The Pro Shop

Poll: Are You A Pro Woodworker?

Gina Eide, Contributor

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Do you make your living by woodworking? Take our poll.

Photo: Patrick McCombe

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So folks, if you haven’t already noticed, we launched this brand-new blog/microsite last week in partnership with CustomMade. It’s dedicated to helping woodworkers sell their work.

Pro woodworkers: Who are you?
My question is... how many people are interested in this type of information? In the past, we’ve guess-t-imated that about 20 percent of our audience sells their work but I’m not sure how that breaks down online.

So, if you have a spare second, tell us a little bit about yourselves. Take the poll below or make a comment below.

Do you sell your woodwork as a full time job? Do you sell furniture/gifts part time or on occasion? Is it something that you’re considering one day? Perhaps when you retire from your day job?

Need any advice?
My second question is whether you need any specific advice or information about selling your work. We got a lot of good suggestions before we launched the blog in August.

But now that you’ve seen some of our initial posts... what’s missing? What business questions do you have that need answers?

33 Furniture Projects
From the editors of Fine Woodworking The very best projects from 34 years of Fine Woodworking $9.99 more info...

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Comments (7)

markcabinetman writes: It's interesting what GEide wrote. Is she serious?? I've been a self employed custom cabinetmaker for 27 years. For 5 years before that I served an apprenticeship in 3 different shops. I've made a good living and I can't imagine doing anything else. In my opinion, a person has to be very lucky to be able to make an item and put it up for sale AND make a living. There is no money in woodworking unless you make an item FOR a customer. If a piece of furniture, or whatever, already exists it is worthless. If you contract with a customer to make that piece FOR THEM, with their input, then it has real value.
Posted: 9:07 pm on October 4th

miminut writes: I generate a few commissions a year by making furniture for my sisters.Their friends see my work in a real house where my sisters are my subtle/free sales force. If their friends like what they see I get a visit to my garage shop. One in ten people commits to a project. I take on no more then two to three projects a year as I am a full time worker.
Posted: 10:22 pm on October 2nd

bruce277 writes: I've been making "gallery grade" jewelry boxes for a few years now, though I've been into woodworking and design for over 40 years.

As I'm a graphic designer by trade, I'm now only working on a long term contract basis and it only amounts to 3 days a week so I now have more time to "ruin good wood".

I'd really like to start selling, maybe on a contract basis only, my boxes. The problem is that I still consider woodworking a hobby and only work when I feel like it. This amounts to a lot of hours to complete one box along with a lot of time spent "hands on".

To profit from this transition, I'd either have to work a lot faster ("don't want to get into a cookie cutter mode") or command a price way too high to be marketable to a wider buying public. The other alternative, pricing my work more reasonably, I'd clear about $2.00 pr hr. and for that low amount, I'd rather give the work away.

Any really helpful hints would be appreciated.

Bruce
Posted: 5:49 pm on October 1st

ovenled writes: I'm thinking of becoming a professional woodworker making custom furniture working out of my two-car garage in suburbia. This would minimize overhead. Can anyone comment on how serious potential clients are going to take me?
Posted: 3:07 pm on September 28th

danjohnston writes: I'm using www.custommade.com as one way to get our product known. It's worked, slowly but then again we made something very unique. I'd say they are worth a shot for a small operation. We also have our own blog site, cheaper than full url site, at this point traffic is good. Am using blogspot.com for url. Also do some craft shows and just word of mouth.

dan
Blind Dog Surfboards
Posted: 7:02 am on September 28th

CTWoodWkr writes: This Pro blog is long overdue but greatly welcomed. I would like to see lots of marketing ideas. Word of mouth is the best advertising but getting it started is really tough. By the way, I think there are many more pros reading FWW then your reader polls show. I've visited many pro shops and have seen FWW being used there. I refer to FWW almost every day.
Posted: 12:11 am on September 27th

GEide writes: Comment via Twitter @WoodBoatEndvr: No such thing as a pro woodworker! Just the guys who have persevered through ALOT of mistakes. And now they know better. :)
Posted: 3:02 pm on September 22nd

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