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In order to make a business work, you must love what you do. I have made a living as a full-time woodworker in the past. I wound up as a full-time salesman, a part-time book keeper, and a full-time laborer in my shop. I was working 70 plus hours a week doing commission work.

Find a quiet , relaxing place where you can think and dream without being interrupted. Close your eyes and live out a day running your new business.

If that daydream is woodworking all day long, you need to think long and hard before starting a business. You must pay others to do the things you don't want to do, or you will hate your business. I got out of mine because I hated it.

You must generate sales or you don't have a business. What is your sales plan. If you don't like sales, how will you sell? You must collect money, balance the checkbook, and do the taxes. Don't forget sales taxes too. Do you like doing this in addition to a full-time job?

Want to do commission work? You will have a new boss on every job. A boss who is opinionated, picky, monopolizes your time, and wants a bargain price on time. This is the quickest way to become a shop monkey in a building with your name on it. If you imagine hours of blissful woodworking, don't get into commission work.

Never start a business when you need to make money from it right away. You will wind up taking any work you can get, and you will wind up running a business you never dreamed of. That's what happened to me. I wound up in the high-end counter top business when I started a woodworking business. Woodworking became cabinets. Cabinets became solid surface counter tops. Then granite and marble counter tops.

I enjoyed it somewhat. What made me get out of it was managing employees. Every time I tried to transition to just sales and front office, someone in the shop would screw something up. Nothing will take the wind out of your sales quicker than dealing with idiot employees.

You must ignore outside noise and stick to your plan in order to wind up with a business you will enjoy running. You must be able to survive without making money from it or you will wind up like most, a failure statistic. You must turn down work that doesn't fit your plan.

Don't forget about the tax man. He comes from the Feds, state, county, and cities. Don't forget about the sales tax man and property tax man too. I once got a bill from the city for property tax on everything my business owned down to the last screwdriver. Everything was taxed at the original retail value, no depreciation allowed. It was that tax bill that put me over the edge and made me sell my shop.

You must get creative in order to be a full-time woodworker without wearing several other hats.

I bet Norm never had to do this. If I were famous, I would have a double for scene setup.