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Old May 2, 2013, 01:07 PM   #1
house
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80% ar lowers support a new company!

Just wanted to pass this along. My friend is starting his own machine shop.


http://www.rockethub.com/projects/24...s-to-bear-arms
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Old May 2, 2013, 01:40 PM   #2
Mausermolt
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Do you know if your friend has any lowers produced yet? im interested...but a bit cautious.

tell him to fix the spelling on the website. looks a bit unprofessional. not raggin on him, I cant spell worth a hoot either, but thats why we have spell check
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Old May 2, 2013, 02:05 PM   #3
BumbleBug
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mausermolt
tell him to fix the spelling on the website. looks a bit unprofessional. not raggin on him, I cant spell worth a hoot either, but thats why we have spell check
I agree, & also think this is more important than ever for a "start-up". Interesting idea & good luck to him!

...bug
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Old May 2, 2013, 03:17 PM   #4
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House you may want to at least be the first "customer/pledger" before you go promoting his project so that he has at least one pledger on the list...just saying....

At the time of this post there were 0 funders/pledgers........
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Old May 2, 2013, 07:33 PM   #5
house
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We just started it yet. The shop were he works at does other things and he started doing this as a hobby. So the machines are assigned projects and can only make them on his free time. The shop owner is getting a new machine so he offend it for sale. So my friend is trying to buy it and will make nothing but 80% on this's home if he reaches his goal.

He has produced a few for friends. I have one my self that I have built. One of the best I have seen so far!
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Old May 3, 2013, 09:46 AM   #6
Mausermolt
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Meh.... i think ill pass, no shipping till July.
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Old May 3, 2013, 01:27 PM   #7
Frank Ettin
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It looks like finishing 80% lowers might be getting more difficult in California. See this thread.
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Old May 4, 2013, 08:23 AM   #8
house
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80% ar lowers support a new company!

Company's that make the lowers can't finish them. But you your self can or go to another place to get it done.
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Old May 4, 2013, 09:22 AM   #9
Frank Ettin
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Originally Posted by house
Company's that make the lowers can't finish them. But you your self can or go to another place to get it done.
No, you can't "get it done." In order for the gun to have been made by yourself, you must do all the work personally. If you take it to someone to get it done, whoever does that must have a manufacturer's license and must transfer the finished product on a 4473 with all required formalities.

Note from the thread I linked to above that ATF appears to be taking an extreme position. So it appears that anyone who provides CNC machines and machine set up is at risk, even if the owner of the 80% piece is pushing the buttons.
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Old May 5, 2013, 01:40 AM   #10
dakota.potts
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Let me give you some criticisms that I think may help your friend here.

The goal is very high. Oddly enough, while researching other goals, it brought me to...

There are many other projects for this EXACT same thing. Their goals are set much lower. While they are still passing them, you having a higher goal will place doubts in peoples' minds. Furthermore, the awards for donations are almost word for word the awards for the donations for the other projects. Not to mention, your lowest award is $95. Not many people have the funds lying around for a $95 donation. $25 or $35, as others are charging, may be more acceptable.

This isn't to say your friend shouldn't pursue his dream.

What I would do, however:

Offer as a reward, T-shirts with second amendment slogans. These could be as simple as "Come and Take it" or "Shall Not Infringe". These make surprisingly good incentives for donations. It doesn't have to be shirts. It can be stickers, hats, bracelets, whatever. There are allowances on these sites to use the money received to make these things so they don't need to be printed up front.

Lower the cost of the rewards. I know your friend may have to eat some cost, but you will get many more donations if the everyman can contribute. What does it cost to make a lower? $20? $60? $80? Even if it comes at a minor loss, I'm sure you can get it under the cost of buying the machine.

Consider uploading an instructional video showing you taking an 80% lower and showing just how easy it is to finish. This would give people a face to identify with and introduce potential new customers and make it a little easier for them to want to do it.

Also, consider taking down the campaign, launching a Facebook or similar page, and promoting and getting interest before launching your crowdfunding. 3 days with no donations does not speak of good.

Finally, if your friend is passionately interested in doing it as a business, might it be feasible to get a small business loan?

Just some thoughts. I know this isn't the "crowdfunding campaigns" forum but figured this was relevant to the topic at hand.
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Old May 5, 2013, 10:52 AM   #11
Frank Ettin
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dakota.potts
...What I would do, however:

Offer as a reward, T-shirts with second amendment slogans. These could be as simple as "Come and Take it" or "Shall Not Infringe". These make surprisingly good incentives for donations. It doesn't have to be shirts. It can be stickers, hats, bracelets, whatever....
The thing is that it doesn't look like the OP's friend is asking for donations for a worthy cause. He's asking people to put up money to help him start a business at which he plans to try to make money for himself. In that context, the cash folks put up would not properly be called a "donation"; it's called an "investment."

Essentially, the OP's friend is looking for investors to help finance his business venture. He's picked a novel way to go about that, and it doesn't look like it's getting him too far. I'm not surprised.

Generally people looking to make investments are looking for a financial return on the money they invest, and they are looking for an amount of potential profit proportional to the risk that they might lose the money they've invested. So when considering an investment they will look for enough information: (1) about the person in whom they would be investing; (2) his skills and abilities, especially his business and financial judgment; and (3) the financial prospects of the proposed business.

So what is the OP's friend offering investors? He's offering product.

For an investment of $95 one gets the promise that sometime in the future he will receive an 80% lower. That might make some sense if I want an 80% lower to build a rifle for myself and the $95 price is sufficiently good that I'm willing to take the risk that it might be a long time before I get it, or I might not get it at all, or I won't be happy with the quality when/if I do get it.

But larger investments just get me the promise of proportionately more product. So for $4,500 I get the promise of 50 80% lowers. What am I going to do with 50 80% lowers? I'm probably not going to want to build myself 50 rifles. So I'm either going to build rifles to sell (so I better have a manufacturer's license), or I'm going to want to sell some of the lowers. So that would mean that I'll have to expend my time, effort and money (shipping, advertising, etc.) to turn my cash "investment" into a cash return. And whether that makes sense depends on how the numbers work out.

All things considered, I find this to be a rather strange way to structure a business deal.
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Old May 6, 2013, 11:21 AM   #12
house
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80% ar lowers support a new company!

Posted new early bird deals! Looks promising now.
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