The first step involves locating the chemicals and products for the specific technology you want to explore. With the internet this is rather easy. But actually making contact with the companies that sell the products is not. Most of them just will not answer their emails, never mind a phone call. It is best to contact small companies owned by one person. There are times too when I find that what I want just doesn’t exist. So I am left with the chore of discovering the correct chemicals that are suited to my application. Next I must acquire samples. At times such are very expensive because that is how the chemical company makes their profit. So a small 4 ounce sample could cost one to two hundred bux. Pricing is therefore critical. Next is the availability. A chemical manufacturer might supply me the correct sample which works very well when tested. But how many 55 gallon drums do we have to buy before it becomes economical? Or will they even sell it at all even at a single drum? Then they might refer me to another company that buys from them who will sell a single gallon but not for anything less then ten times the cost of a gallon if bought by the 55 gallon drum.
Another concern is the amount of time taken to actually go out unto the field and perform the experiments which define the product and or technology. This is usually something that must be done several times. It is almost like I were developing a new product for the marketplace. In fact it is most times identical to that.
Then once developed all of the information must be put down in writing and made available in the form of a newsletter that can be sent as a PDF by email. This is usually easy to do with the right program. But it still takes several hours to write. Then It takes time on the computer to send and to also send out the invoices. Which must be tabulated.
Recognizing that I am serving a micro-niche market it requires much writing on a blog, forums, and FB pages to generate the interest. My simple formula since I also clean windows is to ask myself if I would personally use the product/technology. So I have customers that I can try out certain things on. I also have window cleaners scattered about that will beta-test what I develop. I completely trust these people. Since most of them know even more than I do. Their experience is therefore very valuable.
So there you have it. The business of writing a technical newsletter is actually rather time consuming and expensive. It is a lot of work. But VERY satisfying. I love discovering new products and technologies. And I really really love show and tell which I can now do over the internet using YouTube.
I hope you all enjoy what I am doing. Although I know not all of you will. But if enough of you do it will help me to continue. This business will likely take a full year before it becomes a living breathing animal. But I am very willing this time around, to wait on it, and continue to work at it, until that time.
Henry
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