My approach is to try to avoid the obvious "tinkerers" who are just messing around. I'll happily work with amateurs, but I have to believe that they are investe

My approach is to try to avoid the obvious "tinkerers" who are just messing around. I'll happily work with amateurs, but I have to believe that they are invested in getting something working and I also offer to buy the parts and provide them with a complete assembly for a fixed fee. The pickier I am about the project, the more likely it is to go smoothly. But I far prefer working with actual businesses because they just want an end result and won't try to dicker with me by pointing out how high my prices are and how much less "this guy on Guru.com" can do it for. The thing I truly love about the Arduino ecosystem is how fast it lets me put together those one-off projects. Things that would take weeks in "normal engineering" can be out the door in an evening. What I don't like about Arduino is that the focus on simplicity often comes with a huge cost in performance. Luckily, it's rarely been an issue.