mrbmcg
Established Member
Hi Guys
I'm wondering what peeps think of the above question?
About 18 months ago (~February 2003) I gave up a pretty good career in Electronic/Software Engineering to build myself a workshop and take up an HNC course in Furniture construction and design in the Autumn of that year. (Before you ask, I had a lot of savings due to a wee windfall)
The reason behind the rash move was that I really really love woodworking and had become somewhat bored with my current career. Anyway, I proudly built my 5m x 5m workshop.
The course turned out to be hopeless and I binned it after the first three months simply because I was learning more from reading and making sawdust of my own, and to be honest I had no intention of working for anybody but myself so the qualification was really incidental.
To cut what is becoming a long story a little short, for the last 10 months or so I have really struggled to make ends meet with the woodworking side of things, so much so, that I am back working 3 days a week as an electronic design engineer in order to pay the bills.
What I am finding is that although I get plenty of interest (mostly through friends of friends who I have done pieces for) people in general seem pretty scared of the price. I don't know how the pros on here charge, but basically I worked out and hourly rate of £10.00 per hour (picked out of the air based on the fact that I figured £20k per annum is what I needed to make ends meet wrt overheads etc)
£10 per hour for skilled (matter of opinion I guess ) labour doesn't seem too high, especially considering what other tradesmen get :shock:
People also seem absolutely astonished at the price of wood :shock:
Can anybody give any recommendations or the benefit of their experience? Am I overpricing or underpricing? What advertising do others do and do you find it effective? i.e. Yellow Pages, local press, Radio? Does anybody do any market research or do they fly by the seat of their pants? Do you make most money from private orders or for commercial? How wide and varied do you spread your net both in terms of catchment area and the type of work you take on?
I realise that this is probably a whole can of worms and everybodies situation is different but I'd appreciate folks points of view. :?
I'm wondering what peeps think of the above question?
About 18 months ago (~February 2003) I gave up a pretty good career in Electronic/Software Engineering to build myself a workshop and take up an HNC course in Furniture construction and design in the Autumn of that year. (Before you ask, I had a lot of savings due to a wee windfall)
The reason behind the rash move was that I really really love woodworking and had become somewhat bored with my current career. Anyway, I proudly built my 5m x 5m workshop.
The course turned out to be hopeless and I binned it after the first three months simply because I was learning more from reading and making sawdust of my own, and to be honest I had no intention of working for anybody but myself so the qualification was really incidental.
To cut what is becoming a long story a little short, for the last 10 months or so I have really struggled to make ends meet with the woodworking side of things, so much so, that I am back working 3 days a week as an electronic design engineer in order to pay the bills.
What I am finding is that although I get plenty of interest (mostly through friends of friends who I have done pieces for) people in general seem pretty scared of the price. I don't know how the pros on here charge, but basically I worked out and hourly rate of £10.00 per hour (picked out of the air based on the fact that I figured £20k per annum is what I needed to make ends meet wrt overheads etc)
£10 per hour for skilled (matter of opinion I guess ) labour doesn't seem too high, especially considering what other tradesmen get :shock:
People also seem absolutely astonished at the price of wood :shock:
Can anybody give any recommendations or the benefit of their experience? Am I overpricing or underpricing? What advertising do others do and do you find it effective? i.e. Yellow Pages, local press, Radio? Does anybody do any market research or do they fly by the seat of their pants? Do you make most money from private orders or for commercial? How wide and varied do you spread your net both in terms of catchment area and the type of work you take on?
I realise that this is probably a whole can of worms and everybodies situation is different but I'd appreciate folks points of view. :?