Kevin Varney news....no more orders.

Varney Cues

Varney Cues

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Hello everyone. I'll try to be brief. Family issues required me to travel a bit and then on top of that my pc died. I have returned now & have a computer pieced together until my new one arrives shortly. I've already shipped out many of the repairs I had & a few cues have shipped as well. Give me some time & I'll get my pm box cleared a bit later today.
OK....now for the news. I've decided that Kevin Varney Custom Cues will no longer accept custom orders or do repairs on other than Varney cues. This is due to the fact that I'm simply too busy. Being a 1 man shop and working on well over 200 cue orders is my limit. When new cues are ordered I try to get them together so I can begin the slow process of building them correctly & slowly turning them to size. Doing this just takes too much time away from working on cues that are already started. So...from now on I will not accept new orders & will work only on the cues already due. This seems to me to be the only possible way I can catch up to my ever increasing backlog. For all those who have cues ordered...relax...I haven't gone anywhere. All cues will be delivered. There are several almost complete that will ship this week & I'll post pics in the Gallery for all to enjoy. Thank you everyone for your patience. I've recently had several business offers for partners, more equipment, and several employees. I've declined these offers as I'd rather stay a 1 man shop and keep the quality control to my standards. I do have several cues in the works that no one has seen & are not spoken for....so I will very occasionally have a few listed for sale. I realize everyone wants their cue yesterday and I apologize for the delay. I am working as hard as God & my family will allow. Thank you again to all who support me. :)
 
Varney Cues said:
Hello everyone. <<snipped>> Thank you again to all who support me. :)
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Whew... thanks for coming back! :D
Hope I helped a little in relaying everything for you. You must be sick of talking to me by now. :p
 
I order you...to change a diaper!

Glad to hear you are busy...don't forget to plan for your 2nd million$!
 
After seeing your repair work, I can only say that I'm happy that mine is completed before your change in business. I can't say that I understand the move, but perhaps doing your own cues makes for a more even life. I wish you the best.

tim
 
I question the work of a man if his priorities aren't right. Glad to see yours are in order.
I'm sorry to see you closing down some operations, but family first.
 
cool

Varney Cues said:
Hello everyone. I'll try to be brief. Family issues required me to travel a bit and then on top of that my pc died. I have returned now & have a computer pieced together until my new one arrives shortly. I've already shipped out many of the repairs I had & a few cues have shipped as well. Give me some time & I'll get my pm box cleared a bit later today.
OK....now for the news. I've decided that Kevin Varney Custom Cues will no longer accept custom orders or do repairs on other than Varney cues. This is due to the fact that I'm simply too busy. Being a 1 man shop and working on well over 200 cue orders is my limit. When new cues are ordered I try to get them together so I can begin the slow process of building them correctly & slowly turning them to size. Doing this just takes too much time away from working on cues that are already started. So...from now on I will not accept new orders & will work only on the cues already due. This seems to me to be the only possible way I can catch up to my ever increasing backlog. For all those who have cues ordered...relax...I haven't gone anywhere. All cues will be delivered. There are several almost complete that will ship this week & I'll post pics in the Gallery for all to enjoy. Thank you everyone for your patience. I've recently had several business offers for partners, more equipment, and several employees. I've declined these offers as I'd rather stay a 1 man shop and keep the quality control to my standards. I do have several cues in the works that no one has seen & are not spoken for....so I will very occasionally have a few listed for sale. I realize everyone wants their cue yesterday and I apologize for the delay. I am working as hard as God & my family will allow. Thank you again to all who support me. :)
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That's all i needed. Thanks for the update.

Craig
 
LoGiC said:
I question the work of a man if his priorities aren't right. Glad to see yours are in order.
I'm sorry to see you closing down some operations, but family first.
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AMEN!!!!on that
 
YOu know Im sorry to hear Kevin that your having to stop doing something you enjoy..but I am so glad you are blessed with the orders you have. It is a testement to your kindness and faith. You keep turning wood buddy..everything else will work its way out... im glad i got my varney years ago hahaha..I have to beat everyone away from it during our local Richmond tournament breaking contest..
 
Varney Cues said:
Hello everyone. I'll try to be brief. Family issues required me to travel a bit and then on top of that my pc died. I have returned now & have a computer pieced together until my new one arrives shortly. I've already shipped out many of the repairs I had & a few cues have shipped as well. Give me some time & I'll get my pm box cleared a bit later today.
OK....now for the news. I've decided that Kevin Varney Custom Cues will no longer accept custom orders or do repairs on other than Varney cues. This is due to the fact that I'm simply too busy. Being a 1 man shop and working on well over 200 cue orders is my limit. When new cues are ordered I try to get them together so I can begin the slow process of building them correctly & slowly turning them to size. Doing this just takes too much time away from working on cues that are already started. So...from now on I will not accept new orders & will work only on the cues already due. This seems to me to be the only possible way I can catch up to my ever increasing backlog. For all those who have cues ordered...relax...I haven't gone anywhere. All cues will be delivered. There are several almost complete that will ship this week & I'll post pics in the Gallery for all to enjoy. Thank you everyone for your patience. I've recently had several business offers for partners, more equipment, and several employees. I've declined these offers as I'd rather stay a 1 man shop and keep the quality control to my standards. I do have several cues in the works that no one has seen & are not spoken for....so I will very occasionally have a few listed for sale. I realize everyone wants their cue yesterday and I apologize for the delay. I am working as hard as God & my family will allow. Thank you again to all who support me. :)
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What you are going to discover, is you won't make one less dollar then you are making now with a 1000% less aggravation. You can't just keep writing orders that as you write them you have no idea when you can honestly deliver the cue. As time goes by you will I am sure take some orders from people you choose, but not make the same mistake again, you became a victim of your own success. You are making a very good business decision, continuing as you have been was a sure recipe for disaster. I bet tonight may be the first time in a long time you get a good night sleep now that you are taking action and have a plan.
 
FYI- Boxes under my name I could care less about. Red rep the piss out of me, I don't care. Anyone who pushed for their cue and decided to red rep me for supporting a man who supports his family over pool can jump off a cliff. You wonder why the pool community is shunned? Reasons why are some of us come off as unreasonable. Life throws you twists, let it go, you live longer with less stress.
 
ribdoner said:
KV,

Good call!! Your professional life will be much more pleasant.
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I agree 100%. I've been to both of KV's shops and its amazing it looks like a wood museum. I have no clue how he keeps track of everything. I just like to walk around and look at the cues and woods until Kev growls "don't touch that!". I build custom furniture but I get to pick my projects. I used to try to build what ever anyone would want and I spent entire days just dealing with customers. Now I build what I like and it sells just as well and you eliminate a lot of hassles. I'm not against having a less stressful life and having more time to spend with family.
 
Varney Cues said:
Hello everyone. I'll try to be brief. Family issues required me to travel a bit and then on top of that my pc died. I have returned now & have a computer pieced together until my new one arrives shortly. I've already shipped out many of the repairs I had & a few cues have shipped as well. Give me some time & I'll get my pm box cleared a bit later today.
OK....now for the news. I've decided that Kevin Varney Custom Cues will no longer accept custom orders or do repairs on other than Varney cues. This is due to the fact that I'm simply too busy. Being a 1 man shop and working on well over 200 cue orders is my limit. When new cues are ordered I try to get them together so I can begin the slow process of building them correctly & slowly turning them to size. Doing this just takes too much time away from working on cues that are already started. So...from now on I will not accept new orders & will work only on the cues already due. This seems to me to be the only possible way I can catch up to my ever increasing backlog. For all those who have cues ordered...relax...I haven't gone anywhere. All cues will be delivered. There are several almost complete that will ship this week & I'll post pics in the Gallery for all to enjoy. Thank you everyone for your patience. I've recently had several business offers for partners, more equipment, and several employees. I've declined these offers as I'd rather stay a 1 man shop and keep the quality control to my standards. I do have several cues in the works that no one has seen & are not spoken for....so I will very occasionally have a few listed for sale. I realize everyone wants their cue yesterday and I apologize for the delay. I am working as hard as God & my family will allow. Thank you again to all who support me. :)
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kev, i know exactly where you're coming from buddy
i've almost been expecting to get some heat on here for delays also
fortunately, SO FAR, i have been lucky to have some very patient and understanding customers, a credit to them and thier knowledge of this business and i'd like to thank them now
believe me when i say , no one feels worse about not fullfilling an expected completion date than i do.
i got caught in the same predicament of starting too many and , as everybody knows, i've really been concentrating on the butterflies, and all the jigs necessary for those, and adding new tooling to my shop and so on and so on, the emailing back & forth, the pm's, all takes time. way too much time.and before you know it, the day is shot to hell.
not to mention just having a somewhat normal life with family and friends

i have made the mistake in the past of trying to do more than i am capable of doing and all you end up doing is going backwards, getting farther behind and driving yourself nuts over it
all i can possibly hope for, is that those customers are happy they waited and very satisfied with the end result
i'm one of the most impatient people on earth
i'm glad my customers are not
i've met some really nice people here on az, EPT, southern billiards, etc.
and i hope they will always feel the same about me,
even if there cue is 6 months late :rolleyes:






 
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BHQ said:
kev, i know exactly where you're coming from buddy
i've almost been expecting to get some heat on here for delays also
fortunately, SO FAR, i have been lucky to have some very patient and understanding customers, a credit to them and thier knowledge of this business and i'd like to thank them now
believe me when i say , no one feels worse about not fullfilling an expected completion date than i do.
i got caught in the same predicament of starting too many and , as everybody knows, i've really been concentrating on the butterflies, and all the jigs necessary for those, and adding new tooling to my shop and so on and so on, the emailing back & forth, the pm's, all takes time. way too much time.and before you know it, the day is shot to hell.
not to mention just having a somewhat normal life with family and friends

i have made the mistake in the past of trying to do more than i am capable of doing and all you end up doing is going backwards, getting farther behind and driving yourself nuts over it
all i can possibly hope for, is that those customers are happy they waited and very satisfied with the end result
i'm one of the most impatient people on earth
i'm glad my customers are not
i've met some really nice people here on az, EPT, southern billiards, etc.
and i hope they will always feel the same about me,
even if there cue is 6 months late :rolleyes:






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Here are some suggestions for those who still would do repairs. First of all, you are God's children for fixing the screwups of others. And/or putting up with us experimentalists who continually seek the perfect hit.

- If you collect the whole estimated bill upfront, you really do owe it to a customer to let them know what's going on. Most times, a simple "more time needed" or a quick TFC will do the trick. You could even do an AOL chat with customers....all at one time at an off hour....like Sunday AM early.

- If space and holding cash is a problem, make repair spaces available similar to motorcycle repair. Every two weeks, book a safe number of repairs so that you can plan out your week's work. Tell customers to send repairs on a timely basis with the estimated bill. No exceptions. This will minimize storage in your shop as well as planned cash flow. Customer is happy as their cue is not at your shop for weeks on end without being worked on. When budgeting time, use a multiple of 1.5 times the estimate.

There are a million other suggestions, but these are the most important. Oh, and you need a high schooler or an old timer to volunteer to help out with administrative tasks. Like shipping. A free cue a year would probably satisfy most helpers.


I know this sounds like a "its so easy" speech, and I know its not. I'm just wondering out loud if there are ways to make it easier.

tim
 
stikapos said:
Here are some suggestions for those who still would do repairs. First of all, you are God's children for fixing the screwups of others. And/or putting up with us experimentalists who continually seek the perfect hit.

- If you collect the whole estimated bill upfront, you really do owe it to a customer to let them know what's going on. Most times, a simple "more time needed" or a quick TFC will do the trick. You could even do an AOL chat with customers....all at one time at an off hour....like Sunday AM early.

- If space and holding cash is a problem, make repair spaces available similar to motorcycle repair. Every two weeks, book a safe number of repairs so that you can plan out your week's work. Tell customers to send repairs on a timely basis with the estimated bill. No exceptions. This will minimize storage in your shop as well as planned cash flow. Customer is happy as their cue is not at your shop for weeks on end without being worked on. When budgeting time, use a multiple of 1.5 times the estimate.

There are a million other suggestions, but these are the most important. Oh, and you need a high schooler or an old timer to volunteer to help out with administrative tasks. Like shipping. A free cue a year would probably satisfy most helpers.


I know this sounds like a "its so easy" speech, and I know its not. I'm just wondering out loud if there are ways to make it easier.

tim
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Tim, you're hired. when can you be here??? ;)
 
BHQ said:
Tim, you're hired. when can you be here??? ;)
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Don't tempt me! Especially if I get all my repairs done first!

Another idea could be to gather an association of cuemakers (all with different specialties) who would do repairs.....spread out the work.....and use someone else to schedule it all out so that the profit margins remained healthy. My real point here is that cue repairs are like the guy who drops a quarter in an outhouse. Most times, he'll pull out a five and drop it down the hole cause its not worth it to go after just the quarter.....

tim
 
god bless kevin , i told everyone you were handling family first, i hope all is well and pray for a better year ahead. that is why i never emailed or pmed ,because i TRUST you . take care eric
 
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