Importance Of Effective Marketing Strategies For A Wood Marketing Company
Steve Larosiliere
April 24, 2024
Multi Income Woodworking with Woodshop Mike
“From the outset, I decided I want to have multiple streams of revenue because there’s going to come a day where woodworking is too strenuous for me to do, and [it’s great if] on the front end, I’m setting up to be able to have some long term passive income.”
That is the voice of Woodshop Mike, Mike’s furniture company is located in Georgia, but his reach goes far beyond that. He set up his business as a custom furniture company and as a business with multiple streams of income all generated from the furniture he’s building.Â
That way, he ensures that even if client work is slow, he never has a slow time in the shop.Â
Mike got into woodworking in high school when he apprenticed with a luthier building guitars. The push for the apprenticeship came from Mike wanting a new guitar but not being able to afford one as a high school kid.
The transition into a full-time wood business was a very long period of time. After high school, while Mike was in college, he got exposure to furniture building a little bit of casework, but he really fell in love with woodturning.Â
After college, Mike worked a desk job for several years in the design field and still did woodworking on the weekends in the evenings. He ended up starting a blog as a way to give back on the knowledge that he was exposed to.
“So all the while, I’m still working my full-time job. My plan was one day either once the house was paid off, or once my kid was through college, I would take a stab at going full-time and just see, but it turns out there was a different plan.”
Mike was laid off from his 9-5 job and not necessarily prepared to jump into his woodworking full-time, but he decided to take the leap, and now he can’t believe how busy he is.Â
“My full-time woodworking journey is not exactly what you might expect. I didn’t leave school and open up a shop right away. But It’s crazy how everything started falling into place once I got laid off. Sometimes out of disaster comes the best growth.”
Mike had a plan in place of how he wanted to do things and when he actually wanted to start. Right from the outset, he decided he wanted to have multiple streams of revenue so he would be able to have some evergreen revenue streams.Â
That’s part of the reason why he only takes on a handful of projects each month. Mike makes content plans around those projects so that he can sell building plans around those projects.Â
An unexpected positive side effect was shown with this method during the shutdown last year when many people were scrambling for work. Mike expects that his setup is different than many wood entrepreneurs or many professional woodworkers take on. He tries to be very specific and focus on things he can make plans for or add to his portfolio.
Mike mentions that he finds working with designers to be one of the best contacts for him because of the diversity of projects. On sourcing contacts, Mike shares some insight.
“The first thing that I did was I went on Google, and I searched “high-end interior designers,” and I found a handful of people that I absolutely wanted to visit and I made a prioritized list, and just routed out a loop for the day, and went knocked on doors and shook hands. I gave everyone a business card and made sure they could find my portfolio.”
Mike landed three projects out of a dozen or more designers he touched base with from that initial visit. From that, other interior designers started reaching out, and then it became word of mouth.Â
As the pair get into the business side of things, Mike notes that you have to live and learn from how much you thought it would cost you time-wise and material-wise and keep tracking that in terms of pricing and time.Â
Fortunately, Mike is very comfortable and fluent in CAD, specifically SolidWorks. It’s pretty expensive for a small company but allows Mike to streamline his work in knowledge and time saved on revisions and alterations.
The pair talk about the issues that arise from problems with not having contracts in place.Â
“When you’re talking about clients not delivering their end of the bargain, which is payment, that is something that a lot of furniture makers and furniture company owners have issues with. They usually get burned once, twice, or even three times before they realize that they need contracts in place because it is an artistic profession.”
It all goes back to multiple streams of income. That’s how you build your business. Woodworking and custom furniture is an industry that people don’t necessarily need like other trades where your lights go out, and you need an electrician, or your water goes out, and you need a plumber.Â
Those are trades that have emergencies that are in demand at specific times. They need to be there.
“I have never gotten, and I doubt you have either, an emergency dining room table call where they say, “We need it yesterday, we’ve been eating on the floor, and we can’t do it anymore.” You know, it’s a process. So having multiple streams of income is important when you’re not only starting out but as your business progresses.”
“First off, my advice would be for somebody who has gotten the woodworking bug, and it’s really exciting, and they’re going, “It would be awesome to make this my full-time job.” would be to keep your day job as long as you can.Â
Definitely make sure that you’ve worked for people and not just your friends or family before you decide to go full-time.Â
Working for friends and family is way different than working for a client or especially for a designer. Secondly, do your best to set up multiple streams of revenue or to diversify the kind of work that you do.Â
There, there are tons of options for cheap furniture, whether we like it or not. So, you may not always be able to get a commission for a dining table or a set of chairs, or a set of nightstands or anything like that, but if you try and match those prices, you will be underpaying yourself and undervaluing your work.
See more from Woodshop Mike here:
