reible wrote:Hi,
I can tell you that my experience is you really have to know what you are doing to make any money in hobby woodworking.
I have helped out a few people who have attempted to get rich in their spare time and all of them failed. I've also know people who when in the profession and set up shops and again they have all failed.
The problem is defining what you really want from the undertaking and what will be the measure of your success or failures.
I also know know people who thought that they loved their hobby so much that becoming a full time woodworker really sounded great before they did it but then after they really hated it and the hobby as a result.
Just a couple of family related stores then you can move on in what ever direction you want.
Brother #1 retired early after having gotten started in craft shows while still working. Both he and his wife were really into this. The more money they made the more then got into. It got to be a job but they kept going. They were working 9 months of the year, seven days a week and many many hours a day. Even in the off season they worked planning new items and building models and jigs etc. They invested in camper then a worked up to this home on wheels that costs as much as a home. Every weekend was another town, and maybe a few close ones during a week day. They were very good at knowing what people would buy and kept new products coming out all season. (You show a new item and seem to be selling them the next weekend 3 or 4 others had them, usually in a cheaper less quality form). They always made the item small enough that the person would buy it then and not say they would come back of it later which often didn't happen. They found that people like sharp edges and not rounded over edges, they like thing with personal touches like a dog bone shape with Fido's name... well this is getting off subject. After a few years of this both of them started to have health issues. The whole game got to be way to much... we sometime call him the 3/4 of a million dollar man as that is what it came down to keep him alive. I worked for a large highly regarded company as an engineer and he was bring in 30K to 40K more then I was making but it had a cost. So was this a successful event or not, you decide.
Brother #2 owns his own business which is located in a summer vacation area so the winter months are really dead. He is not one to sit around so he builds bird houses over the winter. When I say bird houses I mean a lot of them. A typical winter might yield 800 to 1200 birdhouses. He finds people doing remodeling and takes the old materials and scrapes and pays nothing for the materials other then the time to collect and transport them. He has to buy nails and glue and sometimes some wire to hang them with and some odds and ends of this and that sort to add some oddity to the houses. This amount is so small per bird house as not be of any worth. He then cuts up and gets the basic home made then stores them in stacks and stack. Towards spring he add novitiates and hanging wires to the ones he is doing, so the are ready to sell. He then sells the houses for $3, with a very few reaching as high as $5 or $7. He has tried to raise the price to $4 and they don't sell! I should mention he has them on display out front and there is a money box so it is self service and trust. So you sell 800 of them for $3 you still get $2400. He sells out most years and even makes a few during the season in addition to finishing the ones he has stored, and he makes some bird feeders and a few special order items for locals. He is happy for the extra cash, keeps busy winters and sure never wants to figure out how much per hour he made.... Success or not?
Did any of this make sense? I guess to summarize it is a lot more then just dollars and cents and more of does it make sense.
Ed
CLEAR!!! ZAP!!! I thought I would try to resuscitate this thread for a while. I don't think we have fully beaten it to death yet.
Ed made a lot of good points above.
I think a lot of us would like to make a buck or two to cover toy cost especially with the impending release of a new headstock. I think few of us expect to make a living wage amount from our shops.
If nothing else some of us need a place to sell some of our output just to keep the shop from filling up with projects. I planned my shop around some production but not all out production. I want to crank out some decent stuff in smaller production runs and sell it mostly at slightly premium prices. I believe that the products will have to reflect some imagination in order to do that. The last thing I want to do is let it get so big that it becomes too much work. I just want to make a little extra income for support of my many hobbies. I think it is foolish to compete with Walmart. As far as something like the lawn chairs, I can climb in the car (except in winter) and drive a 100 mile loop and pass 4 places with them sitting out in the yard for sale.
There is (or was) a fellow about 50 miles from me that was supposedly doing well selling a "premium quality" porch swing. Very nicely made and very nicely finished. I have no idea about his cost or input hours.
In the past I probably did the best at selling lidded wooden boxes that were a little different.
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More thoughts on $$$ ?
