designers and percentages

Re: [spiers] When working with designer how do you establish a percentage on a product.


>
>
> << I am a student of your from years ago............I have your book,
> I also
> have a successful
>
> online business.Â
>
> ***Seriously, how do you define success... and everyone is keen on
> how to
> make the internet pay...any tips?***

I would define successful in that we make about 360,000 gross a year
with myself and my partner, bought a view home in Seattle in the last 9
months, do this full time and have a family member ship for us part
time. My partner and I started making adapters for the Kodak DC265
digital camera about 5 years ago after a friend bought a camera and
could not attach lenses or filters to the camera. We came up with a
prototype, took a photo and ask if anyone would be interested on a
large camera forum - they were very interested. So we hired a
machinist locally here in Seattle and put up a website. The key was we
had a unique item that we would sell around - meaning we added
filters, lenses, basic camera accessories as our customers wanted to
buy products all in one place.

It was tough going in the beginning because we had lots of customers
but did not have any credit, (we were artists and poor) at least not
enough to take credit cards online..........so we did PayPal and checks
for several years, now we are able to take credit cards from all over
the world.

We do not pay any advertising costs, we have no ads on our
website..............all our customers are by word of mouth due to
camera forums. We did not think this up or plan it, it just happened
this way..........

It has become much more competitive in the past 2 years, but have been
able to stay ahead of the competition by improving the product and
staying in a field where customers are more and more discerning in what
goes on their $800.00 cameras - our customers are 99.9% male, newbies
and more professional camera types.

Since the adapter is very simple in design, we have been focusing on
the finishes, matching them to the camera bodies, we are trying to
branch out into other camera related products we see missing in the
market. Since we already have a customer base we can introduce new
items or have old customers try a new prototype and tell us what they
think.

So I would say find a niche market in an area you already have an
interest in - forums are an excellent place to find people complaining
about how things don't work or what they would like to see made.
Improve products that already exist, or use materials from one field of
interest and apply them to an unrelated area. We have an old customer
who is a dentist who is using a new tiny digital camera to take
pictures of his patients teeth at $200.00 rather than the old equipment
usually used by dentists at $800.00. He has had so many dentist
friends say can you set me up? I am not sure what to buy and how to
take the pictures. So he quit is job and sells packages and gives
seminars to other dentists.........all over the US.

One of the latest success stories in our area of digital photography is
a guy who made a lens that makes a photo have the effect of Vaseline on
the glass, though he has improved it by allowing the user to move the
center or sweet spot to anywhere in the frame. Years ago this was all
the rage with photographers, but he came out with this about 9 months
ago and it is all over the web, in the latest photography magazines.
..........and that is all he makes, it is called the "Lens
Baby".

Craig invented the Lensbabies Flexible Lens Mounting System (Patent
Pending) in an effort to replace his Holgaâ„¢ film camera with its
digital equivalent. After getting enthusiastic feedback from fellow
photographers longing to create unique imagery for their clients, Craig
decided to make Lensbabies available to everyone.
http://www.lensbabies.com/
>
> >>
> ***This is in essence a royalty, the more you sell the more he
> makes...Â
> check the trade journals., do a search on infotrak in the library to
> find the
> royalty rate paid in your field... check the USPTO.gov and ask
> designers of
> similar items what they would expect o get paid...also, consider
> having the
> designer own any patetns, etc on this item, and he licenses you...
> the idea being you
> get teh custoemrs, the designer has to worry about any legal
> liability on IP
> infringement...make sure the indians agree to sell your product all
> over the
> world and they pay YOU a royalty too!***

Thank you for your suggestions we will look into the rate paid in our
field.

I thought you said patents were not the way to go, they are very
expensive, and in the camera field it moves so quickly anyone can
upgrade a product.........but................. I see that the
"Lensbaby" guy in the story above mentions "patent pending"............

Right now our adapters are made in the US, anything we design and have
our Indian vendor make they will make exclusively for us at .20 extra a
part, I don"t think it would behoove us to let them sell to our
competitors, the way we make money now it to make the product and sell
retail. If we are able to pull off this new product we were hoping to
become a wholesaler of the specialty item in the US and Overseas.

I am not sure what you mean by "the designer has to worry about any
legal liability on IP infringements" I don't know what IP
is..............

Best regards, Susan

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