Entrepreneurial Idea: Feedback wanted

[dirtybryan]

Sort of came to mind while I was (am) studying for a calculus midterm. give me some input.

I know they sell practice beacons to search for, for about $100 or more if I recall. I'm thinking about designing and maybe making a few practice units. Having not designed the circuitry yet or looked at component pricing (but after building some guitar pedals and repairing some fancy guitar amps) I think I could produce a unit to sell for no more then $60. I mean it would be pretty simple design.

Thoughts? Would you want one?

[VC]

For 20 bucks or so I get one, 60 probably not. Although I must say it is a good idea.

[72Twenty]

I've seen one that sold for around $20... it was intended for putting on your dog. A transmit only. I saw it in a store like 10 years ago though.

[cj001f]

I'm sure you could make one and sell it for that.

The reason the current ones sell for $100 (or $75 for the Powder Pieps) is probably because the market for a $50 practice beacon is <2x the market for a $100 practice beacon. The people who are interested in practicing are willing to spend that much money - the people who aren't interested won't be interested unless it's $10 and packaged with their beacon.

[Evmo]

When you say you could sell it for $60, does that include making any money off the sale, or is that just your cost?

[dirtybryan]

I'm sure you could make one and sell it for that.

The reason the current ones sell for $100 (or $75 for the Powder Pieps) is probably because the market for a $50 practice beacon is <2x the market for a $100 practice beacon. The people who are interested in practicing are willing to spend that much money - the people who aren't interested won't be interested unless it's $10 and packaged with their beacon.

Yea I can definitely see that, but maybe at the price point I envision, hopefully they would buy two $60 units instead of one $100 unit with the advantage of practicing multiple burial search.

[dirtybryan]

When you say you could sell it for $60, does that include making any money off the sale, or is that just your cost?

I'm just estimating, but from building guitar pedals, a decent enclosure usually was a third of the cost. Being that this device is basically a single frequency transmitter that is either on or off. I imagine it would be much more simple. I mean basically it would be a switch, led, battery, enclosure, frequency generator, amplifier, and antenna. Of course that is he over simplified version.

But basically, after I paid off the cost of some tools (a few drill bits and supplies to etch a circuit board), yes I could make a little bit of money. Depending on how much in bulk I order stuff, maybe 10 to 20 bucks. But again, I still have yet to design anything, or open a parts catalogue.