The results of five years of life in the style of electronics freelance. Last autumn?
In the last article devoted to choosing a comfortable habitat for such a rare beast in our area as an electronic engineer as a freelancer, I promised to consecrate the main issues of my activity - to tell about how to look for clients, where they live, and finally, how to communicate with them. Not all my experience is positive, a very good start was followed by a recession, but error analysis is sometimes more important than reading a success story. Clever prefer to learn from the mistakes of others.
Last autumn?
Frankly, I hesitated for a long time how to proceed - to illustrate my recommendations and advice with examples from personal experience, or to limit myself to listing them with short comments. Without making a choice, I decided to immediately write two articles and lay them out one by one, with a difference of a day. This tells about my experience with examples that I accompany with comments. If you have little time and you are more interested in brief, substantive conclusions and specific recommendations, please do not waste time on my today's opus, but read my next article, which I specifically publish simultaneously with this one .
Of course, one could simply make a dry squeeze from useful recommendations, but I think that they will be more easily perceived if they are supported by a story about my personal personal experience. Real events are perceived easier than on dry lines.
In this post I tried as an experiment to align the photos to the width of the text. I hope this experiment will not cause rejection in the habrasoobschestve.
Almost any Moscow electronics engineer after long daily trips to the capital and back, who devour 3-4 hours of personal time a day, raises the question: “Why don't I do similar work at home?” Unfortunately, the electronics engineer is much more difficult to do than to the programmer.
')
In addition to a computer for more or less serious work, at least a number of instruments are still needed - a tester, a soldering station, a laboratory power supply and an oscilloscope. In addition, somewhere you need to store numerous tools, hardware, lenses with glasses, reagents, components, sets of widely used parts such as resistors and capacitors, and a bunch of other things.
Set a minimum for my case.
It’s good to have at least a minimum of tools for machining - a drill machine and a drill. If you live alone, you can equip the workshop in the corner of your room. A large table, a cabinet, and several bookshelves stacked on top of each other are enough. If you cannot do without a separate room with your family, well, it is better to equip a full hood, especially if you have a child. Those who have already been frightened by such a prospect, can no longer be read, others may be interested to find out how, with such a collection of junk, you can earn money.
It was like this - since 2006, I worked at a company that dreamed of building an industrial flow analyzer for the chemical composition of petroleum products based on the effect of nuclear magnetic resonance. Not to say that they paid a lot there, but the task is very interesting, the prospects the chief painted beautiful, and the schedule was free.
At the end of 2007, we finally saw the desired line in the desired part of the signal spectrum, and at the height of summer for the exhibition a whole complex of electronics was developed, with a fairly complex construct. Now I can’t even believe that we mastered all this in such a short period of time, and we had to do a lot for the first time, for example, to master SolidWorks.
In the photo we developed modules that were then placed in an explosion-proof housing.
After a successful exhibition, I decided to shake the old days and finally, for the first time in five years, go on a full holiday. And what could be a vacation without mountains? I bought a lot of tourist equipment and with old friends went once again to Elbrus.
At the top I met a couple of guys with skis, who kindly agreed to take a photo.
It so happened that at that time I was one of our team and, noting this significant event, with joy I lowered the rest of my modest savings at the bar. Then it didn’t seem scary - after all, the project had remarkable prospects - the Germans were going to buy the company, and the boss also intended to open production there. And everything would be fine, but I returned in August of 2008, I received the news that the investor had ceased to allocate money to our company like an ax on the head. For good it was necessary to run away from the project, until the crisis squeezed into full force and there was still a different chance to find a decent job, but it was a shame to leave the development halfway, and the boss persuaded to suffer a little. We tolerated and worked with clenched teeth, receiving a full salary only as a birthday present. Patience was enough until the new year of 2009, after that it became clear that it would not be possible to live the old way - the money to pay for the apartment was running out, and the snowdrifts were an unreliable dwelling, and they could only shelter until spring. The enemy does not wish to seek work in the midst of a crisis. After a month of unsuccessful searches, I despaired of finding something decent and decided that I had enough experience in the field of electronics development for 10 years to begin, finally, my own way.
By that time, I had the strongest positions in the development of devices on microcontrollers, both in a standalone version and under computer control. Since the country entered the crisis and, as always, jumped a dollar, I hoped that many importers of Western equipment will have an idea to import substitution, and someone even develop an original device from scratch, because the work of developers is never so cheap as in crises. Developing a thought, I thought that it would be difficult and expensive for companies that had never been developing to create full-fledged departments. It’s easier to outsource part of the work or the entire project, and whoever freelancer can provide the most favorable conditions! In addition, I was hoping for one-time unique orders such as production and test benches or industrial automation facilities.
It can be said that my first client was the last employer, with whom, in the absence of a salary, I had to switch to a contractual basis. So I received an order - the development of a 30 W pulsed RF amplifier, which I managed to do before the full economic collapse of the company. However, her position is not saved.
Setting up the prototype of the output amplifier stage.
Creating even a simple electronic device requires a large variety of actions. It is necessary to develop a scheme, select an available package, trace the board and its installation, select and refine the case, test the device, and finally prepare a package of reporting documentation. Often, the customer also needs to undertake the pre-production stage - describe the testing process and the device assembly sequence, develop a passport and instruction manual. In most of my projects there is also a software component - programs for the microcontroller and PC. If we add to this work with the client - at least clarifying the TZ, building a schedule, estimating the cost of the project, it becomes clear that it is extremely difficult for one person to do so many varied work. Especially in the case when several projects are being carried out simultaneously with a shift in the implementation phase, which is common practice for a freelancer.
Therefore, I dragged an employee into my adventure from my previous job. She was well versed in paper matters, as well as engaged in paperwork, delivery of equipment and work with contract manufacturers. Along the way, I taught her the basics of tracing and she became a full-fledged and very useful member of our small team.
For a successful start, we had only a little - it was necessary to find customers. We started by making a good animated presentation and a simple site listing our capabilities and my past achievements. On the site I made a bias towards the development of a constructive, for some reason I thought that the electronics engineers on the market are much more than the designers working in 3D design systems. As it turned out later, nothing. Strange, but for 5 years of work I have not received a single order for the development of a constructive, however, in the course of developing various devices, the skills of working in Solidworks were very useful. However, I'm lying. One order was still - the lamp housing. However, given its cost - 5,000 rubles., It is not surprising that I forgot about him.
So, the first thing we did was show our wonderful presentation to the director of contract manufacturing and offered cooperation. It should look like this, he announces on his website a new service for the development of electronic devices and gives us orders. We deduct him a small percentage, and most importantly, we do everything to ensure that the devices we developed are manufactured at its facilities.
He liked the idea, but he did not want to invest a penny in our startup. Our banner quickly caused great interest among his customers, however, the most difficult times came for us. Requests from the contractor came one after the other, but they did not generate real orders. Some clients wanted to do everything for nothing, others disappeared after we calculated the cost of products for them, and some after a detailed study of the project simply lay on the bottom. In the end, quite unexpectedly, a rather strange project of an on-off switch of an audio signal fired, however, it almost did not bring money, but it raised us a little mood and instilled confidence in our own strength and the correctness of choice.
Simplified three-dimensional model of the switch.
In the meantime, every day I reeled up kilometers of ski tracks that were rapidly converting into ice rut in a suburban forest to calm my nerves, and the first thawed patches began to appear around ... And then finally a saving project appeared. The amount was ridiculous in today's times - 50,000 rubles (later due to the manufacture of modifications to the device increased to 75 thousand), but in those conditions it was a lot of money.
Slowly, small projects started to work, and by the autumn they finally gave feedback and personal contacts. The fact is that for 10 years in the role of developer and brand manager I managed to get acquainted with a lot of interesting people, and when I got into freelancing, at every opportunity I did not forget to remind them of what I was doing. In the end, it had its effect. First, a friend of mine from a previous job invited me to save a burning project. At the beginning of the year, his team tied up with a range finder, they spent almost all the money and time allocated, but instead of the stated accuracy, they got 5 centimeters in millimeter, and then at room temperature. It was a difficult, but interesting project. I proposed to remake the principle of the formation of the reference signal for the microwave generator and in three months I managed to create a working prototype with satisfied measurement accuracy. Another friend of mine attracted me to a project to develop laboratory equipment for measuring performance and training Peltier modules. After a lengthy lick of the contract from the New Year, this project also started. In late August, the first serious client brought the site. A long correspondence turned into a contract for R & D, devoted to the study of the possibility of determining the amount of water in its mixture with petroleum products. This customer subsequently became my strategic partner. Thus, it turned out that my assumptions were correct and gradually all the channels to attract customers worked!
So, in 2010 I entered with three long-term customers and a contract manufacturer, who periodically threw up small orders. This was quite enough to pay off with a few debts, to be overworked with work, and finally, to begin to make ends meet. At the beginning of the year, a company came to me through friends, with a project to create a security system to determine the presence of metal objects left in the elevators, working under the wing of an American investor. For several months, based on the range finder project, we managed to create a prototype with them and even get certified for electromagnetic compatibility.
I was responsible for the control board and the signal conditioner in this design, it is on the left of the photo.
In addition, the rangefinder I developed was certified as a measurement tool. The plans for the next year were to optimize its design, to add a GSM module and a server for receiving data. The customer of the laboratory equipment for the Peltier modules was transferred under Rosnano's wing and the contract with him was successfully completed, although due to the move to a new building, it stretched a little in time and the last stage was shortened.
A piece of 12 channel current generator for testing Peltier modules.
R & D on the “oil” topic has brought about a new order for the development of a prototype. Thus, the year was more than fruitful and became the heyday of my small business.
So, everything went great. I grew up professionally. It seemed that the experience gained in working with microwave devices opens up new and very attractive prospects, especially considering that I had the opportunity to access extremely interesting and expensive measuring microwave devices that not every company specializing in this field has.
Configure a range finder using a spectrum analyzer. Sorry, filmed on the old iPhone.
I began to think about organizing my own company and attracting hired employees, but deciding on such a move was scary, too much responsibility. Our download was at the limit of opportunities and we had to abandon the search for new orders, especially given the fact that my regular customers sought not only to continue, but also to develop cooperation.
I tried to shift part of the work to freelancers, but this timid attempt ended in failure, and it was scary to expand the team with new wage earners. It was also a matter of the fact that, at the beginning, it always takes a lot of time to prepare a new employee, but he was not there then! In such a situation, I decided to stop further advertising my activities and focus on developing business with clients who, it seemed to me, had moved to the rank of permanent. Now I understand that this was my main mistake.
It all started very well. The "oil" project was moving full steam. It was time for laboratory research and the customer agreed to rent a room for this, which at the same time became my office.
Measuring vessel with exfoliating well fluid. Made of quartz glass, in the very Gus-Crystal.
However, the remaining projects began to slow down, and due to circumstances that were little dependent on me. It was rather strange, considering that the economy was gradually recovering from the shock received in 2008.
The range finder's customer failed to break through the project funding for 2011 and it was frozen, which is a pity. By that time, we had time to carry out a new revision of the board, on which we managed to combine two low-frequency boards and all microwave circuits. It turned out beautifully, and most importantly - it worked!
In America, the excitement around security was gradually sleeping, caused by the explosion of the twin towers, and investors abandoned the project to monitor elevators.
During the year, several small projects from a contract manufacturer were carried out, but I focused mainly on the development of a sensor for determining the water content in a well fluid. Laboratory experiments were completed and the second revision of the instrument was developed, much cheaper and more technologically advanced in manufacturing.
So, I received a very serious bell, but did not attach any importance to it. But there is a good rule - do not put all your eggs in one basket. But the prospects were too tempting. Immediately after the first success, during the trial operation of the sensor, the client promised to create a new legal entity with our equity participation, seemed to almost agree with the business model proposed by me for the project development ... In general, we already selected a scoop deeper to draw light oil money, here is an advertisement!
This year, we finally managed to put our sensor into trial operation at two facilities at once - the coke-chemical plant and the primary oil refining station.
Installation of a prototype in the Lukoil fields.
Tests have shown that in general, the method works, but it is necessary to improve both the design of the device and the processing algorithms, which I mainly did the following year. At the end of the year, an office popped up, mastering the money of Rosnano - offered to assemble a very complex stand for studying the properties of semiconductors at high temperatures. For almost three months, we have compiled the Technical Assignment, contract and approved the cost of the project. Towards the end of the year, after everything was agreed, the client suddenly lay down on the bottom. The person responsible for working with us eventually sent me to the chief accountant, and when I finally got through to her, she unexpectedly asked: “Why, actually, is it so expensive?” As if it was a completely different person, a month ago he approved of our financial plan! I realized that we had been thrown and, apparently, used as a free labor force to draw up plans for this remarkable company to use Rosnano for the next year.
Results of the year: Believing in serious prospects, I plunged into one single project. Laboratory experiments and the improvement of mathematical processing algorithms began to occupy more and more time. I understood very well that programming in high-level languages ​​for the PC is not my strongest place, but the client did not want to expand the staff at the expense of the programmer and began to shift all the work to me. Business trips to the facility and permanent improvement of the device's design began. Calculate the cost of work has become extremely difficult. In addition, my marital status has changed. In such a situation, I accepted an offer to switch to a salary and even got a permanent job. As a result, my freelancer was probably left with only a very free schedule (the laboratory was located in a separate office), which, however, was becoming more and more difficult to use, since it became almost impossible to work at home.
So, the main mistake of the year - I undertook to perform functions not characteristic of myself. I had to do most of the work in which I was not a professional. I, of course, is a versatile person, but the immensity cannot be grasped, therefore the work efficiency has decreased, the professional growth has almost stopped, interest in the project began to fade, in general, the crisis has obviously begun to mature. The main advantage of a freelancer is that he is a temporary worker of high qualification. In fact, they close their bottlenecks in different projects. He does only the work that can be done quickly and in the best way. That is why his services are more expensive than the services of a permanent employee, but the employer does not have any obligations to him outside the project and it is beneficial for both! I lost these benefits!
By the end of 2012, it became clear that something needs to be changed. Just at that time, on the endless expanses of the Internet, I was brought to the Kickstarter site, so I got to know crowdfunding. The idea put into it caused me euphoria and I began to spend almost all my free time studying the mechanisms of its work. Everything looked just fabulously beautiful - you create an original and interesting device, describe your project, place information about it on the crowdfunding platform, it is no doubt noticed by regular visitors ... And now you have a couple of hundred thousand dollars for your project, for which you you finish development and organize production. Along the way, investors are certainly paying attention to your wonderful project and offering a lucrative contract. In a word, life was a success and you caught God by the beard, you can row money with a shovel and it’s a pleasure to make the next gadget.
Unfortunately, the reality was different from this tale, but this is such a long conversation that it deserves a separate post, and maybe not one. I just want to say that after a long preparatory stage at the COP with my project, I still came out, however, from the third attempt - and at the very beginning of 2014. However, the company did not collect the necessary amount for its implementation and brought me about three kilobax losses. The device, by the way, was interesting and useful ... This is a height-adjustable platform that has interchangeable lenses and light sources for macro photography and video shooting using smartphones, tablets and WEB cameras. In my opinion, it is much more convenient than using lenses and cheap Chinese USB microscopes.
I still use this device instead of a magnifying glass in my work - the tablet screen and it is very convenient to take photo and video of board defects and just solder.
The section of the board is taken using a 4x lens and a tablet.
Today, with the help of Kickstarter alone, it is impossible to recoup the creation of an interesting gadget from scratch, it can only be used as one of the tools to achieve the goal. However, any experience, even negative, is experience, and I don’t regret the lost time and money, because during the preparation of the company at the COP, I met very interesting people and made connections for the possible organization of production in China, cooked in the kitchen of project promotion and learned English.
The rest of the year did not bring new interesting orders, although there were some options. The business angel of the oil project was becoming more capricious. He constantly appeared new ideas to improve the algorithm of the device, one more exotic than the other. At first I tried to argue for a long time, then I got tired of it, and I just began to fulfill his whims, having previously expressed my dissenting opinion. The development of the project slowed down dramatically, which naturally began to blame me more and more.The project entered the implementation stage, obviously it was necessary to expand the team with specialized experts, protect know-how with patents and look for venture capital investors. However, the project sponsor did not want to hear about it, about the creation of a separate company and our shares in the project, he did not even want to remember. Having lost faith in the possibility of developing our business, my employee left the team and I was left alone with the only customer.
By the summer, the goal to which we had been walking for almost five years was finally achieved! By completely changing the algorithm of the device, we managed to get a positive feedback on its work from Lukoil. Moreover, Lukoil offered to take part in its innovative program, expressed willingness to help with a very expensive and lengthy certification process, provide financial support and include our product in the list of recommended for use. It would seem that everything was not in vain and now, finally, it will be possible not only to enter the highly monopolized market with your device, but at least to draw a scoop out of the golden stream flowing from the Oil Pipe! Did the victory and everything was not in vain?
The smell of money.
That was not the case, the business angel is a proud bird. Frightened by the possibility of an unfriendly takeover of the project by Lukoil, he decided not to change course and still develop the project with his own funds. It was then that I realized that the end was near and it was unlikely that he would be happy, because, due to the deteriorating economic situation in the country, these funds began to dry out.
It became clear that it was impossible to continue living this way, it’s time to take action and take anti-crisis measures. Again, I am not at a crossroads, either try to urgently revive the business, or look for another occupation. The problem is aggravated by the fact that in addition to the subjective factors - the mistakes I have described above, objective factors are also gaining momentum that cast doubt on the possibility of continuing activities in this area. Here is what is visible to the naked eye:
Despite not a simple situation, I decided to “still suffer” - to thoroughly restructure the current business model and make an attempt to save the situation. About how, I'm going to do it, and about my advice to budding entrepreneurs in this area - read in the next article. Very soon!
Last autumn?
Frankly, I hesitated for a long time how to proceed - to illustrate my recommendations and advice with examples from personal experience, or to limit myself to listing them with short comments. Without making a choice, I decided to immediately write two articles and lay them out one by one, with a difference of a day. This tells about my experience with examples that I accompany with comments. If you have little time and you are more interested in brief, substantive conclusions and specific recommendations, please do not waste time on my today's opus, but read my next article, which I specifically publish simultaneously with this one .
Of course, one could simply make a dry squeeze from useful recommendations, but I think that they will be more easily perceived if they are supported by a story about my personal personal experience. Real events are perceived easier than on dry lines.
In this post I tried as an experiment to align the photos to the width of the text. I hope this experiment will not cause rejection in the habrasoobschestve.
How it was
Almost any Moscow electronics engineer after long daily trips to the capital and back, who devour 3-4 hours of personal time a day, raises the question: “Why don't I do similar work at home?” Unfortunately, the electronics engineer is much more difficult to do than to the programmer.
')
In addition to a computer for more or less serious work, at least a number of instruments are still needed - a tester, a soldering station, a laboratory power supply and an oscilloscope. In addition, somewhere you need to store numerous tools, hardware, lenses with glasses, reagents, components, sets of widely used parts such as resistors and capacitors, and a bunch of other things.
Set a minimum for my case.
It’s good to have at least a minimum of tools for machining - a drill machine and a drill. If you live alone, you can equip the workshop in the corner of your room. A large table, a cabinet, and several bookshelves stacked on top of each other are enough. If you cannot do without a separate room with your family, well, it is better to equip a full hood, especially if you have a child. Those who have already been frightened by such a prospect, can no longer be read, others may be interested to find out how, with such a collection of junk, you can earn money.
A little background.
It was like this - since 2006, I worked at a company that dreamed of building an industrial flow analyzer for the chemical composition of petroleum products based on the effect of nuclear magnetic resonance. Not to say that they paid a lot there, but the task is very interesting, the prospects the chief painted beautiful, and the schedule was free.
At the end of 2007, we finally saw the desired line in the desired part of the signal spectrum, and at the height of summer for the exhibition a whole complex of electronics was developed, with a fairly complex construct. Now I can’t even believe that we mastered all this in such a short period of time, and we had to do a lot for the first time, for example, to master SolidWorks.
In the photo we developed modules that were then placed in an explosion-proof housing.
After a successful exhibition, I decided to shake the old days and finally, for the first time in five years, go on a full holiday. And what could be a vacation without mountains? I bought a lot of tourist equipment and with old friends went once again to Elbrus.
At the top I met a couple of guys with skis, who kindly agreed to take a photo.
It so happened that at that time I was one of our team and, noting this significant event, with joy I lowered the rest of my modest savings at the bar. Then it didn’t seem scary - after all, the project had remarkable prospects - the Germans were going to buy the company, and the boss also intended to open production there. And everything would be fine, but I returned in August of 2008, I received the news that the investor had ceased to allocate money to our company like an ax on the head. For good it was necessary to run away from the project, until the crisis squeezed into full force and there was still a different chance to find a decent job, but it was a shame to leave the development halfway, and the boss persuaded to suffer a little. We tolerated and worked with clenched teeth, receiving a full salary only as a birthday present. Patience was enough until the new year of 2009, after that it became clear that it would not be possible to live the old way - the money to pay for the apartment was running out, and the snowdrifts were an unreliable dwelling, and they could only shelter until spring. The enemy does not wish to seek work in the midst of a crisis. After a month of unsuccessful searches, I despaired of finding something decent and decided that I had enough experience in the field of electronics development for 10 years to begin, finally, my own way.
2009. First steps
By that time, I had the strongest positions in the development of devices on microcontrollers, both in a standalone version and under computer control. Since the country entered the crisis and, as always, jumped a dollar, I hoped that many importers of Western equipment will have an idea to import substitution, and someone even develop an original device from scratch, because the work of developers is never so cheap as in crises. Developing a thought, I thought that it would be difficult and expensive for companies that had never been developing to create full-fledged departments. It’s easier to outsource part of the work or the entire project, and whoever freelancer can provide the most favorable conditions! In addition, I was hoping for one-time unique orders such as production and test benches or industrial automation facilities.
It can be said that my first client was the last employer, with whom, in the absence of a salary, I had to switch to a contractual basis. So I received an order - the development of a 30 W pulsed RF amplifier, which I managed to do before the full economic collapse of the company. However, her position is not saved.
Setting up the prototype of the output amplifier stage.
Creating even a simple electronic device requires a large variety of actions. It is necessary to develop a scheme, select an available package, trace the board and its installation, select and refine the case, test the device, and finally prepare a package of reporting documentation. Often, the customer also needs to undertake the pre-production stage - describe the testing process and the device assembly sequence, develop a passport and instruction manual. In most of my projects there is also a software component - programs for the microcontroller and PC. If we add to this work with the client - at least clarifying the TZ, building a schedule, estimating the cost of the project, it becomes clear that it is extremely difficult for one person to do so many varied work. Especially in the case when several projects are being carried out simultaneously with a shift in the implementation phase, which is common practice for a freelancer.
Therefore, I dragged an employee into my adventure from my previous job. She was well versed in paper matters, as well as engaged in paperwork, delivery of equipment and work with contract manufacturers. Along the way, I taught her the basics of tracing and she became a full-fledged and very useful member of our small team.
For a successful start, we had only a little - it was necessary to find customers. We started by making a good animated presentation and a simple site listing our capabilities and my past achievements. On the site I made a bias towards the development of a constructive, for some reason I thought that the electronics engineers on the market are much more than the designers working in 3D design systems. As it turned out later, nothing. Strange, but for 5 years of work I have not received a single order for the development of a constructive, however, in the course of developing various devices, the skills of working in Solidworks were very useful. However, I'm lying. One order was still - the lamp housing. However, given its cost - 5,000 rubles., It is not surprising that I forgot about him.
So, the first thing we did was show our wonderful presentation to the director of contract manufacturing and offered cooperation. It should look like this, he announces on his website a new service for the development of electronic devices and gives us orders. We deduct him a small percentage, and most importantly, we do everything to ensure that the devices we developed are manufactured at its facilities.
He liked the idea, but he did not want to invest a penny in our startup. Our banner quickly caused great interest among his customers, however, the most difficult times came for us. Requests from the contractor came one after the other, but they did not generate real orders. Some clients wanted to do everything for nothing, others disappeared after we calculated the cost of products for them, and some after a detailed study of the project simply lay on the bottom. In the end, quite unexpectedly, a rather strange project of an on-off switch of an audio signal fired, however, it almost did not bring money, but it raised us a little mood and instilled confidence in our own strength and the correctness of choice.
Simplified three-dimensional model of the switch.
In the meantime, every day I reeled up kilometers of ski tracks that were rapidly converting into ice rut in a suburban forest to calm my nerves, and the first thawed patches began to appear around ... And then finally a saving project appeared. The amount was ridiculous in today's times - 50,000 rubles (later due to the manufacture of modifications to the device increased to 75 thousand), but in those conditions it was a lot of money.
Do not count your chickens before they are hatched
Slowly, small projects started to work, and by the autumn they finally gave feedback and personal contacts. The fact is that for 10 years in the role of developer and brand manager I managed to get acquainted with a lot of interesting people, and when I got into freelancing, at every opportunity I did not forget to remind them of what I was doing. In the end, it had its effect. First, a friend of mine from a previous job invited me to save a burning project. At the beginning of the year, his team tied up with a range finder, they spent almost all the money and time allocated, but instead of the stated accuracy, they got 5 centimeters in millimeter, and then at room temperature. It was a difficult, but interesting project. I proposed to remake the principle of the formation of the reference signal for the microwave generator and in three months I managed to create a working prototype with satisfied measurement accuracy. Another friend of mine attracted me to a project to develop laboratory equipment for measuring performance and training Peltier modules. After a lengthy lick of the contract from the New Year, this project also started. In late August, the first serious client brought the site. A long correspondence turned into a contract for R & D, devoted to the study of the possibility of determining the amount of water in its mixture with petroleum products. This customer subsequently became my strategic partner. Thus, it turned out that my assumptions were correct and gradually all the channels to attract customers worked!
2010 heyday
So, in 2010 I entered with three long-term customers and a contract manufacturer, who periodically threw up small orders. This was quite enough to pay off with a few debts, to be overworked with work, and finally, to begin to make ends meet. At the beginning of the year, a company came to me through friends, with a project to create a security system to determine the presence of metal objects left in the elevators, working under the wing of an American investor. For several months, based on the range finder project, we managed to create a prototype with them and even get certified for electromagnetic compatibility.
I was responsible for the control board and the signal conditioner in this design, it is on the left of the photo.
In addition, the rangefinder I developed was certified as a measurement tool. The plans for the next year were to optimize its design, to add a GSM module and a server for receiving data. The customer of the laboratory equipment for the Peltier modules was transferred under Rosnano's wing and the contract with him was successfully completed, although due to the move to a new building, it stretched a little in time and the last stage was shortened.
A piece of 12 channel current generator for testing Peltier modules.
R & D on the “oil” topic has brought about a new order for the development of a prototype. Thus, the year was more than fruitful and became the heyday of my small business.
So, everything went great. I grew up professionally. It seemed that the experience gained in working with microwave devices opens up new and very attractive prospects, especially considering that I had the opportunity to access extremely interesting and expensive measuring microwave devices that not every company specializing in this field has.
Configure a range finder using a spectrum analyzer. Sorry, filmed on the old iPhone.
I began to think about organizing my own company and attracting hired employees, but deciding on such a move was scary, too much responsibility. Our download was at the limit of opportunities and we had to abandon the search for new orders, especially given the fact that my regular customers sought not only to continue, but also to develop cooperation.
I tried to shift part of the work to freelancers, but this timid attempt ended in failure, and it was scary to expand the team with new wage earners. It was also a matter of the fact that, at the beginning, it always takes a lot of time to prepare a new employee, but he was not there then! In such a situation, I decided to stop further advertising my activities and focus on developing business with clients who, it seemed to me, had moved to the rank of permanent. Now I understand that this was my main mistake.
2011 Year of unfulfilled hopes
It all started very well. The "oil" project was moving full steam. It was time for laboratory research and the customer agreed to rent a room for this, which at the same time became my office.
Measuring vessel with exfoliating well fluid. Made of quartz glass, in the very Gus-Crystal.
However, the remaining projects began to slow down, and due to circumstances that were little dependent on me. It was rather strange, considering that the economy was gradually recovering from the shock received in 2008.
The range finder's customer failed to break through the project funding for 2011 and it was frozen, which is a pity. By that time, we had time to carry out a new revision of the board, on which we managed to combine two low-frequency boards and all microwave circuits. It turned out beautifully, and most importantly - it worked!
In America, the excitement around security was gradually sleeping, caused by the explosion of the twin towers, and investors abandoned the project to monitor elevators.
During the year, several small projects from a contract manufacturer were carried out, but I focused mainly on the development of a sensor for determining the water content in a well fluid. Laboratory experiments were completed and the second revision of the instrument was developed, much cheaper and more technologically advanced in manufacturing.
So, I received a very serious bell, but did not attach any importance to it. But there is a good rule - do not put all your eggs in one basket. But the prospects were too tempting. Immediately after the first success, during the trial operation of the sensor, the client promised to create a new legal entity with our equity participation, seemed to almost agree with the business model proposed by me for the project development ... In general, we already selected a scoop deeper to draw light oil money, here is an advertisement!
2012 Time per customer
This year, we finally managed to put our sensor into trial operation at two facilities at once - the coke-chemical plant and the primary oil refining station.
Installation of a prototype in the Lukoil fields.
Tests have shown that in general, the method works, but it is necessary to improve both the design of the device and the processing algorithms, which I mainly did the following year. At the end of the year, an office popped up, mastering the money of Rosnano - offered to assemble a very complex stand for studying the properties of semiconductors at high temperatures. For almost three months, we have compiled the Technical Assignment, contract and approved the cost of the project. Towards the end of the year, after everything was agreed, the client suddenly lay down on the bottom. The person responsible for working with us eventually sent me to the chief accountant, and when I finally got through to her, she unexpectedly asked: “Why, actually, is it so expensive?” As if it was a completely different person, a month ago he approved of our financial plan! I realized that we had been thrown and, apparently, used as a free labor force to draw up plans for this remarkable company to use Rosnano for the next year.
Results of the year: Believing in serious prospects, I plunged into one single project. Laboratory experiments and the improvement of mathematical processing algorithms began to occupy more and more time. I understood very well that programming in high-level languages ​​for the PC is not my strongest place, but the client did not want to expand the staff at the expense of the programmer and began to shift all the work to me. Business trips to the facility and permanent improvement of the device's design began. Calculate the cost of work has become extremely difficult. In addition, my marital status has changed. In such a situation, I accepted an offer to switch to a salary and even got a permanent job. As a result, my freelancer was probably left with only a very free schedule (the laboratory was located in a separate office), which, however, was becoming more and more difficult to use, since it became almost impossible to work at home.
So, the main mistake of the year - I undertook to perform functions not characteristic of myself. I had to do most of the work in which I was not a professional. I, of course, is a versatile person, but the immensity cannot be grasped, therefore the work efficiency has decreased, the professional growth has almost stopped, interest in the project began to fade, in general, the crisis has obviously begun to mature. The main advantage of a freelancer is that he is a temporary worker of high qualification. In fact, they close their bottlenecks in different projects. He does only the work that can be done quickly and in the best way. That is why his services are more expensive than the services of a permanent employee, but the employer does not have any obligations to him outside the project and it is beneficial for both! I lost these benefits!
2013 Crowdfunding - Ghostly Hope
By the end of 2012, it became clear that something needs to be changed. Just at that time, on the endless expanses of the Internet, I was brought to the Kickstarter site, so I got to know crowdfunding. The idea put into it caused me euphoria and I began to spend almost all my free time studying the mechanisms of its work. Everything looked just fabulously beautiful - you create an original and interesting device, describe your project, place information about it on the crowdfunding platform, it is no doubt noticed by regular visitors ... And now you have a couple of hundred thousand dollars for your project, for which you you finish development and organize production. Along the way, investors are certainly paying attention to your wonderful project and offering a lucrative contract. In a word, life was a success and you caught God by the beard, you can row money with a shovel and it’s a pleasure to make the next gadget.
Unfortunately, the reality was different from this tale, but this is such a long conversation that it deserves a separate post, and maybe not one. I just want to say that after a long preparatory stage at the COP with my project, I still came out, however, from the third attempt - and at the very beginning of 2014. However, the company did not collect the necessary amount for its implementation and brought me about three kilobax losses. The device, by the way, was interesting and useful ... This is a height-adjustable platform that has interchangeable lenses and light sources for macro photography and video shooting using smartphones, tablets and WEB cameras. In my opinion, it is much more convenient than using lenses and cheap Chinese USB microscopes.
I still use this device instead of a magnifying glass in my work - the tablet screen and it is very convenient to take photo and video of board defects and just solder.
The section of the board is taken using a 4x lens and a tablet.
Today, with the help of Kickstarter alone, it is impossible to recoup the creation of an interesting gadget from scratch, it can only be used as one of the tools to achieve the goal. However, any experience, even negative, is experience, and I don’t regret the lost time and money, because during the preparation of the company at the COP, I met very interesting people and made connections for the possible organization of production in China, cooked in the kitchen of project promotion and learned English.
The rest of the year did not bring new interesting orders, although there were some options. The business angel of the oil project was becoming more capricious. He constantly appeared new ideas to improve the algorithm of the device, one more exotic than the other. At first I tried to argue for a long time, then I got tired of it, and I just began to fulfill his whims, having previously expressed my dissenting opinion. The development of the project slowed down dramatically, which naturally began to blame me more and more.The project entered the implementation stage, obviously it was necessary to expand the team with specialized experts, protect know-how with patents and look for venture capital investors. However, the project sponsor did not want to hear about it, about the creation of a separate company and our shares in the project, he did not even want to remember. Having lost faith in the possibility of developing our business, my employee left the team and I was left alone with the only customer.
2014 Pyrrhic victory
By the summer, the goal to which we had been walking for almost five years was finally achieved! By completely changing the algorithm of the device, we managed to get a positive feedback on its work from Lukoil. Moreover, Lukoil offered to take part in its innovative program, expressed willingness to help with a very expensive and lengthy certification process, provide financial support and include our product in the list of recommended for use. It would seem that everything was not in vain and now, finally, it will be possible not only to enter the highly monopolized market with your device, but at least to draw a scoop out of the golden stream flowing from the Oil Pipe! Did the victory and everything was not in vain?
The smell of money.
That was not the case, the business angel is a proud bird. Frightened by the possibility of an unfriendly takeover of the project by Lukoil, he decided not to change course and still develop the project with his own funds. It was then that I realized that the end was near and it was unlikely that he would be happy, because, due to the deteriorating economic situation in the country, these funds began to dry out.
It became clear that it was impossible to continue living this way, it’s time to take action and take anti-crisis measures. Again, I am not at a crossroads, either try to urgently revive the business, or look for another occupation. The problem is aggravated by the fact that in addition to the subjective factors - the mistakes I have described above, objective factors are also gaining momentum that cast doubt on the possibility of continuing activities in this area. Here is what is visible to the naked eye:
- . , , . , , “” — .
- , , , . , , . I had to bring the electricity meter board to mind. - , , . The result was deplorable.
- - . . Now, in this area, they have tightened the screws, made terrible secrecy and there is nothing for our brother to catch today. . , , , .
- The overall deterioration of the investment climate in Russia is affecting. Domestic investors prefer to withdraw money from Russia, foreign ones are wary of investing in it.
- Recently, a huge number of ready-made solutions have appeared - demo boards and various universal programmable modules at affordable prices. It is often simpler and cheaper to assemble a ready-made solution to a unique task than to develop a special device. , , , .
Despite not a simple situation, I decided to “still suffer” - to thoroughly restructure the current business model and make an attempt to save the situation. About how, I'm going to do it, and about my advice to budding entrepreneurs in this area - read in the next article. Very soon!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/236071/
All Articles