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building wood bows for a living

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bassman211:
Many of us build bows as a past time. Guys that do it successfully to make a living are to be commended. Weylin Olive, and a few others  comes to mind.

Hamish:
Not an easy way to make a living, especially when the average guy thinks they can make one with $5 worth of wood and an hour or two of spare time.

I've seen many people over the years try to do it and stay competitive, and fail after a couple of years. It's definitely not due to lack of talent, or the quality of the bows they produce. Most of the time their prices are too low, for the time, skill, and materials that they have invested.

It means the bow must be expensive and that turns most average buyers away. If you try to keep the price at low levels you get burnt out really quickly.

The successful ones are either very efficient, and or offer a luxury product, a work of art as much as a functional weapon or sporting goods.

bassman211:
Well put Hamish.

stuckinthemud:
Yes, it is well put, but I would add that to command the premium you also need a reputation and the ability to generate publicity- you have to be good at sales

Hamish:
Absolutely. The "business" side of many businesses are often lacking. Most of us creative types like to make stuff, we don't necessarily want to do the promotional stuff.

I think the best way to do bowyering is semi professional. A regular normy job, with a serious hobby sideline done at night or on weekends. The trick is you have to charge like a real business, all the overheads, power, shop space, consumables, retail stave prices(even if you cut them from a "free log"). Don't subsidise your selling price with your day job money. Work that pays for your materials is nice for a short time, but you will lose the will to keep going when you are flooded with orders, because you have underquoted a fair price
 Then if you keep getting so many orders and can fill them in a timely manner, you can give up your regular day job.

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