An Ambitious Project

[jeremybuff]

Hi All.

I have an ambitious project that I would like to gather strength and participation for. I am looking to start a company such as ColorWare.

My vision is to create a community-owned and operated MB/MBP/iMac coloring operation that is affordable, unlike ColorWare. I have determined that there is a pretty large market for colored notebooks. What is everyone's thought about this? Would you invest in such an operation, or better yet, take an active part in it?

I'm not looking to profit as much from this as I am provide an awesome service.

 

[rdowns]

Wouldn't invest in it.
Wouldn't recommend it.
Wouldn't color a product I own.

Good luck though.

 

[r.j.s]

How would you color the aluminum?

 

[bartelby]

How would you color the aluminum?

Anodising?

 

[r.j.s]

Anodising?

He's looking to be cheaper than ColorWare.

 

[Surely]

Now's the perfect time to start a new business!

 

[jeremybuff]

Well there are other forms of applying color. ColorWare provides a colored laptop which will last for much longer than the laptop will be used, years and years and years. What's the point for that? I know that ColorWare's quality is amazing, but on average notebooks aren't used much more than 4-5 years. Sometimes they are, and in that case, the person would be making a much larger investment, hince the $500 colorware price.

There are methods that involve heat and small sheets of color. I have a few associates who do this to dirt bikes and ATVs. As you might imagine, an outdoor sports bike or atv would incur a lot of scratches and damage, yet the color stands up excellent. Not only is this method relatively cheap, it stands up.

 

[Shackler]

Now's the perfect time to start a new business!

Classic.

 

[mkrishnan]

I don't really understand the rationale for making a business that does something like paint Macs community owned. Co-ops work in situations where the customer has an ongoing need to support the business. Having your Mac painted is much more transactional. I don't really see the benefit in that.

Otherwise, if the fit and finish of the product is good, then perhaps the sheet applique approach you mentioned is a good one. What's your business case? How much up-front investment would you be making, and how many Macs would you have to paint before you would be cash-flow positive? If the business case works, why not give it a try?

Bear in mind several things, however....

- Colorware's pricing is in part because they assume warranty for the computer for the duration of Apple's warranty (unless this changed?). As your computers are probably not going to be fixed under warranty for Apple, you'd better be pretty upfront about whatever, if anything, you are offering in this regard.

- Low cost might sound good to you (and Colorware is pricey), but beware Mac customers and low cost. You've seen our Macbook / MBP forums, I presume? Those people who argue about whether they can see lines on their screens and whether their backlights are perfectly uniform are the same people to whom you're selling. They're probably not going to let you off the hook if your work is shoddy just because you charge less than Colorware does.

- That in mind, you also ought to have a plan for what happens if a dispute arises regarding a computer you paint -- damage in shipping is fine, as you can insure that, but what will you do if there is a dispute as to whether your work meets your stated or implied quality standards? What kind of guarantee will you give customers?

I think the latter two will be particularly important if you do this with a large geographical reach, i.e. marketing your service online.

 

[Sesshi]

Well there are other forms of applying color. ColorWare provides a colored laptop which will last for much longer than the laptop will be used, years and years and years. What's the point for that? I know that ColorWare's quality is amazing, but on average notebooks aren't used much more than 4-5 years. Sometimes they are, and in that case, the person would be making a much larger investment, hince the $500 colorware price.

There are methods that involve heat and small sheets of color. I have a few associates who do this to dirt bikes and ATVs. As you might imagine, an outdoor sports bike or atv would incur a lot of scratches and damage, yet the color stands up excellent. Not only is this method relatively cheap, it stands up.

I know what you're trying to do but you'll be in a position where you will probably end up becoming a skin business, because what you do there won't directly translate. There are skin companies already in business. It would be nice to see another one though... I find most of the designs dreck, and the DIY skin I tried came out looking pretty rough despite the quality of the original artwork.

"I'm not looking to profit as much from this as I am provide an awesome service."
From that statement alone I'd run a mile, to be honest with you - unless I thought I could definitely take advantage of that naive ethic and profit from it later.