When I first tried to sell my work, I learned a sad truth. A lot of the most-common woodworking projects are not very profitable for a small workshop. As many woodworkers have discovered, home furnishings like bookcases and coffee tables rarely command high enough prices to justify building for customers when you run a home-based shop.
Earn a decent hourly rate by avoiding typical woodworking projects
To earn a decent hourly rate after your materials and marketing expenses are covered, I recommend getting into specialty markets comprised of small communities and passionate hobbyists. Many of these folks have a need for items not usually found at furniture stores or craft fairs. And niche hobbyists are often looking for distinctive items to help showcase their passions.
Research the most popular pastimes in your region
As a professional woodworker, zeroing in on interests like gardening, sailing and horse riding can give you the opportunity to create more profitable projects than building more-traditional items like Adirondack chairs or jewelry boxes.
Because they’re often comprised of tightly-knit communities, building projects for smaller niches allows you to identify the wants and needs of hobbyists in your local market. The basic project features like style, size, materials and personalization can be tailored to suit the needs of potential customers in your part of the country.
As you get to know what elements are desirable to your local prospects, you can tailor your designs to fulfill those needs and differentiate yourself from national and even regional suppliers.
Get to know the passionate hobbyists in your area
Members of these smaller, specialty markets are easier to research, identify and reach with your marketing and promotional campaigns. For example, one of my most popular customer projects is the tack trunk. Tack trunks are used by horse riding fans to store their gear at the stables.
You can reach fans of horse riding with postcard mail campaigns, flyers at the stables or online ads. I’ve talked a lot about this project in videos and posts over the years because it possesses the qualities we’ve been talking about – a niche market with passionate hobbyists.
Become the local expert and build a fan base
Because tack trunks are fairly unique, tack trunk builders don’t usually have tons of local competition fighting for customers. That gives you the opportunity to become the “trunk guy” in your area. Members of riding communities tend to be friendly with one and other, so it’s easy to get customer referrals as well as feedback on features and improvements once you get started.
Turn your first customers into your personal team of advocates
I discovered the power of referral sales when my first trunk customer decided to leave her trunk at her local horse stable. As other riders got a look at that first trunk, they wanted their own.
Soon I was building trunks for several families at that first stable and things grew from there. Referrals are an effective way to grow your business as they spread your marketing expenses over multiple customers.