posted 12-30-2012 05:04 AM               

Sometimes, the person who forms the company either encounters poor health and has to quit for other reasons (or dies as was the case with the owner of EVA models). Rho models in Europe had to give it up when his company with its business classification had to provide a certain amount of taxes after the laws changed, which pretty much ate up all the profits. There have also been numerous examples of resin companies who might produce excellent products, but their business practices aren't great and they develop a bad reputation from taking money, yet not delivering product (usually a sign of money trouble). So many others end when the person producing the stuff loses interest. Then you've also got the unsavory characters that produce recasts of resin models which eats into the profit margins even further.

posted 12-30-2012 09:52 AM               

• Doing this on top of a busy day-job; this meant once I came home from work, I also had to pack orders and get them ready to go out the next day. That's in addition to anything else that may be going on in my life at any given time. It's one thing if it's one or two orders, but when I had to get 10 or 12 ready... ouch. That's just with decals, which were already printed and packaged; I shudder to think what it would have been like with resin parts, which are often cast to order.

• The "customer service" aspect can be...well, delicate. This ranges all the way from polite inquiries from potential customers, to the inevitable "where's my stuff?" queries, to sending PayPal invoices to people who underpaid for postage, and addressing the problems of mangled/lost shipments (which will happen no matter the precautions you take). Often you try to address these in the FAQ sections of a website, or on the product pages, but inevitably people will contact you even if it's on the website.

• There's also, as has been previously noted, the PR issues that come up on discussion boards. Inevitably somebody's going to balk at what you charge for a product or for shipping. Any impulse you may have to respond the way you really feel has to fall by the wayside in the name of good business practices.

• There will also be costs that will remain constant even when sales aren't. I took down the webstore/shopping cart system because even though I was selling one or two decal sheets every couple months, the shopping cart cost me the same amount regardless.

• If you're a hobbyist more than a businessperson, it inevitably eats into your time for modeling, your enthusiasm for modeling, or both. For me, the moment a hobby starts to feel more like work is when I ease back from it.

posted 01-03-2013 08:23 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by apolloprojeckt:
How do you come so on the Rho story? He told me another story by me at home that he does now something else (speedboat models), and not tax problems?

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I remember it when he explained it to the Yahoo Space Modelers email group back in 2006-07 or so when he explained he had to close up shop. He ended up selling the molds to Realspace models, but its been slow going to get the kits in production again.

posted 01-05-2013 09:23 PM               

Making a model that can be molded, cast, packaged and delivered isn't difficult but doing it at such a low price point that has a razor thin profit margin or doesn't take into account things like taxes, overhead and production time is going to fail or at least ruin any enthusiasm the modeler has for what's being produced.

The time it takes to do everything other than actually making the product is the main thing most people underestimate and what that usually leads to is delays in delivery and unhappy customers.

It's really too bad schools don't teach more about the dynamics of having your own business. When you're self-employed and all your time and mental energy is spent building things, sitting down and figuring your taxes every quarter can be a real pain.

Customer service is also an area that many model makers don't excel. Often the problem is late delivery and there's only so many times you can put off delivery before clients want their money back, which has usually already been spent.

Taking a full payment for something that hasn't been built yet is probably the number one mistake that's made. If I'm doing a new model I make sure only to do a 50% deposit, 50% upon completion, and the deposit covers the production costs, the rest is for my time, overhead and taxes.

Sometimes you have to take a chance and take everything up front to fund the project but you better make sure you either have enough orders or capital to work with. 20 people will say they'll buy one of your models for $XXX but the reality is usually only 7 or 8 actually purchase one.

posted 01-15-2013 11:40 PM               

But resin garage kits are becoming harder and harder to find. If you like working in this medium, I'd pick up stuff sooner rather than later. I don't think that any of the suppliers makes much money in the long run - it's a work of love.