Replies

1. 
   GratefulWoodworking | Oct 23, 2000 11:20pm | #1

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   You are not crazy! You do sound like an educated man though ,and seeking advice before launching a new business is wise. I wish I had 8 years ago.. The best advice I can give is this, always have fallback capital on hand in the beginning. It can be very hard on someone and their family if things don't go entirely right. Beyond that the main reason I would do this ,besides monetarily, would be because of a passion for the work. Is it strong enough for you to stick it out ,day in day out, even when the money's tight ,business is slow ,mistakes are made even with the best of intentions. What I don't think many people realize is how much customer contact a self -employed individual actually has with the purchasing public. It takes major amounts of patience and the skill of a politician at times. If you can be prepared for some of these observations and have a strong desire to put out a marketable product at a fair price then I will wish you the best of luck and welcome to the world of wood working as a living.

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   Ron_Brese | Oct 25, 2000 04:15am | #2

   *Mark, Do not start this business in a situation where you have to pull a substantial income from the business from the start, in fact you probably can do some things right now to reduce your monthly obligations so that you take the pressure off of the business in the first year. Before I took the plunge I refinanced my home loan so as to pay off other debts. When I started I was under no obligation to make money in order to pay monthly bills. This way I did not have to take on jobs I didn't really want just to make sure I had work. I also did not have to price work conservatively in order to guarantee work. I could put the price that I knew I needed to get for the work and if I didn't get the job it was no big deal. Use this time to do good work and build a reputation for good work not low prices. Take a long look before jumping into the idea of a retail store front. It takes a lot of money to set one up and then you need to have someone there to mind the store. This may be more overhead than you can stand early in the life of your business. I am a custom and reproduction furniture maker and I have never had a store front, however I keep a substanial back log of work. As your business grows you will be able to take an income from it, and you will get a feel for how much debt you and your business can stand. At this point in the game you will have a new boss his name is Mr. Cashflow. You will need a certain amount of work volume in order to pay your business bills and your personal bills. You will have to balance your creative side with your business side in order to achieve this on a consistent basis. Are you married? If your spouse works check into getting your healthcare coverage thru her job. In short do the things you can do now to give your business every chance of being successful. Good Luck!!!!!!

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   mike_semo | Nov 26, 2000 06:31pm | #3

   *I bought a cabinet refacing franchise 3 years ago. I work out of my house. The franchiser that I deal with really is a class act, but there are many that will just leave you to twist in the wind. Your franchise is an asset (taxable) that can be bought or sold, but if you have to sell it, can you? Its' value is limited to the amount of real income that it produces, so like any investment, you just might end up with a lemon. You can't sell "potential" with an ad in the classifieds. I say this because my wife has a fantastic job offer in another city and we may have to move, it's VERY hard to resell a small woodworking franchise, so right now I'm stuck here. I might even have to take a loss just to unload it.The franchiser makes money by selling new franchises, royalties from your gross sales, and by selling you all that overcharged ad and office material. Be careful who you buy this franchise from, once you're up and running, they may forget about you and move on to more fresh meat. I was in chemical sales and made a pretty good living, and I've found I have to work twice as hard to make the same money (one of the joys of owning your own business they don't tell you). Good thing that I love what I do. Start up for me cost more than I anticipated (it always does) because I set up a garage based shop and a job trailer (two sets of tools), then there is liability insurance, new vehicle, ongoing advertising, commercial loan payment, business phone line, cell phone and the 1,000 things that the franchiser never tells you about. I have at least $1,800 in expenses to cover every month MINIMUM without even getting up in the morning. Bottom line is have lots of money to start out and watch it dissapear quickly. Business will be slow to start, so don't expect to get paid for awhile. Scared yet? If I had it to do all over again, I would start this business from scratch. I would have done alot of research on refacing (I taught myself to build cabinets and furniture), gotten a job with an outfit for awhile to learn how to do it, took some small business accounting and marketing classes. The amount of money I spent buying my franchise, just the right to use their name, I could have spent on tons of advertising upon start up and had enough instant business to to start out way ahead of the curve. A commercial artist can design a logo and you can get screen printed T-shirts anywhere. It's a professional name and image you're buying. Since it's not locally known anyway, you'll have to spend just as much to educate the public as you would if you started it yourself. I've seen the ads for the company you're interested in, and I know everything they do you can learn from the library or the internet. It's really not that hard to do, but for the extra work, you'll save a bundle! After 3 years of paying 6% royalties on everything I sell I'm now saying, "what the hell am I paying for anyway?"

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   Jim_Walters | Nov 26, 2000 09:02pm | #4

   *I started a custom furniture business a few years ago and almost lost the farm. I rented a cozy little shop and filled it with my stuff, but no one wanted to pay for it. I kept hearing; you're furniture is really nice but I can get a vanity at (the cheapest junk in town store) for 65.00. Most people in my area didn't know the difference between solid wood and pressed wood with a plastic film on it. I made 18,000.00 that year so I went back to remodeling and new construction, the only way I know of to make a living with wood. Just because there's wealth around you doesn't mean the folks have the mindset for quality stuff. Of course in Ohio......JW