I understand both sides to the issue here. I am also going to retire (mostly) from my one-man business that I have done part time (30 hour weeks) and full time (60 to 75 hour weeks) since 1984. In my business I had an idea that has caused the business to grow and to be back-logged, at times up to 8 years deep. What was my secret?
Compete!
I would go to the nationals and to various other evens as see what others doing my kind of work were charging. and see who had made money enough in some job where they were now receiving pensions and then did flintlock-making as a well paid hobby, as opposed to the very few that did it as a full time job and actually need to work. The ones that have a pensions charge what ever they think they can get and I’ll admit, some of the very best craftsmen in the field were part-time builders who drew pensions.
But the small minority did the work full time since they were young man and did little else.
I fall in-between, but far closer to the full time builder.
I did contract work making up SOP manuals for the Department of Defense as well as a few private sector employers here and there, but those jobs came a few times a year and sometimes a time or t every 3 years. The rest of my money I earned making flintlocks. But I always priced my flintlocks well below the average of what the large majority of men were pricing theirs a.t When I’d go to Friendship Indiana (the National shoot and headquarters for the national Muzzleloading Rifle Association) I’d get a good feel for what certain levels of workmanship were selling for.
So at a certain level of workmanship, where others were pricing their work at say $5000 I priced mine at $3500. At a level of work that they charged $9000 I’d charge $6800, and so on. In time my reputation was well known and my guns were in high demand, and yet I never allowed myself to get “all I could” because I understand international and historical lessons in studying economies.
When top priced production (to the point just below what most call gouging) is hit by a down swing in the economy from inside or outside the nation, they are the ones who most often loose customers. Not the fault of them or of their customers, but it’s just a fact of how economies work. I on the other hand never suffered any down swing at all. I did not earn as much per gun but I was able to ALWAYS have several guns backlogged, and so down swings never effected me at all. Now, today, I am simply working off the a back log and when it’s all done I may or may not take more work, but if I do I’ll take an order as and when I want to do that work.
Simple free market competition.
What makes a market truly free is not needing some form of cronyism to support it and no need to be a part of a group, association, union, or club. Just me and the work I do, priced at a level that is lower then others doing that work and getting 10 orders for my business for every one they got.
Some other artisans were so good that they could make 1 gun every 10 months and get as much for it as I got for 8 guns. That’s very true. But when the economy dips there is not another man or woman standing in line to give them another $18,000 to make another one.
Once someone makes a base line figure that they live on and especially if they live on “credit” (true meaning debt) they can’t earn less unless they are willing to downsize things in their personal lives. So at such times they either stop working all together at the job in question, or take on a side job.
I expect that $8000 kayaks are not in high demand in the USA now and considering that you can buy a VERY good top end kayak from Europe or the UK for 1/2 that amount, (even now with the US dollar in decline) it doesn’t seem realistic to continue making them, and it’s not right and it’s not wrong for anyone to decide what they will or won’t work for per hour. That’s why it’s called free market. It’s a study in math, not morals, but the math is how the truth is proven and when people cannot or simply will not pay a price point, the product either disappears or is lowered in price. If the amount it would need to lower is greater then the life-style of the person doing the lowering, the business collapses or re-organizes (sometimes in a form of it being sold to someone who can and will lower the price, or the quality, or both)
In the case where medical expenses are factored in ( a crony based and supported non-free industry) and the cost of such care is insanely high, the one that is squeezing the market to the least drop in their pricing finds it’s an expense they never banked on and in addition to that it makes them realize time is running out, so those 2 factors often cause a radical change in life style and prioritizing of time. Often in a good way. But such stories are more common then not.
I for one believe Joey is correct in his decision because all of us have a set amount of time to live and few of us know when the sand in out hourglass will be finished. So making the best of it when he can and when there is money enough to enjoy what time is left makes a lot of since to me. I truly wish him well. I can’t say I would “miss the kayaks” because I have never even seen one, and where I live it’s not likely I ever will until such time I start going to the coasts of the country or the Great Lakes to do trips, but even then the odds of seeing one are low, and the odds of paddling one are far lower. But I listened to his vid and I feel the same feelings. 6+ years ago I decided to stop taking on any new work. So I could say I came to the same point in my business where I need to close it up after the work on order is finished. He said he has a few more (I’d guess 3-4) plus one more for him and one for his wife. So his closing up the shop is going to be in a year or so. Mine was over 8 years deep when I stopped taking orders, so I am still working 60 hour weeks and I will be for the next 2 years or maybe close to 3. But it was the same feeling. To make a decision to stop the business, when you poured your heart into it for you whole life (longer for me then for him) I DO understand the mixed sorrow and gladness in the decision to close the doors for the final time. I wish him and his wife, family and all his friend well and I hope his remaining life is full of joy and happiness.
