Most of these columns have been about the struggles invloved in getting a manufacturing business off the ground. To keep the creditors away from my door, I've had to maintain my engineering services business. Besides trying to grow Technacraft, I also have done contract design, prototyping and small-quantity electronic module builds. Many (if not most) of the new businesses started these days are service businesses. They come with thier own set of problems.

I get involved in some strange (to me) projects. Many of these are quite ill-defined at the beginning and the final product may not resemble what I thought it would be when I started. Moving targets are nothing new to engineers. Many times it is the engineer who's guilty of changing the specs. I know that I am. I call it the "Wait! There's a better way to do this!" syndrome. Usually it's project deadlines that call for a halt to changing the design.

Some of the people who seek my services are not sure exactly what they want. They know what they want their widget to do, but beyond that, it's up to me to make it work. Here is where you can do yourself the most good or the most harm. It is critical that you get down on paper the important specifications for the design. This is totally basic, but unless you ask all the right questions, something important may be missed.

I've done it myself. In the excitement of starting a new design for an enthuiastic customer, I have failed to ask some basic questions. I'm now in the process of making a list of things to review with a customer so that he and I both know the details of a project or the overlooked specifications of a product. Many customers won't know the specifications required (temperature, vibration, shelf life, etc.) and part of my job is to tell my client what these need to be.

I recently designed a product that my customer told me would be used on baseball fields. The only temperature "spec" I was given was that it "maybe should work to 20 degrees". Imagine my surprise when I found out that it may have to work on an ice rink in the dead of winter in Minnesota! I'm scrambling now to upgrade the design. Shame on me for not asking the right questions up front!

If you are operating or contemplating starting a service business, remember to get all the information you need in the beginning. It could prevent the Project from Hell.