Limor Fried
Adafruit Industries
limor@ladyada.net
Phillip Torrone
Senior Editor, MAKE Magazine
pt@makezine.com

1. Your skillset:
I assume you can do something that can be turned into a
product or service.
It should be something you are creative, driven and skilled at.
Your friends will probably be able to tell you what that is.
Get some ideas at Maker Faire!

2. Brand-name:
You’ll need something that will be your ‘brandname.’
This will make it easy to identify your stuff, and differentiate it
from others.
It can be your name, “Kip Kay” “Ben Heck”
It can be your handle, nickname, etc.
It can be a ‘made up’ word, “Make” “Sparkfun” “Buglabs”
Pick something unique, use google, USPTO search, etc.

3. Register:
You picked something good in step 2, so make it stick:
• Register domain names - all of them (.net/.com/.org) - $50
• Register a trademark (if you want, its not necessary) - $200
• Register your business with a DBA -$40
You don’t need to LLC/Incorporate yet.

4. Bizwork:
Open a bank account under your DBA name (get free checking)
Get a credit card under the DBA. If you have good credit, get
one with rewards
Business cards, simple black & white - $50
Go to the library and read all relevant Nolo books

5. Input/Output:
Get a digital camera, bright lightbulbs, diffuse gels, tripod.
Make a softbox and learn a little photo editing so that you can
take photos that don’t suck. $50 in lights == $500 in camera.
Get a laser printer: Do not use an inkjet. Do not use an “all in
one”. Craigslist a HP Laserjet 4 ($25)

6. Make stuff:
Get creative. Make many things.
Some will be great. Some will be awful.
Take nice ‘in progress’ photos
Get like 3 projects you aren’t ashamed of.
Charge everything to the card and keep your receipts.

7. Take Photos:
Spend many hours taking photos, take at least 25 photos of
each project and choose 5. Then of that choose 1.
• Don’t take pictures of a circuit board.
• Take ‘action shots’ - sell the application, not the platform.
• Take ‘in use’ video clips.
• This is a demo, so lie.
• Use those lights you bought in step 5, for chrissake

8. Document:
Get a website up. You can use free sites such as blogger, google
pages, wordpress, livejournal, etc. and redirect with your domain
names. Or spend $10/mo.
Front page: short and sweet. 1 photo, 1 paragraph, 3-10 bullets
Remaining pages: more photos, longer/technical discussion.
Steal website ideas from other people, I sure did! (& so did they)
Documentation takes a long time, but it will pay off. Spend days.

9. Make a home:
Fill out your site with information about you, what you like and
what you do.
Tell the story but don’t get all resume-y
Pictures of previous projects
Most importantly, make sure you are contactable and available
to make/sell the project
If you’re feeling ambitious, a ‘store’ page with buy-now buttons

10. Publish:
Once you have something to show, its time to tell people
Post to related forums you frequent
Email blogs that cover similar projects

11. Feedback:
Follow up on the publications and press from the previous step.
If you got bad feedback, try to figure out what to improve (but
don’t take it personally)
If you got no feedback, keep going
If you got good feedback, you’re on the right track
Rinse & repeat, 3 or so times
Keep track of the projects people have contacted you about

12. Revise & Price:
Pick one project, revise and simplify it as necessary.
Tally up the materials (raw cost) for 25-100, multiply by 1.66
(wholesale cost), multiply by 1.66 (retail cost). If you don’t do
that, you’ll end up in trouble later when you can’t resell.
Don’t do people a favor and undersell, because you will lose
money. Try to pick a project that you can sell for $25-$75 to start
Now try to sell it! Use paypal for now

13. Use technology
Use flickr to host photos, S3 to store large datafiles, YouTube
and other video sites, online document management, mail
accounts, online webshops, etc.
Ship using USPS click-n-ship (priority & express) and/or online
UPS/FedEx. Get pickups so you’re not going to the post office.

14. Support
Create a support network for your customers.
A blog, mailing list, FAQ, forums
Update documentation to reduce your support load
Have many examples, demos, step-by-steps, tutorials
Nobody does this, because they are lazy and get bored.

15. Rinse Repeat:
Make new projects, with a range of prices
Avoid stagnation, boredom, and burnout with variation
Once you have a steady stream of income, you can hire help,
buy equipment, incorporate, rent space, upgrade shipping
system, getting an accountant...