Jdeee

The only thing that I'm trying to say here is that trying to dissuade a 16-year-old who wants to start a business because of what fear of competition to you???? That's what it sounds like! I don't know what the problem is. Maybe young Rickimaro will become the next Rapala, you just never know. No young man you will not be able to compete against The Chinese at $.25 an hour labour costs. Forget about trying to make 20,000 or more lures as competition to them, they will kill you. You will never win. They will copy you like everyone says in the second. The old-school way of doing business will never work again in the USA. So to all those guys out there who are trying to do it you will never succeed. Yes, there are people able to run successful businesses in lures out there, who are not Chinese. I know a few. Sure they're not making millions of dollars doing it, but they are happy and enjoy what they do and make their living. They think outside the box and do things that other people don't. They find little niche markets that other people are not willing to deal with or just don't see. Commerce is changing so fast these days. It's not enough to have a little tiny website and think you're going to make tons of money that's finished now. Offshore companies are now able to manufacture goods and sell items one at a the time to people directly through the Internet for a couple of dollars with free shipping, because of cheap postal rates in their countries. This will kill off even the Walmarts in the future as they can't even compete with that kind of FALLING PRICING!!!! This is where the future lies. People just want cheap crap and are willing to buy it at any cost to their own good. That's what people want, that's what they will get. Companies over their are lining up to sell to you. I won't rant anymore in this thread this will be my last post on this subject and I will leave it to you guys to finish the discussion hopefully with a little positive outcome. ))) good luck to you all

Slowfish That's a great example of a smart businessman. Low overhead and how he focuses on his strengths and takes advantage of others talents. That is a winning formula and one day soon he will probably hit upon another great selling product or two or three that shoots him off into much larger business that will employ many other people. Once you fiqure out a winning formula to make money it just gets easier and easier to make more money and what tells you are on the right track is that many fantastic deals just keeping coming across your desk. Riverman That's the law of averages in any business venture. 5% will last and make money. 100 people can start a business selling turnips and in the end only 5 will be doing it five years later. EVERY business is hard and has its problems and hurdles to overcome. If it was easy every joker would be running a business and there would be no one as employees. That fortunately will never happen.

I agree with you 100% Slowfish. It takes time to develop an eye for picking out winners in any business, for sure I have thrown out 1000's of units of product that didn't sell, that's the nature of he beast. If you are 16 years old with thoughts of starting a business ,start by making some lures and selling them on EBay to see if they sell. Get your feet wet. Learn about selling and dealing with people and what it takes to run a part time business. You have many good years ahead of you to develop all those great ideas you have in your young brain. BY NO MEANS would I ever suggest for you to talk your parents into mortgaging the Farm to go on a long shot in any business. Prove yourself, get some numbers behind you, show that you can do it. If you can do that you will have achieved something that 99% of most people who dream of being businessmen/women ever do. After that you should have saved some money to move forward and you will be able to talk someone into investing or matching your money. If fact at that point feel free to give me a PM and I will help you out.

Yes the land of the highest taxes in North America. Most of the books I published were in French.

Yup that's really scary, Nobody should ever start a business. Deer in the headlights, Bohoo Bohoo it's so hard. I started my business in the recession of 82, with $2000.00 borrowed from my parents. I worked 18 hour days pretty much 7days a week. After 5 years my company had its first Million in the bank, within the next years we were selling over that each year with the highest year over 7.5. All my friends and family warned that it would never work, don't waste your time!!!! I laugh at all those people now in their mediocre jobs or collecting welfare. Sure it was hard and it takes a toll on you, but the rewards are great. That is the difference in mentality between workers and entrepreneurs. I have dealt with many super wealthy people over the years and many have similar story's. If you want to be successful nobody else will do it for YOU. Most of those expenses that you speak of are tax deductible and any accountant can help figure out many advantages to being self employed .

I think that most jobs that you described above, are far and few between right now. Many graduates are coming out of University's and going back to live with mom and dad because they are no suitable jobs for them. The older workers that lose their jobs are forced to work at Walmart for Minimum wage few benefits. That unfortunately is the situation in North America and I really don't think it will get any better. I was lucky enough to have run a good sized publishing company and retired at 47. I am a very strong advocate of being self employed and always encourage budding entrepreneurs to go for it. I make lures mainly as a hobby and sell a few here and there, but any business can be successful if you put your heart and soul into it and have the brains to adapt to ever changing markets. When economy's are bad it's the best time to start a business, because it hardens you up for tough times and when good times arrive that's when you make a lot of Money. The lure business is a niche business that constantly changes, but as all the Boomers start to retire they will want to do something leisure and they will remember the pleasures of fishing of their youth so the market is definitely in place for growth in the coming years. So to all those who dream of starting a business GO FOR IT. It is the only way your country will ever survive. You might not make it in the lure business but the learning experience is priceless and chances are that you will find something else that will make you a fortune or at least a living much greater than any boss will ever pay you. I have never met a person who became rich working for someone else, I am sure they exist but I have never met one. Good luck to all you young entrepreneurs make us proud

Travis where do I apply???

Try a company called Tackle Webs. They had a problem with keeping up with production a couple of years ago, so check around on the net to see if they are more reliable now.

Not to mention a birds nest from hell. LOL

Rosco in New England in large quantities, I have seen smaller suppliers carry them but I don't remember which ones. Luremaking.com carries them but they are in Canada

I started using dollar store plastic picnic spoons to measure out equal parts of epoxy, one for resin the other for hardener. It is really easy to fill them with the same amounts by eye and then I put them both right into a dollar store plastic shot glass and let them empty for a couple of minutes, them give it a good stir with a Popsicle stick for a couple more minutes and Bobs your uncle. Then after I am done it's all tossed in the garbage. No dust boogers, no cross contamination and no clean up, just a clear glossy finish every time.

Try calling Micheals craft stores in Halifax area to see if they still stock airbrush paints. They use to carry Spectra airbrush paints. They would carry Golden but I am not sure if that would be useable in an airbrush. They do carry lots of cheap acrylic paints that can be thinned to use in an airbrush. They also sell Etex (Evirotex lite) topcoat which can be bought with their 40% off online coupons.

I would like to know also if there is a supplier/manufacturer who sells a larger diameter eye, it can be .92 SS wire? I find once a bait gets over 8" this size of eye that everyone sells starts to look small and funny. I am more than willing to buy 1000 plus pieces. Up to now I have been making my own hook hangers, but it takes a lot of time to shape and install, so I have moved to epoxied in eye screws and have tested them without failure and I like the ease of installation and the ability to tune the lure without cracking the seal down inside the lure

On EBay you can search previous sold values that are up to date and it shows the condition of any bait, so you can get a good Idea of what you have in your collection.

Hope that the not dry paint is the cause. I have been using solarez as my sealer and then painting before I top coat with Etex. Haven't had any problems yet. Anyone else try this?

I just recently stopped sanding once I get to the shape I want. I use to sand to try and get a smooth finish, but now I shape and then hit it with Solarez then cure it, after that a light scruff sand and a second coat of Solarez and I am ready to go. I think the epoxy grabs better without sanding to much.

Thanks Dave I do both of your suggestions, but stuff still happens and sometimes I don't want to apply another coat so I was wondering if anyone had any tricks they had found to fix this problem after it's too late.

I sometimes get small bubbles or flaws in my Etex coats. Has anyone found a way to buff them out without sanding and having to apply an extra coat?

Hawgfan Don't get me wrong, Createx has it's place. I use it almost Daily, but the opaque white,black and red seem to always give me troubles. The Spectra Tex is ready to go like Gon2long says, but I disagree with the part about not going as far. I can use a lot lower pressures thus not blasting out a ton of paint like I do with the Createx. Maybe it's just me but I can never get the mixing right. Give it a try and let me know if you like it. Each painter is different and so is the way they paint.

I have been using Createx white opaque also and I really hate the way it sprays (like wet chalk) and all the hassles to thin it to get it to spray at low PSI. Last week I was at the local Hobby place and they had a liquidation on Spectra Tex paint made by Badger I think. Anyway I picked up the white and shook it and was surprised that it sounded thin like Createx Transparent paints. I bought a bottle and let me tell you that after I did a few baits I ran back to the store and bought up all the white and black they had. This stuff goes on like a dream at crazy low pressures. I will never buy Createx white again.

I have been using the gloss. I spoke to the owner of solarez recently and asked him about the low voc because of the smell of the Gloss and he said the LOW VOC was very thick and would be much harder to apply on smaller objects? You could try it. I will try a pint next time I order to see how good or bad it is? If anyone has used it let us know what they think about it? Solarez is a great product any way! I put that **** on everything.

Sorry GLOSS http://www.solarez.com/productsnew/gloss.html

Bob is it the LOW VOC that you use? I thought everyone was using the HIGH GLOSS formula?

Look up how to make shot for reloading shot gun shells on YouTube and it will show you how to make it which is a lot faster than molding split shots. I have been using shot and it works great. It even rattles

Have you thought about using solder wire?