Having help

These days I have help.

Because I live in a small farming town, there's a pool of people who are prepared to work hourly doing repetitive tasks. I can pay them significantly more than their other jobs, and in exchange I avoid doing the repetitive parts of the production process. Both my current helpers also work for local farms and businesses part time. They come in for a few hours a week and help with assembly and packing.


Last week another 10K of electric dollar store items came in. The PCBs are made by Boktech, and they arrive pbaled up like this. This is the second 10K batch to go out (yes Electric Dollar Store sales have passed the 10K mark). These boards have a fancy ENIG finish and black silkscreen, so they're a little more stylish than the first batch. I tested them, then a helper did everything else.


This week we're also finishing up another 1K batch of I2CDrivers. Another helper has already finished the assembly steps and they are ready to be packed with the cable set and bagged.

But the main benefit of having paid help for a one-person business is subtle. It prevents you from doing doing low-value things. Instead it forces you to focus on the stuff that only you can do. This afternoon Marissa is coming in to finish the latest batch of I2CDrivers. So I won't be running the bag sealer (it's always tempting, because it's a lot of fun) and instead I plan to work on improving the live display of the I2CDriver GUI. That's a much better use of my time.

Thanks for reading.