We all have a creative side to ourselves which comes to life when we work on our hobbies; In your case, woodworking is where your creativity and passion shine. For the longest time you may have set it aside as something you do when you need a little boost in life; but did you know that woodworking can be more than just your favorite artistic pass-time? Why not take it up a notch and start a business with it?
It may sound a little intimidating; Trust me, everybody feels the same before starting their own small business, I felt the same way. Mostly, you will be warned with words like “it won’t go too far”, or “It’s still not as rewarding as a full-time job”. Don’t feel discouraged. You won’t know unless you try! On top of that, you will be doing something that will fill both your heart and your pocket.
If you are ready to turn your woodworking hobby into a full-fledged business, then keep on reading! Make sure to keep your woodworking toolkit on standby because the workshop’s about to get busy very soon.
What Kind of Woodwork?
Before getting started, you need to decide what kind of woodwork you’re going to be working on. Woodwork has a couple of criteria, and you can choose a few to start with.
Cabinet makers and carpenters are mainly involved in producing wooden cabinet sets for their clients. This is done by coming up with a blueprint of the design based on your client’s orders (or you can present them with your own blueprints) and creating the cabinets from scratch by putting together different pieces of wood.
Furniture finishers are called in usually when existing wooden furniture needs repairing. You will mostly be commissioned to work on antiques.
Woodwork machine setters use different kinds of machinery intended for the shaping and modeling of wood to give it a new look. If you like your work to be accurate and perfect, then you might thoroughly enjoy this option.
How to Get Started
First of all, you should be efficient in what you do. Woodworking involves a lot of technicalities, and even if you know a thing or two, it’s best to have some proper training. You will be mostly trained while working, but there are other ways as well.
Getting a Degree
There are high school diplomas offered for woodworkers, which is usually a three-year-long program. In these three years, you will be taught all the skills needed to enter the professional world of woodwork. Many universities offer courses in product management, furniture production, and woodwork engineering aspects to help students familiarize themselves with these fields of study.
Although certification isn’t mandatory, it will help strengthen your resume and increase the reliability of your skills; showing, you’re qualified for the job, so that people will most likely trust your work.
Showcase Your Work
No matter how qualified you are, it won’t be significant unless you have physical proof of your work. Like artists, you too must have a showcase for your woodwork.
You don’t need to pay a hefty amount of money to get started. In fact, you don’t even need money in most cases. Start by making an Instagram account or a Facebook page where you can upload pictures of your woodwork, or share videos of the entire work process. These two options are free to do and you can reach a decent following before finally moving on to the next step. When you have enough content, you can start boosting your posts. You will have to pay a certain amount of money which will help to promote your content for a certain time. This means that your posts will show up on people’s feeds (this isn’t usually random; people who are interested in your type of content will be shown your posts).
Simultaneously, you should have your own blog or website for your business. This is usually where people will head over to place orders or commission you for your woodwork. For this, you will need a website host and a domain name. It’s a one-time, small and durable investment.
Design and Monetise
Now that you have a personal blog with a domain name and a website host, you can move onto the last phase – designing your blog and monetizing both your work and content.
Give your blog a nice layout; It is recommended that you take a considerable amount of inspiration from existing blogs. This isn’t solely about what you like – but also to make sure your visitors are attracted to it as well.
Now, how do you start selling your work? There’s no ‘correct way of doing that. Share your passion for woodwork by consistently uploading on your blog. You can start selling your services or even take classes on woodwork to help others out – the list goes on and it depends on how you want to monetize your skills.
To help you better understand the process here’s an example: Let’s assume that you are a woodworker who showcases your work on Instagram. Link your blog on your Instagram bio, so that potential customers can go and purchase the services you have to offer them.
Advertisements and Sponsorships
Provided that you’ve been regularly updating your blog/Instagram/Facebook page, you can start including ads on your content, or do pay sponsorships.
You must have seen your favorite content creators talking about sponsorships. Although there’s a huge fuss about them amongst the general public, they’re still a great way to earn the money and the trust of your customers/audience. As a woodworker or DIYer, you can often find brands that will offer you to use a product of theirs and review it for your audience. You simply need to make a post about it or talk about it in one of your videos.
Last but not least, you can start incorporating ads on your website or on your videos. This allows you to make money from Google Adsense. The more visits your website or video gets, the more money you will be able to make.
