Growley Pipes - Going Full Time

[E.L.Cooley]

I'd better stick to broken air conditioners? Who knew


Sent from my banana phone.

[E.L.Cooley]

Huber, where is this sugar momma you speak of?


Sent from my banana phone.

[LatakiaLover]

300 pipes per year @ $500 (avg) each makes for a tidy sum.

Not stirring the crap up, but who makes 300 pipes @ $500 average ?
I can think of guys who maybe make 300 pipes at $300 average and guys who might make 150 pipes @ $500. Or are you talking the average selling price and not how much a guy actually makes selling them?
I think this fuzzy math leads newbs to think you can make an easy living at it.
NOBODY is earning $150,000 a year making hand made pipes. Not even guys selling $1000 pipes

I just picked easy-to-calculate-in-your-head numbers to illustrate a point. What looks like the "same job" to an outsider---spending 8 hours a day 6 days a week in a shop---can (and does) have a HUGELY different return when expertise and speed both increase simultaneously.

As for whether or not someone actually does make and sell 300 $500 pipes a year (or the net equivalent), I'm pretty sure a number of Europeans do.

[LittleBill]

Huber, where is this sugar momma you speak of?

I've been a professional woodworker for over 20 years, a one man shop. Like many I have known in the business - my wife has a steady job. My work goes from feast to famine. We could have made it on my income alone, but our standard of living would have been a lot lower. So I tell people I am a kept man. As has already been mentioned though, the quality of life went up tremendously, not just for me, but for our entire family.

Good luck with it Brian, and I hope you love it even more now that you are doing it full time.

[E.L.Cooley]

Well Steph has been staying home with the kids for the last four years. We believe everyone's quality of life is better because of this choice. Another four years and my baby will be in school. We will review at that point. I hope my quality of life will improve at that point.


Sent from my banana phone.

[Alden]

As for whether or not someone actually does make and sell 300 $500 pipes a year (or the net equivalent), I'm pretty sure a number of Europeans do.

I'm pretty sure they don't. Thing is if you're making $500 a pipe you're selling everything you make for $1,000 plus. That goes especially for the europeans that typically wholesale everything.
If you're making $1000 plus pipes and nothing else, you're just not making 300 pipes a year.
You might point to 3 or 4 exceptions in the world.
This is a $20,000 to $80,000 a year job. And thats after you've spent many thousands of dollars on equipment and many thousands of hours making absolutely nothing and then only if you can build a strong distribution and customer base and work very efficiently..
Then the overhead for materials is a huge ongoing expense.
Its very very difficult to make money in this.

[Alden]

Thats not to take away from your main point, that increasing speed and increasing quality equals more money. It does.
But I wanted to make the point, especially to new guys who might read this, that making pipes is not a very profitable way of life. Its a living, but it will never be much more than that.
And with the amount of dedication, energy, time and money involved, you would be much better served with going to law school or medical school. The costs aren't a lot higher, the number of years to learn the profession is not much more, the amount of work and dedication is probably similar, and the end result is a very marginal professional salary with pipes or an actual respectable income with the others.

[baweaverpipes]

Making five pipes per week is difficult.
Getting $500, on average, per pipe is difficult.
Selling five pipes per week is difficult.
Making five pipes per week and having everything "spot on" is difficult.

There's just a handful of guys that can support a decent lifestyle making pipes.

Most of the Europeans sell to retailers, hence @ 50%-60%.

Another breadwinner helps.

Keeping it fun and not like a "job" helps.

Having a passion for the craft helps.

[scotties22]

This is why I love the position I am in. My sugar daddy makes me stay home with the kids and answer his business phone. In exchange I can call myself a fulltime pipemaker that only produces two pipes a week.

Good luck Brian. I think you have a very firm grip on the "business side" of things and will do well.

[billiard]

Congrats and best wishes Brian!

[The Smoking Yeti]

It's honestly really easy to make a living as a pipemaker if you have no expenses.

[LatakiaLover]

It's honestly really easy to make a living as a pipemaker if you have no expenses.

I'm pretty sure that qualifies as a low blow, Mr. I'm-Only-Twenty-and-Lovin'-Every-Minute-of-It

[The Smoking Yeti]

It's honestly really easy to make a living as a pipemaker if you have no expenses.

I'm pretty sure that qualifies as a low blow, Mr. I'm-Only-Twenty-and-Lovin'-Every-Minute-of-It

I promise I was just poking fun at you old n' responsible peoples.

[pipedreamer]

Thanks, but we get to see ourselves often.

[swilly]

Very impressive, Growley! I wish you all the best.

Also, as a recent college grad, reading this has re-instilled in me some realities of life, as I potentially enter the not-so-lucrative world of theatre and technical theatre... haha

-Alex

[LatakiaLover]

...as I potentially enter the not-so-lucrative world of theatre and technical theatre... haha

UberHuberMan has much to tell you about that, young Padawan...

[swilly]

Whoa whoa whoa! I checked out David's site, and it mentions his background in theatrical design AS WELL AS his being located in Chicago! I'm just a train ride into the city away

Whoops, didn't mean to derail this thread. I will send him a pm, thanks for the tip, George!

-Alex