Hey guys and gals. New to the forum. I am being asked to build numerous rods for a gentleman to give to his grandkids and have at the lake house for them. In the past 99% of my builds have been for personal use or friends and family. I have no idea what to charge the guy. What are some of you charging in general.

IMHO if the "kids" are not able to appreciate/use a custom rod I would advise the gentleman to buy off the rack rods. If there is really nothing special that meets specific fishing needs, save him some money. I have done this with several potential customers.

Ray Zarychta
Glastonbury, CT

We have talked about at I could this and he is adament about getting the kids custom rods. 1/2 dozen are teenagers and have their own rod/reel selections. He just wants to something special for all of them and definitely does not care about money. That being said I still do not want to rip him of on supplies/labor.

Lee,
It is pretty simple. How much do you want to make per hour?

Take your hourly rate, multiply it by the number of hours required to do the job and that is your starting rate. Make modifications from there as needed.

p.s. If working for family and close friends, and you don't work too quickly,. you might work for 50 cents an hour. If you are working for deep pocketed strangers and work quickly, you might be working for $50- $100 per hour.

Your choice.

p.s.
I was just in for a dental checkup. The fix required for my teeth will require a single appointment of 1.5 hours. The estimate for the work is $750 So that works out to be an hourly rate for the Dental service of $500 per hour.

Good luck

If it is pretty casual, and it sounds like it, then I would do it for about $50 a rod + the cost of components +10%. If it sounds like it may be a bit more involved like special request stuff then $100 a rod + Components + 10%.. That's pretty simple and it keeps you in a good price range. Sometimes you gotta ask yourself; is this a hobby or a bushiness? I would compare it to a drug dealer that sells drugs so he can use drugs. In that business it's not such a good idea but in ours it can work. Sometimes doing something you love as a business turns it into work and you may love the work and sometimes it ruins it.

Lance Schreckenbach Wrote:
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> If it is pretty casual, and it sounds like it,
> then I would do it for about $50 a rod + the cost
> of components +10%. If it sounds like it may be a
> bit more involved like special request stuff then
> $100 a rod + Components + 10%.. That's pretty
> simple and it keeps you in a good price range.
> Sometimes you gotta ask yourself; is this a hobby
> or a bushiness? I would compare it to a drug
> dealer that sells drugs so he can use drugs. In
> that business it's not such a good idea but in
> ours it can work. Sometimes doing something you
> love as a business turns it into work and you may
> love the work and sometimes it ruins it.
Thanks Lance. Everything that I have done up until now has just been the hobby. I normally just charge friends and family cost of materials. This gentleman came to me after seeing a few rods I did for a friend and inquired about it. I am not running a business but for a stranger I am going to get paid for the work. I like your math so I think I might go this route.

Just remember that rods can break and kids are more apt to break them. Might want to make sure you add plenty of money on the front end to take care of re-work for breakages issues. I surely would have a discussion about warranties, breakage and the cost incurred of re-working a rod, if you do not add anything on the front end.

I strongly agree with Bob. Also, if I charged $50 + 10% I would be working for less than minimum wage. It would take a lot more than that to get me into the potential hassles with warranty/broken rods/etc. Don't forget, you need to be paying the excise tax, too.

Look at it this way. How much would it cost grandpa if he took all His grand kids to McDonalds for lunch. The only thing left would be the toy from the Happy Meal.

Dennis J. Danku
(Sayreville,NJ)

I started building rods as gifts for Christmas and Birthdays and of course for myself. Now I have people asking for rods for them selves and as gifts for others. After putting some thought into it, I decided I would build rods for others and would only charge them $40 over cost. ( I always add another $10-$20 for epoxy tape brushes and such ). I do not want to make a business of it but for every 2 or 3 rods I do, I make a little money that gives me the funds to pay for my rods. This is a very expensive hobby that I really enjoy doing and its nice to have someone else pay for the materials now and then. I have even built rods for material cost only just to keep building. I do not offer any warranty when I build a rod for someone else but I have repaired a couple of them that have come back snapped in half. I guess I have an addiction going on here...:)