Starting a woodworking small businesss from Women in Woodworking

Feeling like she was ready to start a small (and part-time for now) woodworking business, a forum visitor asked for advice. She's taking classes at a local woodworking school, but wondered if it would be better to apprentice at someone's shop. And she asked if a one-person shop could make money.

True to form, forum members offered plenty of warm support and advice. One woodworker, involved in a non-woodworking business, thought that apprenticing offered production experience as well as an exposure to billing and bookkeeping processes. Another suggested checking around for local groups that provide workshops and technical assistance for folks considering small business ventures. Mostly retired folks, they can help with marketing surveys, business plans, etc. -- often for free or at a nominal cost.

Then, in the style of Socrates, another forum member answered the poster with a series of thought-provoking questions:

• Which direction was she interested in taking her business?
• Was she wanting to work from her own studio/shop and sell products to retailers?
• Was she thinking of specializing in a few lines of custom woodworking offered to high-end homebuilders and designers for their clientele?
• Will this be her sole source of income, or will it supplement an existing income ... at least initially?
• What were the absolutes she needed to accomplish during the first year, then the next, and so forth?

And though agreeing with the value of an apprenticeship, she wondered how much exposure it would actually provide to the financial side of the business. She also suggested scoping out the competition, learning from their successes, and stepping it up a notch. READ, TALK and LISTEN to colleagues and absorb all the knowledge she could in regards to operating a profitable business. Since she also happened to be the owner of American Sycamore woodworking school, she mentioned a symposium for women woodworkers would be held at the school on July 19-20.

Another post recommended the book Working at Woodworking by Jim Tolpin. And a few words of caution were provided by a forum regular. Emphasizing the amount of time required for the "business" side of woodworking, he recommended checking into local zoning that might affect setting up a shop and -- because furniture can break -- liability insurance. He also noted that most small businesses fail because the people simply didn't do their homework before starting and didn't keep a close enough eye on the bottom line. Noting that being his own boss was both the "best" and "worst" thing he'd ever done, a self-described small businessman -- not in woodworking -- contributed more words of advice:

• Be prepared for the bean counters and the liability experts to say you can't do it. And even though they are often correct, preparation and self-discipline will go a long way.
• Consider buying an established, ongoing business. This can be more expensive and hard to find, but there's always someone ready to retire or move on to something else.
• Take a vocational or temperament test to determine inherent strengths that lend themselves to being a craftswoman or to self-discipline. If you aren't, you will have more to learn and everything will be harder and take more time. Get a book by Tim LaHaye, Why You Act The Way You Do ... it offers a $10 discount on a test that helps identify strengths and weaknesses.
• If you make a mistake (and who hasn't), then be prepared to make lemonade from the lemons.
  

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Three band saw questions

Building a free-standing workshop

Starting a woodworking small business

What's the best table saw for her husband ... the forums speak!