I have a business opportunity but not sure what to think about it.

[tobnpr]

If they wanted to steal it, they could have just bought from you and done it. It’s a tale as old as time.

My exact thought as I began reading his post.

If you send them parts it won't take long for them to reverse engineer it and send it to the chinese to make and even if it is only 20 parts or so a month, they can get a lower unit cost and still make money while putting you out of business.

Same would hold true for the OP, no?
Subcontract the work, make the same or similar coin- win/win, and look for another niche to add to the product line (?)

 

[borges1]

Also who asks for freebees if they are a real business? its a write off. i mean come on. i buy stuff all the time to reverse engineer/improve/modify etc, plenty of it gets given away in the end or tossed or mangled. and im one dude in a tiny shop making cabinets. If you are legit and trying to improve i think buying other peoples stuff to see how it might make you better is a basic operating principle. You aren't some influencer sponsor hoping to go viral selling ten gazillion chinesium fidget widgets.

 

[Just for fun]

Do you need our want the extra work? Do you have the past they are looking for? If you don't need the extra work, tell them so. Tell them to refer people to your web site and you would be more then happy to sell them what they are looking for.

 

[mmcmdl]

Just checked their business out on google . Looks like a small outfit in Georgia . Not BBB accredited . Hmmmmm..........

 

[Flyinfool]

As mentioned, you are "retired" Do you want or need the extra work. Could this turn into a full time job with lots of overtime needed to meet demand? Then the "Fun" fades fast.

I would start with a call to them. get an idea of what they are willing to pay and what kind of quantity they are after. Agree to nothing over the phone. If you are still interested after the call then it is time to talk to a lawyer before anything else happens.

Remember, They will want and need to pay a lot less than you are currently selling for so that they can mark it up to your price and still make a profit. They can not buy at your price and compete with you and stay in business. They likely will want an agreement tat you will not sell for less than their selling price.

If they are really pushy for a freebee that is a big red flag.

 

[RJSakowski]

Lots of advice. I would add only this. Protecting intellectual property is always a problem and particularly for a small business. As has been said, for someone wanting to reverse engineer and steel your ideas, it would be a simple as buying the product and copying it. If they were really sneaky, they would have a third party do the purchase to isolate them from you. Several of the companies that I worked for in the past used similar tactics.

It is possible to avoid consequences of legal action buy acquiring a product of interest, having a third party tear it apart and write a complete set of specifications to be able to design the competing product from the specs, fire the engineering team, and have a second team design a product from the derived specs.

Assuming that you have no protection by virtue of patents or trademarks, your only protection would be trade secrets. We used trade secrets ot protect intellectual property regarding the manufacturing process as we felt that it would be virtually impossible to for someone to determine how the product was manufactured through reverse engineering. That probably wouldn't work well in your case.

I would suggest that you look into dealing with them but having a very strong non-compete/nondisclosure agreement in place. Whenever we dealt with a third party vendor, we had such agreements in place. Even the job shops that outsourced to. Such an agreement would accomplish two things; if they are truly interested in partnering with you, they will sign it. If their intent is to steel your design, they will balk at such an agreement. Of course, that doesn't mean that they won't try to buy you out at some time in the future. We had a small startup company with an innovative new product. We entered a supplier agreement with a Fortune 500 company. A few months later, they made an offer to buy out assets. We finally reached an agreement and sold for $13M. All of our employees, including the CEO and myself were hired by them as part of the technology transfer agreement and I was able to retire two years later from my share of the proceeds.

 

[Flyinfool]

Just checked their business out on google . Looks like a small outfit in Georgia . Not BBB accredited . Hmmmmm..........

The place in GA is Shift Works Inc. It is a transmission repair shop. This place is called Shiftworks and is located in NY.

 

[mmcmdl]

The place in GA is Shift Works Inc. It is a transmission shop. This place is called Shiftworks and is located in NY.

I also just saw Ontario Canada ? OH , edit . Ontario NY ! Coffee isn't done yet .

 

[higgite]

If they were really sneaky, they would have a third party do the purchase to isolate them from you. Several of the companies that I worked for in the past used similar tactics.

"Joe" could be the third party, too. Just saying.

Tom

 

[mmcmdl]

Why would a company that specializes in transmission and shifters with a 68 Caprice be asking these questions anyway ? If they have issues with their supplier , that's their issue . If they aren't able to make these , they obviously don't have the machines or the knowledge to do so .