What Do Custom Jobs Really Cost?

There are many potholes in the road to success and many traps a gunsmith can fall into that will unintentionally lead to poor business judgment. Among these are eagerness to get a job of considerable dollar size, the desire to create something to be proud of, the wish to compete with the best, or even the attempt to prove to yourself and your customers that you’re not just a good gunsmith but a true artisan.

All of these sound like reasonable goals for a gunsmith, but if you think about it, any of these can cause a gunsmith to lose focus on what’s truly important for success in business. Chapter 11 bankruptcy was created because all businessmen occasionally use poor judgment and some eventually need to be rescued from their suffering’even if that suffering is passed along to their creditors. You can join the Chapter 11 Club very easily, and the following scenario will explain just how easy it is.

Let’s take a hypothetical situation. Your gunsmithing business has been moving slowly ahead every day. If you keep detailed records’and you should’you can tell week by week and month by month what you did in labor, parts, gun sales, and so forth. Now, do you remember what Abraham Lincoln said about lawyers? He said "A lawyer’s time is his stock in trade." If you simply substitute the word "gunsmith" for "lawyer," you have your business in a nutshell.

So, for this article, we’ll concern ourselves with time’or, in other words, labor’and how to make sure you get paid for it. Let’s assume that this month is on par with last month, and then a customer walks in with an old military rifle, a Mauser 98. He’s all fired up to have it rebarreled to a different caliber. He wants a trigger job. He wants anew sporter stock, new sights, maybe a scope, recoil pad, and sling swivels. And he wants the stock checkered and his name engraved on the magazine floorplate.

Naturally, you’re delighted at the prospect of the job. Here’s that bigvolume project that will put you way ahead of last month. But’hold on a moment’d o you remember those pitfalls we talked about at the beginning of this article? Let’s say your customer accepts your price for the job, hands you the gun, and tells you to go ahead and get started. You say "thank you," of course.

But first’if you have the IQ of a headspace gauge’you say "the price I quoted you will require a 50-percent cash advance." This is even if you are well capitalized. Why? Read on. You have in your hands a rifle that, in the best case, is worth about $100.

And you’re going to have to lay out hard cash for the following: 1) A stock blank or semi-finished stock, and if you are not a stock man, you’ll have to pay someone for the inletting; 2) anew barrel, either put on by you or you’ll be sending the receiver out to have one put on; and 3), the sights, swivels, recoil pad, and whatever else you’ve agreed to install.

If your customer wants to see the gun after it is rebarreled and inletted to check the stock fit, someone has to put up the cash to get the gun to this stage. If it’s his money, you don’t have a problem. But if it’s your money, you’ve just signed an application for membership in the Chapter 11 Club. All you need for full membership is a few more deals like this one and you are in. The amount of labor you anticipate and the margin of profit you expect to make on the deal both affect the up-front deposit.

The deposit should cover all the parts you’ll have to purchase, the shipping charges and phone calls, plus your labor to get the gun to the rebarreled-and-bedded stage. If you do this, you haven’t lost anything. That’s good and shows you’re thinking. The balance of the work should be broken down into at least two equal payments that will be due when certain work has been completed. In other words, this situation is similar to building a house.

The builder gets a down payment to start, a second payment when the frame is up and the roof is on, and balance is due when the job is finished. This last gap between the second payment and the final payment is nothing but "open credit""so be careful. Now you might disagree with me because you customized a rifle for your good buddy and he paid you when it was done.

Swell, but suppose you have $200 or $300 out of pocket and your good buddy loses his job, his wife leaves him, or’heaven forbid’ he has a heart attack and drops dead. Is his wife going to honor his gun debts? No. So where are you now? You’ve unwittingly extended credit and you just ate it. We all have to remember one thing. We didn’t ask the customer for this job. He asked you to do it. And when you’re asked to build something for (continued on page 14)

someone else, you’re not being asked to pay for it or any part of it in advance. If the deal is not profitable and insured against loss, who needs it? The only real collateral you have for any job in your shop is the market value of the gun you’re repairing. If your repairs exceed the value of the gun, you must get a deposit. Take the rebluing and restocking of a singlebarrel rifle as an example. Your labor plus the out-of-pocket money you have to spend for the stock can easily exceed the value of the gun.

Should, for any reason, your customer decide not to pick the gun up and you’re forced to sell it to get your money, you’re bound to be the loser. Without a deposit, what you’re doing is extending credit with poor collateral’and taking a big chance. The high-dollar jobs are no different. As long as we deal with people, we need to protect ourselves. This is only good business.

Don’t think that, just because the gun is expensive and the customer drives a Mercedes, that he can’t fall on hard times, die, or simply change his mind about paying your bill. So, if you haven’t already, establish a policy on repairs or custom work that protects you. Customers often get carried away with excitement over a job, but see things differently when the bill has to be paid. Stop the problems before they start. Run your business so that you are solvent at all times.

You can provid the excellent work and service your customer wants, but you’re not a lending institution. Protect yourself with up-front deposits, and you’ll never wake up to find you’ve become a member of the Chapter 11 Club. I