What to Charge?

[Bob/MN]

All the panfish jigs and lures that I make I share with my friends. If the jig/lure is hot they always want some more for their family or friends. Payment is usually offered.
So what should I charge for the lures? ( usually I have between 15 to 30 minutes in time not including materials)

[skiptomylu]

All the panfish jigs and lures that I make I share with my friends. If the jig/lure is hot they always want some more for their family or friends. Payment is usually offered.
So what should I charge for the lures? ( usually I have between 15 to 30 minutes in time not including materials)

Kind of depends on what they look like, meaning how fancy or not they are, do they have flash or eyes? Things like that and all cost you! Would never do any for less than $1 each and need to tie at least 4 of them to make a pack. If a little fancy then maybe $1.25 a jig. I believe some get as much as $2 a jig. Just what you feel good about as you can not really count your time or you will find your working below the old minimum wags, lol!

Skip

[LedHed]

You will have to speed up your tye time. @$10 an hour it cost you $2.50 to $5 to make one jig.
That's not counting materials and prep time.
If you like them - $1, if you don't like them $2

[skeetbum]

Prices stated thus far are what I usually do when I tie for someone. The list that I tie for is small so it's more about getting something for what you have spent time on. No such thing as making wages at the speed I tie. That said, details equal dollars. How much time are you willing to expend on a jig that nets a buck and a half. Another thing that enters the picture is how critical are you about the quality of your work. If I tie one that I don't like it gets a date with a razor and I start again. All that is just things I learned when I tried to tie to help recoup some of my expenses. I now tie for a chosen few that aren't in a hurry and I enjoy doing the work and they enjoy catching fish with jigs I tie. To me, that's the way it should be.

[Bob/MN]

You will have to speed up your tye time. @$10 an hour it cost you $2.50 to $5 to make one jig.
That's not counting materials and prep time.
If you like them - $1, if you don't like them $2

Tying does not take much time;its prepping and painting heads/lures that is time consuming.

[skiptomylu]

Tying does not take much time;its prepping and painting heads/lures that is time consuming.

Thats all part of it, even taking out your feathers and picking the ones to use and cutting them. Then after the tying is done, putting all the things away. If you tie a few or a lot, the taking out and putting up has to happen! All of it including the painting and tying all takes time and that is the only way to look at it if we want to see what it really is.

Skip

[TurboDan]

I now tie for a chosen few that aren't in a hurry and I enjoy doing the work and they enjoy catching fish with jigs I tie. To me, that's the way it should be.

Nirvana

[wicklundrh]

Figure out what the actual cost is to make the bait. If you purchase 100 hooks, your hook price is more than if you purchase 1000. What does paint cost? What does lead cost per pound on average (even if you get it for free, we are talking replacment cost). How many jigs can you make per pound of lead? How much is hackle? How much for chinele? How many baits can you make with it? Now that you have a price per bait, figure out how much time it takes you to make 1 bait. How many seconds to pour a jig, how many seconds to cut spue and sand or file the head. How much time does it take to paint each head? Those seconds all add up.

Next figure out how much electricity everything uses. That all gets factored in to your price value per jig.....

Okay, so now you know what I had to do when I first started my business. Those are the details you need to figure out when operating as a business (among other things). Bottom line, charge what you think they are worth. If they don't want to pay it. Oh well

[wicklundrh]

And, with that comes my warning!!!!!

This is an FYI as most people are unaware of this:

When a person, person's, or a company manufactures and sells tackle for the use of fishing, they MUST pay a federal excise tax. On jigs, that tax is 10% of the sale price. This is paid quarterly in the form of federal Excise tax form 720.

Obviously you are not doing this as a business so there is some ways to side skirt this. Mainly, the customer purchases the materials (which are all taxed) and you simply supply the labor. OR, you trade certain things for the baits,
(digest that however you want)!

Last I checked, the fine was 10k and I have seen a few "fly by night" places that were hammered by the government. It isn't hard for someone to look on a website, find a person selling baits, and inquire about it. Websites are setup all the time. I wrote an article last year about this subject and was bombarded by 6 different companies asking questions. None of them had ever filed or paid this tax!!!

Just an FYI

[wicklundrh]

Here is a link to the article I wrote last year. I posted it within this section on CDC. Keep in mind that it was written specifically for Michigan however it applies to all states.

http://www.crappie.com/crappie/jig-t...30-money-goes/