Guide to Start a Woodworking Business

Not everyone has the knack for perfectly crafted wood furniture. If you’re a seasoned woodworking enthusiast, maybe it’s time for you to take your craft a notch up. You could start a woodworking business and share your skill with many who look for affordable wood furnishings for their homes.

Commissioning custom wood furnishings is also on the rise, with people getting back to classic and bohemian styles for home decor. All in all, it is a pretty good time to get the wheels turning for your woodworking business.

A Step-by-step Guide for a Woodworking Business

While wood crafting is something you might be the expert in, here are some things you need to consider to sort out the business aspect of things:

1. Set Up Your Workshop

To initiate a WoodWorking Business, firstly, begin setting up a workshop. For this, you need to establish the kind of business that you want to set up. Irrespective of the type of articles you’d like to deliver, there are some requirements that would be common for any kind of woodworking venture:

Choose the Right Tools

You must have the right set of tools that are required to design your wood articles. Fundamental tools amongst these, such as quality wood chisels, are the most important to have.

Your workshop should provide a complete platform to manufacture the products you plan to sell. You can start by getting an affordable table saw, wooden planks, clamps, quality chainsaws, and hammers.

If you want additional tool options for your artists, you can purchase more product-specific tools like varnish, resin, etc. For a rich finish to your crafts, you can use an external wooden sealer as well.

Create a Professional Environment

A large part of your customer relationship is the environment of your workshop. Why is this relevant? Sometimes, clients might visit your workshop to check whether their product has been crafted well or not. The functioning of the workshop, professional equipment in use, etc., can make a long-lasting impact.

Hence, it’s essential to enhance the work environment to impress clients with your professionalism. Your workshop will be the first deal-setter for a lot of custom project discussions, prototyping, etc. A shabby place will just not do!

2. Decide on a Workshop Location

Your workshop location is very significant for the smooth operation of your business. But, there’s a catch here. Contrary to business outlets and shops, a workshop/factory needs to be far away from a residential zone. While the location should be accessible to your workshop employees, noisy tools need to be kept at bay. Finding the perfect workshop space can be a little tricky.

While the location should be isolated, it should also be accessible for easy-to-and-fro transportation of raw materials. For a full business setup, assembling and decorating of products might need additional space. Quality check and packaging of products for the final delivery is yet another element that demands workshop space.  A structured working place is a prerequisite for a robust workflow.

3. Fix Your Catalog

Once your workshop is structured, it’s time to bring your focus to deciding on exact deliverables. This task is not as easy as you would think. Your product catalog can vary greatly depending on what you plan to sell as readily-crafted/order-from-catalog type sales.

In the market, several different styles of crafts are available. It is imperative to understand what people are looking to buy. Select products that you think have a high demand for sales. Check what your business competitors are selling. Accordingly, try to bring something unique to the table.

How can your business be the one-stop destination for some innovative products and designs that no one else sells? What will clients buy in a single go without any second thoughts? For instance, if you are good at designing home decor, furniture, wooden crafts, etc., your target audience will be people who love to decorate their homes with wooden handicrafts or decor.

Pricing is another aspect that people may consider before purchasing your products. Proper pricing analysis of other woodworking shops can help you optimize your rates with quality work. Once clients start liking your craftsmanship and actively purchase your products, you can mark up prices at a later stage. Having a grip on pricing can help bring in customers looking for quality work within their budget.

4. Build Your Business Plan

Next on the list is building your business plan. Why do you need a business plan for a woodworking venture? There would be several specifics for your woodworking venture with the genre of furnishings, target clientele, and various other factors that will require pre-planning before you are ready to put it out there.

Your business plan should have everything, down to every item in your prospective furnishings catalog and what kind of custom items you would like to accommodate. You can also include other art like resin-wood art products and other woodwork to expand your deliverables listing. Check out this woodworking business plan template to get started with your comprehensive business plan.

5. Setup Marketing Strategies

For any business, marketing is the make or break. Especially if yours is a brand-new business, starting out with suitable brand awareness and marketing techniques can make a world of difference. Several traditional and modern marketing strategies can be used to mark your business on the map. It is better to use a combination of both conventional and digital marketing to cover all grounds.

For online marketing, you can build a social presence and bring your products to the limelight globally. Social Media Marketing for your products, website, and brand is a must. Locally, you can use promotional flyers, promote your business to friends and relatives, and develop a lead generation mechanism to acquire your first few customers.

6. Challenges in Dealing With Suppliers

Working with suppliers is not an easy task. Many prudent suppliers present in the market assure no inventory shortage for supplies but fail to deliver. On the other hand, some credible suppliers ensure prompt deliveries of all goods for your woodworking shop. Your job is to find a reliable supplier, much before your official business launch.

Instead of finding a new supplier every time, establish a relationship with local merchants and timbers to get timely deliveries regularly. A mutually beneficial work relationship can be financially profitable for both parties, and you’d always have a reliable supplier at your corner!

7. Effective Profit Generation

Your woodworking business can also be a channel for investment. Enterprises can source maximum outcomes if they invest more in business. But at the same time, you could save some amount with your woodworking business. Some websites or vendors can sign you up for loyalty schemes depending on material purchases made from them.

Your business relationships can source many such investments for effective profit generation. Before signing up for any scheme, get legal advice to ensure your investment is fool-proof.

By sourcing in bulk, you can save on additional resources as well, in addition to primary wood and crafting raw materials. These can be used for advanced tools, more effective marketing, and various other avenues. Get a professional on board to help with an effective profit-generation strategy.

8. Home Delivery and Custom Craft Services

With everything operating digitally in the current situation, it is high time to consider a fully remote operative. This includes prompt transportation and delivery of your crafted goods to the customer’s home.

Build a seamless web application and mobile application. You can upload images of your wooden creatives on these applications with accurate pictures and product descriptions. Try to market your website to target audiences to pump up the conversion rate.

Prompt home delivery services can encourage them to make quick purchases. If you make custom furnishings available, people are more likely to purchase a custom deliverable that they have envisioned.

Summing Up

So, it just might be the perfect time to take your woodworking passion to an entrepreneurial level. With a little bit of market research on the demand and viability of different types of wood furnishings, you can set up a home-based business or one sourced from a professional workshop.

Take a look at some layered blueprints and plan templates for your upcoming business at Upmetrics.  With finances, deliverables, raw materials, or other business aspects – you can never be too prepared with your business plans!