It's not how much you make on each tool.
It' how many units that are sold.
It's how much advertising you have to do.
It's having to spend the time to teach the concepts.
It's having to replace units that have been mishandled.
It's having the tools copied making fewer orders.
How many signs get made that are $3 worth of plastic for $30 or more? How often? How often do they get copied?
just my deranged unpopular opinion, but if you are selling a $3 pile of plastic for $100, and your $120k in the hole, maybe you need to make a model that prints money.
When I first started marketing the tools, I was a bit apprehensive about the simplicity and the acceptance in the market place. I sold enough to think that it had a chance of success. After 5 years I'm not so sure. I more than doubled the number of distributors for the BS last fall but, the reorders have been pretty slim as a result of the economy.
I can see now that I made some mistakes. Displaying them at sign conventions is one of them. Money would have been better spent on other types of advertising.
I do have some new inventions that I need to figure out how I can make money on. The lessons learned on the BS marketing will surly help. Thank god they have nothing to do with sign making!
Thanks to all that have given me support on this thread!