I said over a year ago I wasn’t posting here anymore, but I guess it’s time…
It’s no secret that I’m behind. I’m at least a year behind, some orders even further. I have cues sitting here that need just a few hours work to be finished up that have been sitting for a long time. Sometimes, there’s just a small issue that needs to be addressed and I end up putting it aside and neglecting to get back to it. I will start working at getting those out immediately.
When I started building cues, I loved it. I couldn’t wait to get to the next one. Then people started ordering cues. All of a sudden I had a stockpile of orders. I have taken very few orders in the last year or two by choice. I’m trying to get caught up and don't need more of a backlog.
When I first started getting orders, I had one child and she was in daycare full time. Now, I have 3. I am responsible for getting them to school, picking them up and watching them on days off. I am also the one to stay home with them if they are sick. With two in daycare, that seems to happen a lot.
When we had our third child, my wife’s parents came from Japan and stayed with us for over a year to take care of the kids. That sounded like a great idea, but they really couldn’t handle them and I ended up watching them most of the day. For that year, I got almost nothing done.
I also had (still have) another business to maintain. That business made a lot of money and paid the bills. The cues were just fun. That started to suffer when the economy went south and my partner and I didn’t put as much time into it as we should have. That has started to pick back up over the last several months, but it is not even close to where it used to be 5 or 6 years ago. That no longer covers my bills, so I must rely on the cues to do that. Unfortunately, I’m not finishing them fast enough. My other business still takes priority over cue building.
My current work schedule is I get up at 4am and work until I have to get the kids ready for school and daycare. Once they’re all in place, I go back to work until it’s time for me to get them. My days are short. Mondays and Fridays, the kids stay home from daycare and all 3 will be home during the summer.
By the time the kids get to bed at night, I am ready for bed myself. I work weekends when I can, but that’s not every weekend. This weekend, I was up at 4 and worked until 4 or 5 both days. My days are short and I don’t see them getting any longer until my kids are all in school full time.'
I only started getting up at 4 recently, but have accomplished a lot during that time, so I will continue to work with that schedule. I am not going to be caught up overnight, but I will get there. Once I am, I don’t know if I will ever take another order. It was a lot more fun when I could just build what I wanted.
I have almost all of the cues on order in the works. Many are to the point that all they need are inlays, which is what takes the majority of the time. As for progress pictures, I don’t take very many. I doubt that is going to change, but I will try to do a little bit better in it. It slips my mind when I’m working and when I’m done working, I’m running around like crazy the rest of the day.
There are a couple of cues going out today and tomorrow and more that are supposed to go out at the end of the week. They all may not make it, but if they don’t, it’s not because I didn’t work on them. It will be because I ran out of time.
Starting next week, I will update my facebook page on Monday with what I am working on. Every week, I will start with the oldest order I have and work on that until it’s finished, as well as work on getting the ones that just need a few minutes of work out the door. As far as I can remember Robert Urbanowski is my oldest order (I think there is one older, but I need to get some info from the Buyer), so as of next Monday, I will begin the inlays on his cue and post a few photos on facebook.
I know that’s not going to satisfy everybody, but it’s the best I can do. I’m not going anywhere and not looking to rip anybody off. I am just behind (way behind). Hopefully this can put some people’s fears to rest. If you spent a day at my house, you would see that it is very hectic. My kids are little and take a lot of my time. In fact, I started typing this when my wife was leaving for her office at 7 and it's 9:15 now.
I don’t regret having to care for my kids. What I regret is getting the brilliant idea one day that I would like to try and build a pool cue for myself. Anybody looking to get into this business should think long and hard about it. Very few will be successful. I am probably one of the lucky ones in that I have had some success, but don’t confuse that with striking it rich. You can probably make more money working at McDonalds than building cues.
To address a few other comments…
1. I don’t ask for full payment up front. I ask for a 25% deposit. There are some cues that are not delivered that are paid in full. Some because the Buyer helped me out for whatever reason and some because the Buyer just paid me without asking.
2. I build all of my clues by myself. I don’t know where Tank69 gets the idea that I don’t, but that’s complete bullshit. I have never used a forearm made by somebody else. I have never even built a conversion. I refuse every order I get where the customer wants to supply the blank. I’d like to know who’s cues you think look similar to mine? I also don’t build parts for other builders.
I don’t spend a lot of time reading things on AZ and I likely won’t post in this thread again. My PM’s are off on this site. If you have questions, then email me or call me. I miss most calls, but try to call back as soon as I can. Do not text me. I won’t reply.
