Donald R Campbell Wrote:
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> IMHO, the biggest competition are the store bought
> rods. It's hard to convince prospective clients
> that the custom rod has so much more performance
> for the price. I had a vendor tell me "if you
> can't make at least $100 per rod you won't be in
> business a year from now". I find the market is
> hard to support a $100 profit per rod and I buy
> everything at wholesale pricing and pass the
> components savings on to the customer. It is a
> very competitive market.



You should be making $100 profit on the parts alone on a higher end build like a NFC, SCIV or SCV. If people are balking at the price, they'll be happier with an OTC rod.

I have a SCV build right now that priced out about $100 more than the factory Legend Extreme that it's replacing. I had a deposit in 2 days. Don't manipulate your prices to compete with others or OTC rods. If you offer what they want, they will buy.

The quality of my product was not good enough.

Became impatient with the process and more concerned with the final product.

Hobby builders working space and tools.


I can repair my own rods now though. ;)

Adam

What is that to be meaning ??

Bill - willierods.com

There's been some good points raised so far. I'd like to answer the original question not from the viewpoint of why I can't sell my rods, but from a viewpoint of why I turn down some work...

For me, the most challenging thing to overcome is getting time on the water. I just don't get the opportunity to keep up with all the new trends and techniques. For instance, I wouldn't know where to begin if someone asked me to build them a technique specific rod like a shaky-head rod or a spey/switch rod. The success of my part-time rod builder business model is based on my word of mouth reputation. I turn away any build where I feel I don't have enough background knowledge to build a truly superior custom for the client. So far this year I've declined to build 4 rods for these reasons. If you develop a local or regional reputation as an expert in specific techniques people will find you and you'll be building the stuff you really know well and your reputation as an authority with those techniques will be passed on by your customers. I only build what I know very well and throughout the seasons of the year I often have a small backlog of work to keep me busy and motivated.

When I come up with a new approach or a truly innovative product comes to the market I'll let a few of my high profile customers field test it for me. This often generates lots of new sales. A great example of this concept was how many builders capitalized on the release of the Microwave guides building large numbers of rods. I feel it's very important to be on top of what my customers are hearing from other sources. I need to know about the latest reels and lines and how best to creatively use them.

I'd bet that if there was some way to assess the knowledge of rodbuilders, many or even most part-time builders knowledge base could be classified as wide but shallow. That's a tough way to form a competitive business. From a business standpoint I think it's easier to carve out a niche vs. the competition if your knowledge is narrower and deep, being a specialist - that's what builds your reputation and business quickly and effectively. Very few people have the skill and dedication to be truly great at just about everything rodbuilding - you can count their names on the fingers of both hands, don't make the mistake of trying to be everything to everyone, if you fall short that's certainly the recipe for reputational mediocrity.