if that stuff bothers you joey,
im guessing your on a jet plane heading east to get away from the fallout now?:thumbup:
Full time cue builder
- Thread starter Trent
- Start date
im guessing your on a jet plane heading east to get away from the fallout now?:thumbup:
Hi Dick,
You make a good point. A lot of the 12 weeks however was dedicated to setting up my shop and equipment in the new location. I am sure you know how much time that takes to do it right.
All of my sales have come through people who have come to my shop and bought cues and I also have 3 custom build orders on the bench and have (13) 4 pt. and 5 pt. cues under construction. I am well connected with the local pool community and people do know me.
In my last business (commercial diving) my first years revenue was only $ 65,000.00. 21 years later I had a business with sales over 4,000,000.00 per annum and I sold that business to a multi-billion dollar corporation in France who came knocking on my door due to the reputation of my brand in the industry. If I had been disappointed with my first years sales and quit, I would never have built that business and ended up with the big payout at the closing of the business sale.
I agree that cue repair work makes more revenue per hour than cue making. I am still doing that out of the pool hall on league nights on a small machine still in the back room.
If you are not making enough money building cues, I would advise you to raise your prices or quit doing it. If you are building a great cue there is no reason to offer cheap prices even in this economy. Your cues in my opinion are way under priced. I am not saying if someone walks in your shop and offers you $ 800.00 for a cue that you shouldn't take the money. I am saying that pricing cues on the internet makes a statement about your value and brand.
There are guys on this forum that are selling cues for 1,800.00 that are making them on Hightower lathes. I know what type of shop and plant equipment you are running and you are a very experience machinist with a lot of talent.
When I recently went full time I did not think I would get the response I did. Although it is not a lot of money I have earned, it is a positive start. I can only hope to build from here.
I am lucky not to have as high an overhead as you and that is a very big factor.
All of my cues are fully cored, have 4.0 oz. or greater parabolic tapered shafts, with a compound tapered butt. It is my strategy to build my cues as forward weighted stiff hitting units. By promoting these engineering attributes I hope to gain customers who share this niche in the market. I don't want to be all things to all people. David Paul Kershenbrock and Omega DPK cues is the genre that I have tried to emulate and have also tried to make subtle improvement in form as well as function.
It is my ultimate goal to sell my cues to overseas dealers as that is where you can maximize your potential as the dealers mark up allows both the cue maker and the dealer to benefit.
It makes no sense not to be optimistic. If getting to the 1% of the cue makers is the goal, you must raise the bar and be determined to join that club.
If you have to work 16 hours a day for 7 days a week you might want to rethink your business plan.
Rick G
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Anyone has an easier way to convince this guy to make cues full time, please speak up NOW . !!! the OP is desparate
true, i wouldnt recommend my scenario to my worst enemy
not that i have any enemies :thumbup:
The simplest and final answer as to why I went to building cues full time is " I loved building cues, I knew about how to do it, and I could finally afford it." I still do and I still can.