"Telstar Electronics" wrote...

They'll know that I have a very small company. I don't see a thing
wrong with that.

Nothing wrong with a small company, but you have to use your
advantages... you can be damn sure your large competitors will
use theirs.

They can bulk buy to reduce costs, they can throw big money at
big advertising. They can even take a loss just to wipe out the
competition. They can hold out longer than the small guy then,
once he has gone, they can bang the prices up even further.

If they don't like that... nothing I can do about it.

If you don't believe that you can win people over, then you
had best give up now.

You can do nothing about the big business advantages and image,
but you can use your small business advantages.
If you are unwilling to do that, then why should the customer
not simply take the cheaper product from the well known big
guy? What are you offering that he doesn't?

Dont say "quality"... how long has it been since CBers gave a
flying sh1t about quality rather than price?

Items are often discontinued by a manufacturer when their profit
margin becomes unacceptable in the marketplace.

All products are subject to the life cycle concept.
Initially, they would have been selling it at a huge profit. Then, as
the market slowed, they would have dropped to a reasonable profit.
By the time it is discontinued, it should have made plenty of money
for them.

Why should I continue to offer a product that I can't make
a reasonable profit on?

You shouldn't, but did you properly consider profit margin from
the beginning? It must be remembered that time is money and,
if you designed the product, design time is cost that has to be
recovered long before discontinuing the product.


Do you run a business?

Not at the moment, but I have and I am considering going down
that route again. But not on the basis of a single product,
unless it was an incredible product that would have a wide
appeal to a mass market.
CB products simply don't come anywhere near. Not that I
wouldn't want to offer them, just that I wouldn't pin the
survival of the business on them.


Regards,
Peter.
http://www.citizensband.radiouk.com/