David,
What would you say your biggest challenges were as both an individual and a company when you decided to go all in on making yoyos? How did you overcome them or deal with them?
Keep up the good work and and stay rad!
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When we first started making yoyo, quitting our day jobs was the scariest thing. Taking that leap.
The challenges never end, but in those early days some of the bigger challenges were:
- expanding our machine shop (expensive and scary to buy new machines)
- learning how to scale up all the aspects of running a yoyo business
One never ending challenge is vibe. We work so hard to make smooth yoyos and there is little room for error there. The expected standard is very high and I think it’s widely understood how difficult it is to make consistently smooth yoyos in large batches. The tolerance level is on par with aerospace.
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Wow I did not realize this. Very cool.
Loving this Q&A by the way. Fantastic.
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The tolerance window for the bearing post is .0002". that is 2 ten thousands of an inch. You cannot see this size with your eye. By comparison 1 human hair is .0035".
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It’s so hard… even harder when you make hand turned wooden yoyos. Maybe 1 in 4 turns out with an acceptable level of vibe.
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I was more curious into the business expansion part of it, as I’ve designed and produced parts with similar tolerances (never run the machine shop though so major kudos there). If you’re still around I’d love to hear what you think is a successful approach to getting a small business up off the ground.
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That’s a huge topic. I’ll say this: hire a tax accountant right at the beginning and make sure you do your books right. You need plenty of capital or as we did, be willing to work your business as a second job that you aren’t getting to do as a way of getting it off the ground.
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