commercial tying
I had a "lesson" yesterday with a friend of my grandpas and he is a commercial tier and sells to a bunch of people. He said to go to our local sports shops and tell them i am a fly tier and would like to tie for them. The only shops we have are dunhams and mc sports and walmart. Does anyone tie for these shops.
commercial tying
here in holland (michigan) duhams is the only shop out of those three that has really any fly fishing stuff and they only sell fly assortments from cortland. i'm not sure that they even have someone tieing for them but i guess it wouldn't hurt to ask.
A word of caution. If you tie commercially you are required to pay a 10% tax to the Feds. A friend of mine got into trouble and the shop he tied for had to pay the tax for him.
That's a tough business these days. I remember Gary Borger of Targus speaking during a tying demo that he use to think he was pretty good at making flies. He was doing a tying demo at a fly fishing show. Then he brought up the women that work for him and tie one pattern in one size and thousands up thousands of them. By the time you buy at your small volume buying level and spend your time, you might as well walk into one of those stores and ask them if you can make a donation, open your wallet and give them cash and walk away and you will probably be ahead of the game.Originally Posted by cdpaul
After thinking about my thread I wanted to edit it to say that I don't mean to discourage you, go for it, enjoy your time behind the vice. I think the economics of it might be a tough way to make a dollar. You might make more money asking "do you want fries with that?" or "Welcome to Wal-Mart" but you won't have as much fun and your tying should really improve trying to tie hundreds of dozs.
Last edited by Clay; 12-31-2009 at 05:15 PM.
this is something i'mworking on breaking into myself and its not easy. the few shopes i have talked to wont pay more then 1.50 a fly and some of them cost more in meterals to make. and webhosting is not cheep. either
There are several ways to go in tying flies that you want to receive some kind of payment for.
First, as Narco dog pointed out, there are laws involved with selling things for profit, some are specific to fishing related products, and others to your state and county regardless of the product. WE all know about the IRS, too.
Be sure to investigate and follow these rules. Doing so makes sure you both stay out of trouble and keeps the playing field level for all (if the other guy you may be competing with IS adhering to all the laws, and you aren't, you are cheating him...don't be surprised if he turns you in).
And, yes, it doesn't matter how much you make, or how many flies you sell. You should still follow the rules.
Selling the flies in bulk for cash to a shop or catalog is one way to go. Hard to do unless you have some unique flies or are very fast. Easiest way I know to do this is to specialize in locally preferred flies for specific species or waters.
Trading flies to a shop for credit in the store. Lots of folks do this. It works well for the shop owner, and you can get stuff you want or need. Remember that you are still selling them, and need to adhere to the appropriate regulations. This is probably the easiest way to get some value for your flies.
Selling direct to fishermen. You can build a surprising amount of business if you don't mind building it slowly through word of mouth. This supposes that your flies are well made and work in the waters your customers fish. Many tyers back into a small trade this way.
Remember that while there are requirements to running a business like this, there are also some benefits. Legitimate businesses can purchase supplies at reduced prices. Wholesale is just the upper end of that. These savings are always well below the retail price on things, and if you purchase in sufficient quantities, you an save 60 to 70 percent on many items. Obviously, doing this either ups your profits and/or reduces your prices.
It's still a hard business to make profitable. Lots of overseas competition on what you'd call the standard patterns. Lots of big businesses with incredible buying power that you won't be able to compete with as far as pricing goes.
Some of the hardest working people I know are professional fly tyers. If you really love it, though, you can make it work.
Good Luck!
Buddy
It Just Doesn't Matter....
Al and Gretchen Beatty did an article on this in the spring 2007 Fly Tyer magazine. It's very thorough and really talks about the good and the hard points of getting into tying for payment. I've been toying with the idea for a while now myself, but still haven't made the jump. The problem here is that there are NO shops that deal with fly fishing in this area that I could deal with. Still researching and thinking.
CJ
Buddy Sanders makes some good points. I might add that if you get some stores to take your flies don't you go and sell that fly directly to the public. The tackle stores(your wholesale customers) don't think much of compeating with their suppliers(you). It is not good business. Sorta like one major supplier that has been known to set up their ofwn outlet stores down the road from one of their dealers.
Special orders and flies you are not selling to stores for resale can be sold to the public directly and nobody will care.
Now I have got to get back to figuring my federal excise tax for the last quarter of 2009 and my state sales tax for 2009.
fishbum
i hope nobody takes this as a commercial plug as i mention this in a purely informational way. i can only assume that appropriate tax rules/laws would apply in this venture also.
take a look at the "fly market" on the jstockard site as a means of selling some flies
http://www.jsflyfishing.com/cgi-bin/category/31000
Last edited by Normand; 01-01-2010 at 12:05 AM.
Be sure to read Al Campbell's "Get Rich Quick -- Commercial Fly Tying" elsewhere on this site.
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