How to determine if your Engineering talent is business worthy 1

[Higgler]

I am an antenna designer, and a I've been toying with antenna ideas such as improving cell phone reception in your house with a simple antenna add-on, etc.

How's does one go about gaging market interest?
Should I start a website with advertised products and measured data or contact a commercial antenna manufacturer and inquire about adding to their product line?
Is selling antennas as a small company on Ebay viable and do I advertise first and build later?

Kevin

 

[RDK]

There are most likely as many different ways to start a business, as there are businesses.

If you must start small then make some product and sell it locally and by word of mouth, you can try the web sales method but now that takes some capital or talent to set up an on line order site get registered with a credit card company to take on line cards etc.

There are some sites that will host your on line store including giving you some pre-packaged web sites complete with check out carts etc. These get pricy because they charge a % of sales but they may be a good place to start.

The danger with web-based sales is that you might grow too fast. While this might sound good, the danger is that you will not be able to ship as many orders as you get and lose sales, reputation, and lawsuits. Not a good thing.

You will need other advice legal, accounting, tax etc. Check out the US small business administration site

http://www.sba.gov

for a lot of good info. Much is US specific but much can be applied to other countries as well.


Rick Kitson MBA P.Eng

Construction Project Management
From conception to completion

http://www.kitsonengineering.com