i consider myslef to be a pretty good shaper. i have been shaping for 5 years know and all though my numbers are pretty low i think that i can spit out a good quality board. air sprays and graphics might not be the greatest ever but i never claimed to be an artist.
i love shaping surfboards and its what i want to do with the rest of my life. i know that its not a get rich quick scheme. and that its a whole lot of hours, but there is nothing i would rather do, i am not or never will be a 9 to 5 suit and tie guy.
my problem is that no one really believes in me, and they say that i have my head stuck in the clouds with far fetched dreams. and that i better give it up becasue i will never make it in life as a shaper.
so how did you pro shapers graduate from your garage to a contender in the market. and how did you get the word out about your boards.
i want to take some to a local shop and see if i can let them ride one and see what they think. everyone who has ridden my boards liked them.but moral support seems to be slightly lacking around my neck of the woods from the people close to me.
I have been shaping for about the same amount of time as you and it’s tricky to get out there and making the money to call it a full time job.
I have six children and I am 29 years old, the cards where stacked against me shaping full time but I kept going and forged a fairly decent living. I put this down to selling boards through every channel I could, even placing adverts in the local post office and all over the web speaking with surf and sport shops. No one will take you seriously until they see the $$$ and the product!
Don’t give up…and blend the cash until you can go full time. I work from morning til midnight some weeks to justify doing it as a living. Put it all on paper…see if it is viable to invest in advertising.
Sounds like we share a common goal though I still need to spend some time honning my craft, once I’m confiedent in my work here’s the plan:
Spend extra time making the best possible board you can (this is your show room board) take her to your local surf shops, (preferably a small inderpendant one, that you have shop in reguarly and are regognised or friendly with the owner and staff) show off your cratfsmanship (be proud), see if they will sell your boards, for a cut. If not see if they will put the board on display for say a month with your buisness card or flyers attached.
Create a brand, based on the quality of your products, get the name out there so it becomes regognised, build up a good reputation for shapping quality boards, try to be a profetional as possible and give a good customer service.
If your boards and service are good and the price is competative then it shouldn't be too long before you see business coming in, just be prepaired to put in a lot of hard work, network as much as possible, follow up on contacts and oppertunities.
be patient it take time to start up a business, and money, so don't give up the day job just yet, as I'm sure this will all need to be backed by a steady cash follow.
If you want it that bad then don’t wait for an opertunity to present itself, create your own. Believe in yourself and your product, and give it your best shot.
My friends kinda can’t believe me either, though they have admitted recently that they admire my detemination, motivation and enthusiasim.
all the money you make from surfing reinvest in materials,get a day job with sufficient time off to shape…the money you invest in materials once turned into finished boards will increase your"WORKING CAPITAL" -DONT TOUCH YOUR WORKING CAPITAL - once that pile of accumulated capital is in place you should be able to expand into a work space big enough to generate a living wage without strain.
dont sell yourself cheap ,charge a fair price for a quality product ,
Fix the boards you make not other makers slipshod cheap-quickly made fragile boards.
make exceptional boards ,dont let fair weather friends barter you into a hole,financially,a fair deal is a fair deal . A quality handmade anything is worth 20.oo an hour take the money or work an occasional concrete finishing job or tile setting or grocery clerk at night until your inventory and skills and workplace are adequate to do so …keep your eye on the goal make a solid transition one step at a time throughout your life and atain the goal.
… ambrose … remember ,better than a pop-out southeast asian board because it’s hand made, charge more
4Ps: Product, Price, Promotion, Position (distribution).
wow, that really takes me back to “Introduction to Marketing Concepts”…that class was fun.
anyhow, MARKETING is the driving force behind any form of success in the business world. you may have the best product or the best skills, but if you can’t market them effectively it’s all worthless.
who you know is far more important than what you know. use your friends that work at surf shops to get a board or two on the racks. do it whatever way you can. to minimize financial risk to the store, sell it on consignment…put it on the racks, name your price, and when it sells the store gets 20%…so you just sold a board, and the store made money without having to pay out a dime up front. if your boards sell, they’ll start placing orders.
i hate competitive surfing, but for the aspiring shaper it can be a good thing. if one of your friends competes, make him a board at cost. he uses it in competition…wins the competition…and when he accepts his award says “…and above all, i’d like to thank my shaper (insert name here)…this is the best board i’ve ever owned…and if you want a board from him, just call ###-###-####”
surf A LOT. ride the boards you make, and be sure that they get people’s attention. people will see you in the water, and they’ll come to you…especially if you’re a talented surfer. they’ll ask “wow, how do you do that”…and you’ll say “honestly…it’s the board”. i’ve had a number of people approach me in the water and after a 2 minute conversation and 2 wave trade of our boards ask me if i’d be willing to do their next shape.
start small…go to schools that have surf clubs and offer their members $100 off on a new board…be active in all aspects of your surfing community…it’ll happen for ya.
I’m a high school surf coach and one line in Soulstice’s post sticks out–go to the schools!!!
A lot of kids get their very first brand new board in high school–and that’s when brand loyalties start forming. Get every local high school kid you can on your boards! If I were you, I’d give student discounts and/or sponsor local kids. Let them help sell your boards–appeal to their egos and make them feel cool. Give them stickers with the baords so that every school parking lot has your name in it somewhere.
Finding a niche or two can really help. I’ve been having some success appealling to girls… Not many big companies offer anything other than their “chick stick”, so I’ve been recruiting girls and presenting them with all the options a good guy might see. It’s really no difference from the shaping perspective (just a different rider, but if you truly make customs, this shouldn’t bother you), but the girls respond when I’m focusing on them and they don’t feel forced to buy a “guy’s board”.
thanks for all the words of encouragment. and its just like going back to some of my marketing and entreprenuership classes. with the inforamtion i got. but alot of this was very helpful. selling a board at consignment at a shop i think is a great option. that way they dont feel forced to shell out the cash up front.
i was also thinking i might try and get a job at a factory this summer so i can hone in on my skills a little more. so if anyone needs cheap help in the central florida area let me know.
as for nowi am going to go home this weekend finish up a few boards take my dear sweet time and try and hit up some local shops and see what they think.
Right now, I’m selling a couple boards I shaped on consignment in local shops. I think what it comes down to is that as of now I am not glassing my own stuff, so there’s a big bite in profits covering that. I don’t know where you live, but here in N. County San Diego, shops like K5 in Encinitas will sell your boards on consignment, but they take a big vig… 25%. And with their own shop boards selling for about $300, it’s hard to compete.
You figure a 6’2C is what, 40-50 bucks, add 195 for glassing (I know I could find cheaper, but Moonlight is tops for quality as far as I’m concerned), and now you’re at $245 cost before adding your labor(ha…) or subtracting the shop’s consignment fee. From recent experience, people just don’t seem to be willing to pay more than $300-350 for a board by someone they don’t know - at least that’s been my experience.
Longboard Grotto recently told me they will buy boards from me outright if I bring them in. I guess at least that way, I know immediately one way or the other how much I’ll get for them.
I don’t do this to make $$ (although that would be cool…) - I really only sell them because I don’t need 40 boards. That, and it would be really nice if each board could help fund the next, and so on and so on…
So far, I’ve had really good luck with word of mouth through friends, and I actually have a couple orders from people who are friends of friends that I have never met - so I guess that’s a start.
I think Ben Shipman was selling boards on ebay and craigslist a little bit ago, it would be intereesting to see how that went. Ben?..
I’m not sure what the going rate is anymore. Material cost are going up. Glass my own. But, if the base price is about 195 for a sanded finish from a top shop, then add 30 to 40 bucks for a pigmented finish and another 30 or 40 for a polished gloss (I assumed you got gloss,too)and your getting close to what you paid. If the guy is an artist and your happy with the results then it is money well spent. Mike
Making a living just shaping is tough.The best way is to get a decent workshop and do all of your own work.If you have a good product they will come to you.You can make a decent living doing repairs and glassing for other folks.Have a shaping room and make it avaliable to other people that want to shape their own boards.If there are other factories in your area you can pick up spare bucks by doing contract work when they are in a crunch.Basically it just takes desire and a good work ethic. RB
I’m not complaining, im satisfied with the quality, alarm bells just went off in my head there for minute when i saw the $195 price. I think im gonna start glassing my own stuff anyways. I have shaped a few, but haven’t currently tried my hand at glassing yet
Green barrel. yeah I do sometimes sell my new and used boards on Ebay and the Craiglist. I do pick up a few custom orders from that… I tried to sell some of my new bonzers on there and didn’t have any luck. . yeah it seems that knowone wants to pay more than $350 a new board even if it’s a sweet gloss and polish rad looking resin job from Moonlight. It’s crazy. I’d like to be able to make and sell more boards but it’s it’s hard for me to find people to buy my boards. I Looked around at some local surfshops and it looks like the consignment stuff gets stuffed in the back and the ones I saw were all dinged up form customers or shop owners kicking them around… … I am not looking to make a living from it. I just love to design and shape boards but wouldn’t mind making a little bit of money for my craft…
Time is money… until you get good and VERY fast, it will be difficult to compete with guys (almost everybody in the business) that are having their blanks at least roughed out by machine. That doesn’t begin to compare production costs with 3rd world outsourced boards with “domestic” labels in a niche where you basically don’t have a chance.
Glassing factories are all set up with time/cost saving techniques and specialized departments for the workers… if you do nothing but laminate, install boxes or sand all day every day, I guarantee you’ll get good and fast or be gone.
Does anybody think it would be a bad idea for a budding shaper to spend some extra time to get their best shape possible and scan it for machine duplication like most pros do? How else are you going to stay competitive?