re: Can you really make money doing woodworking?

Paul,
Glad to see you’re here also. Thanks for the kind words. BTW, that chart box of yours is absolutely gorgeous.

Art,

Thanks for reading my other blogs. Even though I will probably repeat some of the things I wrote about before,I thought I would try to cover a few different things I didn’t get a chance to put in my last series.

Doing woodworking as a hobby and not having to rely on it for an income, then you have the advantage of being more flexible when it comes to pricing. The reason I broke it down in such detail in my “pricing series” was to get woodworkers to understand there is a lot more to the cost of building a project then just the material cost.

When a woodworker is trying to sell their woodworking and actually make a profit, then it’s important to include everything from fixed overhead, adminstrative overhead, pay, profit and of course material cost.

In your case; how detailed you get in figuring all those factors is strictly up to you. I like the fact that you don’t want to undercut those whose livelihood is woodworking, but I don’t think you have to worry about that too much.

Woodworkers that are trying to make a living will find every excuse in the book why they can’t sell their work or make a profit. Everything from blaming the hobbyist that undercuts their price, the economy, where they’re located, there’s an Ikea or Wal Mart down the street and my favorite; “nobody wants quality anymore”!

A professional woodworker should not worry about how you price your work, but more importantly how they price their work so they can make a profit.

Pricing for the hobbyist;
I have found that most hobbyist use a simple multiplier to figure their price. Another words, they will take the material cost and times it times 2, 3 or 4.

This is not an accurate way of pricing, especially for business, but for just selling occasionally, it will cover your basics.

My best suggestion would be to make sure you keep track of your time working on a project and at least pay yourself a fair wage.

Even though you may do it as a hobby, if you start selling at Craft fairs or shows, then it will be important to start tracking every expense.

Good luck