I just want to make public my massive appreciation for Steve J and the help he has given Angel Barracks over the last few months.
He has enabled me to keep the business going in these very hard financial times and with a bit of luck I can continue to keep it going.

Angel Barracks is my sole source of income and this last year has seen a massive drop in sales, to the point that all of what I do take, is going into my pocket to pay the rent and pay bills etc, which is leaving nothing to re-invest in the business and bring out new models.

Many wargames companies have proper jobs and can use their wages from these jobs to prop up their wargames business (as some have publicly stated they do, on various forums); alas this is not the case with me.
If a company can't bring out new products it tends to fall off the radar and sales drop, hopefully I can now bring out some new products and keep AB going.

The alternative would be to cease being self-employed, get a regular job and close AB down, this is something I don't want to have to do.

So to Steve J a massive thank you.

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http://angelbarracks.co.uk/

Good to hear !

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Legion 4 "Cry Havoc, and let slip the Dogs of War !" ... "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."

Aye, good to hear. Would be sad to lose AB :/

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Shapeways store: https://www.shapeways.com/shops/tinywares

Blogging about 6-15mm wargaming: http://www.lead-space.net

Good news.
Hope everything works out.

I don't understand why you would need to close AB down if you got a real job. I can't imagine you spend everyday just plugging away at work with AB. Theres a lot of idle time inbetween waiting for product to arrive or even people to buy your product. Wouldn't AB be there to add extra money to an income from another job?

I do plug away all the time though with AB, that and housework.
I cook, clean, wash, iron, hoover, shop, look after my daughter etc..
When not doing that I do AB stuff, which is moulding, casting, promotion, makking stuff, painting things for display and painting figures for people etc.

I get up at 07:00, get my daughter ready for school and when back from dropping her off, I start AB at 09:00 and stop at 15:00 when I go to get my daughter.
All of that time is AB stuff or the aforementioned housework and so on.
Then once she has gone to bed and I have spent some time with my wife I start on AB again and finish about 23:00.

I am putting about 8 hours a day into AB on top of the housework and raising Charlotte.
There is no way I can do that 8 hours a day and a regular job.

Most of the takings from AB go right back into the business to replace moulds, buy more resin, replace stock, pay off loans and suppliers etc..
The money I actually put in my pocket (especially of late) is very small, so there is no way I would do 8 hours a day for so little when I could get a job on the minimum wage in some call centre and come home with much more than AB gives me.

My daughter has only just started school, this gives me much more time than before to practice my sculpting (or it will when the painting commissions are done).
I hope that in a month or so after practicing each day for hours I can get good enough to sell some sculpts.
Say after may be 100 hours of practice.
If I had a proper job, that 100 hours practice would be spread out over say 5 months, which is too long to wait as we need money now.

It is not a snap decision I have been thinking long and hard about it, but sales are slow and rent has to be paid.
I would rather AB keep going and return to the sales it was doing at the start of the year (when I had less product to offer oddly..) but if it does not pick up then I wont have time/energy to do a proper job and AB and housework and be with my family...


I am going to keep at it until the new year all being well and if I am not covering the bills as I once was then it will have to go....

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http://angelbarracks.co.uk/

As a former sole entrepreneur I know what you mean. The fact is that small business rarely is able to provide enough income from marginal products /segment to pay bills. The sales volume should be very high to make enough money that you could make easier doing a regular job. The manufacturing costs are high, shipping and packaging costs etc. Are high..

The products you sell are cheap but the profit margin cant be very high (dont know really).

My dream has always been that I could get my living from the hobby, but that wont happen.. Tried it and faced the fact that the competition is too high, hours needed to work are too great and the hobby can lose the "fun" factor.

I hope you can keep AB going. I will do some shopping soon

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Shapeways store: https://www.shapeways.com/shops/tinywares

Blogging about 6-15mm wargaming: http://www.lead-space.net

The resin is quite good margins, but even say 70p profit on a 100p item is still only 70p.
Now if I could sell things for £100.00 and make £70.00 on each one I would be laughing!

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http://angelbarracks.co.uk/

Hehe I hear you

Good thing is that you have the skill to build things yourself and also to sculpt. If you can manage to handle to whole process from idea to the end product yourself without too many middlemen, things look better. Comissioning sculpts is not cheap as you know, and before you get to break even point you need to sell quite a few minis.

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Shapeways store: https://www.shapeways.com/shops/tinywares

Blogging about 6-15mm wargaming: http://www.lead-space.net

I am hopeful that now my daughter has started school and when my painting commissions are done I can practice my infantry sculpting and get good enough to do them myself and save a lot of cash that way.

Same with vehicles.
My Junker Truck may not be as sleek as my Pathfinders, but when you compare the cost to market of £50.00 compared to £268.00, the Junker Truck is more appealing from my point of view...

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http://angelbarracks.co.uk/

Hope everything works out for you. Keeping a household running takes lots and lots of time. I will make my first order this month.

/Fredmans