A few years ago I was looking for a business opportunity that I could run part time from home. I focused on my angling hobby and tried to find something I could offer a wide range of with little outlay needed for me. I ended up deciding to sell fly fishing flies.
Fishing flies come in 1000s of different patterns and each pattern is generally supplied in a range of a half dozen sizes. I used to tie my own flies but realised that I could not do this fast enough to make any money. Most commercial flies are tied in Africa or China and by far the biggest source is Kenya.
My first task was to find a suitable supplier. I wrote to the Kenyan embassy and asked for a list of companies that supplied fly fishing flies. They obliged and I sent a number of air mail letters to them. A few had email addresses which I also used. Within a few weeks I begun receiving replies and in most cases a number of samples. It seemed quite easy so far.
Most of the suppliers wanted me to pay up front. However, I was very reluctant to do this. A lot of emails were sent back and forth, and eventually I built up enough trust in one supplier to agree to sending half the cost of a trial order worth $400. After a month the flies arrived and I was in the position where I could send the balance of the money, plus half of the cost of the next order. I seemed to be up and running!
I was lucky with this supplier, and we kept up an amicable relationship for a year, until he had some personal problems and decided to stop supplying for a while. However, I did have problems with other suppliers.
After dealing with another supplier for a couple of orders, he sent me poor quality flies that I had not ordered and then tried to get me to pay for them – I had to send them back at my own cost!
Another who I turned down as he wanted all his money up front, eventually sent me some stock as samples without being asked. Then he too kept sending me invoices. I began to see how lucky I had been with my first supplier!
The business itself worked out fine. I packed the flies into selection boxes and sold them on eBay and through the angling press. I sold at a profit and so everything should have been fine. However, what I had not realised was the time needed to pack the flies. This was necessary to get the good marging and make things worth while.
Imagine, my first $400 worth of fishing flies. This was around 400 boxes each holding a dozen flies of the same size and type. I needed to unpack them and repack as a dozen different patterns onto a foam strip in a clear plastic clam shell box with card insert. It took ages!
So, when I lost my good supplier and I found how hard it was to recruit reliable replacements, I gave up and turned my interest to more expensive carp fishing tackle. I enjoyed the hobby aspects of working with different fly fishing flies, but I will stick to using them on my own fishing rod!