Curtis
Member
Do you make pens for a living?
I make pens for a VERY POOR living. Sometimes I think I may end up having to eat pen blanks to avoid hunger. But, my doctor encourages a high fiber diet.
Pen / blank making is just a hobby for me. I've sold a several pens and a few feather blanks. The last thing I want is to turn this into a job; had one of those … (35 years as a classroom teacher)
As Mr. Brown said those that are retired can supplement your retirement doing craft shows and to some extent some can do very well if they really want to make a major investment in the "BUSINESS" of selling pens. Spend a few thousand on canopy, displays,table covers,jury fees, show fees, hotel rooms, transportation, insurance, and lets not forget stock. They must be willing to travel (I put over 27,000 miles on my van last year), eat greasy food (never have seen gourmet food at a show), spend some days huddled under their canopy in the cold and rain. After all this you better be a salesman, a merchandiser, a manufacturer, a bookeeper,a travel agent, be in good enough health that you can set up and tear down your canopy and displays with out having a stroke and at some shows that are in larger cities on downtown streets work setting up after the streets are cleared of all traffic at night in the dark and did I mention be a SALESMAN. In short the answer is yes but as in any business it's not easy you must invest time,money and hard work....
Right now, I think I could make as much or more making pens all day as I make at my day job but all my business goes into selling to one guy so I'd hate to quit a good job with benefits with only one customer that buys everything I can produce.
I can make over $400 of product a day to sell which would have about $50 in expenses so I could net about $350 a day net.
I will say one thing though about doing this for profit: You kinda loose your favorite hobby and end up with a second job when you "have" to go work in the shop.
Since everything I do is made from gator jawbone, it's dirty, messy, stinky and more complicated than normal penmaking. I have tried training a few part timers to help but it has really tried my patience.