It is amazing me how much more effort it is to produce a product for sale than to just build something for fun. So far I’ve done all these things, none of which I would bother with for a hobby project:

1. Draw up schematic in Protel
2. Design PCB to fit the box
3. Find a suitable box for it
4. Find a good PCB manufacturer
5. Find best suppliers for the components
6. Get a prototype PCB made
7. Order parts
8. Build and test prototype board
9. Design and build chip programmer
10. Write boot loader and firmware update code
11. Test bootloader and firmware update app
12. Work out cost of parts and pricing of final product

But there’s still more to go:

1. Design drilling templates for the box
2. Write manufacturing procedure
3. Find some solution for easily making DB9-shaped holes
4. Design front panel artwork
5. Get front panel label manufactured
6. Register a domain name
7. Find a web host and set up a website for the product
8. Design web pages
9. Work out a good way to package the product
10. Write test procedure and/or automatic test software
11. Set up an online ordering and payment system
12. Write advertising copy and take photos of finished product
13. Buy some Google ad-words to promote the product
14. Set up customer support database and support forums

And probably more things I haven’t thought of yet!