Replies

1. 
   Mike_Maines | Oct 26, 2001 02:24pm | #1

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   Joshua, if you haven't already, scroll through the archive section on this board, there is a ton of excellent information that has been posted over the years. Asking specific questions makes it easier to get good answers. That said, my advice (for what it's worth) is that if you aren't interested in modern equipment, you'll have to do some intense marketing to provide for yourself and your wife as a "traditional" craftsman. Specializing, like Brian Boggs has done with chairs, is one way to achieve success without many power tools. Most woodworkers who do it for a living, I think, eventually discover that they need the production capabilities of machinery to be able to pay the bills. If you're retired or just doing it as a hobby, hand tools are a much more intimate experience.

   Welcome to the board!

1. 
   Virginia_Hoeffding | Oct 28, 2001 10:38pm | #2

   *Joshua,A couple of questions: where are you located, and what kind of work will that market support? If you have the hand skills and are in an upscale area, you should have no trouble establishing a high-end restoration business as long as you're willing, at least at first, to fix a few kitchen chairs. If you're in a chic (for woodworkers) place like Vermont and want to build custom furniture, be aware that you probably have a limited local market and a lot of competition. Take the time to educate yourself about the financial, management, and legal aspects of what you want to do, especially if this is a first business venture for you. Among other things, look really hard at what your overhead will be, e.g. will you be working out of a space you already own (cheap), or leasing commercial space (not so cheap). Two good Web sites to look at for small business info:http://www.inc.com http://www.nolo.com (legal info, with a good small-business section)An excellent book to start with (don't laugh): Small Business for Dummies. (Yeah, it's one of those yellow ones.)Talk to professionals in your area; are they mostly supporting themselves building kitchen cabinets, and is that what you want to wind up doing? Mike is correct: if you really need to make a living out of your shop, be prepared to invest in some decent, basic woodworking machinery, no matter what kind of work you want to focus on: it's pretty to think that customers will pay for the time it takes you to joint and thickness stock by hand, but it's probably not a realistic expectation.As far as outfitting your shop: again, it depends on what you want to do. The archives for this board, back issues of FW, and a variety of books (many published by Taunton) can give you a lot of information.Good luck!-- Virginia