Small Business Ideas – Woodworking Business
The One-Person Woodworking Business
By Bill Benitez
The Dream - Many woodworkers dream of making a living using their skills. From the outside looking in, it seems an enjoyable livelihood and it certainly can be. It’s a worthwhile goal for anyone who really loves woodworking. After all, what could be better than making your living doing something you really love.
After spending more than twenty years making my living with woodworking, I would never discourage anyone from trying it but I would definitely caution them to have a true picture before jumping in. If you really know what is involved you will either change your mind or be prepared for any difficulties.
Making A Living – First, realize that what you will probably be doing, if things work well, is making a living. If your taste run to living in luxury, it’s unlikely to happen with the output of one woodworker. There are very few woodworkers who are getting wealthy from this work. These are the few who have become famous and make much more from their books, magazine articles, product endorsements and TV appearances than from woodworking. A few of these sell their woodwork projects for enormous sums because of their fame. Unless you become famous, you will have to sell and produce a lot of woodwork to make a good living.
Your Own Space – If you are fortunate enough to work from your garage or a shop space that you own, your costs will be much lower. If you must rent a space, as I did, then your monthly expenses will include additional rent, electricity, phone, garbage pickup, security, etc. It all adds up and means that you must produce a minimum amount of work each month just to pay those bills and of course, your personal bills.
Constant Marketing - The romance of woodworking must be balanced with the constant marketing necessary to keep the work coming in. In time, word of mouth brings in lots of work if you develop a good reputation. Until then, you must get the word out consistently. Once the work comes in you must have good production methods so you can complete the projects promptly and keep the money flowing. If projects take too long and the money flow stops, it can become difficult to pay the bills. Speaking of money flow, you must develop and adhere to consistent collection methods. This is one area where many woodworkers fail. The payment for the work must be as important as the work itself. If you are lax in collecting, you will run into customers who fail to pay you and this will cause serious cash flow problems.
The Business – Even though you love woodworking, you must do the business if you are to make a living at it. Success requires an in-depth knowledge of both woodworking and business management. If you don’t have both, I suggest you hesitate to jump in until you have honed your business skills.
Looking back I realize that my lack of knowledge during my startup many years ago could have been offset with some basic information and someone to advise me.Unfortunately I had to learn most things by trial and error.
Bill Benitez owned and operated his successful woodworking business for over twenty years. He has written several books for woodworkers. Check out his newest book now at:
http://woodworkers-business-guide.com
For valuable woodworking information and pictures of projects check out Bill’s web site at:
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bill_Benitez
http://EzineArticles.com/?The-One-Person-Woodworking-Business&id=1881069
No related posts.
Tags: Good Reputation, Livelihood, Living In Luxury, Magazine Articles, Product Endorsements, Shop Space, small business ideas, Woodwork Projects, Woodworker, Woodworking Business, Word Of Mouth, Worthwhile Goal
February 2nd, 2009 at 6:37 pm
Woodworking is a great hobby but there are better ways to make money from home
May 1st, 2009 at 12:07 am
I have known many people who successfully ran woodworking businesses, but you have to find a niche. Cheap mass-produced wood items make it very to compete profitably in many items. It really requires either producing one-of-a-kind small items or custom built-ins like library cabinetry in upscale homes.
May 14th, 2009 at 12:39 am
Good advice here, appreciate the post. I think sometimes we also fail to look at our exisiting customer base as a means of growing. Too often we feel like we may be imposing on our customers by asking them for new business, or to be referred to others. I know it’s someting we’re focusing on more now. Thx!
Ali Coffey, w/ client referrals blog
May 21st, 2009 at 2:47 pm
With a woodworking home business, you have to be innovative for new ideas, and you have to find the niche where you can thrive successfully. Sometimes it’s hard to work where you live and live where you work and you have to find the balance.
Keep up the good work here on your blog and remember that success is not by chance, it is by CHOICE!
Cheers,
Genesis Pure Business Opportunity
May 23rd, 2009 at 1:29 pm
very unique idea and fress you. thanks.
May 26th, 2009 at 11:49 am
No matter what biz you are at if you believe in your dream… Your dream will come true coz a “Man” with a Dream will not be denied.
June 16th, 2009 at 9:15 am
I really enjoyed this article; especially the part about the need to constantly market yourself. I run a website called CustomMade.com, and we try to work with woodworkers to help them market themselves better on the web. We have found that we are a much better value proposition than handling marketing yourself or starting your own website. Come check us out!
November 17th, 2009 at 9:15 am
Just about any business you start is going to take a ton of work and dedication. But I know for a fact that a woodworking business can be profitable. I know a guy in our small community who basically owns the market on cabinet making. People come from the big city to the small town for his cabinets.
November 19th, 2009 at 7:41 am
I’ve only just started slowly getting into woodworking, but I love it. I know with practice I will get better and better, and I use the beautiful things I’ve seen others make as inspiration. Someday I want to live in a rural area, and hopefully woodworking will be one of the profitable things I can do to support my other “rural habits.”
If you want it bad enough, you can make anything happen, with dedication and a curious spirit. Thanks for sharing this article.
November 26th, 2009 at 9:50 pm
Nice info and ideas. All the pointers made from your article are worth practicing. Looking forward to make actions of this wonderful post.
Best Regards
November 30th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
As a start of any business, I can\’t rely on its income just yet to support our daily needs. Its fun and rewarding if you do the work yourself especially with woodworking business coz it requires the love for the job and some artistic touches.
December 17th, 2009 at 1:50 am
I love this type of business where you can take something you love, turn into into a business and work n play all at once. Takes one on a life trip on their own terms.
Spot on
December 20th, 2009 at 5:33 am
Yeah, I think woodworking is one of those niches that the person probably loves doing anyway regardless of the money, but who doesn’t like the idea of making money doing something you love.
December 21st, 2009 at 8:52 pm
I think the main problem with people wanting to take a leadership style role and begin to start their own woodworking business is that they’re too afraid to cut off that source of good income (their normal job) in return for greater independence. What I have to say is, look guys… money ISN’T everything. You may indeed be earning less than your old job, for teh next couple of years, but you will be excited about your job, and what you’re doing. It’ll be fantastic.
January 6th, 2010 at 12:17 pm
We know from the fact that it’s very hard to start a business because you will have to meet all the requirements necessary for it. But before you plan for it, you must have to decide what kind of business you are going to have. Thanks for this post, woodworking type of business is a good idea to start for a business.
January 7th, 2010 at 10:48 pm
It is great to work at something you love doing, but you do need to be good enough to do it professionally and put in the neccessary work. Doing someting you love as a job is not an easy way out, it’s hard work but hopefully it’s hard work that you enjoy.
January 11th, 2010 at 8:31 am
My own space at home is simply my dining room. I don’t need to go to a typical 9-5 office job. My dining room is my office.
January 14th, 2010 at 10:41 am
I got a lot out of this site’s information, many people today that start businesses have no real idea of the expenses associated with it until they get into it. Just trying to make a living is hard enough much less having to pay for rent, electrical, water, and any overhead and other related business expenses. I think that is why the majority of businesses fail within the first 1-5 years. I think it is because people don’t really always understand what they are getting into.
January 26th, 2010 at 7:41 am
If you already love woodworking as a hobby it’s a natural extension to try making some income out of it. I know someone who makes some novelty items and sells them at a weekend art and crafts market. I guess that would only be pocket money though. Can’t see him getting rich out of it.
January 28th, 2010 at 10:01 am
I completely agree with the above poster. You just can’t put a price tag on the level of freedom that is gained with self-employment, not to mention the sheer pleasure of doing what you actually like to do for a living, Thanks for the inspiring article.
-Carl
February 4th, 2010 at 2:32 pm
woodworking sounds like a great business because in most cases you are self employed and you have all the time and energy to work.although it may turn out to be hectic.Thanks
February 27th, 2010 at 5:47 am
It goes to show how easy it is to start a small business from nothing, just using existing skills (or learning new ones). This is a great way to make yourself a job that you love.
March 1st, 2010 at 9:56 am
We have a community mens shed here where iam and I have just so much enjoyed learning wood working again
March 1st, 2010 at 9:58 am
I will never earn a living from wood turning but get imense pleasure from giving my little creations
March 5th, 2010 at 2:04 am
Great post on creating a substantial income from woodwork. There are so many people who just see this as a passion and something to do on their spare time, but if they are business minded they can create a nice income while doing what they love to do.
March 8th, 2010 at 12:25 pm
It would be good to determine whether there is a market first before starting anything. Build a website, do a little marketing, find out if anyone’s interested…then if you have enough interest then at least you have some measure of demand to work with.
March 11th, 2010 at 12:42 pm
Woodworking is a good hooby then you can create your home convienent and nice.
March 27th, 2010 at 10:21 pm
Woodworking is an art. Thanks for this inspirational post. I will recommend this post to friends of mine who are into woodworking business.
March 28th, 2010 at 10:15 am
I think the main problem with people wanting to take a leadership style role and begin to start their own woodworking business is that they’re too afraid to cut off that source of good income (their normal job) in return for greater independence. What I have to say is, look guys… money ISN’T everything.
April 3rd, 2010 at 9:31 pm
Hello i’m Dale Titus . Nice to meet you .
April 9th, 2010 at 9:24 pm
The problem is that this isn’t the type of business that anyone can simply “start”. It’s a VERY skilled trade, and without plenty of talent or a good mentor, starting up a successful wood working business would be very difficult for most.
April 23rd, 2010 at 2:24 pm
I will recommend this post to friends of mine who are into woodworking business.
It’s rather awesome,I have been searching materials relate to these stuffs for my paper.and it really helps me.
April 23rd, 2010 at 2:35 pm
I will recommend this post to friends of mine who are into woodworking business.
May 2nd, 2010 at 4:37 pm
Nice post. Thank you for the encouragement. I like woodworking project and recently I completed my Murphy Bed. I believe I will be able to expand my woodworking business soon.
May 27th, 2010 at 8:01 pm
Thanks for the post and inspiration. I work with all forms of Christmas ornaments and know wood ones can be integrated with crystal to make a unique and lasting memory.
May 28th, 2010 at 11:36 am
I believe one must have a deep passion to be successful in any business, be it a woodwork business or any other physical business or even an online business. Without passion, it is difficult to get creative and also one will give up after meeting a few small obstacles. Perseverance is the key to success. An attitude to accept failures temporarily is also an important factor. As you rightfully mentioned, the starting is very important in terms of business management and industry skills foundation to avoid losing too much time on learning by trial and error. So future business owners should equip themselves with as much business knowledge and understanding of the business they are venturing into is a must before jumping in.
June 6th, 2010 at 3:27 pm
Constant marketing as you brought out, it the most important aspect of the business a woodworker would expect to run from home. It is also the most difficult because you need to devote a lot of time into this. It could be you handling the marketing or a hired helper but the thing is that the flow of orders needs to go on to have the business running.
July 3rd, 2010 at 10:02 pm
This really holds true for any trade-based business, not just woodworking. A constant marketing effort is required to build and grow the business. Too many business owners only attempt to market when they don’t have any work coming in; the problem is, that can often be too late. Get out and market today!
July 17th, 2010 at 5:26 am
I think, that most people that want to earn a living with woodworking are actualy not informed on what this means on the business side.
It is ok to love you’re hobby when it’s still you’re hobby, but if you want to make profit with it it turns into a business and hase to get handled different.
I am happy to see a blogger here educating woodworkers on what it means to make a living and what to expect that you will be prepared.
And I would recomend every one to get some professional advice, before you get started.
Happy woodworking
Andrew
September 6th, 2010 at 3:34 am
You have great advice to offer in starting and maintaining a woodworking business. It’s obvious that you have much experience and I would advise anyone who wants to break into this field to read your post first. Thanks for sharing!…
September 19th, 2010 at 5:18 pm
Woodworking is a great hobby but there are better ways to make money from home
October 1st, 2010 at 1:10 am
Woodworking is nice but you can’t get rich, that’s why i prefer other ways of making money.
October 9th, 2010 at 4:11 am
Great blog. I agree, many people starting out with woodworking have very little idea of the many pitfalls that are on the path to becoming a woodworker. What does help though, are woodworking beginner – blueprints and plans.
Also, here I found some of the easiest to handle projects for wooden-furniture.
October 12th, 2010 at 5:19 pm
It is really fun to work and make a living out of your hobby since you will really enjoy as long as you earn. A person who loves his work always succeed and will surely get wealthy although with just a simple wood working. There are lots of businessmen who succeed just doing at first their hobby and then making their hobby a business. A man who loves his work really produce better and abundant fruit than the man who is just working just for the sake of earning a living.
October 28th, 2010 at 12:55 pm
This information is very helpful to me for planning new business. Thank you for sharing to us.
October 29th, 2010 at 8:38 am
Great ideas, when you are planning business consider your knowledge,skills, ability and the most important things is know the demand of the people.
October 31st, 2010 at 12:29 am
Great article, thanks a lot!
November 4th, 2010 at 2:19 pm
If you want to start a woodworking business then you should know the requirements for opening this business. More importantly you should be clear about the type of wooden products that are going produce. From the type of wooden products that are going produce, you will be able to get an idea about the tools and supplies that you will need to start your business. Great post, anyway!
November 7th, 2010 at 8:02 pm
It souds like a hard job.
November 8th, 2010 at 10:47 am
Get hold of some woodworking plans is easy enough if you look online where you can track down whole sets of plans for literally thousands of projects at a very low cost. Your woodworking business plan should be to start small with the minimum amount of tools and then take on bigger projects with a higher earnings potential as your skills and available funds increase.
The woodworking plans will have more ideas than enough to get you started, you could decide to begin by supplying something as simple as bird nesting boxes to local dealers and the add to your portfolio with things such as bird tables, dog kennels, rabbit hutches and other like items
November 22nd, 2010 at 4:32 am
I agree with Vanessa, regardless wether woodworking can be exciting or not (which, I totally agree, it IS a real exciting hobby), you need to know the ins-and-outs of starting and running a business. In this regard, building wooden cabients as a business, or, in general building wooden furniture is not different than running a retail store or any other business.
December 16th, 2010 at 11:10 am
Market what you love but always remember to check whether you can really market what you love. Starting up a business is really difficult and woodworking is somewhat a hard thing to do if you are not into it. With these kind of business, you have to have a passion on it before you can truly start and strive to get your business bloom. When you love your work you always find way to not let your business fall down. You will try and strive even harder.
January 16th, 2011 at 11:03 am
I have a few master woodworker friends that are experiencing a huge slump in their business because of big box stores like Home Depot and Ikea offering reasonable looking wood cabinetry for a fraction of what they can make it for.
I think this would be really hard to make a go at in a recession.
January 19th, 2011 at 3:20 pm
I started a Home Wood Working Business as a hobby but I was really surprised by the big leap that my business venture took and now I am pursuing it full time. The quality design of hand crafted wood is still revered by people, given the high sales. Also the sales are up fro furniture, toys, boxes and the like that are used everyday. There is a definite market for Woodworking Business Opportunities.
All I had to invest in was a good knowledge about state and local requirements for opening a business, types of items you want to produce, supplies and tools, an admission to a trade organization associated with woodworking and of course the quintessential guide to great advertising in the internet (which I can do it myself).
The bottom-line in wood working business is that don’t limit your imagination. Many clients may solicit custom work. Your only limit in woodworking is your imagination and your bravery to try new things.
January 20th, 2011 at 12:12 pm
I am truly agree with you that doing a job that satisfies our mind is, the better job for us. If we can’t love our job and do the job for the sake of doing it not only spoils your mood but also gives a break to your career growth. The key point in the success of every business is the passion and hard work only. I am sure this post will be a guide line to those who are about to start a business in wood working. Thank you.
January 31st, 2011 at 9:47 am
There are different businesses that you can start in your home. It can be desktop publishing for those who are tech savvy. It can also be a business that can give you that cash coming. It is very easy to earn cash to some but it is hard for some. There are businesses that you can start today. One of the most promising businesses today is to set up an event planning business. Everyone wants to celebrate but they do not have time to prepare for their events. And one thing more it is not their expertise. This is the right time to offer you help. Here are tips on how you can start your event planning service business.
1. Determine what type of event you will specialize. As a beginner expect that it may seem hard to get big events at first. You can start with small events or celebrations. You can arrange for a simple birthday party or wedding for medium number of participants. In this way you can start planning for your business.
February 8th, 2011 at 12:33 pm
I remember as a young kid my Grandfather working in the garage on all kinds of woodworking stuff for the neighborhood. To bad he didn’t make a business out of it. Like with any other kind of business, even the woodworking business can be successful if you are able to stick to some goals and able to meet deadlines without too much of a problem. In a number of situations, companies have been able to be extremely successful mainly because they know what should be the goal for the end of that particular year and strive hard to attain it. Hence, you too should try and do the same and know where to head with every successive year. Perhaps a good guide can help you plan out the goals and even stick with them.
It’s all about defining your goal!
February 8th, 2011 at 12:35 pm
Sorry about the multiple post…
Security code kept saying it was invalid. I was not trying to spam your site.
March 25th, 2011 at 11:06 am
” Many woodworkers dream of making a living using their skills. From the outside looking in, it seems an enjoyable livelihood and it certainly can be. It’s a worthwhile goal for anyone who really loves woodworking. After all, what could be better than making your living doing something you really love. ”
Woodworkers does have this special skills that most can’t do. It’s very hard to learn. One can make designs out of furniture and even decorations. It’s better to work on spacious area and avoid disturbances. Works like this needs concentration.
May 5th, 2011 at 6:51 am
I really enjoyed this article on woodworking; especially the part about the need to constantly market yourself or your business. I run a custom door website called DecoDesignCenter.com, so I’m definately into custom woodworking. Come check us out!
May 8th, 2011 at 9:02 am
I started woodworking few years back.Im totally not interested in it untill i was called by a nearby school to fix some stuff, and they paid me cash.It was a simple work though.Since than, i find that woodworking is a good hobby and good potential income as well.One of the most valuable experience is when people like your work.Its a compliment!
October 4th, 2011 at 5:14 am
Any business venture is driven by marketing, be it online or offline. I was fortunate to be in a town where our community college offered a Small Business Administration class. Which over a semester of time covered marketing, financing, business basics among others. If a person can find a mentor to help them along the way a person can be successful. Most tradesmen are good at what they do but have a lack of business acumen, leading to a high failure rate. The SBA offers a great curriculum to help tradesmen get it right from the start.