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Vexed about starting a business ABANDONED IDEA
(sh.itjust.works)
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this post was submitted on 15 Dec 2024
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Woodworking
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A handmade home for woodworkers and admirers of woodworkers. Our community icon is submitted by @1985MustangCobra@lemmy.ca whose father was inspired to start woodworking by Norm and the New Yankee Workshop.
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Well some of it is I'm getting more and more skeptical about Etsy itself; so I hear the platform has been going a bit downhill, trying to slide from the storefront for handmade craft goods and into Temu for Pinterest users.
Boiling down several paragraphs, what little market research I've done has consisted of looking around at things I think I can build and seeing what's out there and what prices they're selling for. End tables make the most sense, a lot of projects the math doesn't work, I'm not sure how people are turning a profit at the prices they're asking without mass production. But I know I can build an end table and comfortably sell it for the prices I see asked on the platform. I have a lot of questions like "will people buy an $800 table from a brand new seller?"
I would have to actually make the table. I have a very small wood shop, I cannot set up my table saw indoors there's simply no room, so I have to set it up outside. It is currently winter; it's rather cold to be in bare hands and short sleeves to safely run power tools, the days are short, it's colder out than the "apply between" ranges printed on my bottles of glue and cans of finish. It may be March or April before my next big project.
I've also had the idea of looking around at local consignment shops and stuff like that, to see about selling locally, and on that I've gotten as far as writing down several business names and addresses.
Etsy isn't great these days, yeah. I've been looking for better alternatives (for buying xmas gifts ), and there are some, but I haven't given them a shot yet.
Woodworking does seem tougher for selling online than, say, wirewrapping (have a relative trying to figure out selling those). I see facebook pages and personal websites for those sorts of local businesses, instead of etsy. A local blacksmith has an instagram. If you looked to build a website with pictures of old pieces, that'd give you a link to put on a card where anyone can see what you're capable of. Eventually with a contact form for whatever you want to sell (custom orders? small batches of a similar item?) when you're at that point.
The gallery here is nice: https://ridderworks.com/
My father talks about starting a business in a new town. He sent out a thousand mailers in the late 70's and got one customer who reccomended him around to her friends. That first customer or store buyer is tough. My business had a slow period and we advertised in a local mailer. It was expensive and we got one call out of it, lol. We're also temperature limited (house painting) and winters can get slow.
Thinking about working locally, i get some good business out of local paint and hardware stores. If you want to do custom work, they often keep business cards for recomendations when customers ask. For singular, prebuilt pieces, I also see small furniture pieces for sale from local sellers at gift shops.
Any local farmer's market? https://www.reddit.com/r/woodworking/comments/34qfhi/thoughts_after_my_first_farmers_market If you get some small stock and sell here, you can give out cards at the same time.
Getting started is tough, but unfortunately I enjoy spitballing this sort of thing. Feel free to ignore any and all ideas that sound useless, and especially ignore any that are irrelevant to your situation, lol.
Not sure I mentioned it but I have been looking into local consignment shops and that sort of thing, I've searched up several, looked at their websites to get a feel for what their business is like, and I've been preparing to walk in there with questions like "What sells in this area? What just flies off the shelves? What would you want me to sell here?"
Anyway I think it's important to spend at least a little time as a "hobbyist that sells some of his work" because it's easy to get into that level of "What about import duties on international orders" kind of crap. I need to build and sell something.
Good luck!