Engineering Help for Free

[jacob-sapir]

Hi,

My name is Jacob, I'm an engineer specializing in Systems Automation, I aspire to create a business around it. In order to collect accurate market research data I offer my help for free so if any of you guys have things that are mind-numbing, error-prone, or time-consuming that you think could be automated or if you just want to vastly increase your production capabilities, let me know.

 

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[mdot]

Hi Jacob, welcome to the forum!

If you look around some threads you'll find other people getting after it and actively seeking out leads, making cold calls, emails etc. Are you pushing them same front or are you waiting for people to come to you? The decision could make or break your plans.

To answer the question, I design embedded electronics devices and I hate coordinating and tracking the purchase of parts especially when ordering for multiple different PCB designs.

 

[Bekit]

Hi,

My name is Jacob, I'm an engineer specializing in Systems Automation, I aspire to create a business around it. In order to collect accurate market research data I offer my help for free so if any of you guys have things that are mind-numbing, error-prone, or time-consuming that you think could be automated or if you just want to vastly increase your production capabilities, let me know.

Hi Jacob! Welcome to the forum.

What kind of market research are you wanting to do?

If you are looking for a problem to solve, offering your services for free is not the most direct way to go about doing that.

In that case, you might as well conduct your market research by getting a job. Then at least you will be getting paid. But think about all the systems engineers who are already employees working in the field who still don't know how to identify a proem that they could solve. It doesn't necessarily follow that you'll get much market research insight just by offering your services and doing work.

Sure, you will be solving a problem for the person who hired you, but that tends to be for a problem THEY have already identified.

On the other hand, if you are doing market research for a specific problem you've already identified, then I would expect your initial post to discuss a bit more of the specifics of what kind of client you are offering to help and the characteristics that would qualify someone to be the lucky recipient of your free services.

Bonus fastlane mindset tip:

You are undervaluing yourself by offering engineering services for free. You may want to check your underlying perception of your own self worth. By offering your services to the forum for free, you are essentially saying, "The baseline value of the skills and knowledge I bring to the table is $0." But that's not true. Look at the pay scale for people in your industry. How much do companies pay to hire someone like you? That will give you a sense of the monetary value of your services. Now, can you drop below the "going rate" and offer a deep discount just to get some clients and experience? Sure. But that should be temporary. Start thinking of your services as having value. It will be much harder to make money while you are undervaluing yourself. You'll always find someone who is happy to take advantage of that... But over time, it will leave you feeling frustrated and miserable and used. Also (and I speak from experience), the longer you remain in a mindset of undervaluing yourself and feeling like an impostor, the harder it is to start practicing thinking of your services as worth money (and fearlessly charging accordingly).

Hope this is helpful!

 

[jacob-sapir]

Hi Jacob, welcome to the forum!

If you look around some threads you'll find other people getting after it and actively seeking out leads, making cold calls, emails etc. Are you pushing them same front or are you waiting for people to come to you? The decision could make or break your plans.

To answer the question, I design embedded electronics devices and I hate coordinating and tracking the purchase of parts especially when ordering for multiple different PCB designs.

Thank you for your feedback mdot!

Actively seeking out leads is definitely something I need to work on also, I agree 100%.

Could you elaborate on what coordinating and tracking the purchase of parts for your PCB designs consist of?

 

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[jacob-sapir]

Hi Jacob! Welcome to the forum.

What kind of market research are you wanting to do?

If you are looking for a problem to solve, offering your services for free is not the most direct way to go about doing that.

In that case, you might as well conduct your market research by getting a job. Then at least you will be getting paid. But think about all the systems engineers who are already employees working in the field who still don't know how to identify a proem that they could solve. It doesn't necessarily follow that you'll get much market research insight just by offering your services and doing work.

Sure, you will be solving a problem for the person who hired you, but that tends to be for a problem THEY have already identified.

On the other hand, if you are doing market research for a specific problem you've already identified, then I would expect your initial post to discuss a bit more of the specifics of what kind of client you are offering to help and the characteristics that would qualify someone to be the lucky recipient of your free services.

Bonus fastlane mindset tip:

You are undervaluing yourself by offering engineering services for free. You may want to check your underlying perception of your own self worth. By offering your services to the forum for free, you are essentially saying, "The baseline value of the skills and knowledge I bring to the table is $0." But that's not true. Look at the pay scale for people in your industry. How much do companies pay to hire someone like you? That will give you a sense of the monetary value of your services. Now, can you drop below the "going rate" and offer a deep discount just to get some clients and experience? Sure. But that should be temporary. Start thinking of your services as having value. It will be much harder to make money while you are undervaluing yourself. You'll always find someone who is happy to take advantage of that... But over time, it will leave you feeling frustrated and miserable and used. Also (and I speak from experience), the longer you remain in a mindset of undervaluing yourself and feeling like an impostor, the harder it is to start practicing thinking of your services as worth money (and fearlessly charging accordingly).

Hope this is helpful!

Thanks a lot for Bekit, yes this is very helpful!

I do have experience in the industry, however, the kind of problems I've worked on are a bit too specific for what I want to do now (it was mostly related to the automation of model compliance relative to code generation processes so that the generated code could be embedded into various kind of target devices). So, being an employee working in the field who still doesn't know how to identify a problem that he could solve is exactly my current situation, you nailed it on this one!

I agree that I was too broad about the kind of problems I can solve, thank you for allowing me to be a bit more specific here:

The problem I'm trying to solve is creating tools for solopreneurs who do not know how to do it.

For example, for a copywriter, creating a copy generator that captures their own voice (most copy generators have predefined templates that are very generic) is something I can help them with. Another example is if someone is a low-content book publisher on KDP and wants to create tools to help with their keywords/niche research/book cover generation without losing control over how the tools work, I can help them do that.

Just to be clear about the way I'm willing to help (temporarily): I want to help people for free as long as I can bring them value in a way that is easy for me to do. I agree that if creating a tool takes weeks of work, I will not be able to do this for free. So when I say "free" it is effectively free, but I do get valuable market research data in exchange. Right now I think this exchange of value is fair because understanding people's issues is something I value greatly. But I do intend on gradually attributing more value to my services as soon as I have more data.

I fully agree that doing this long-term would make anyone feel frustrated and miserable and used.

Thanks again, don't hesitate to let me know if that makes sense!