The One Person Wood Shop: 10 Tips On How To Survive and Thrive by Woodworking For Fun & Profit 

 

Can you start your own wood business alone and succeed?  Of course you can! Most successful woodworking businesses started with one person and a few pieces of equipment. 

 

For many new business owners, you need to include the scaling of your businesses in your long-term plans to grow larger and prosper to a greater degree, which means hiring and managing employees.

 

I’ve taken both paths as a wood shop owner so I’m speaking from experience. Each path has its own advantages and disadvantages. 

 

But in this article, I want to focus on working independently – where you are not just a woodworker – but a business owner too. 

 

So here are the tips for going solo – and succeeding – in your woodworking business. 

 

 

 

 

Establish a Success Mindset 

 

Create a positive mindset as a foundation, you should have the skills to produce quality work. It’s just a matter of deciding to launch your own shop. 

 

Get Organized

 

Being organized in many ways makes you efficient and productive, whether you are in an office or in the shop. Organize your shop and take care of the business side of things meticulously.  Everything you need, from software to organizational materials for your type of work are readily available and easy to find. 

 

Developing a weekly or daily schedule and putting in an effort to follow it through makes your business run smoothly. 

 

Budget Allocation 

 

You need to think about and check your budget every time you are planning to buy equipment. Be sure that the equipment you need to buy is necessary and will contribute to you making your business profitable. 

 

Save your budget for the equipment that you need the most. Some tools may be fun or interesting, but if they won’t help you out directly in the moment then it’s not worth spending the money ahead of time.

 

Hire Specialty Shops to supply project components

 

Instead of making everything by yourself, outsourcing some parts of your projects makes you save more time and money. Getting a shop that is specialized in that kind of piece for your project is a very good step to making your business more successful. 

 

 

 

 

Create a Marketing System

 

Creating your marketing system or hiring someone to do marketing for your business makes you more focused on the shop. They will help you build your brand and consistently create and market your brand online and offline. 

 

Your website and social media posting can be taken care of if you outsource someone to do it for you. The majority of your time should be spent in the shop and not looking for customers and handling back office tasks. 

 

Scheduling Sales Appointments for Weekends and Evenings 

 

Time management is also vitally important. Just like creating a marketing system, managing your appointments is essential for your business but you might want to schedule them on weekends or evenings so you do not have to go and leave your shop just to give the proposed quote for the client.

 

Focus and spend your time creating products in your shop. 

 

Seek out bread and butter customers 

 

Make your every project special so you can gain your bread and butter customers. Those customers will repeatedly order or ask you to do something for them, it may not be weekly, but on a monthly basis. 

Encourage Multiple Product Purchases, Repeat Orders, and Referrals. 

 

By providing value in every transaction you have, you will create a connection with your customers and can make them your bread and butter customers, you can offer discounts to them, and these customers will recommend you to their friends, relatives, and co-workers that will form of free advertising. 

 

These tips will help you and guide you on how to manage alone your woodworking business. If you think you are ready, why not start it today! 

 

We know you can succeed and we wish you the best!