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

[AJB Temple]

Sage post, Custard.

 

[lurker]

Off at a tangent but...... Some bloke has just sold a photograph of a potato for a million dollars. Like makepiece name is all!

Pete (Maddex) have you got any spud photos in your photo a day portfolio?

 

[doctor Bob]

what relevance is posting up what you earn per hour if you are in a different profession?

As someone within the profession, I know it's fairly easy to earn more then being a woodwork employee. If I didn't I wouldn't do it, the hassle is not worth it.

 

[Bm101]

I cleaned the windows at the following newly opened hotel in Soho for a while. They are beautifully maintained and presented if that style is your thing and you have the money to pay for it. Among the guests I recognised were Elijah Wood, Dynamo, Bruce Forsyth. A downstairs bowling alley and cocktails at £20 a pop. https://www.firmdalehotels.com/hotels/l ... ard-hotel/

Off at a mad divergent? Possibly. But what struck me at the time was the costs they invested in the building and the fitting out. Serious serious money. Most places pretend to spend the money to get 'the look, these people spent it in spades to get the real deal. What also struck me was that it was so design orientated. The wallpaper, the artworks in the lobby. Not my thing tbh. I'm a cheap date.

But it did strike me at the time that an astute person with the right business and practical skills who got in touch, managed to establish a good relationship and made a place for themself might well be on to a lucrative and ongoing market. This firm has various hotels around the world and I use it only as an example because I have personal experience of it. There's many more business models serving this market. Just saying.

As a quick but fairly related aside I used to do the windows at the Candy Brothers. The real estate devs. We'd abseil the outside, no worries. One day we got a call... they want you to do a couple of extra bits from inside. Ok. Walk into this beautifully crafted wooden room with no doors. Errrr.... Hellooo? Voice comes over an intercom. Can I help you? Ahhh. ok. Yep here to do the windows. Hold on please.
The whole wall revolves to let me into the office....
WTF. So i'm looking for a villain with a cat at this point.
The immaculate lady inside: you might want to take your boots off. (it's a white silk carpet) thats's a £1000 a metre carpet.
Err. Yup ok.
Theres only 2 windows to clean but theres a vase in front of one.
Ermmm, excuse me. The vase there. Is it a little pricey?
And the woman looks at me straight faced and says I'm not moving that its worth more than my house.

I'm standing there in my socks with half a bucket of dirty water and a bit of rag to mop up.
Ahhh You're alright. I'll pop back later when I've liased with my manager.
Never did go back.

 

[doctor Bob]

I'd be more interested in what the OP is making. Seems whatever he is making is out of poor quality softwood (his words). The market dropped out of pine in the 90's. There is no market for it as far as i'm aware.
No one pays top dollar for pine furniture. I can't think of a single thing I have ever made in pine or softwood.
I can charge maybe £6000+ for a top end table, I just couldn't make a table which looked great (enough to command a good price) in pine, it just isn't possible.

 

[tomatwark]

Being in business in the North and having 5 people working for me, there is a living to be made making furniture up here.

When I read the OP's first post I thought here we go again another person who has not professional training or experience setting up in business with their eyes shut.

There are a lot of things that folks make as a hobby for family and friends, some of which are pretty amazing, but this does not mean they transfer into a business model with all the overheads a business has, even one run from a small workshop behind your house.

To the OP I would listen to others advice and maybe see if you can get some part time work in commercial workshop near you and see how it needs to be done to make money.

 

[Rhossydd]

sell for breathtaking prices to a tiny elite of museums and ultra wealthy collectors. But with the 2007/8 crash that market pretty much collapsed. Furthermore, even in the US, which seems a bit further forward in terms of economic recovery, it's never really come back. I've no idea why this is the case

Makers just need to lever their way into the market. London's awash with cash rich investors wanting to spend their money.

 

[lurker]

I'd be more interested in what the OP is making. Seems whatever he is making is out of poor quality softwood (his words). The market dropped out of pine in the 90's. There is no market for it as far as i'm aware.
No one pays top dollar for pine furniture. I can't think of a single thing I have ever made in pine or softwood.
I can charge maybe £6000+ for a top end table, I just couldn't make a table which looked great (enough to command a good price) in pine, it just isn't possible.

You noticed too

 

[Jacob]

You can get good money for good furniture part or all softwoods. It's down to good design ( and marketing of course), good materials (which are available in spite of the general scepticism) and a very strong tradition. There's a lot of "shabby chic" tat around which doesn't give it a good name, but there are ways and means. There's a lot of oak tat around too!

 

[AJB Temple]

The pine market of days gone by is indeed gone, but has unfortunately been replaced with stuff from "oak furnitureland" where they round off and distress every corner and straight line like its been attacked by a five year old with a spokeshave.

It would be interesting to see the OPs web site.

 

[No skills]

It would be interesting to see op's work and website. Let's not jump down his neck if we all don't like it tho.

As has been mentioned, speed of production comes from tooling/process/repetition. The latter being the most important, without it you can't find ways to improve the other 2.

Once you have built enough of one product you can pretty much do it on autopilot and be thinking through other jobs in the meanwhile. Allowing enough concentration not to hurt yourself of course

 

[Racers]

Off at a tangent but...... Some bloke has just sold a photograph of a potato for a million dollars. Like makepiece name is all!

Pete (Maddex) have you got any spud photos in your photo a day portfolio?

I have plums

26th August by Pete Maddex, on Flickr

Yours for £500.000, I'm not greedy.

:wink:

Pete

 

[Graham Orm]

Off at a tangent but...... Some bloke has just sold a photograph of a potato for a million dollars. Like makepiece name is all!

Pete (Maddex) have you got any spud photos in your photo a day portfolio?

I have plums

26th August by Pete Maddex, on Flickr

Yours for £500.000, I'm not greedy.

:wink:

Pete

Is that per lb.or per Kg.?

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Per plum.

 

[Steve Maskery]

Good picture, Pete. I hope they were destined for that rather excellent plum, lime and ginger concoction of yours.

 

[Racers]

Yes Steve they where.

Pete

 

[sawdust1]

I have enjoyed this thread, its why i joined this forum, looks like its run its course now we are onto plums !

 

[lurker]

I have enjoyed this thread, its why i joined this forum, looks like its run its course now we are onto plums !

I think is it wasn't that the OP has previous form, we might have remained serious for longer.

Anyway, do keep up: we are onto plum jam now!

 

[Mark-numbers]

+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?

I started in a garage and with old 500 quid wadkin panel saw 4 years ago! I now have a factory and tens of thousands worth of equipment - The first 2 years I spent 17 hours a day every single day in the garage, making whatever I needed to survive, and grow. I never once moaned, I struggled to pay the bills, on occasion needing to borrow money to cover them I barely saw my son or wife for the those 2 years, but now it is a completely different story, I get to take my son to school, pick him up and take him swimming.....I even meet my wife on occasion to go for breakfast or walk in the park mid morning. But I still put the hours in as soon as and when required.........

 

[Doug B]

I started in a garage and with old 500 quid wadkin panel saw 4 years ago! I now have a factory and tens of thousands worth of equipment - The first 2 years I spent 17 hours a day every single day in the garage, making whatever I needed to survive, and grow. I never once moaned, I struggled to pay the bills, on occasion needing to borrow money to cover them I barely saw my son or wife for the those 2 years, but now it is a completely different story, I get to take my son to school, pick him up and take him swimming.....I even meet my wife on occasion to go for breakfast or walk in the park mid morning. But I still put the hours in as soon as and when required.........

Is it really only four years Mark :shock: I remember that old Wadkin & the big 3phase converter, you've certainly achieved a lot in a short time


Re the opening post I think as long as you are willing to put in the hours & your expectations for success aren't unrealistic you can succeed with most things, it's more about finding a market for your product & having an edge over the competition.


Finally to get back on topic, just for Jim a home made plum clafoutis, I can't take much credit for the plums as they grew themselves on the tree down the allotment, though I did pick them :lol: