who reports you, and then you get fined, and there is no amount of money you can make for a small run of pedals that will make the fine worth it.

If you're going to be a business, be a business and do the right business things. If you are just building them for fun, build them for fun and don't pretend you're a business when it suits you and pretend you're not when it hurts your bottom line.

Don't sell something that you wouldn't want your best friend stomping on at the most important gig of their life. If you don't trust it, don't let it out your door.

Don't deceive people, keep your word, don't bend the rules, and don't cut corners.

Finally, don't take actual business advice from people who don't like selling things or dislike dealing with money, like me.

heh.

[bsoncini]

I wish you the best of luck. There are tons of people out there doing the same thing.  But if you start out small I'm sure it'll work with friends and friends of friends. I sold a fuzz factory to a friend a year ago and since then I've built at least 10 for for others. No matter what pedals I show them. Everyone wants a fuzz factory. At least it's an easy pedal to build.  I basically charge people a little more than the cost of parts though if it's a friend. 

Just curious. What's the deal with the fcc and charge pumps?

[EBK]

Just curious. What's the deal with the fcc and charge pumps?

Anything that uses clock or timing pulses >9kHz.

[bsoncini]

Just curious. What's the deal with the fcc and charge pumps?

Anything that uses clock or timing pulses >9kHz.

Ok. You would think the fcc has better things to do than go after someone selling a few pedals such as the monopoly of radio/TV by a few select companies but I guess in the US anything's possible.

[culturejam]

Ok. You would think the fcc has better things to do than go after someone selling a few pedals such as the monopoly of radio/TV by a few select companies

They do.

[selfdestroyer]

Finally, don't take actual business advice from people who don't like selling things or dislike dealing with money, like me.
heh.

LOL I fall in this category also.

Wanted to say, there is some great info in this thread and it really makes you think about your selling decisions. Thanks everyone.

Cody

[shawnee]

Well thank you all for your input. After everything that has been brought up that I was totally clueless about, I think I am going to pass on this project.