My First Production Pedal?

Big Monk said:
Here’s the deal and I’m sure someone who’s been doing this for a while (@vigilante398) AND has a full time job could back me up:

1.) This won’t be my full time job. I’m trying to use the profits to invest in home stuff and projects, pay off cars, finish my student loans, etc. I can see how the exposure modeL works for full timers but even then, it seems this exposure completely swamps them and they end up with huge wait lists.

2.) As stated above, exposure can swamp you. It’s not a rare thing to see someone who gets on That Pedal Show and then is crying about working 16 hours a day trying to keep up.

I’m not giving things away for free and it’s not because I’m a curmudgeon. It’s because I have a carefully planned business launch and monthly build queue lined up and I don’t need the exposure because I make my living at my day job.
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When I was first ramping up I had a guy explain that he had a website where he did reviews of pedals and that he's kind of if a big deal. He was all but asking for a free pedal. I gave him a 10% discount. He did write a review though, and it ended up generating a lot of sales for me. I've sent him a couple pedals free-of-charge with the understanding that he would write a review and then send it back. He has asked to keep one pedal because he enjoyed it so much, and I agreed because he has helped me a lot because his niche as a reasonably well-known reviewer lined up with my niche as a builder (tube preamps for bass) and he has helped turn people on to my pedals.

Outside of that guy I have had others ask for free pedals, and I explain that I don't do that because I'm a one-man shop doing everything myself, and on top of that I feel like my prices are pretty reasonable for the product I'm offering.

This is also not my full time job and I doubt it ever will be, but in 2022 my gross income from pedal sales was about 2/3 what I made at my day job, which is nice. My day job gives me benefits and a reliable income, and affords me the free time to pursue my hobby, which pays for itself and gives some extra cash for fun stuff.

Pedals will never make me rich, but I feel like I have a pretty good life.
 
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2.) As stated above, exposure can swamp you. It’s not a rare thing to see someone who gets on That Pedal Show and then is crying about working 16 hours a day trying to keep up.
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Man, whoever is complaining about sitting at home and making guitar pedals is being a HUGE baby! I'd kill to have that life. I worked 7 days a week for over 3 year, now that's draining. I get that could become quite monotonous, but there are WAY worse jobs than sitting at home with my dogs, listening to music, and soldering the same wires over and over again.
 
This is also not my full time job and I doubt it ever will be, but in 2022 my gross income from pedal sales was about 2/3 what I made at my day job, which is nice. My day job gives me benefits and a reliable income, and affords me the free time to pursue my hobby, which pays for itself and gives some extra cash for fun stuff.
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You're a smart guy
 
Tons of great information in this thread. I wanted to toss in a few other things that I've experienced from being involved with a decent amount of small businesses as they've started even though none of those have been pedal related. Although with the quick note some of this might be looking far too forward, but it never hurts to know!
  • Lawyers are as important as accountants when it comes to paying less in taxes. It's never too early to meet with either. The way you formally structure your enterprise (even the state that it is registered in, too) has a giant impact on what Uncle Sam takes, and that kind of advice is sometimes outside of the purview of accountants, especially the tier of them that I would, personally, end up going to when starting a small business. This is also especially important if you're close to being bumped into a higher income tax bracket.
  • When doing the math of your own hourly pay, don't forget to factor in customer service. Every email, question about shipping options, return, etc, takes up time that needs to be valued. It is also one of the cheaper roles to outsource early on.
  • You eventually might qualify for small business grants and tax credits on the state and city level. They're worth taking advantage of so long as they're not more work than it's worth to apply for them.
  • Cover your IP bases eventually. Not meaning circuitry here, but trademarks. You might think, "who cares?" but trademarks are as much a protection against being sued from other parties for infringement as they are a way to make sure you're not being imitated. The former is more valuable most of the time for small outfits.
  • Make sure your web presence follows standard accessibility guidelines. Small businesses are an increasing party in these kinds of lawsuits because settling can be cheaper than getting representation. I personally believe it is also the right thing to do, but judgement out of the picture: it is a very easy and very cheap problem to avoid.
 
This thread is very useful, thanks for all the advice and experiences shared so far.

I just finished building a very small first batch of pedals for a local guitar shop to carry (delivering them this weekend!), but I have been daydreaming about what if things go well and scaling thing up just a bit.

I guess this would be a question for a lawyer - but maybe someone here knows; at what point should consumer testing (or whatever it is called for the 'C E' symbol) be done? I'm assuming you would need to be moving a lot of units to justify the cost of testing or certifications, but I have no idea.

If there are any technical tips that would not occur to a hobbyist (like don't use leaded solder in production builds) at least I would find those useful too in addition to the business side tips.
 
sonic_explorer said:
This thread is very useful, thanks for all the advice and experiences shared so far.

I just finished building a very small first batch of pedals for a local guitar shop to carry (delivering them this weekend!), but I have been daydreaming about what if things go well and scaling thing up just a bit.

I guess this would be a question for a lawyer - but maybe someone here knows; at what point should consumer testing (or whatever it is called for the 'C E' symbol) be done? I'm assuming you would need to be moving a lot of units to justify the cost of testing or certifications, but I have no idea.

If there are any technical tips that would not occur to a hobbyist (like don't use leaded solder in production builds) at least I would find those useful too in addition to the business side tips.
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Location? Things are very different in the EU.
 
yazooligan said:
I’ve been building for a few years now, and after finding some circuits I really love and receiving some interest from some local shops, I’ve decided to take the dive into producing my first small run (50 to 100 units) pedal for wide sale. I’d like some advice in this arena since while building isn’t new to me, starting a business is and I want to make the most of it.

I’ve had an idea for a pedal that nails a certain era of tones for a few years now, and I think I’ve landed on a circuit to make my own to get there. I’ve reached out to someone who does PCB design to provide me with Gerber files from my schematic, and I have a control layout and some artwork designs in mind. I also feel like I have a good angle for marketing this pedal but I guess we’ll see, lol.

Anyway, just thought I’d ask for any suggestions or advice from those of you who have been down this road.

Thanks, folks!
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Don't ask Bill Finnegan for advice?
 
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