I am just a lurker, but it seems to me that there ought to be a thread focused on framebuilder business practices, questions, etc. Maybe there is one and I haven't found it. There is a lot of info on the topic on this board but it is spread all over the place. In reading through all the Smoked Out threads one can gather a lot of info, but I would think there could be a dedicated thread. Marketing, markup, overhead, insurance, tax issues, etc. Or maybe you pro's all hate that part so much you don't want to talk about it? Or is it peeling back the curtain a little too much? I did finally notice after years of reading bike websites there is no "business forums" anywhere that I could find. No one talks about wholesale costs of frames or parts or anything like that.

From what I have gathered, aside from any other factor, the most successful builders seem to be the ones who have been doing it the longest. Period. Everything else seems comes after that fact.

Thanks