Considering making and selling jigs, any suggestions

I've been making my own jigs for a couple of years and I'm considering doing it as a sideline. I know this is no way to get rich and this is not my intent but I would like to be able to do enough where it pays for itself and my fishing trips.

What are some of the tax advantages you could get by making an selling your own baits? Can you write off fishing trips where you advertise and sell baits?

Where would I need to go to get more information on this? What's the best way to develp new customers?

Any helpful suggestions would be appreciated.

I don't sell mine, but know people that do and they aren't able to do very much fishing. If you love to fish, you may not want to take it on. On the other hand if you only go a few times here and there it would suit you perfectly.

it depends on how big you want to get if you're just wanting to sell a few off the site here. You have no problems. Just stay small you do not have any tax advantages. If you get too big. You'll have to pay excise tax. I do not make any profit on what I do, that's for sure. Everything is more a hobby and that's the way I think of it. One good thing about doing this for a sideline is you will make a lot of friends and you will meet a lot of interesting people. I can't say enough about the people on here that have bought my stuff. Most of the customers. Here are super nice guys and they are great to work with, but if you do go ahead you will have something to enjoy the rest of your life. I can't think of a better way of enjoyment as you probably know, I've been doing this for many years and still have not got tired of messing with jigs. Good luck to you. If you go ahead and sell some of your stuff. That sure that you post some of your stuff on here so we can see what you have.

Just an expensive hobby that can pay for itself if you don't get carried away... I've been selling for about 6 months and havnt caught up with what I've spent yet.

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Originally Posted by revtoby

Just an expensive hobby that can pay for itself if you don't get carried away... I've been selling for about 6 months and havnt caught up with what I've spent yet.

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I bought 3 rooster saddles to tie up an order of wooly jiggers (wooly bugger on a jig head). I'll do cartwheels the day I recoup those $$$ spent.

Fishing..... What's that????

This is an expensive hobby / business. You will fill your cabinets with materials and jig heads in order to meet the myriad of options your customers demand. It can be very difficult competing with major sporting goods stores and the millions of jig tiers on the net. It is difficult to recoup the monies you spend on materials and make a decent profit because you are always reinventing in your business.

Having said all that it is fun and worthwhile fishing with your own jigs. For every Grizzly jig company there are millions struggling to maintain an even keel. Have fun though.

First make sure you really, really enjoy it. Sitting at the tying bench for hours on end sometimes tying the same exact pattern can get tedious. Second don't expect to make anything. Third make sure everything you'll sell is going to hold up to 50-100+ fish.

Guys, thanks for the advice. I haven't tried tying yet but figure I'll eventually get around to it for my own needs. Have already sunk about $4,000 in molds, melting pot, hooks, lead, and powder paints, etc. and find there is always something else I want done a different way. I do a few shakey head jigs for bass as well.

I don't plan on trying to make it a big money maker but would love to recover my investment in time and effort and pay my jig making and fishing expenses. I almost always run into someone at the lake who is struggling and toss them a few jigs. Thought I might make up some business cards and tell them if they like them, they can give me a call.

Thanks for the help.

Like someone said, if you like doing it now, then make it into a business, you will most likely soon not enjoy it anymore. It will be work. I was a fishing guide for about 5 years and quit. It turned into work, and I did not enjoy fishing as much anymore. Now that it is not a job I love fishing once again. I thought I would save a few bucks making my own jigs, but after spending about $200 so far on molds, tools, vise, paint, materials, etc. I doubt I will ever come close to break even. But the main thing is I can make what I want and not be at the mercy of whatever the store has to offer. If I want a round head 1/32 oz with a pink head and yellow marabou 1-1/2 " long I make it, I could spend a tank of gas driving around looking for them and still not find any store that has them.

You really got to love what you do, because the first big order comes in and wamo...it becomes work! Up at 4 am tying, tying till midnight, plus to your day job, I done all the above, plus opened web site, got my logo registered...but I have a good tax person...saved every reciept, including your us mail reciepts. My state allows me to file as sole proprietorship. It can work not a lot of dollors but the satisfaction of a customer calling you about their catch on your jigs is priceless, and they post it on a local web site or in a magazine.

I'm a newbie here and just started tying some crappie jigs. This thing snow balled on me quicker than I thought it would. I thought I could get everything I need to tie my own for around $200.00 - $300.00 and in less than a month I now have $900.00 invested in tools and materials. WOW I never intended to let this happen and now I have so much invested I'm thinking I could have bought a lot of jigs for this much money. Oh well I'm in so deep now I have to do something with these materials now. The same thing happened with me on archery. I bought a bow for $125.00 on e-bay and when it was all ove I hade $1,000.00 in the bow, arrows and accessorie

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Same as the rest I am in deep as well. Thought I could get in and out for about 300 dollars. That was my first trip. I have about 700 into this thing now and have trouble holding back. But it does feel good when you give your friends a few jigs/flies and they call you about their catch. Plus when I catch them on my stuff it feels that much better. I will have to make quite a few jigs to recover the cost I got into this thing but it will happen over time. Hey on a good day trolling you will have up to 30 plus jigs in the water. One hook up with the wrong species and you could lose half of them just like that. So instead of going to the store to replace those I can retie for a hell of a lot cheaper. Especially since I have every color combination and material there is to offer now :-). I never plan on marketing or selling them but if someone close to me wanted something made up I could see myself doing it on an as need basis. If it is a hobby keep it as a hobby. As soon as it becomes work it becomes a pain

Yes you would never spend as much buying jigs as you will making your own, LOL! It's an addiction I tell ya! Also if any of you have any OCD tendencies like me there is no end to buying, never, LOL! I am pretty sure I have enough in tools and materials that if I still had the money we could live on it for at least a year if not more, probably more.

I think my orders this last month all by it self is about $1200 and more that I have already have on a new list.

Skip

Yeah we don't make any money at all *hint hint* (more money for me) j/k lol

I know some can make money doing this, but it sure is not me. I buy more materials every year than I sell in jigs. For the last 5 years this has been the case, but a lot of it is just because I want some new stuff. Example: since I started buying stuff for tying rope dub jigs and flies I have spent a bunch and one example is this; you know the little plastic boxes of dubbing materials that has like 12 colors in each box? Well I have something like 26 of them and I also have at least one pack of dubbing materials to refill every color and type dubbing. That is a lot of stuff and I have never sold any rope dub jigs as of this time, heck I have only tied like 14 jigs and flies so far, LOL! Now you tell me how much money I have made on that, LOL!

This doesn't count all the hair on skin I have bought, like probably 16 fox tails, a pound of Aussy possum and a pound of American possum nor all the other kids of hair/fur I have bought.

Or how about the over 40 pounds of powder paint I have and a cup for each color at something like $7 for each cup for the fluid bed.

This is just a couple samples of my workings and for me it is truly a hobby and if it was a real business I couldn't have all that stuff and probably would have broke the company.

Some guys just want to make money and they control what they tie and sell so they can actually make money. Like one guy I know that tied a simple jig and will not describe it farther to not talk about him, but he with his help can put out something like 800 per day. I can't even do 100 any more. At my best and when I use to work on orders all day and into the evening I would do maybe 120, but my back will not allow me to work that many hours a day. I probably will average 50-70 per day if I can have the time with out seeing a Doc like this week plus I have to get my free oil change on my truck and that means I have to make a 40 mile trip each way so that will kill at leas one half day.

Not J/K!

Skip

My tying started out as a hobby to tie a few flies since I had started fly fishing. Then I thought,I will tie a few crappie jigs , then friends,co-workers,people I do not know ask can you tie me some. It was starting to cost me, so I told everyone if you want one it will cost you so much so I came up with a price sheet, but that did not stop most.So most of my tying now is for somebody else. I thought if I price them high it might slow down , but seems I do something that everyones likes plus I have a few tricks most tyers do not do.

Here in Ga. I went to my tax person, for my little business, was kept small, till I get closer to retirement, but we filed under sole proprietorship, instead of a LLC or some type of incorperation....save every reciept for anything that is used, mileage, stamps, envelopes, I mean everything! Check with your tax person in your state. You will find out like me the mistakes you make along the way...some of the things I was told by friends and neighbors were not necessary. Keep it simple, including selections of flies offered, in the beginning, then you will find out if you really love it or not. You'll know pretty fast...its WORK!!!!Got to LOVE it or it wont work! Just my .02 Hey I got an .IT guy, web site, e-mail, pay-pal account, logo registered, on and on.