Possible? I’m getting older, have no dependents and only need to generate about 18k a year. I live in an area with relatively few woodworkers and on a growing tourist route.
Thanks for any advice.
Possible? I’m getting older, have no dependents and only need to generate about 18k a year. I live in an area with relatively few woodworkers and on a growing tourist route.
Thanks for any advice.
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Replies
There is a lot of information missing in your post.
Are you an experienced woodworker, with all the tools and equipment you will need for production box making? If you need to borrow money to get set up, that will increase your overhead. If you don't know what you are doing yet, that will require a significant period where you need other income, as you gain experience.
How do you expect to sell the boxes? If thru shops, they will take a significant cut of the retail price. What percentage do local shops take? If they operate on consignment, you won't get any money until the box is sold. If they buy the boxes instead, they will get a significantly higher percentage of the final price. If thru craft fairs, you will need to figure in your time to be at the fair, loading/set up and unloading/repacking time, driving time and expense, booth fees, etc.
Another question to answer is how deep is your market? Will you have repeat customers? Will the demand for fine boxes be satisfied in the first year or two? Is your price going to be larger than for typical impulse purchases? (This question's answer is specific to the tourists who come to your area.)
You need to answer a lot of questions to figure out if this is possible in your situation. But there are more:
Are you a disciplined self starter? No boss to motivate you to get to work.
Are you organized and efficient in general?
Can you manage money well? Get thru lean periods?
Do you have a good design sense and level of creativity?
Are you willing to make what will sell rather than just what you want to make?
In other words, do you have the characteristics to be self employed in a business that is probably precarious at best?
Your best bet is to ease into this to gain information, starting very small and getting information about all these questions as you go.
FYI, I do know first hand about a lot of this, as I have been a professional woodworker for over 40 years. I have kept my income needs very low, (similar to yours), which has made it possible. I also had enough money saved up to build my house and shop with cash, and equipped it with used machinery as I could afford it. It is possible, but your characteristics are as important as the market in your area.
Thanks for the detailed response. Yes to all the secondary questions, good design sense, self motivated etc.
Own all tools and machines, will just have to have a market stall and see how it goes, no real risk there.
I'd love to hear from anyone who is actually making and selling enough small work to live reasonably well. Basically what, where and when.
When I retired, I started making objects and tried to sell them in shops and stores . I soon figured that it was not to be lucrative, the nicest pieces, bowls made from large burls harvested locally would be too pricey and objects such as rolling pins, cutting boards or toys would not bring enough margins . I still make those items but sell very few. However these shops , a cheese store and a microbrewery, needed some woodwork and do all the time so between these two businesses and an expanding customer base, I get about the revenue you are aiming and only work part time in the winter at it. The jobs go from making shelves and displays to turning large serving platers and making door frames and bar tables, the need is endless. So if there are few woodworkers in your area, take the opportunity, this type of custom work is appreciated and brings a better margin.
Prolly not. Why are the tourists there and what are they buying?
I have considered boxes as a sideline but decided not to.
Why not make a few and see what you can get for them, how much they sell for and where they go to. That will give you far better information than speculation.
I would suggest that if you invest a few weekends in making 10 good boxes and 30 or so cheaper ones, you will get a decent idea of how well they will go in your area.
As a rule, tourists will seldom buy large items and will often want a cheap keepsake rather than a more functional box. Having small items to sell to people who might otherwise walk away can turn a terrible day into a meh one.
It might be worth approaching funeral directors, vets and pet crematoria too as people will pay much higher prices when they are in a hurry. Funerary wares are always going to be needed...
Also check sites like etsy.com and see which items sell, how long it takes for them to sell and what prices are being asked. It's free to look but a pain to follow.
Putting all of the detailed business case parameters already mentioned to one side, anyone wanting to turn what may have begun as a hobby into a business needs to recognise one fundamental factor of such a move: you're likely to spend 80% of your time doing the business stuff and only 20% of your time making what you want to sell.
Do you want to have a new hobby - "running a business"? If it's still the box making that you're truly interested in, don't make your pleasurable hobby a business.
You might be able to combine the two (woodworking & business) to make success and satisfaction ..... but it's a rare person who can make that meld.
Lataxe
Oh yes.
I run a couple of health centres and the admin is unbelievable.
I do enjoy the running the business side of things, but I can afford to pay an accountant to do most of the real crap.
You reckon it's as much as 80% though?
I have considered quitting doctoring in favour of woodwork, but apart from the income difference was really put off by:
1. Having to take a picture and list every item
2. Having to answer questions on sale items
3. Having to package and post items
4. Chasing non-payers
5. Spending all day at a fair and not selling anything.
This latter I did to make ends meet as a junior - we sold china goods at fairs - but it was soul destroying - all the risk and with no experience, little benefit. It helped, but not much.
If I were to be doing craft fairs and such these days, I'd take something to make whilst I was there...
As a hobby woodworker who has made a few things for sale I think it is really hard to find some niche market and turn that into a long term profitable venture. I can sell a few things but will never cover things like overhead, tax, heat, lighting, etc. but try to cover direct costs like wood and supplies. My project work hours compensation are nowhere near comparable commercial wages. The old saying if you want to make $18K selling wood items, start with $36K is very true in my opinion.
So far, I haven't sold anything myself. I either make it for myself/family or give it as a gift. That has helped me. I think it's possible to make a wage. In Christian Becksvoort's "Shaker Inspiraiton: 5 decades of inspired craftmanship." He talks a lot about the business side of things. Well worth purchasing. For him (where he makes bigger furniture), it was a matter of developing about 200 clients and that accounted for most of his work over the years. Finding your clients is likely the key. Others have given lots of good ideas for this here and I have nothing to add.
AirBnB tourist often look for ‘Experiences’, such as a local cooking class in Mexico. If you would consider immersing tourist into the box making experience, you might make more than simply selling boxes.
The one place I have seen fine boxes on display and selling, is at jewelry stores. The quality was beyond my skill level, but I can see where that would be a place where the high price of handmade craftsmanship would not turn people off.
For over 23 years I operated a wood refinishing and furniture repair business. I closed it down 3 years ago to re-enter the agricultural supply industry. When I was hired, the company owner asked me why I wanted to close my business. My response was that I had spent over 20 years going broke. I was well trained at a technical school in furniture repair and restoration in a program that lasted 9 months.
One thing I realized is that people buy a "story" as much as they buy a product. In your case I could see your story may include something about the wood, or inlay material. i.e "one of a kind log with unique wood grain, or how you spent 2 months looking for the perfect color of walnut", etc.
With furniture refinishing the story is the memory. The memory of being rocked to sleep in Granny's rocker, eating at Mom's table, the good times they had growing up setting on Grandpa's bench.
After 20 years I was just tired. My market was declining. Throw away furniture is the norm. Very little rock maple furniture being made these days.
One last thing, calculate a shop rate. Include all overhead, those expenses that don't change with your production volume. Then set a reasonable expectation on production time, or billable hours. If you can average 6 hrs of production a day in this business, you are doing well.
Good luck.
I enjoy making boxes. I watch Rob Cosman YouTube videos. From time to time, he has talked about making boxes early in his career as part of his income stream. In one of the videos (don't remember which), he talked about how he needed to reduce the time from 10 hours per box (nicely cut dovetails) to 2 or so hours per box but yet still have that perceived quality of a dovetail. His solution was to use box joints - had the look of a dovetail but the speed of a router. I could see where if you are making boxes, trying to first make the box you like and then distilling it down similar to what Rob Cosman talked about being a general approach. There are also plenty of good books dedicated to small boxes. I'd look at these for design inspiration as a starting point for you then to modify until you have something you can make in a time efficient manner.
In terms of materials, after I joined a local woodworking club, I found that there was lots of good wood to be had for free (both rough sawn and in S3S type configurations). This should help on keeping the material costs down.
Also, this doesn't need to be an all or nothing proposition. Make like 10, try and sell them and see what you learn about making and selling. Dave Ramsey (of Ramsey Solutions) has lots of info on side hustles. Start it while you are still working and see how it goes. As Dave puts it "that way it's a small jump from the dock into the boat." Good luck.
Modern tools like the Shaper Origin, and dovetail jigs could also be a great investment to crank out perfect dovetails quickly and with ease.
I'm doing it for myself or as gifts for friends. I've tried selling it on Facebook a few times, but it didn't fly off the shelves like hotcakes.
My wife saw a turned wooden salt box on line, showed it too me and asked me if I could make one. I said " sure I can make that but this one is $9.95 free shipping with prime"!
I make boxes from time to time. Good scrap wood I keep and then it piles up and I need to create space. There is usually not enough of any one thing to be very useful on a larger project so I will make some boxes. I have sold a few, given a bunch away, made them to stash my own stuff in them. Jewelry boxes, humidors are something you can sell if they are very, very good but your competing with every one from Louie Vuitton to Cost Plus. Who will buy a $800 box? Someone that will spend $100 for a cigar or needs a place to keep their 18 carat diamond ring.
I have a sister that is much older than me. She married a guy when I was about 7 or 8. His parents were Russian immigrants and his father was a professor of German surprisingly or not actually when you think of it. In Russia he had been an adjutant to the Czar. The parents escaped with the loot and gave a bunch of jewelry and such to my sister when she married their son. One of the things she got was a BOX. It was given to the father as a gift from the Czar. It was silver in a sort of classic bombe design. It could have been Faberge I dont know. The Czar was big on Faberge so it could have been. On the lid were mounted 4 eliptical stones red ,blue,yellow and green about the size of my thumb..not my 7 year old thumb but my thumb now! Inside the lid was an etched inscription in cirrilic writing. The inside was tooled leather and gold leaf. It sat on my sister's coffee table and I would play with it when I was visiting, like a toy. I was mesmerized by that box. The marriage didn't last and my sister gave all that stuff back,...clean slate and all. Decades later I'm in the gem room at the Carnegie Museum and there behind a glass display was the BOX!
I have a pretty high standard as a result but I think if you can make a box like that, and you almost have too, you can sell it !
Considering your circumstances and location, it's definitely possible to generate income through woodworking. With the growing tourist route, offering unique handcrafted wood items or providing woodworking classes/workshops could be lucrative. Focus on marketing to tourists and locals alike, showcasing your craftsmanship and catering to their needs and interests. Good luck on your woodworking journey!
I chose to become a professional woodworker about 45 years ago. At that point, I made a decision to look for a few customers needing larger projects, rather than a lot of customers buying little things. I think it has saved me a lot of time on the business end of things. I also chose to only do top quality work, even for things for which I wasn't going to get a lot of money. And I broadened my skills as fast as possible. I figured the only way to make decent money was to have customers who wanted ME to do the project for them. When you do a competitive bid, you are often bidding against others who are going out of business but don't know it yet. Not good for you. I completely relied on happy return customers and word of mouth to generate business. I also ate a lot of rice and beans the first few years, as most of the money I made went right back into the business. And I was consistently "underpriced" on my hourly rate compared to what people thought someone of my abilities "should" get. I could have made lots more per hour putting tools in the back of my truck and working as a trim carpenter in Nashville, the nearest boom town. I chose not to, partly because the increased overhead would have eaten up all the extra income and maybe more. And yes, I could have made a lot more money in my work life if I had sat behind a desk the whole time instead of working in my shop.
There is no way to guarantee success with a woodworking business. Small craft items can be pretty trendy, and time-consuming to sell. Selling thru stores means you only get a fraction of the sale price, often too small a fraction of too small a price (or the item sits in the store for years.) So, I would advise to start small, experiment in as many ways as you can think of, and grow organically from what you discover, rather than having a pre-conception of how to do it.
Apologies for this second post. I had been following the added posts as they came in, but had forgotten and didn't notice that I had posted at the very beginning. And the OP had thanked me for my writing. So some if not all of this latest post is redundant.
Harvey
Urns can be boxes, and they are pricy. I made mom's and now I'm on the hook for a few more. At least one denomination of Christians (Catholics) require the ashes to be kept together in a sacred place. The market is there, and it will always be there. People are willing to spend money on this. Just a thought.
That's a fantastic idea. My dog's (I know, not the same as a person's) ashes are in a nice little box.
I can see people spending fortunes on a box urn. They often have payouts specifically dedicated to the funeral and associated services, so the price can be inflated without much care.
Seems morbid to be discussing...lol.
It all seems morbid until you get to the age where half the people you've known are gone. It's the side of life nobody wants to talk about and everyone should.
I sell to several local stores, and my friend's son has an online perfume shop where he sometimes uses my boxes as gift packaging. Can't say it fully meets my needs since it's just a small extra income, but it doesn't take up much of my time either.
There is a local higher end jewelry store in which I see some nice locally-made jewelry boxes for sale. That might be a good connection to try.