Can you really make a decent living at woodworking?

[PitBull]

One of the things *many* small businesses fail in the early days is due to lack of advertising - you have to tell people you are out there ready for them.

Once you've built up a good client base then you might be lucky and word of mouth might be enough, but until then, send out flyers, put ads in the local "XXXXshire Country Life" mag and in the local papers, school mags etc.

Sell your self, because nobody else will.

 

[Anonymous]

I have been self employed for 10 months now and have just reached a record £2000.00 in orders in ONE WEEK.
How ?? Well I dont advertise as such but just take a few items along to my local BOOTFAIR and give out business cards to those that require customised items. ie. Cabinets to fit in alcoves.
My "bread & butter" money comes from Made to Measure Radiator covers.
As from next year ALL Care homes NATIONWIDE must have all radiators covered by law and I am struggling to produce enough quick enough.

I base my charges on 200% markup and keep getting told I am too cheap. Alot of my customers order just 1 at first because of this ( in case I do `cowboy` work but then they always seem to come back for the rest of the house to be done.

I think I have been lucky and found a Niche Market but I will never go back to work for someone else doing something I don`t like.

Koolwabbit

 

[devonwoody]

You lot are making me wish I was young again. I Was self employed for 32 years, but never had a paid holiday in that time.( Or many holidays, I was always too busy.)

 

[Shady]

Alf - sorry, didn't mean to go off on a rant: but it would be nice if all these hardworking people could actually keep more than 50% of what they actually earn...

 

[cambournepete]

My "bread & butter" money comes from Made to Measure Radiator covers.
As from next year ALL Care homes NATIONWIDE must have all radiators covered by law and I am struggling to produce enough quick enough.

A lot off topic (sorry) but I've never understood how they don't stop a lot of the heat from the radiator doing anything useful. Don't you just heat the cover and not the room ?

 

[Rattie]

A lot off topic (sorry) but I've never understood how they don't stop a lot of the heat from the radiator doing anything useful. Don't you just heat the cover and not the room ?

Now I used to think that, but it's not really true of well designed covers. Most houshold radiators are pretty much purely convection heaters. Air in contact with them rises, and mixes with the room air, and cold air on the floor is drawn in to replace it. If a cover has a reasonable gap at the bottom and onother at the top, just below the shelf, then it doesn affect this too much.

You will end up with the transfer of heat into the room being slowed down a bit, so that it takes a little longer for the room to heat up from cold, but conversely you'll store some heat in the MDF which will keep the room from cooling down as fast once the heating goes off.

I myself don't much care for radiator covers, but the sense of putting them into care homes and I guess homes with toddlers is pretty obvious.

BTW if you want a radiator to radiate, you'd need to supply it with water just off the boil, and paint it matt black. Very goth :twisted:

Martyn

 

[Alf]

Alf - sorry, didn't mean to go off on a rant: but it would be nice if all these hardworking people could actually keep more than 50% of what they actually earn...

Yeah, I know. It's just a can o' worms, that's all.

One suggestion I heard to get yourself known was to contact the local paper. Provide them with all the info they need for an article and they, poor saps, will probably write you a full page advert, er, article, for free, gratis and for nothing - with a picture in all probability. Makes a change from the latest WI cake sale I suppose. FWIW.

Cheers, Alf

 

[Shady]

Good point on the papers Alf: I seem to remember that Kevin Ley also went around local 'bigger' stores, and got them to put some of his stuff in the window in return for a slice of the price - specifically to increase his visibility in the market. Note however, that even as a fairly successful and established maker, he's writing articles and books, which is presumably to help cover the bills, at least in part.

 

[devonwoody]

Thats what I said earlier in this thread , free publicity/exhibitionism.

Why not build a big wardrobe (rotten one) and let it fall off your roof rack and close the road for a day, you should get a free write up in the press or even worse.
But make sure something happens every week.
Wife has quads is another good one.

 

[dedee]

Wife has quads is another good one.

If that happens there will be no time for woodwork and if there was you will be so tired that using any sort of edge tool or tailed apprentice could cause serious injury.

Andy
(who has contemplated sleeping in the workshop since twins arrived)

 

[Anonymous]

With a well designed Rad cover one would loose about 15% of heat but what has happenned in the past is old folks touching the rad and falling back with the shock resulting in broken bones. A rad I covered last week was at the top of a steep stairway 3in from the top bannister.

As far as I am concerned, I prefer to let a potential customer see the finished product rather than a photo and a few words. Also, I work from home and after trying advertising in the local press was inundated with callers as late as 9pm asking to see an example of my work. NEVER AGAIN !!!

Koolwabbit

 

[Sgian Dubh]

I find your analysis of your lecturers strength and weaknesses, well, er, bloody fascinating. It's hard to credit that such people teach. Of course I've not heard their side of the story either.

With timber drying faults I'd suggest taking in with you incontrovertible proof of the problem. The fork/prong test is that incontrovertible proof. Only an eejit would attempt an argument against such evidence, and any such argument can be shot down in flames.

It's always possible to ask them to repeat the test on their bandsaw in front of yours and their eyes. There's nothing like making yourself look like the compleat pillock in front of a customer to get recompense, as long as you, the customer, knows exactly what you are talking about-- devour Hoadley and don't miss a trick in that book is the best advice I can offer-- it's the all-round users definitive text on the subject really.

If you're ambitious enough to make a living as a woodworker you'll get there through thick or thin. It'll mean hours of study, experimentation and getting it wrong, but if you persist it will work. You'll need an understanding wife, or you ought to be single, along with being single and/or bloody minded, or both, ha, ha. Slainte.

 

[Sgian Dubh]

I think we know each other in a different forum Mike?

Yep. Bubbles are for bursting. It's all just hard-nosed business in the end, and furniture making for a living is just another way of being in business. Slainte.

 

[johnelliott]

If you're ambitious enough to make a living as a woodworker you'll get there through thick or thin.

I'm happy to agree with most of what you say, but cannot agree with the statement above. "Making a living" might mean different things to different people, but without the co-operation of the customers, ambition will NOT make you a living
John

 

[Midnight]

I think we know each other in a different forum Mike?

Indeed...!!

your explanation of drawer runners is still obligatory reading...

I can more than understand the desire to go into cabinet-making for a living... building something to last, doing something you're both good at and enjoy... the sticky part always being to turn that skill into a marketable commodity...

I remember in one of your posts, you explained that to win a client over, both you (the maker) and the client have to understand that the transaction is about making / buying a piece of functional art, not merely a piece of furniture....

 

[Sgian Dubh]

"without the co-operation of the customers, ambition will NOT make you a living"

True, John. Customers can be difficult to find, and when you've found them they can still end up being awkward.

Unfocused ambition alone probably won't make anyone a living. But I'm assuming someone that's ambitious to make a living of some sort in their chosen profession will do the best they can to properly analyse their strengths and weaknesses, do whatever they can to improve the weaknesses (such as training, advice, studying, etc.) find out what the customer wants, or find a gap of some sort in the market, and then provide a service designed to suit.

It doesn't always work of course as the number of failed start-up businesses can testify. I don't have figures to hand as start-up business statistics are not my line, but I've heard anecdotally that many a successful businessman or woman has a false start or two in the background. Slainte.

 

[Sgian Dubh]

Okay Mike. Now I'm pretty sure of which forum we've exchanged a few words in before. Obligatory reading, huh? Nah. More like verbal diarrheoa on my part, ha, ha. Slainte.

 

[tx2man]

Hey DW,

you're not Max Clifford in disguise, are you? :shock:

TX

 

[SimonA]

I don't suppose either of you would care to share with us the WWW address of this other forum?

SimonA

 

[Alf]

I'm guessing FWW's Knots forum. At least I've seen both Mike and Richard on there frequently.

Cheers, Alf