So I’ve been involved in this hobby for almost a year now, and (like many of you) I have done hundreds of hours of research into the best parts for my builds. I am incredibly passionate about ESK8, and I want to start a business. I understand that the hobby business is often a lot of hard work for a small profit. But that won’t stop me from trying my hardest lol.
Finding a niche has been my #1 priority. If I sold standard 6374 motors for $140 each while @torqueboards (love you guys) is selling 6380 motors for $120 a pop, I wouldn’t get any business. But after a lot of research, I think I’ve found my niche: Buying a select few cutting edge ESK8 products wholesale (made by manufacturers like Maytech and Flipsky) and selling them retail. I think that right now in the ESK8 business, we have a vacuum in the market. We have awesome innovative tech like Maytech’s new sealed heavy duty 6374 motor and Flipsky’s VESC 6.6, but there are extremely limited options for retail buyers. If you want Flipsky’s new VESC 6.6, you can order from their retail site and wait for it to be shipped all the way from China, and if you want the new Maytech sealed motor, you really don’t have any options other than buying straight from Alibaba. Maytech and Flipsky offer HUGE price cuts when buying in bulk (100+), which increases my profit margin.
My goal is not to sell the cheapest products. I don’t want to be yet another ESK8 business selling shitty 4.12 single ESCs that burn up half the time. My goal is to offer really innovative, high quality products with excellent support and a limited warranty. I want to start out selling just 2 products, Flipsky’s VESC 6.6 and Maytech’s sealed 6374 motor. If I want to offer more products down the line, I’ll worry about that later.
I also came up with what I think is a pretty catchy name: Wheelhouse. I also whipped up a logo real quick:
What do y’all think? I would love to hear feedback on my idea - feel free to give criticism! I would really appreciate it.
I think that the Flipsky 6.6 still has an issue with voltage readings.
If you want to sell quality stuff than I would first check if they fixed this issue. The same about there integrated switch which seems to be useless.
Cudos to you brother. I prob never will have the balls to quit my wellpaying day job and do the same. Regarding your approach, everyone has to start somewhere! Best of luck
And yes i can confirm there are troubles with flipskys current iterrations of the vesc 6s. They have been in touch with vedder tho so might be sorted soon.
Good luck man. I know that enertion have resellers but do trampa? There are quite good discounts on the vesc 6 if you buy more than one so bulk buying into your country may save enough for a decent profit and then the domestic shipping will be significantly lower. Just a thought.
If you’re that passionate, the first thing you should learn is that it’s not just a hobby. Would you consider “minivan-driving” a hobby for a soccer-mom?
You can use these for actual, real transportation and going to work and getting groceries, and all of that.
Using the word “hobby” makes it sound like you sell toys. Other people hearing you describe it as “a hobby” means to them that they can make it illegal if it annoys them and it’s just a silly game. That’d be a pretty grave disservice to your customers and anyone who uses these as commute tools.
Components, Shipping, & Customer Service. But I’m only going to give my thoughts on Components
Components wise, you aren’t the only one selling them per-say. When things come form Maytech and Flipsky they aren’t automatically sold by retailers here on the forums. Usually they need to be community tested (whether by group buys or test groups from veteran builders) and members would report back on their findings. Personally, I would never buy form Flipsky or Maytech until after 6 months + after community test as the product usually has a few issues that are found by madmen like @longhairedboy.
From there I can see very important: First: Is the company serious about having a good product or a cheap product. Are they willing to improve, address issues, and not bullshit the community with marketing tactics that can be easily refuted here thanks to individuals like @Kug3lis?
Being a vendor is more than just selling products that we’re going to test eventually. It’s about bringing something to the table that incentivize trust. If your ganna sell these things, prove to us that these don’t have any issues maybe, maybe show us data, limitations , etc. Just my 2 cents
I don’t think it’s a terrible idea, but I’m worried that you want to sell quality products, and then state you will start with 6.6’s in the same sentence…
They have known issues. This kind of inside info is what people are paying to sort out for them, so they don’t end up with a a broken product.
You need to test a wide variety of parts to compare them to, so you can give your expert opinion to others.
As a business, people will look up to you for advice (whether it involves your products or not). Helping them, whether is sells them something today or not, is important to building a relationship, as they may be customers in the future.
Do you feel you have tried enough dd, hub motor, and satellite config drives to give expert advice about them?
Have you tried all three of the main battery technologies (lipo, li-ion, and li-iron phosphate) so can you give advice as to when which would be best?
Have you tried pneumatics and compared them to different urethane wheels?
Have you tried a variety of motor mounts and gear ratios?
Experience is the name of the game. Enertion was successful because of 2.5 factors: Mainly marketing and giving build advice to new builders (which was huge for his business), and the other half of a factor was supposedly high quality parts.
1 year is nothing in this game. Have you been going to meetups so you can try others setups?
Really, you need a new product that is missing from the scene right now that everybody will want. That will help launch you forward. If your business is solely reselling, your relying on others to make good stuff.
However, love your passion for eskating and hope to see you at a renegade event soon!
Agreed, though Ollin is in a league of his own. No one else does everything in house like him, no one. He’s a borderline genius IMO to be able to get all of the machines he has and to get to where he can use them so well to make high quality products. That it very hard to do.
I just wish I could convince him on hub motors… haha Hummie hubs + ollin board would be a hell of a collab!
Reselling mass market stuff is going to get you burnt as they race to the bottom price-wise on run-of-the-mill
Instead pick one component that you think you could conceivably design or improve on, either make or farm out the manufacturing, then expand product line
This is how the survivors and flourishers be doing it on here, you know their names
Maybe one thing that can help you to get some more ideas
Read through it and look what people thought are the innovations from this year and wishes for the next year.
It’s not only this forum here which are your potential customers, but here are a lot of people who can give you good connections and a good reputation if you sell quality stuff.
For this you need to be more active here.
1day of read time is just not enough.
Get in contact, be active in conversations, discuss your ideas, sent out prototypes and ask for reviews from trusted members.
All you need to know you can find here.
Probably the best way to start your business.
Next year we will hopefully see a lot of events.
Try to take part in some of them.
Meet members and vendors in person can be a big step up in your business.
Cooperation is a big thing in the diy scene.
To help each other, learn from each other and grow with each other.
