Let's be Honest -can you even make money from woodworking?

[sitefive]

I quit my last job since it was not really that great for my health and was boring as f sitting at pc whole day , the pay was good but I started to hate it and decided to try my luck turning my hobby in to business.
I'm advertising to general public, and 90% of the stuff I make is bespoke. I do get enough orders and sometimes more than I can handle, probably because I don't price the stuff more expensive than you can buy general furniture in store.

On the last few projects I have counted the hours it takes to do them and the profits, and in the end I end up making only a bit bit more than the minimum wage :| but obviously the work is backbreaking and tiring and I sometimes spend 12-14hours per day working if I have to meet the deadlines, Granted I have been doing this as real work only for the past 3-4months and still have things to learn, but I have cut down the time it takes to do stuff by a lot with different techniques/new tools.
At first starting this I thought you can make decent money from this, but now I have realized this is just quite an tiring and expensive to start minimum wage job if you want to make every piece you do just perfect #-o

 

[marcros]

i don't think that you can make money attempting to compete with mass produced items. Most items in a general furniture store will fall into this.

People do make money from a huge range of woodworking things- from functional items made simply from softwood through to the finest of furniture, with joinery tasks, fitted furniture and kitchens also proving successful for some.

 

[Graham Orm]

Sorry to hear you've reached this point. Can't you balance the work out with something that pays better as well? Maybe general repairs. Did you do much research into how it would work?

 

[worn thumbs]

Without wanting to appear too cynical,how much time would you save if you relaxed your standards a bit?It can be a lot faster to settle for excellent rather than perfect.

 

[JohnPW]

obviously the work is backbreaking and tiring

Are you using only hand tools (to make furniture)?

A professional works fast, just about anybody can make anything perfectly given enough time.

 

[RobinBHM]

There can be good money in site carpentry.

For those that want to be workshop based, I would say there is money to be made in fitted furniture. That includes, bedroom, study, lounge, kitchen. Even better is if you can work from a home workshop with no overheads.

Very difficult to compete in any kind of free standing furniture or craft.

Joinery is possible but a lot if machinery required and tons of legislation.

If you run a manufacturing business, especially if over 5 people, the amount of regulations becomes painful.

 

[sitefive]

Without wanting to appear too cynical,how much time would you save if you relaxed your standards a bit?It can be a lot faster to settle for excellent rather than perfect.

Probably half of the time or even more... I have done plenty of research against my competition and even with my inexperienced eye I can see that mostly everyone has standards I wouldn't be proud of when talking about finish quality and wouldn't want to put my name on them.
I barely use any handtools, I'm slowly building up/upgrading my tools and the time savings are paying off.

 

[doctor Bob]

Yes you can make money from woodworking, if you are making minimum wage you are doing it wrong.
Are you self taught, I find lots of self taught makers are great but amazingly slow, they have no idea how a commercial shop should run.
I believe you can't beat working in a commercial workshop to start with to see how quickly furniture can be made, and made to fantastic standards.

By the way you are moaning yet again, please stop it.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

=D> :lol:

 

[Adam9453]

+1 for dr bobs comment
It would be worth you at least visiting a proper commercial workshop for a day even if you can't afford to give up more time than that.
It's also probably worth you buying books or watching videos regarding production methods and manufacturing.
YouTube and woodworking books are generally good at telling you how to make something wonderful, you need the expertise to make it as wonderful but quickly.
This particularly means working efficiently, setting up your workshop properly so it's laid out and equipped to maximise your efficiency.
You need to work smarter not harder.
And if you are already doing all of the above then put your prices up.
What's the point of working for minimum wage? Particularly as it sounds like you're finding it a chore not fun

 

[n0legs]

+1 for dr bobs comment

:lol: :lol:
Which one?

The woodwork advice or the stop moaning?

Stop moaning is bang on if you ask me. Gotta' love the honesty =D> :lol:

 

[sitefive]

+1 for dr bobs comment
It would be worth you at least visiting a proper commercial workshop for a day even if you can't afford to give up more time than that.
It's also probably worth you buying books or watching videos regarding production methods and manufacturing.
YouTube and woodworking books are generally good at telling you how to make something wonderful, you need the expertise to make it as wonderful but quickly.
This particularly means working efficiently, setting up your workshop properly so it's laid out and equipped to maximise your efficiency.
You need to work smarter not harder.
And if you are already doing all of the above then put your prices up.
What's the point of working for minimum wage? Particularly as it sounds like you're finding it a chore not fun

well my ''workshop'' at the moment is 15m2 large + some extra storage space, not much space for anything else but only few small machines.

I guess the question is- can you make any £ without having a whole factory and tens of thousands worth of equipment?

 

[doctor Bob]

I guess the question is- can you make any £ without having a whole factory and tens of thousands worth of equipment?

Yes.
The factory and tens of thousands worth of equipment comes from the profits and hard graft.

 

[chippy1970]

If you've only been doing this for a living 3 to 4 months you cannot expect to earn a fortune. I've been doing this 20 plus years and I'm still learning everyday. My apprenticeship alone was 4 years.

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk

 

[paulm]

Don't forget to allow for tax and national insurance payments from the money you have been earning too. In an employed type job it's deducted at source by the employer, where you are working for yourself you or your accountant should be dealing with it.

Cheers, Paul

 

[petermillard]

If you've only been doing this for a living 3 to 4 months you cannot expect to earn a fortune. I've been doing this 20 plus years and I'm still learning everyday. My apprenticeship alone was 4 years.

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk

+1. Pricing jobs is also one of the hardest things when you’re starting out (doing the actual work is easy in comparison) and it’s all too easy to get busy by selling yourself cheaply. At the risk of stating the obvious, you can't do bespoke work for less than high street off-the-shelf prices and expect to make decent money - that's just bad business.

If you're working to a decent standard and you have plenty of work, but aren't making much money, then raise your prices - not rocket science, is it? Easier said than done, I know, but remember that you're not obliged to serve every sector of society, at every price-point.

If it helps, I have a simple 'cost of doing business' spreadsheet designed to for a one-man-band startup to establish what's a viable day rate; happy to post a link if you're interested.

Cheers, Pete

 

[AJB Temple]

Hmmm. You don't write like a businessman. Clearly you are doing something right as you have identified local competitors, assessed their work v yours and think yours is better, and you have managed to get business. The question for you is, can you find customers that will pay more for superior quality? That is a marketing question not a woodworking one.

The woodworking on is a matter of achieving efficiency. Most people, in any job, art or profession, achieve a certain standard and then they have hit the glass ceiling: they never really get any better. This is because they repeat their mistakes and persist with their inefficiencies. They can't see these because they do not know the tips and tricks and methods and short cuts that will enable them to break through the glass ceiling. Most people need to a) recognise this weakness and then b) find someone who can show them. You tell us very little about yourself (apart from the tendency to moan quite a bit - this negativity, if it shows in real life, will put customers off), but reading between the lines I suspect you need to spend some time working for or with someone who actually knows what they are doing. Even if you have to offer your services to them for little or no money, the education may well be the best investment you ever make.

 

[Jacob]

Bespoke one-off's is not ideal for a beginner (or anybody for that matter). Pick a design and make a run of ten, then set about selling them. If you do a run you get much better at it, much faster per item, the tenth will be much better than the first.
And always crank your prices up - have a look at the competition and charge the same or more.
Basic fact of selling; the only way to get more money for the same product is better marketing.

Not that I'm a successful business person I hasten to add - but I now know what I should have been doing - and it did work when I did it properly!

PS getting your prices up can lead to positive feedback - you find yourself able to do a better job (more time in hand), use better materials and buy better tools. If you are always too cheap you may never get properly started.

 

[Adam9453]

Very sound advice in the above posts, I hope he heeds it

 

[mind_the_goat]

If you are pricing to match mass produced furniture and are genuinely on minimum wage after all expenses then I think you are doing extremely well. If you are doing bespoke for the same price as mass produced then I can see why you are getting work.
You should examine what you making and for how much. figure out time and 'profit' for each type of job, focus on the ones that earn more and quote higher prices for the ones that give you smaller return. If your order book is full you can afford to start raising your prices. Your product is NOT the same as the items you are basing your prices on. Also consider your clients wealth. What car do they drive? how big is their house? What other furniture do they have? Price accordingly. Don't be afraid of a quote being rejected, usually no point in doing a job for no money, you can always re-quote if you really wanted the work.
As suggested by others, If one thing you make is proving popular then it could be worth producing these upfront, probably be faster to do a batch, could be better use of your time and it's going to be helpful being able to sell something off the shelf rather than have to work for 2 weeks on a project before you get any money. If you lack space then you could store components as 'flat-packs'

I'm in IT myself and have a lot of respect for your decision to get out and try something completely different.