Hello
I have some ideas for electronic circuits, and some design softwares , like proteus, eagle , altuim, LT-spice , etc
How can I earn money selling my designs?, have you tried this before?

I don’t want make pcb, buy Components and try real circuits, I only want design a circuit and simulate it and see the analysis on design software and after everything is right and as expected and that I believe is a good design , I want to sell for company to do the rest, make pcb and prototype and mass production
Maybe if some circuits I am interested in, I make prototype and sell all project but for now only designs

Do you have any place online where I can do this business ?

Will appreciate your response
Regards

 

Why would anyone buy a design that you haven't bothered to even prototype and verify that it actually works?

Having said that, there is no shortage of people selling worthless designs on the Internet to gullible people, so there does appear to be a market that you might tap into.

 

Why would anyone buy a design that you haven't bothered to even prototype and verify that it actually works?

Having said that, there is no shortage of people selling worthless designs on the Internet to gullible people, so there does appear to be a market that you might tap into.

Okay, if I have prototyped, is there a better opportunity for sell?, if so where?

 

I have done design work for industry. I don't see anyone being interested in buying a design from an unknown source. I believe you would be more successful selling your services to a company that has a need, and that would be a complete solution from research, development, design, PCB layout, programming, and full testing. You need to demonstrate to the company that you are capable of developing a product from start to finish.

I did a cold call on an industrial company once. I walked into the office, introduced myself to the president of the company, showed him a product I had designed. On the spot I was hired as a consultant. I ended up being the R&D department for that company while still being an independent consultant. When they envisioned a new product, they gave me the specifications, and I developed the product from at home. They had their own team of technicians who did the PCB fabrication and all the mechanical construction.

 

I have done design work for industry. I don't see anyone being interested in buying a design from an unknown source. I believe you would be more successful selling your services to a company that has a need, and that would be a complete solution from research, development, design, PCB layout, programming, and full testing. You need to demonstrate to the company that you are capable of developing a product from start to finish.

I did a cold call on an industrial company once. I walked into the office, introduced myself to the president of the company, showed him a product I had designed. On the spot I was hired as a consultant. I ended up being the R&D department for that company while still being an independent consultant. When they envisioned a new product, they gave me the specifications, and I developed the product from at home. They had their own team of technicians who did the PCB fabrication and all the mechanical construction.

Interesting

 

Okay, if I have prototyped, is there a better opportunity for sell?, if so where?

You are going to have a very hard time getting a company to buy some design off the street. You are going to need to convince them that they actually either need your design (which is going to be tough if they haven't already identified the need on their own), or that there is actually profit potential in your design. That is also going to be a tough sell, which is going to require you to have done enough market research to present them a compelling case that the market realistically exists at a level that will justify their investment, which also means you have to walk in there with a good, well-documented estimate of the total cost to bring the product to market and the per-unit production costs once it's there.

The better way is to find out what specific companies actually want and need and then work on a design that meets those needs. This way they are going to be more receptive to even talk to you, because they are already interested in the general product you are approaching them with. They are also more likely to be willing to do their own market evaluation since, again, they already have an interest. Keep in mind, you are going to be competing with plenty of other people, both inside and outside those companies, so you need to bring something more to the table to make your offering more valuable to them.

How you might go about doing this is going to vary all over the map and depend very heavily on specific industry and type of product you are talking about. If you are talking about a consumer-scale cheap doohickey that goes on a key fob, the discussion is very different than if you are talking about something that would cost thousands of dollars and would be used inhouse to improve efficiency and profitability.

 

I have been an engineer for 45-50 years. Usually, a company comes to me wanting a problem solved. I have gone looking for problems to solve when I could not find work. I have mountains of prototype PCB in storage. Getting started is hard. You need to prove your worth first. I have worked for several engineering companies and owned several. That first contract is hard to find. The 1000th is easy.

 

If you want to do this, you should start by publishing papers and articles to establish a name for yourself. Don Lancaster, a famous author, once observed in an article about patents, that:

"Ideas are worth less than a dime a bale, in 10-bale lots"​

​

This was in reference to people trying to sell the rights to a design protected by a patent. Companies don't want to be encumbered by someone outside the company collecting money from them. They usually turn a cold and dismissive shoulder to such offers. However, if you make a name for yourself by giving your ideas away for free, people will come to you for your counsel and advice. What you want is to have thousands of ideas per bale in ten bale lots. You want to be known as more than a "one-trick pony".

 

Sorry to hear about your efforts affected by global supply chain

The electronic simulation software is going through changes right now.
The cost got expensive and parts availability difficult to source for specific needs.

High technology invests and competes with different countries. The average Asian monthly wage between $250 to $450
Will circuit boards remain inexpensive? will a circuit board design be protected?

 

I don’t need to sell inventions
I only need something like jameco club, or elecrow partner seller program
Where I have some designs and offer on company store
Pcb way have something like this also
You got me now?, no need invention no need patent

 

Most of us have been at this for many years and I can tell you right off the bat that a simulator by itself won't cut it. You must build out and test your design to make sure it works the way you want.

If you want companies to use your design you have to be creative and do something unique with your design that makes it stand out.

Your design must be proven and withstand the test of time. It works today, but is it going to work in a month?... a year? 10 years?

Research the company that you are trying to gain their attention... what products do they sell, use, or wish they had? Can you improve on the product they are using or want to use? ... AND if you can, put yourself on their radar. Make them think they found you.

Work your way up and prove yourself within a company. During that interview, take notes from what I just said above... Research the company and show them how you can make a difference to gain their attention. You don't necessarily need a working product, just a proof of concept that is on their immediate level of understanding with something they deal with day in and day out.


And finally, I will leave you with this thought to ponder.....

People are like fish and what I mean by that. ..... If you put a blinky light on something there are some people that tend to just go nuts and think it is the coolest thing ever. It is nothing more than a marketing trick "BUT" it serves it's purpose and gets their attention. There are many other marketing tricks out there and it is up to you to find them. Find your target audience.

 

Today’s it’s more about money than inventions, even the ideas would be a top notch.
There come so many engineering articles on IEEE the designers have no time to investigate every, you would have to convince them.

Let’s say you got a new electric motor conception idea. It’s so time consuming to prove the idea will bring better parameters the designers don’t want to spend, it’s to risky to come with nothing to they manager and explain why they waisted time.

Also there are so few companies willing to push the new (last) ideas to market…it would be a miracle.

I think you get better success if you build it, make startup, do a marketing and sell the product. Or get hired by company as employee and convince the managers the idea is worth.

 

I don’t need to sell inventions
I only need something like jameco club, or elecrow partner seller program
Where I have some designs and offer on company store
Pcb way have something like this also
You got me now?, no need invention no need patent

I know that, but they are similar situations. In addition, if you are so all knowing, why are you asking us?

 

I actually had a cold call with an idea work, though not the idea I called with.

I was out of work and spent my time writing a Pascal to C++ translator. This was when C++ was up and coming.

I called a company that sold a C++ compiler they had acquired and was doing well with it. I managed to get to the right people in the company somehow. But they were not interested in a Pascal translator. There entire infrastructure (IDE, linker, debugger) was written in Modula 2, about 1M lines of code. And my translator was based on my Modula 2 compiler. So they asked if I also had a Modula 2 to C++ translator.

I stretched the truth a bit, and answered in the affirmative. I started working on it the next day. About a month later I went to their headquarters and successfully translated their entire code base in a week. And closed the largest deal of my carreer.

So, a cold call could work, but it takes some luck.

 

I only need something like jameco club, or elecrow partner seller program

Try sparkfun. They, at first, looked for designs. I have not seen anything from them recently. I think they do it all inhouse now. I live driving distance from them.
I don't know you, but from my guess, I think you need to work for a company for 10 years first.

 

I know that, but they are similar situations. In addition, if you are so all knowing, why are you asking us?

For if you know more than me , trekking me, or for if you already tried, just need your experience regarding this issue

 

If there is a problem with your design, it doesn't quite work or there is a safety issue - are you liable? What is your warranty on the sold design?
Nobody rolls out a masterpiece electronic circuit with no flaws. This is blogger mentality.
Electronics design is not a "toss it over the fence to manufacturing, I'm done now" kind of thing.

We bought a design (including patent) and later found it didn't work at low temperatures. On your desk it was fine. Was this included in part of the purchase agreement, the low temp operation? No. That was a million dollar disaster to try fix that and ultimately it could not be overcome. Would never just buy a design, they are rarely good enough to be treated like a commodity.

Try sparkfun. They, at first, looked for designs. I have not seen anything from them recently. I think they do it all inhouse now. I live driving distance from them.
I don't know you, but from my guess, I think you need to work for a company for 10 years first.

Sparkfun/Adafruit output open-source. Sparkfun thinks the solution to chinese copies is to out-design them, just keep rolling out new designs. I think that's a bit silly, as if you have unlimited engineering resources. Both could use some innovation and ideas in their products but I doubt they would pay for that, outside of their in-house people.

If we buy your design and make money selling 10 or 10,000 units, you don't get the rewards. Your design price for one can look very expensive but not if we are going to sell 1,000's of it. Royalties are something to include to cover this.

Do you base your price on labour for engineering, schematic, pcb layout test etc. as simple $$$/hour? That's a very bad idea.

 

Try sparkfun. They, at first, looked for designs. I have not seen anything from them recently. I think they do it all inhouse now. I live driving distance from them.
I don't know you, but from my guess, I think you need to work for a company for 10 years first.

Thank you

 

For if you know more than me , trekking me, or for if you already tried, just need your experience regarding this issue

I've already given you that. If you have no reputation or experience doing it, you cannot start from nothing. You have to build a reputation and develop a circle of contacts who know what you can do and what you can accomplish. One sure-fire way to do that is submitting articles for publication. Another way is to volunteer for community projects that might be able to use your skills. You won't accomplish a damn thing by sitting on you keester waiting for the phone to ring.

 

Maybe you will enjoy success if you write a book or some magazine articles. In these cases you are selling not only the circuit but also knowledge.

If you can think of novel circuits that a hobbyist would find interesting and write a good description of how it works and how it is used, you might do very well.

Magazines are a good place to start. You can contact various magazines to get a copy of their author’s guidelines. Even short (3,000 words) articles can fetch hundreds of dollars.