It's one thing to come up with an idea. It's another to actually get it built. Design comes easy to me and I don't question why, it is what it is. Getting others on board to help me with my ideas has been a struggle. The latest and greatest invention involves simple pieces of wood to house a group of electronics and 'other' parts. I am no woodworker. Therein lies a problem. I've had to rely on someone to build a box for me. A simple wood box. One would think this is an easy request, but I've been begging anyone within earshot for five months now to build a box.
I don't understand business owners. I've had numerous meetings with owners of woodworking shops who either tell me they will build my box or call me tomorrow with a price for the box. They seem excited. They get my business card that has my phone number and email address. They get a reminder call from me the next week. "I'll call you next week with an update" turns into two weeks, turns into three and we're back to square one. Owners are refusing to call me back about building a $500 wood box. I do not get it.
My latest product was designed in December 2009. Here it is, almost June of 2010 and no box. I have two promised from two different people for next week. We'll see. I hope they come through for me, it's not like I'm asking someone to do a favor for me for free.
Electronic purchase (or even seeing some to test)
In November, when I first came up with the idea for my new conferencing system, I wanted to test a particular codec and other particular pieces of necessary electronics. Looking local first, I called reps from the area to try and look at the electronics I wanted. One company said 'sure, we have one. Come over anytime and take a look.' It was the completely wrong piece of equipment. Totally unusable and a complete waste of drive time. The company thought it would be in their best interest to bait and switch me, but I wanted to look at this EXACT make/model/manufacturer. Not it's distant cousin that acted nothing like, nor had the features of what I wanted to look at in the first place. I did not even receive an apology from the company who wasted my time, nor did they call me back saying they had the right product, or couldn't get it or anything. They haven't called me since that incident.
No local companies could get their hands on the codec I wanted either. Promises were made, hopes were high, then calls weren't returned. I said 'forget them' and called the people who made the codec instead of going the required route of calling company reps. No one could get the codec, or so I was told, until I called the manufacturer and they told me 'we have tons of them we make available for demos, we'll send someone over'.
I don't get it.
Why companies would flat out ignore another company looking to at least purchase one piece of gear (and potentially hundreds more) is beyond me.