Sell maybe $1k/mo of these through the website and another $3k through Amazon at a margin of around 50%.
The biggest things that I see a lot of people get wrong in the hardware business is the importance of manufacturing and logistics. It doesn't matter that you're constantly producing new and improved revisions of your board if you're out of stock all the time and overseas customers have to pay extra for shipping.
This literally made me say "WTF?!" when I went to the page.
I think you're burying the lede here. It's only $29 inc worldwide shipping! WTAF, that's awesome.
I'll be ordering one as soon as Christmas is out of the way.
Any plans to add an EU or UK distribution point? I'm prepared to wait the 2-3 weeks for free UK shipping tbh, but if you're adding more local distribution early next year I'd hold on.
Oh yeah, thanks for pointing that out. The one time I'm not in a shilly mood (Christmas and all) and the post actually gets interaction. Murphy's Law!
>Any plans to add an EU or UK distribution point?
Sorta kinda maybe. I did have one, but a whole lot of VAT compliance bullshit caught up with me. In most countries, GST/VAT is handled automatically by large eCommerce platforms (if you sell something on eBay to an Aussie, for example, we'll pay 10% GST regardless of the item's physical location and the seller won't even necessarily know).
However, the EU requires every single individual business with any stock located on EU soil to register and file individually in every single country where the stock is distributed regardless of revenue. I can only assume this is to create jobs for bureaucrats.
Now that Brexit has happened and the UK's laws have changed to something sane, I'll probably get something set up over there. This will be months, though. Trying to set up a (different) startup while raising a small child means a lot of Espotek stuff gets pushed to the side!
> Now that Brexit has happened and the UK's laws have changed to something sane
Interesting perspective - in the main everything around international trade got a whole lot more complicated for us here in the UK since leaving the EU.
VAT is just as complicated as it used to be, especially if you sell into Northern Ireland. The only thing that improved is we don't have to do those bloody EU sales lists.
> However, the EU requires every single individual business with any stock located on EU soil to register and file individually in every single country where the stock is distributed regardless of revenue. I can only assume this is to create jobs for bureaucrats.
You've just misunderstood what EU was it's not a . You have to file individually in every country because they are individual countries: you wouldn't expect to file for VAT also once for all Asia, would you?
Yeah, I might have read the parent comment, thought "oh neat, good on ya", and not thought more of it if you hadn't pointed out that it's $29. Also it has open source software! Which runs on Linux! I had to order one just now for the funs and learnings.
Good job AussieWog93, and all the best to your business!
The logistics are covered by a mixture of Amazon FBA (USA/Canada) and a Chinese 3PL company (all other countries). The only orders I handle myself are the Aussie ones, as well as large orders to overseas universities.
I try to keep at least 6 months' work of stock at any time spread across multiple locations. Given the way social media and online communities work, sales tend to be very bursty. When it got on Hackaday, for example, I sold something like $12k worth in a weekend.
I did run into issues at the start of COVID, as American universities would place huge orders or ask 100+ students to do it individually, but we're now robust to this too!
In terms of manufacturing, this is also outsourced. Full PCBAs are made by a group in Shenzhen. The only work done in-house is packaging them. Combined with the above, this makes the chain immune from the Slashdot effect. If (when) we go viral, I just fulfil every order remotely and then replenish the stock with a large order.
Specifically a USB Oscilloscope:
https://espotek.com/labrador
Sell maybe $1k/mo of these through the website and another $3k through Amazon at a margin of around 50%.
The biggest things that I see a lot of people get wrong in the hardware business is the importance of manufacturing and logistics. It doesn't matter that you're constantly producing new and improved revisions of your board if you're out of stock all the time and overseas customers have to pay extra for shipping.