[Cacti]

no, a toaster is actually pretty simple lol.

the issue is that production at scale for millions of customers, for practically anything at all, is not simple. all of the things you point to are true, but they are true of many other goods and products.

also, you are assuming they need or care about profit.

[anmorgan]

Let me rephrase that. A toaster is functionally simple, but designing, engineering, manufacturing, and creating a business selling toasters is not.

Also I'm making the assumption it is for profit since they started off with "I'm wanting to start a business"

[kube-system]

Scaling for a million customers is the easy part.

Finding a million customers that want to pay a premium price for a product that your competitors make for 1/4 the price in another country is the hard part.

And if you plan for that scale and don't find the million customers, you now have a million dollar toaster.

[iancmceachern]

If they don't care about profit, it's not a business, it's a hobby.

[__d]

Not necessarily?

There's nothing to say that you need to make a profit. If all the employees are paid a decent amount, all your other costs are covered, and there's revenue unspent, you could just reduce the prices a bit.

The idea that any enterprise needs to make a profit (let alone an endlessly increasing profit) is a destructive fallacy.

[iancmceachern]

A profit is one thing. That's what I'm referring to. This is in fact necessary for a business that hopes to stay in business.

A ever increasing profit is another entirely, and I agree with you. I love the book "small giants, companies that choose to be great instead of big"