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What's Your Challenge?

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I think my challenge at this point, being a complete noob, is to focus on good casing technique. It seems like everything I do rolling depends on that. Oh, and capping technique.....and everything else too. I think time is my biggest enemy right now
Allow extra time to case. Do it in an environment with at least double the air space. I use a tub or and a kitchen bag. Over case it and, bring it down to case. pliability goes way up.
 
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Allow extra time to case. Do it in an environment with at least double the air space. I use a tub or and a kitchen bag. Over case it and, bring it down to case. pliability goes way up.
For something that seems like such a common sense thing, I never thought of that.
 
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... saving money to order larger quantities of leaf would be step one. ...
I woke up at 3 a.m. with this strange statement rolling round my head. I asked myself: "They're paying him to do this, right?" Had to assume so. So where's the money? Then I asked my self the impossible: "He's not commingling funds, is he?" Brewin, you're not commingling funds, are you? DON'T DO THAT! You can take a profit, but you cannot commingle funds. The first responsibility of a business is to pay its own bills. Travel, equipment, meals, lodging, LEAF.

If you haven't already, go on line today and score a business license for IROLLCIGARS. Sole proprietor. Print out that license, tote it to the bank, & open a business account. They give you a Visa debit on the spot. All checks get made out to IROLLCIGARS. All leaf gets bought by IROLLCIGARS. Printer, paper, postage, molds, labels, baggies, bizcards, you name it, all go on the IROLLCIGARS visa. Keep track of beginning & ending odometer everywhere you go. You have a home office. Keep records. A notebook, a spreadsheet, so much in, so much out. Don't dick around. Tax time comes. Watch that balance go up, & if it doesn't one month, then find out why & fix it. This ain't no effin joke ... be business like. If your balance goes up, divide that increase by how much time you put in, and ask yourself: "Am I working for shit or for real?" A business is like a horse in that you must train it to be responsible. It has to earn its keep. But you also have to make sure that horse gets his oats.

I feel like I should set down with you over a smoke and a beer. Do I have your phone number? Send me. If you soak in nothing else from this post, marinate in this:

The first responsibility of a business is to pay its own bills.

If I'm all wack, I apologize. I just don't see how your business can't pay for leaf unless you're not running it like one.
 
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I woke up at 3 a.m. with this strange statement rolling round my head. I asked myself: "They're paying him to do this, right?" Had to assume so. So where's the money? Then I asked my self the impossible: "He's not commingling funds, is he?" Brewin, you're not commingling funds, are you? DON'T DO THAT! You can take a profit, but you cannot commingle funds. The first responsibility of a business is to pay its own bills. Travel, equipment, meals, lodging, LEAF.

If you haven't already, go on line today and score a business license for IROLLCIGARS. Sole proprietor. Print out that license, tote it to the bank, & open a business account. They give you a Visa debit on the spot. All checks get made out to IROLLCIGARS. All leaf gets bought by IROLLCIGARS. Printer, paper, postage, molds, labels, baggies, bizcards, you name it, all go on the IROLLCIGARS visa. Keep track of beginning & ending odometer everywhere you go. You have a home office. Keep records. A notebook, a spreadsheet, so much in, so much out. Don't dick around. Tax time comes. Watch that balance go up, & if it doesn't one month, then find out why & fix it. This ain't no effin joke ... be business like. If your balance goes up, divide that increase by how much time you put in, and ask yourself: "Am I working for shit or for real?" A business is like a horse in that you must train it to be responsible. It has to earn its keep. But you also have to make sure that horse gets his oats.

I feel like I should set down with you over a smoke and a beer. Do I have your phone number? Send me. If you soak in nothing else from this post, marinate in this:

The first responsibility of a business is to pay its own bills.

If I'm all wack, I apologize. I just don't see how your business can't pay for leaf unless you're not running it like one.
They also pay for my leaf for the events, but if I want to schedule something short notice I need to have something prepared ahead of time. I'm actually starting to think I would do way better on my own than tied to them. Your post makes a whole lotta sense and I should be separating my business leaf from personal although anymore I don't really get to roll much for myself. Points well made and well received good sir. I will be taking action on those points for sure.
 

Dominican56

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You make it sound easier without a mold Don. not what you said but, know that it is.
Actually I agree with Gdaddy. I find it easier and faster to not use a mold. My hand rolled ones are much more consistent on the draw than ones I mold. If I strictly controlled the leaf size going into each stick then I could consistently make the bunch to fit the mold correctly, but who want's to do that? :)

I'm able to adjust the bunch to exactly the correct size so it works in a mold, but that takes too much time and for me, not worth the effort. I'm rolling for me and for who I decide to share with so I don't really care if they don't look like the came from the factory. They still look pretty dang good anyway.
 

Dominican56

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I need to update. My biggest challenges at this exact moment are finding time to roll and not running out of leaf. Had to turn away an event because they only gave a week advance notice. Sorry, need more time than that to order leaf and roll bunches...
I know cigars are a passion for you and if you can get into making commercial cigars without investing much then I'm all for it. However, it's a declining market and bound to face more regulation as time goes on. I don't know how many sicks you'll have to make AND sell to cover your costs and make profit enough to make it worth your while. Perhaps the margin is greater than I realize.

Are you sure you want to do this on a commercial basis?
 
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