Quote:
Originally Posted by mossbacked
The strange twist to all of this is I am acting as a "middle-man mentor" to the product inventor, who is a close friend, and who's now moving into a more entrepreneurial phase of his life. My role here actually will not encompass production, but the marketing function, but I'm trying to look out for him there as I have a little production experience plus the mentor I visited.
At any rate, using himself and his family, my friend believes he can produce cheaply. So I asked him if he was OK when the first 100 orders came in? He answered yes. The first 500? Yes. The first thousand?
And there I could see he was stumped because he knew that was his ramp up point where he would need to pay, train and manage others to produce.
We went through the exercise of estimating what that would cost and he realized then and there he had been pricing himself too cheaply (almost at zero). Additionally, he's reluctant to put a cost on himself if he is only managing and not hands-on producing (an error many new business owners make).
So, he's still going to forge ahead and I'm still going to do what may turn out to be some pro bono marketing work. I can't help myself because first, he's a close friend, and second, the thrill of bringing something new to market is like pure adrenaline to me!
I don't know if it's against forum policy, but I will post a link if allowed when we roll out.
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I hope you do post a link as you've piqued my curiosity. I also wish your friend and yourself the best of luck.
I can also appreciate the enjoyment you derive from bring a new product to market. Developing the better mouse trap and then closing the deal is the fun part. And the more challenging the mouse trap is, the more fun it is.
Chas