Builder Brand : Red Kite Prayer
I haven't seen this here, but I think it's worth posting for some of us who may need to learn to think about this sort of thing at some point.
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Builder Brand : Red Kite Prayer
I haven't seen this here, but I think it's worth posting for some of us who may need to learn to think about this sort of thing at some point.
Be yourself. Work hard. Get orders. Work hard. Get more orders. Be yourself. Repeat. - Garro.
what garro said atmo.
if you overtly or consciously cling to, embrace, or subscribe to a tactic, you're dead in the water before you start.
only edoz can be edoz.
that's why folks will call you.
A quote from Charles Schultz that I've always strove (striven?) to follow; " Be yourself, everyone else is taken"
Edoz - spend your time putting one foot in front of the other. There are sooooo many things you have to have down before you work on your "brand" - like, having one.
Work on work flow, the ebb & flow of frame materials, the proper parts for the bikes and honing your chops.
You better not be sitting around designing your "kits" when your {not as in "you" but the general sense} TIG beads need work, it takes weeks to build a frame or the WWW is where you ask what tubes you need to build XXX and you need to work on material flow {tubes in, bikes out} and then there is always customer relations to tend to.....
having a matching "kit" but no standing orders is worse then putting the cart before the horse, it's like putting the cart before the reins. - Garro.
Steve, I hear you on the work flow thing. That's my biggest problem right now, and I sure don't need any 'business' to make it worse. I'm stalled on a frame right now waiting on brake bosses I thought I had but don't. How's that for work flow?
Sometimes my mind wanders and I think about things that maybe don't matter or don't apply to my particular spot in the space-time continuum. You guys just keep telling me to get back to work and I'll be fine:)
Eric, to be clear; I enjoyed the article, thanks for posting.
BTW, if steve doesn't have the bosses you need, Hit me up. I have a couple types.
jake
Thanks guys, but I already have some bosses on the way. I have used the Henry James ones in the past, but since I needed a few things from Paragon I figured I'd try out their 3 piece bosses. I may need to get a bunch, 'cause all my friends want all rounder/dirt road bikes now.
Amen! Even with a few standing orders, I had T's made last fall for the Philly show.... the money would have been much better spent on tooling or supplies rather than T's. Although, I did trade Herby Helm for one of his! Anyway, Garro speaks the truth... and clearly.
I guess that's the beauty of keeping my day job, I don't have to worry about anything but building bikes. Now if I can just keep the material on hand;)
I really enjoyed that article too.
good point :)
I was already thinking about this issue, so the article just resonated with me. We all have our own path, and I could never hope to copy Vanilla/Speedvagen. And more to the point, if I did try, it wouldn't work out for me.
we should this link to the mix. i'm sure warwick would love the traffic. forza thy atmo.
I guess I just don't see it. When I walked around the show I saw a lot of well thought out branding by a lot of builders. Sacha had big impact, maybe 4 times the impact of a 10x10 because he had a 40x40. Every builder is different, and there was a lot of personality in those 10x10 booths. All the builders in Austin have it together or they wouldn't have gotten where they are. How they set up their space, and the products they offered spoke volumes to me. What Sacha has done with his brand is amazing, but builder X may not have any of the same ideas or goals floating around in his/her head.
Except I'm not looking for builders, but I am a qualified Industrial Designer with 15+ years experience that knows something about branding and promotion because it's a field I've worked in extensively.
And Thylacine is no more a brand than you are a disability.
Far out.
I feel very inclined to build my brand, maybe just as much as the bicycles themselves.
SO, sometimes maybe being yourself involves expressing your brand beyond bikes you build? I like how I do it...
My problem with branding is that it hurts like hell, takes forever to heal and sometimes gets infected. Sometimes when I get branded they try to stick a tag in my ear and cut off my balls. I am not sorry, but I couldn't help it. Earth day is everyday (I have no experience with any other planets) and april fools should be for the whole month!
Wade calls bull.
I am a framebuilder with over 27yrs of bike wrenching under my belt & 8+yrs full time building and I'm very disabled. To say or claim I was not would not only be a lie but a disservice not only to my comrades in disability but to myself for how hard I have worked to try to concor my own to the best of my abilities. Not sure what you are getting at, really.
What I don't get is your diatribes on the WWW against small framebuilders, but it seems like you need one or more of them in your field as you do not make your own product, but push your "brand" as having the handbuilt aura without the builder.
Call me simple, but I don't get your animosity towards us one-guy shops.
Please elaborate, if you wish. - Garro.
Ok, so maybe that was a little harsh. No hate intended, I just thought it was funny.
i don't wanna get all mod-y and shit so i'll just say that the best and most productive conversations are the ones in which folks play nicely with others atmo.
hey - thanks for reading.
I'd actually prefer it if you could illustrate where I'm so against the custom framebuilder? At odds with that view is the fact that my business is based on one-man-shops, that I actively promote the custom bike industry, and speak about ways it can be improved.
Padraig's comments, my subsequent commentary, and everyone else's posts on here and on their blogs are about improving the custom bike biz. Nothing is perfect and the only way things improve is through constructive dialogue, which is all this is as far as I can tell.
Do you have an issue with the discussion or just the fact that I'm part of the discussion?
I don't know if you intend to give this feeling or not but your posts have a tone that says you are pissed or disrespectful of the small shops. It may just be the way you write and in fact you don't actually feel this way but that's how it often comes off. I don't know you or what you really do so my 'real world' view can't correct my impression of what you write when I read your posts - I feel disapproval toward the builders or like you are looking down on them. It looks like I may not be the only one getting this impression. So maybe you can set the recored straight.
Dave
I'm sorry you get that perception Dave, but conversely there are also quite a few that get the opposite view, so you can't win, eh?
I mean, heck, where was the uproar when Gaulzetti called the act of making custom frames "The shit job"?
Maybe less xenophobia or 'better the devil you know' in that one, perhaps? Maybe I should be funnier? Who knows.