Power Plant Specialist Tugs On Archery Business String

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

Every Tuesday morning, I am doing a live conversation. I'm hosting a live conversation, I should say, because it's interactive on YouTube. You can check it out at my YouTube channel on youtube.com/chrisguillebeau. I often share stories, show some websites that I think are interesting, look at different projects. It's all about finding opportunity in a time of uncertainty, originally because of COVID-19, et cetera.

But at times of uncertainty, we'll be around for a while. So it's been really fun. And on a recent broadcast, I got to talking about the story that I'll tell you today. I think it came about because someone was saying, I have an unusual idea. Or my idea is really specific.

I'm not sure if it's too niche. And I was like, well, listen, I love unusual ideas. And Side Hustle School art history is all about unusual, wacky, uncanny, kind of quirky ideas. Now, this one, I don't know if it's super quirky or uncanny, but it's definitely really specific. It's a kind of thing where from the outside, you think, well, how can that possibly be a business?

Or how can that be like a business that makes any significant amount of money? But as you'll hear, it's all about a power plant worker who makes his own tool to create archery bow strings. And so he's not even just selling the bow strings. He's selling a kit in which fellow fans of the sport of archery can make their own bow strings. It's not until someone offers to buy it that he hits the bullseye on a side hustle that's on point.

Now, wherever you are, whatever you're up to, whatever your background is, I really believe there's something like this you can do too. Perhaps not on the topic of archery, a topic in which I know very little, but surely something else. Okay, so let's continue to explore power plant worker tugs on archery business string. That story is coming right up. Butch Baker has been an archer for most of his life.

In parts of Idaho where he lives, it's a way of life. There's a huge community built up around the sport. And when it comes to archery, those in the know, know that if you're serious about bows and hunting, you'd always be working on and optimizing your equipment. So while Butch spent his days working as a power plant generation specialist, he dabbled in his passion for archery and bows during his downtime, mostly at night and on weekends. Something that he spent a large amount of time on was making new bow strings.

You see, when it comes to archery, the string doesn't give much credit. However, that same string does most of the propulsion to hurl the arrow forward. The right handmade string can aid in shooting faster and more reliably. But twisting bow strings in the appropriate way is harder than you might think. There are problems that only special equipment can help with.

Well, enter Butch. As a top-notch member of the archery community, he knew these problems better than anyone. He decided to take aim at creating a product that would solve the bow string building conundrum. Using tools and machinery he already had, Butch assembled a toolkit of trays, struts, jigs, and pulleys that when combined made the ultimate string building system. In his excitement, he posted a picture of the kit on a popular archery forum.

Instantly, someone offered to buy it. Since Butch already had some ideas on how the design could be improved, he sold version one and then took aim at version two. When he posted a photo of version two, it sold promptly as well. Butch felt like he was shooting with his eyes closed, yet somehow hitting the bullseye. He had tried sawdustles before and failed, but this time it looked like he'd found success almost by accident.

Because of the interest he'd already received, he decided this was something worth pursuing. Now to get the cash he'd need to set up a proper workshop, Butch sold an old 1950s trailer that his family had received for free a year earlier. The money went toward buying equipment to transform their garage, and Butch set himself a rule. After this initial expense, there could be no more outside money spent on the business. Any future costs would need to be covered by sales.

With that, the deal was done. And soon, Baker Archery Products, or BAP for short, was quivered and ready for the range. Over the course of the next year, Butch continued to make the tools and sell them through the archery community. He also updated his products and built additional tools as he conceived them. After a couple of years and with more product lines, Butch decided to open an online store with the goal of being the one-stop shop for string builders.

The site was built using Wix, a service that had several e-commerce features already built in. I should mention that Wix has been a sponsor of Side Hustle School in the past. That site and continued word of mouth took things to year three, 2018. In that year, Butch generated over $50,000 in sales, still with $0 spent directly on marketing. Part of that success is driven because this is a very small industry.

In fact, right now, BAP is the only player in the market doing what they do. The word spreads in small communities, particularly if you do a good job, which Butch does. Second only to his design and fabrication skills are his customer service skills. It's essential each and every customer has a great experience because if positive word of mouth travels fast, the only thing faster is negative word of mouth. That customer-centric attitude goes into crafting the products themselves.

Butch and now his family still make every piece by hand in their home workshop in Idaho. Customers like that attention to detail, but it's also one of the roadblocks to BAP's growth. To handle more volume, Butch will need to outsource manufacturing, that or hire more people, which increase costs, which then, of course, eat into the profit. Still, fast growth is a good problem to have, especially for a profitable side business. This one generated over $200,000 last year in sales, 40,000 of which was profit.

That's enough to make a measurable difference in his family's life, but it's not quite enough to drop the tools of the power plant. So for now, he's continuing to put in the hours for both jobs. [Music]

Congratulations to Butch and his family. Pretty cool project there. I don't know a ton about archery, as mentioned, but I love the hyper-focus of, we're not just gonna sell strings.

We're not just gonna sell a component. We're gonna sell a kit to help other participants in this sport, other athletes, I guess you could say, or hunters or just fans of archery, to help them assemble their own strings. So there is something out there that you can do too, right? Now, here's some comments from Butch as well about pricing. Okay, so I mentioned that he's fanatical about customer service.

That's great, but that also doesn't mean that you have to price your products low. In fact, he says, "Don't be afraid to price your products high enough "to make real money. "Sometimes people have sticker shock "when they see our prices, "but rather than apologize for how expensive they are, "we make sure that the value is obvious, "both in quality and features." All right, so oftentimes people who are starting their first project, they feel like they have to price really low. They think, oh, I'm just gonna have like a, whatever profit margin you think is decent enough, but really not accounting for all the different costs they have, really not accounting for their time, really not accounting for future growth opportunities and what's required for that. Okay, so take that to heart.

Rather than apologize for your product being expensive, make an awesome product. I am a fan of that philosophy, and with that, I shall leave you today. Inspiration is good, but inspiration combined with action is so much better. Today's show notes, including links to Baker Archery products, will be at sidehustleschool.com/1303. That is episode 1,303, 1303.

If you've got a comment or question for the show, just come to sidehustleschool.com/questions. Thank you for joining me today. I hope you'll subscribe and keep coming back. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.

[Music]

- From The Onward Project.