Jacob Baranski - Entrepreneurship comes in many shapes and sizes, from the kid with the lemonade stand in his front yard, all the way to the high-powered business leader making angel investments in companies with potential. What they all have in common is a desire to provide the public with something they may want, often something created by their own skill and ingenuity, all while turning a profit.
And an area of entrepreneurship that is seeing real growth, especially in a moment where everyone suddenly found themselves at home with a lot of time on their hands, is woodworking. Many people like me are finding themselves on the cusp of becoming ‘woodtrepreneurs’, that is, skilled craftsmen, turning their skill at woodworking into a serious business.
To me, what drives a true woodtrepreneur is a desire to provide customers with something unique, handcrafted, and of high quality that can’t be found anywhere else. In a world where almost anything can be purchased cheaply, so long as you are willing to accept that it is mass-manufactured, making and selling a woodworking product hearkens back to when the best things were made by skilled, experienced hands, one at a time.
But if you’re interested in woodtrepreneurship, there are some things that you should know before you get started.
Where Wood You Start? (Sorry!)
Before you try to start a business with your woodworking, you have to consider four very important things:
- It is imperative that you make a self-assessment: think about your skill level, and your experience. If you know other woodworkers or woodtrepreneurs, ask them to do an honest (even a brutally honest) evaluation of your work. You may find that you are not quite ready to make the move to professional woodworking. And that’s okay! It doesn’t mean you won’t be in the future.
- If you are attempting to turn doing what you love into a business, you must understand the difference between being a skilled amateur and a real professional. While you may currently be selling custom items to friends and family, the obligations you have to them are often very different than those you have to business clients. They are often paying a premium for unique items, and you must be prepared to deal with demands for refunds, or dissatisfied customers.
- You should ask yourself if woodworking is a hobby or a passion? Will this be a side-business? Something you want to do full time? Do you want to be able to limit the number of hours every week that you have to spend in the shop? The difference between the two can help you decide the nature and size of your woodworking business.
- To be a woodtrepreneur, it is important that you are willing to invest in your business. In my experience, woodworking can be a very expensive hobby, depending on what you want to do with it. There’s the cost of the basic materials, which can range from relatively common, thrifty wood to rarer, more sought-after wood that is considerably more expensive. There are supplementary materials like glues, stains, brushes, and varnishes, as well as clamps, saws, polishers, vices, and other basic tools. And if you want to do larger pieces you may need to purchase or rent time with much larger pieces of equipment, sometimes on a near-industrial scale. Is this something you already do or are willing?
