Over the last couple months I've had quite a few people who are interested in getting juice from me. By no means am I interested in starting a juice line, but more less just other vape users I know who buy overpriced juice from the local shops, have tried my flavors and approached me on several instances about buying ejuice from me.
Right now just mixing for myself I keep about 60 flavors, I'm always mixing and steeping juice, but usually just my 30mls to keep a variety of steeped juice ready whenever I please. Now I understand I don't want to have 60 flavors to offer that's just overkill and will become too much hassle, I would scale down what's availiable to others.
Also, I have more than enough supplies if I wanted to give people juice , gallons of VG/PG, nic, plenty of glass and plastic bottles and flavoring. But as of now this was all intended to last me over a year lol.
Anyhow, if anyone else mixes for a few people on here, are there any obstacles you didn't expect, or any issues that you ran into when you mixed for others?
Any advice I might want to take in before getting into this?
It's something I've been hesitant about doing for others but I have been interested.
Any comments are welcomed. Thank you
> but more less just other vape users I know who buy overpriced juice from the local shops, have tried my flavors and approached me on several instances about buying ejuice from me.
Mix to sell to friends and you will soon learn that what the shops charge is not overpriced at all, lol
Agreed, at least functionally. I mix as a hobby, for something I enjoy (like cooking, it's both relaxing and a little challenging, with a tangible and enjoyable result). I mixed for a friend for a while and, well, it started to feel like work. I work enough, I'm kinda "on call" with clients constantly, I don't need another outlet to expect for me to "deliver". I deliver all damn day long, I take mixing as me time and do what I want.
Side note - this is exactly why I'll never open a cafe or bakery or restaurant, I like cooking and really enjoy my time in the kitchen but in my misspent youth I served my time in more than enough kitchens to realize how much work is involved.
Last year I changed my method for mixing for friends. I mix, toss a bottle in a vac sealed bag and hide the fucker somewhere in town and give people hints to go find it.
There's still a bottle out there (I checked recently) that's nicely steeped for 9 months, lol.
Yeah I get the work part of it. Unless it's for my parents (who also vape) I don't plan on doing custom requests and it needs to be treated as a service. No freebies, no pay later, no "can you make this garbage idea I have in my head". It has to be straightforward, whatever I have for sale is what I can offer. I already have alot on my plate being a family man.
Yeah that's one that thing I did consider, my time. I know how much effort actually goes into making hand crafted batches of juice.
You will be introduced to some of the worst scum manners, too.
I gave a once great friend of mine a bottle of free juice that he basically begged off me, and then didn't hear from me again for 3 months and he emails me "oh, my neighbor's dog ate that bottle and then got really sick, you really should put a warning on the bottle, hope he doesn't come after you."
My reply was "What juice? I think you have my confused with someone else, can you email me a photo of the receipt or something?"
Fucking morons. I love vaping, I hate a lot of vapers.
I mix for the American soldiers here in Korea. Between the dirt cheap (and really, really poor) Korean cigs, the tax free American cigs, and the piss poor stuff that passes for eliquid in Korea, I felt it was a good thing to do. I don't make much on it, enough to pay for supplies and different flavors for my own experimental mixing. I've had just 2 cases of people being dicks about blowing me off or trying to get free stuff. You just have to be firm them: they know what they're buying, you know how you're supposed to mix and sell it to them. It's not a business I want to get into whatsoever long term, but for the 2 years where I'm unemployed over here, I can help out the soldiers nearby, work on my mixing, and make a little beer money on the side.
Wow, reading through the comments made me really sad. I have not had a similar experience to a lot of the guys and gals here.
I starting mixing for myself to save money back in November. I've spent exactly $510.81 on various mixing supplies and have made $305.00 in sales mixing for my friends as of today. It is a lot of work, but I enjoy it.
I started by making 240ml at a time of flavors I wanted to try from this and other forums. I told my friends I found a way to spend 2-5 cents/ml on quality juice instead of $.50-1.00. They are not idiots, so they asked me if I would be willing to sell. So I sell to them at a rate that covers my cost and eventually will cover my vaping altogether. $5/30ml. The price/ml has gone up a little since I started due to the cost of bottles and I've designed and priced labels for .19cents a pop, but that still puts me at over 100% profit. My bottles are $.28 per, my juices range from $0.02-0.08/ml depending on the ingredients, nic levels, etc. I do not count the hours b/c right now it brings me joy. If it becomes something that seems like work, then too bad for them, not me b/c I will stop. If I don't want to make a juice, then I don't.
I don't make custom requested juices for several reasons. I know what my juice tastes like and I want to be able to deliver. If I make some weird juice that somebody with no experience mixing requests, then the outcome is unpredictable. Also, I don't want to buy a bunch of flavors that I won't get much use out of that will increase the overall cost of my product per ml just b/c one of my friends has a craving for bacon flavored vape.
So far, nobody has been demanding or rude or assuming of me. I lay it out real simple for them and I make the rules. They can buy my product on my terms and save money, or they can go to the local vape shop and blow their paycheck.
I'm excited to reach the point where I break even. Should be in the next couple weeks. I am getting more and more sales, and though my profit margins are low, the Walmart method pays off over time.
My suggestions to you with my short experience would be:
- Don't over-extend yourself. People have asked me to make special flavors for them and as much as I would love to oblige, it is not my job. If there request happens to line up with a flavor that I have on my "Order supplies for" list, then I'll talk them into trying that instead.
- Stick to the flavors you enjoy vaping and maybe a couple others that you know are good recipes. They'll come back for more, even if it doesn't taste exactly like their favorite juice, b/c they are saving money.
- Be organized and keep track of what your spending and what you're making. This really keeps it interesting for me. It has become a real hobby that I think about a lot, probably too much.
- Shop around and look for discounts and promos. Don't just stick to one site for all of your supplies. This should be obvious.
- Don't rely on the money you make from your profits. I am not there yet, but I think that would be one of the major factors that would differentiate this Hobby from a Job for me.
Anyway, good luck and have fun.
This is a really good, well written post.
One thing I'm noting is that while you seem to be doing okay with it, your selling yourself short at 5/30ml. You could be at break even on all your overhead if you charged 10/30ml. Even at that rate, you still offer a discount over premium prices. I would personally reccomend that any new clientele that comes along you do the 10/30ml if you don't want to up the pricing to your current customer base. I'm sure more will come as word will travel.
I agree with everything your saying. I always shop around and use several vendors for my supplies. I use nicotine river, glassbottleoutlet, onestopdiy as my main vendors. But I find myself having to pay higher pricing for specific flavorings that onestopdiy doesn't carry and sometimes have to shop with bullcity and lastly wizardlabs. While some recipes are dirt cheap to make if I'm using TFA flavoring that I bought in bulk, there are some CAP flavors that are tough to get ahold of and you spend a premium price to have (ie- can only get in 13ml bottles @ 2.50 a bottle) this is something I need to start doing deeper math on aside from figuring out overall costs, because it may not be logical to offer these expensive recipes for sale and maybe only for personal consumption. I did some basic math and if a recipe used only premium Cap that's availiable in 13mls, it would cost close to 5$ for a 120ml bottle mixed in glass. But those prices drop drastically when it's TFA flavoring you can get 120ml/6$.
As far as your numbered steps I'm def taking all that stuff into consideration. Thank you for your input
I know my prices are low. I've considered raising them for new customers but don't think I will unless it's necessary. Plus, my sales are all based on word of mouth, so even though the flavors are stoke worthy, the price is really what gets the word out. The key for me is to provide great juice to poor vapers, like myself. I like complex juices with 4-11 flavorings, that require 3-5 week steep's. I Keep very detailed spreadsheets using google sheets that I have built calculators for that determine the cost of every juice I make based on the prices I paid for all of the ingredients, which are pulled from another sheet that I keep all of that updated in. I'm a nerd when it comes to data, which makes that easy and enjoyable, not work. I do understand why this would be offputting to a lot of people.
I could have broken even by now, but given the time, I am happy with how I have done. The future is bright. This hobby is likely to stick for as long as I am vaping.
I do understand that there are some expensive flavors out there, My most expensive juice is $0.08/ml though. That makes a 30ml bottle only $2.87 with bottle and label, so $5 is still enough to keep me calm, cool, mixing. You are right about buying in bulk. It really helps. I do take some risk by buying in bulk for a flavor I haven't tried. I mitigate that risk by consulting the experts that frequent this forum and I stick to flavors that are highly touted. I have done a lot of cooking and believe I have a good palette but I don't have experience with chemically fabricated and concentrated flavors like the ones used for making e-juice. So I haven't done much experimenting. I have a lot of ideas but since money is my priority, I'm holding off until I have a better understanding of how these ingredients interact.
That being said, I've learned so much in the last 3 months and I don't really have a huge desire to make my own recipes. I don't care about winning a flavor contest, all I want is good vape on the cheap. Furthermore, I love the recipes that the experts here, who have been doing it for years, have come up with and they are more than enough to keep both myself and my customers happy. I'm on that Stroop Waffel right now and holy shit is it good. New Pistachio....SHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!
So anyway, I have the flavors that I like figured out and that makes buying in bulk doable.
Just don't let anyone get you down on it.
I make random shit for friends and family. The most i've asked for a 30ml bottle was 10$ which covered all of my costs and then some. If someone is serious about not smoking I hook them up pretty well but there's a trust aspect to it. I am a very trustworthy person but when it comes to juice apparently I could have put something in it... Because... I don't want return customers obviously. Fucking idiots.
The worst offender poured out a free glass 30ml i gave him and trashed the bottle because "the bottle was black and I couldn't see what was inside it and it smelled off" it was my cactus pear mix, mixed hours before.. Of course the cactus needs time to settle genius. Just go fucking spit in the face of the next guy who cooks your meal, asshole. It's the same thing. I went out on a limb to hook your dumbass up so you didn't break the bank trying to not smoke.
I say go for it. Also, if you offer anything free of charge request notes on the mixes. It might help you fine tune recipes and it's not all that hard for someone to write a couple sentences about how something tastes.
FFS, those black glass bottles are not on the cheap end of the spectrum either. It's ashame because you do get some real assholes that's the kind of stuff I don't feel like dealing with. You never know who's gonna turn into that guy on you also...
When I was in college I sold pot to get by (don't judge me), it was always the better friends who would try slick shit also, hand you back a bag of stems they pulled out and act like that 1gram of stems demands a refund or stupid shit like that.
>I sold pot to get by
I smoke buds so you guys are my lifeblood. I wouldn't sell it, though. smell is too strong and I dislike the idea of jailtime. although, now it mostly leads to panic attacks so i've taken to only taking a hit or two at a time. It's kinda strange because selling ejuice like this is very very similar to dealing drugs but... With the way things are with the FDA and whatnot you've got to do what you've got to do.
but remember, from their perspective you could be that asshole that gives them the "bag of stems", in this case bunk juice. unless they know you really well, will they trust that you got the nicotine right? or that you didn't add anything else to the mixture? it doesn't make sense to add bad shit to it from our perspective because we want the business and word spreads quick but vaping's a bit different. they'll be consuming your product, it'll be entering their lungs. no one wants to fuck their lungs up.
there's got to be some way to CYA without some form of contract.. thing. i'm clearly not a lawyer. or some nice way of sorta automating the "Dealing with a dickhead" process. I've worked as a pizza cook for about two years now (kill me.) so i think what i'd end up doing is replacing it the first time. past that i've got no idea.
Exactly that's where it seems like the same thing, it'd be like dealing pot all over again, people doing the same exact bullshit, asking for discounts or fronts, saying the same old shit complaining or making up some lame story about how it wasn't any good thinking I'll toss em something for free. The only benefit I see is it would pay for my supplies (whereas selling bud you get free weed). They aren't gonna buy a 60ml at the vape shop then turn around and complain or want to sample it but when it's person to person the attitude changes.
I see like a mixed bag from the posts. I wanna see a posative end of the spectrum but then I get reminded over and over why it's a bad idea lol, and it's not issues with making the juice or anything like that, it's the people you'll have to deal with.
I don't mix for anyone else for the same reason I don't let family and friends know I can fix their computer or cell phone. It's just not worth the hassle.
I like your answer and this is why I've hesitated on mixing for others. I HATE when someone asks me to fix their computer and I'm the go-to guy. It takes too long, and the reason they're asking me is because theyre too lazy to learn themselves. Even if u pay me to fix your PC it isn't worth my time and effort. Don't be an idiot and get Facebook viruses and you'd be okay lol
Manage all the expenses, keep track of every penny you put into it. Manage all the money you make, every penny you make. Don't put that in your own wallet, keep it separate. When you stock back up, take it out of the money you made from the juice, that way you know you're making money. Preferably keep a track with a paper or digital budget.
I've found that people don't care so much about flavor as much as nicotine, they don't want fancy stuff, they just want a flavor that matches their profile close enough for the right price. And most importantly, they ALWAYS want it THAT DAY. or tomorrow. So I always make my recipes to try to be good flavor within at least 3-5 days. And I explain that to them. Especially for the creams/bakeries.
I make a new menu pretty much once a month. And I take off the recipes that people don't like and I put the ones on special that I sell a ton of and are easy to make.
Also, if anyone has a problem with a juice and wants a refund, don't argue, don't ask them about it, just say "Okay", try to replace it with something else so you're not losing money. If they NEED a refund just refund the money. Take back the juice (this is required,) and DO NOT SELL THAT JUICE. It was with a customer, you can't trust it. Test it, make sure your recipe is up to par, and make sure your making juice that's up to your standards. Losing a couple bucks on one or two orders is worth more in the long run because those customers that complain all the time are likely to spend a lot more money, then ask for refunds.
UNRELATED NOTE: Still working on the mvp results, I'm sorry life sucks.
Thanks for the post. You have some good advice there.
Thanks, still love you. I don't know how the advice fits in with your touring and stuff.
I don't tour I'm a music Producer, hence when you made fun of my name that one time like I was some moron...
For some reason direct link don't work
There is a write up about me with my discog if you want to know more.
I do. I purposely sell it though, it's pretty nice on the side. The only obstacles I can think of is don't be too nice to people you don't know that well, they will screw you over and not pay you back, also, make sure you're willing to be blown off as it can happen a lot. That's pretty much it besides this rip off douchebag in my town that owns a shop, despises me and has threatened me multiple times for taking his business, but this is a guy that literally overcharges someone because they don't know any better. Sold a sigelei 200, mutation v4, with a build, and a bottle of juice for $400 -_- but that's about it. Good luck :D
Yeah I get the gist of how things have to work when dealing with people as customers outside of a storefront environment. People will try shit they couldn't get away with or try to with a storefront. Def no freebies, no pay laters, no custom bullshit they "think would taste awesome". If anyone wants to play games I'm going to cut ties with them fast. It isn't worth the stress. Thanks for the post
I do a little bit of selling. Essentially I only aim to sell enough to cover my own habit. It can be a hassle sometimes, when I'm going over to a friend's house and at the last second they ask me to bring them some juice that I now have to mix for them.
I've never sold on Craigslist or anything, though am considering setting up a shopify site or something lately.
I'm also doing exactly this. I have like 10-15 ppl (some from different cities) who buys juice from me from time to time, and I ended brewing 500ml bottles (and then pouring em for them) of different things. I charge just enough to cover the mixing (and to allow myself to buy any aromas I want).
And there is one family couple that buys 120-150ml from me every week, they are also my beta testers. They are the only ppl I do requests for. And I give em a discount. But they vape a shitton of not-very-mastered juice for me. It works.
So now I spend two evenings a week on mixing and one or two hours once a week to meet my customers and give em their orders. Works for me. Still treat it as a hobby, not a work.
I mix for three friends. 2 30mL a week for $8 each or $15 for 2. Only for recipes I say. Strawberry apple kiwi is the biggest seller.
Weird....I mix 30ml bottles for my mom and for one friend, and that's the exact same prices I do (Mom insists on buying, she won't take it for free).
Then there's a guy whose wife works with mine, he gets 120ml bottles, but he's a racist little shithead, he pays $28 for those :)
I did exactly this, friends and co workers all tried my juices and quite likes it so I offered to sell them at half the local shop prices. People get whatever flavours I have in that I want. The only thing I tailor for then is nic level. Gone well so far, means I probably break even on overall vape costs which is good
I don't sell my mixes because I'm pretty much a noob but I give out a lot of 10ml samples to other vapers so they can give me input on how to improve my juices. The plastic bottles and bases for the juice are so cheap that I feel the return reviews on my juices are worth the cost of free juice. This helps me make better juices and gives people free juice so that they're more inclined to review them and help me improve. When someone finds something they really like that I make I'll give them a free 120 ml in exchange for them continuing to review all the juices I make. I have had several bad juices, but these folks vape the entire 10 ml to give me an honest review so I feel it's only fair I provide them with what they like for free. In exchange I'm learning how to improve on my juices and make good quality juice for a fraction of the price of buying.
There's nothing wrong with that as a new mixer. Along the lines it might turn into something a bit more lucrative. They can't get 10ml samples forever, ya know.
I mix for coworkers.
My entire department was converted from analogs by one guy. Everyone was perfectly fine with going to the smoke shop down the street to pay $20 for a bottle of juice.
I've been mixing for about two weeks with around $500 invested in bottles/VG/PG/Nic and flavorings. In those two weeks I have made back nearly half of that investment, not to mention the money I've saved not buying juice.
At $10 for 30ml they are happy to have juice for half the cost of the shop. They save money, the juice comes to them, and they get better service in general. I knew getting into it though that they were interested in buying from me if I got into it. I did a ton of research and I think it has been a benefit to both me and them. Word has spread quickly and I have people coming to me every day placing orders for juice.
I love mixing. It's half chef, half mad scientist to me. It's a ton of fun, and if I can get paid to do something I enjoy... well, isn't that what we all want?
Apologies for the clusterfuck of thoughts. Just letting words fall out as they came to mind.
I plan to start. I mix high volumes and sit them in an old oak wine credenza. Just made 500ml of one of my favorite, simple juices called "Thug Lyfe". I mix in 80/20 or 85/15 with 3mg NIC. They can take it or leave it. If they leave it, oh well. More for me. I'm not gonna run myself ragged to make a few extra bucks on the side.
I just make juice for a friend of mine and he orders me flavors and supplies and such. He gets crazy discounts on what he would be paying and I never really have to buy anything. It works well.
That's one of main benefits why I'd like to hustle some of it off. I have a decent amount of cash tied up into everything. Lots of small purchases equalling out to alot. I mean, I vape 30ml a day and if I paid for juice I'd be spending a fortune, but still it'd be nice to break even on it
Everytime I see posts like this... I feel like they are spies... lol
I'm pretty active on the sub, trust I haven't been browsing here for months to try and sting some kids selling 10$ bottles of juice to their buddies
You could also sell on /r/diy_classifieds. I've made a few sales over there. Haven't really had any hiccups that I can think of. Other than that I sell to a guy at work. I pretty much sell it to him at cost because I felt bad that he's always broke and was still throwing me a bunch of money. I would guess that I'm just about nowhere close to breaking even, but that's because I've been buying a bunch of flavors to try new things.
I feel you bro, I'm always ordering supplies, when I think I have everything I want, there winds up being something else. I have a order from onestopdiy coming in tomorrow for another 40$ worth of of flavoring and my last order before that was from wizardlabs only a week ago lol. still alot cheaper than if I was buying premium juice but it adds up over time for sure. I need to track thru my emails and get an idea of what I've spend, I don't keep track I just buy what I want.
I tried to sell some mixes on Craigslist, but I didn't have a single bite. I gave up on that dream.
I still mix for my family, though. Everyone besides me splits the cost for materials and ingredients. I do the mixing and get my juice basically for free. Not a bad deal for custom, all-natural flavor and VG juice.
Since you have enough ingredients to last yourself a year, I'd say just focus on that. If a friend/family asks about a flavor, hook up a 10 ml sample. If they want more, give them a deal on a big batch; at least 100 ml.
I just give my friends my test mixes that didn't turn out how I wanted them to be.
Once you give free juice to somebody it becomes expected. Not to say that's always a really bad thing, but I wouldn't mind a few bucks every now and then to compensate for flavor concentrates and such.
I'll mix for friends to let them try a new flavor without breaking the bank. I rarely ask for money because it just isn't worth it. I don't want to charge a ton because I know them so I usually just give it for free. One guy at work I did sell some bigger bottles to. I think I charged him $20 for 100ml and if he wanted more he had to return the glass bottle or I'd charge $5 more.
I've considered selling juice as a very small side income but I don't feel right charging enough to make it worth my time.
IMO, i sell juice to friends and other people, pickup a blender or something to mix 500ml-1.5L of juice, pickup some 500ml bottles with drippers and stock up on 500ml of juice flavors so it steeps while you have pre bottled 30ml bottles of said flavor and just keep up with demand, it's how I do it. but I also only have 15 flavors rn