Ive recently began making custom rods and really enjoy doing it. Can anybody tell me about doing it professionally. How viable is it to make a living on custom rods?

Income, typical orders, etc?

You can become very rich as a full time rodmaker, it just depends on what you consider "rich". For me, it's being able to put food on the table but mostly the simple satisfaction that I love what I do everyday. Having my family by my side through it all and meeting some of the best people in the world also makes it very worthwhile.

If you can keep your overhead reasonable (hard to do in a big city), and spend your energy on making and advertising a superior product, then it is viable to make an honest living. I will admit that most of my customers make a lot more money than I do. I have never had the financial freedom to buy $1000 rods but I'm not my customer.

I think most rod makers will agree that repeat and word of mouth business is the only thing that will keep you alive. Repair and restoration work is also a big part of some rod makers annual incomes. I have partnered with shops all over the US to be their bamboo rod guy. I offer repair and restoration services to them at a wholesale price and they can pass the savings on to loyal customers or make a profit if they choose to.

Like any self employed type of business, expect to work twice as hard, three times as long for about half the pay. developing a good business plan from the start and then sticking to it will make a big difference in your success. When planing for costs, remember to include independent health & life insurance premiums. I also carry workman's comp, and hazard insurance to cover my part time employees and people who take classes while in my shop.

Good luck to you!

There are just far too many variables to really give you a definitive answer to this question. There are only so many hours in the day and so many days in a year - you can only build so many rods. So you won't likely make a decent living selling rods for $200 apiece. Now if your rods are good enough and you're able to reach the proper clientele so that you can get $1,000+ per rod, well, now you may be on to something. But this later scenario only holds true for a handful of rod builders.

You have to ask yourself some hard questions: Do you live in a fairly large metropolitan area? Is there much local demand for high quality, expensive custom rods. Is your work befitting of something that someone would pay many hundreds of dollars for? Are you far enough along in this craft that your name alone puts a certain demand and price on your work?

These are just some of the questions you need to confront before jumping in. There are a handful of guys who make a decent living selling custom rods, but they spent many years practicing the craft and cultivating a clientele that allows them to prosper in this business.

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Jeff. thanks for the response. I am quite envious of you! Few people actually spend the majority of their time doing something they love to do. Even fewer actually make a living doing it. How many employees do you have?

Besides the few local guides that work for free in exchange for fixing their broken rods, I have a couple of part-time bamboo rod maker apprentices and I also hire one student during the winter season to help out around the shop with "rough work". I've been very impressed with how much work I get out of these young guys. They learn a ton about rods and fishing but also how to fix things, run machinery, think outside of the box, and creatively solve complex problems. I've never had one stay for more than a year but they all tell me how much they appreciate the lessons learned. I've always felt that employees who are payed well tend to produce more. I pay $9 an hour for part-time help. I'm told this is more than most kids make at a regular part-time job.

Most of the guys I know who are "professional" rod makers are a lot older than I am and they have a retirement income or some other form of income to fall back on. From my own experience, I would suggest having about 10 years of experience before you rely on rods as your sole source of income.

Jeff
I wanted to ask you if you could check some thing out, but your email is hidden?

I fixed it.

email is jeff@fultzrods.com or jeff@platteriverrods.com

Shot you an email