On Tue, 5 Dec 2006 19:24:51 +0100, Wouter van Ooijen wrote:
>> The point is I don't think there is a way that a for-profit
>> commercial venture can provide a hobbyist programmer. This is why
>> you only see hobby programmers out there produced by other
>> hobbyists.
>>
> I am not sure those boundaries are realy sharp, just as the
> boundaries between hobbyist and professional are blurring (even
> when you apply the (IMHO only correct) definition 'a professional
> earns his living doing that work'). How would you classify my
> Wisp628? I certainly do make a profit on these things, and I do
> earn (half of) a living selling stuff. Also note that at least one
> customer bought a bunch (~ 32) Wisp628's to build a production rig.
> This was some years ago, the last message from him was that he had
> succeeded and the rig was shipped to the far east for production
> work.

I think what Olin means is the math just doesn't work out for a
product like a hobbyist programmer as a viable way to make a living.

As an illustration:

1. Add up all the sales you've made of your Wisp628 programmer since
day 1. Subtract from that all your real costs (parts, assembly labor,
shipping, returns/refunds, taxes, etc.). These are the real cash
amounts you make/lose in building the units. It's a rough gross
margin number.

2. Now add up every single hour you've ever spent on the hardware
design, software design, documentation for the end user and
production, answering production questions, technical support (both
online/forums and direct emails/calls from customers).

3. Now take #1 and divide it by #2. That would give you a rough gross
hourly rate. I suspect most people would be fairly shocked at how low
the hourly rate will be.

If you're going to try and live on this income you also have to
subtract you other taxes, office expenses and other overhead. So you
really won't even have #3, when all is said and done.

For a hobbyist, this isn't a big deal. After all, you're doing it
because you like it and you have more time than money (or you are
independently wealthy and don't care about the money) ;-)

For me, as a professional consultant it is a big deal. My time is
always in short supply so I have to choose carefully where to spend
it. If I can't recoup the up-front engineering and production setup
costs, plus sustain an equivalent hourly rate of at least $50/hr. in
the margin of the ongoing sales then the product isn't even worth
considering for me. I simply will not make enough money and I can
make more doing other products or consulting work at a much higher
rate.

Matt Pobursky
Maximum Performance Systems

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