How's business?

[Corporate666]

OT a bit for electronics, but I am curious how everyone is doing in 2014, so far, business wise?

If you are an employee of someone else, how is your employer doing?  If you are self employed, how is your business going?  And if you have "something on the side" (business!  not women!) how is it going?

I'm always curious to see what others are seeing out there on the battlefield. 

For us, 2007 was still our best year... 2008 was down 30%... 2009 down about another 20%.  Then we treaded water from 2010-2011.  2012 was up a bit, but due to a monumental effort in getting new products done, increasing sales channels, etc.  And frustratingly, 2013 was quite a bit down from 2012.

But 2014... it's like the whole industry is on fire.  I am selling now in a week what I sold in a month or even two months last year.  We're having a difficult time keeping up. 

I am not sure if it's just us or if the whole market has picked up.  We manufacture stuff for the automotive/powersports industry but also have been developing some home/commercial lighting products.  The latter hasn't really taken off yet but the automotive stuff is going nuts!

[ampdoctor]

Pure shit! Working in the pro audio arena, I get several one-off cash cows every year but repairs and service has always been my bread and butter. The last few years even that's been slipping with the deluge of one hung lo manufactured equipment hitting the market. While, musicians and studios have always tended to be fairly tight assed, and I'm used to that, a LOT if not most of them these days seem to operate on the principle of "I'll buy a 250 dollar amplifier, ride it till it implodes in a year then go out and buy another one because it's cheaper than having something decent repaired." I suspect that this has less to do with a weak economy and more to do with consumers thinking short term and a near complete industry market saturation driving profit margins to nearly zero.

[BravoV]

Hey Corporate666, glad to hear that, hope things will getting even better. 

[Rory]

I'm amazed I have a job. My company was acquired by a major player and my whole division was spun off to a separate company not connected to the acquisition. Went from 250 employees to ... 8 including the CEO. The entire focus changed to a different market, and because of that I was turned into a one-man full blown R&D department.

[rexxar]

I work at the public library, and last year was our best year ever, and this one is turning out even better. We're doing so well, in fact that the board has decided to lower the tax rate by 6% (we're funded from city taxes). I've been drafted into the children's department, and they've got me running around to all the schools to teach kids about electronics.

On the side, I'm about halfway done with my first project that I'm actually going to be selling!

[TheBorg]

On the side, I'm about halfway done with my first project that I'm actually going to be selling!

Details, please! 

[dexters_lab]

have seen a small pickup in work over the last 8 months or so (manufacturing electric blinds (shades) in the UK)

[Skimask]

Side/spare-time business doing PC repair, networking, electronic-able type stuff, etc...
~$20K+ for Q1/2014, for 75.5 hrs of actual on-site work, 205 hrs (and subtract $2K for expenses) if you include drive times/costs, paperwork time, client hunting time, researching, etc.
Not as good as other quarterly totals for the past couple years, but up there in the top ten.

[VK3DRB]

Niche electronics industries we are doing quite well in Australia. Especially medical where we have the the innovation, experience and trust to produce top quality products.

Also there are other niche industries doing really well here, like fire and security.

2014 seems as busy as heck. I hope it stays that way for many years to come.

Recently Altuim  sent most of their R & D to communist China. 

[Radio Tech]

I work a full time job, no electronics involved. (Fork Lift industry)
But my part time business did very well in 2013.
In fact it doubled it's income. Bad thing is I am turning work down.
Maybe time to hire a part timer.