Making Money with a Sawmill | First-year actual profits LT50 | Sawmill Business by Charley and Sarah
Hey Woodpreneurs! In this blog we will be taking a look at the things that help Charley and Sarah to keep track of their records and monitor their expenses at the start-up of their business and their actual profit going forward.
Record Keeping
Try to keep track of everything. That may sound like an overstatement, but it isn’t. Do your best to have a record or list of everything you’ve sold as well as your inventory of products, tools, and other machinery.
Taking down notes of everything can give you an idea of exactly how much you have earned and your expenses as well. It can also give you an idea of how much time you spend working in a year or in each project.
Actual Profit
In our first year, we’ve made $18,845 over 270 hours by cutting 90,600 board feet which puts the rate around $70 per hour.
I do charge sometimes based on the situation. Sometimes there are things that I cut and I wasn’t charging for. But also I charge customers for downtime or stacking, or if there’s other stuff that I am waiting for from them.
Expenses
The money you earn isn’t the exact amount of profit that you make. If I use the above numbers, and then take into account the down payments, the monthly payments, and the stuff I bought, take that off the $18,000 means that I made $8,679 in profit, estimated from working 6 months.
Now for me, that’s only for the sawmill business, but I also do contract renovation, and take whatever jobs I can.
That’s the income for the LT50, hopefully, that’s helpful to you and gives you a point of reference for your business. It could be more productive if I had an LT70 and probably less productive if I had a cheaper mill instead.
Learn more about Charley and Sarah by visiting their YouTube Channel!