Last year, I had the pleasure of diving into Adam Baker’s, Unautomate your Finances (aff. link), and I can honestly say that it has played a major role in turning that area of life/business around for the good. After getting to spend some time with Adam this past March at SXSW, I can’t emphasize enough how passionate he is about transforming your financial situation and showing you how to regain control of your money.

Unautomate Your Finances is a great read that challenges you in areas that you might not have considered were affecting your finances. It’s a well designed book, full of insight, and how-to information to get you turning things around fast. Not to mention, it has one of the simplest, easy to understand budgets I’ve ever seen. It’s a must-read for anyone looking to transform their financial lives, and it’s definitely an essential resource for your woodworking business.

Here’s the review:

Can’t see it? Click here.

Click here to check out Unautomate Your Finances.

For over a year, I’ve hopefully given you plenty of reasons to stick around The Woodworkers Journey.

It’s pretty clear to see what’s going on here, and what it’s all about. But, I’ve recently come to the realization that my position here isn’t as firm and polarizing as it should be.

You see, this place isn’t for everyone, and I don’t want it to be. It would be a wasted effort to try to cater to each visitor that came by. Instead, I’d rather focus on helping the right people make massive changes in their woodworking and their lives. And the only way that’s going to happen is if you get to know more of the real me.

So, just in case you’re still on the fence of whether you belong here or not, I’d like to reveal some things about me and what I believe that you might not have known. These things might even give you reasons to never visit this place again.

1. Woodworking magazines are quickly becoming obsolete as their position of authority is being replaced by all of you who are pioneering the social woodworking web. Unless the publications change their view and opinion of what the Internet actually is, then we will most likely see their demise in as little as 24 months.

2. The only compromise necessary for success is with your limiting beliefs, and believe me, you have them. Too many people believe that it’s necessary to compromise some type of happiness and satisfaction in order to achieve exactly what you want out of life. Worse yet, a lot of woodworkers think you have to sacrifice quality in order to “make it” in business for yourself. Well, after years of living that way, I’ve found that you can have your cake and eat it too because you’re the one baking the damn cake in the first place.

3. There is such a thing as too many tools. There’s also such a thing as too few. Most “tool collectors” are simply seeking that instant gratification that comes from thinking a new shiny tool will somehow make them better at the craft. You can use a $1500 handplane and still suck at woodworking. In order to do your highest and best work, you need the essentials and you must constantly be mastering them.

4. Forums are a waste of time and produce an environment of pointless dribble and toxic feedback. There certainly are exceptions to this, but since coming online years ago, I’ve never been able to stay in a forum for longer than a couple of months, tops. Too much time is devoted to discussing issues that won’t move you forward in a BIG way. Twitter is my forum. Find me there.

5. A lifetime spent in the shop is a sad one and should be discouraged. I don’t mean a lifetime spent as a woodworker. I’m talking about 16 hour days 7 days a week. Being a shop junkie is not the ultimate existence. I’ve done it. You end up sacrificing a true living for slavery to something you think is worth spending that much time on. You can make a living with only 4 high quality hours a day in the shop. Spend the rest of it making a life.

6. Conventional wisdom is for the weak minded and should be ignored. Especially in the realms of woodworking business. The majority will have you believe that it will be a life of scarcity and barely making it. Convention is simply around so you know what level you shouldn’t stoop to. The game has changed recently and you get to set the rules now.

7. The economy is never a factor – ever. The so-called bad economy is a real convenient excuse for people to explain away their inabilities to think for themselves and be flexible in business. If the economy seems like it’s a factor in your woodworking business, then you have the wrong clients.

8. Politics is a waste of my attention and I don’t give a minute of my time to it. It doesn’t determine what I’m going to do with my day or my life, and it never will. It’s a child’s game that has no bearing on whether you do what you love for the rest of your life.

9. You are what you eat and what you eat says a lot about you. I have leaned this lesson the hard way. If you’re going to live life to the fullest then a healthy body is essential to this. No exceptions. I’d rather die an old man in the perfect chair I just made, then drop dead because I couldn’t stay out of the snack food isle. Ditch the fast food and go make a big salad.

10. The Internet is not the future, it’s now. I know this is old news, but you’d be amazed how many people, businesses, and major companies still treat it like it’s a passing fad or a new distraction. The reality is that it’s radically changed the face of society and is still doing so. Better embrace the essentials and learn how to leverage it for your success. If you do, you won’t be disappointed.

11. Woodworking can make you wealthy if you want it to. It’s really up to you. When did it become evil to decide to make six or even seven figures with something like woodworking? I didn’t get that memo and neither did a hand full of woodworking rebels who have made this happen for themselves.

12. Hard work is the secret to a life of regret and what if’s. Hard work is an essential ingredient but it’s not the secret to anything. You can log hundreds of hours into something that never moves you forward. Intelligent work is the real secret that trumps so-called hard work.

13. Design is your greatest ally so you better pursue it’s mastery with the same passion as you do your hand tools. In fact, without design as the cornerstone of your work, you don’t stand a chance of getting noticed. If you’re not willing to learn exceptional design then just close your doors. You’re done.

14. The keys to success in woodworking are there for everyone, but hardly anyone has the balls to risk it. And that’s a sad fact of life. It’s easy to continue to find reasons to not do something, but at what point will you look in the mirror with disgust because you never even attempted this dream of yours?

15. There’s no such thing as a a secure job or life, so quit living as if it’s true. Security is a myth. Anything and everything can be taken away from you in an instant. Why put your ideas of security in the hands of someone or something that never has your best interest in mind? Society has been trained to follow the leader in this area and it’s cost a lot of people everything they’ve built up in those false castles.

16. Modern society is relatively poisonous and should never be taken lightly. Awareness is a rare quality these days, but without it, you believe everything you’re spoon fed from media, politicians, and mainstream society that profits from your lack of awareness. Food, air, water, medicine, and even the materials you wear all have some type of toxins. So does what you read, watch, and listen to. It’s almost impossible to escape. It’s very sad.

17 1/2. I hate mayonnaise and Red Oak. I think that’s self explanatory.

Well there you have it. 17.5 things that are at the core of what I’m doing here and how I live. I don’t expect anyone to see eye to eye on everything. In fact, you might not have agreed with any of it. If so, I don’t blame you for never showing up here again.

Taking a stand from your core values is essential to making a difference. Whether it’s in business, life, love…it doesn’t matter.

Being clear about who you really are and what you have to offer is going to make it much easier to find the right people who want your work. Taking a stand with your furniture can help with this tremendously. But that’s a different topic for a different day.

If you found yourself nodding in agreement with some of these and would like to stick around to see what’s going on, then sign up for free updates.

So what about you? What are you taking a stand for and what core beliefs drive you in your woodworking?

This post was well over 1,200 words, but this is such a large subject, so it ended up getting pared down to the bare essentials.

It’s no secret that I’ve been on a six month woodworking hiatus.

Not gonna lie, the time off has been awesome. Exactly what I needed. Thankfully I’m healed up and getting ready to relaunch the Studio in a completely new way.

Part of that involves reconstructing my web presence and rethinking what it will provide the ideal customer. And that inevitably brings up the question of whether to blog or not to blog.

Everyone and their dog will tell you that you need a blog as part of your business. In a lot of cases, that’s true. Blogs are great at forging connections with your audience, marketing your expertise, and providing SEO for your site. But is it really essential that you have one?

I’m not denying the power of a blog. I mean, you’re reading one. It’s an integral part of this site’s existence.

But, on a site dedicated to selling high end woodworking, is it essential that you include a blog into the mix?

It’s necessary to stop for a second and clarify that what we’re talking about is not one of those freebie blogs you get everywhere. This is about a for real .com and incorporating a blog into that site.

The answer to that question really comes down to how well you understand your business to begin with.

What are your specific goals for your site?

Understanding the purpose that your site will serve your business will clue you in as to whether a blog is to be included.

A website (as in a for real .com) is an extension of your woodworking business. In fact, it should be one of your essential sales and marketing tools. Because of that, it needs the same business goals you give your shop. (You DO have business goals, right?!)

Goals like “higher traffic” and “more comments” aren’t specific enough. I’m talking about sales goals, revenue goals, and others that actually move your business to a higher level.

Who is your ideal reader?

Who’s the perfect customer for your work? (HINT: It’s not “anyone who’s got money and likes nice things”)

Without this knowledge, you’re going to end up flailing your arms around exerting a lot of energy that gets you nowhere. Understanding who your perfect client is will give you the laser focus you need to produce work and target all of your marketing to that person only.

Yes, you run the risk of excluding a lot of seemingly potential customers, but that’s a very good thing.

What core message will serve them?

What’s the core message of your work that will best serve that ideal customer?

In other words, is there something about the experience with you and your work, that people need to read about in various ways? Is it a message that can be exhibited over and over again in regular posts?

The best blogs solve, teach, and enable. Is that something your ideal customer needs from you?

I know this is a much bigger topic than I presented. These are simply what I believe to be the three core questions for any existing woodworking business (or ones just getting started) who are reconsidering their past blogging efforts.

So now it’s over to you. Is a blog essential to your woodworking business arsenal? If so, how are you going to approach it? If not, how are you going to create connections other places on your site

Need help taking your woodworking business online? Grab your copy of Woodworking CAN Pay Your Bills E-course today.

Well, a new year is almost upon us once again.

And just like last year (and the 5-10 before that), you’re probably thinking of making some kind of resolution around the areas of money and finances.

Talk to anyone running a woodworking business, or any biz for that matter, and one of the biggest areas of frustration is keeping track and staying on top of the finances. Bookkeeping just isn’t your idea of a good time, for some strange reason.

So, this year, how would you like a new approach that will minimize the hassle, and take it from overwhelming and complicated to simple and automated? Thought you might like that.

Before diving into the system itself, let’s look at why this area of business causes so many headaches.

Money feels complicated so you treat it as such.

For most of you the word “money” automatically conjures feelings of pain, fear, and lack. It’s easy to constantly focus on how much you don’t have. And working on your bookkeeping is just another way to remind you of that apparent lack. I know I used to avoid it like the plague for this reason.

Also you’re probably using software and tools that are actually designed for larger businesses. It’s bloated, confusing, and a real pain for you to do the simplest of tasks for your small business. It makes everything feel overwhelming. That fact alone makes it really easy to let your bookkeeping pile up.

The way out of the overwhelm and frustration is to ditch all the unnecessary steps and pare your financial tracking and bookkeeping down to a simple uncluttered system.

The simpler you can make it, the easier it will be for you to really stay on top of the numbers and make your finances a valuable gauge to your success as a woodworking entrepreneur.

A word on simplicity

As a small one person operation, it’s easy to get reeled into thinking you need the biggest most powerful accounting software out there because, you might need all those bells and whistles if you suddenly grow, right?

Also it’s easy to acquire tools like that because you want the feeling of being successful, and buying what the successful companies use will surely make you just as wildly successful. Right?

Wrong on both accounts. Approaching anything like this will mean more time and energy spent on tasks that aren’t supposed to be complicated and will actually cause you to fail at this crucial area.

So, what is the ideal setup for a small one person woodworking operation?

The real key is to assemble a virtual bookkeeper that will track as much of the daily ins and outs as possible, thereby keeping you free to maintain the big work you’re most interested in (like making $10,000 exotic wood pepper grinders).

So here are my recommendations for setting up a simple uncomplicated system for your finances. I use this system and couldn’t be happier after switching from the complicated process I had in the past. Oh, and a several of these will cost you NOTHING.

Online Bank Account

These days having an online bank account is a huge advantage. It can connect with all kinds of payment and shopping cart services, as well as the services listed below. You can transfer money between it and your home town bank, and it makes it much easier to take payments online.

ING is one of the best I’ve seen. Enrollment is simple, there’s no hidden fees and you can add additional savings accounts for trips, new equipment, etc. Just with a few clicks.

Transferring your business account to an online bank account will save a lot of time, hassle, and problems when it comes to setting up and selling your work through your web site. Plus, it makes bookkeeping a snap as most major online accounts easily sync with the services listed below.

Accounting and invoicing software.

If you deal in any type of service (i.e. restoration, refinishing, certain commissions), than you’ll need a way to issue invoices and track payments (I’ve moved away from this entirely, but more on that later).

Quickbooks is usually the go to software for solo-preneurs all the way up to larger corporations. But it’s almost $200 off the shelf and you need to spend that much every two years or so to maintain the current upgrade. There is an online version but that runs almost $160 a year.

Also, another web based system is Freshbooks. They came out a few years ago and have been going strong ever since. It’s a robust set of tools and reports that really give Quickbooks a run for their money, but the yearly cost (around $240) is a bit prohibitive.

There are many alternatives all around the web. Some are free and open source, and others have a small fee. The best alternatives to the expensive and complicated programs like Quickbooks that I’ve found are:

Harvet – Harvest is amazing. It’s a simple invoicing and time tracking system that allows you to send invoices and take payments online all at the same time. Plus it integrates with a ridiculous amount of applications and services, including everything from your Google Apps account. It also has a very robust mobile app for the iPhone that even lets you scan receipts.

Ballpark – Ballpark is another simple invoicing and time tracking system. It doesn’t have the ability to integrate with everything that harvest does, but at $6 a month, it’s definitely worth a look.

Billings – If you run your business on a Mac, then this is the go to solution. Billings is sleek, simple, and sexy. Tracking time, creating and sending invoices, and even organizing overdue customers are just some of the features of Billings. It’s won awards for its simplicity and the mobile version for the iPhone continues to impress users. You can either buy it up front for around $40 or pay as you go for less than $6 a month.

Like I said, invoicing is necessary if you’re offering services or working on private and corporate commissions. But what if you’re just starting out and you’re only looking to sell directly from your site?

Bookkeeping has never been so easy.

Outright

If you’re primarily going to sell online or at shows and not going to offer any type of service or don’t need invoices, then this is the solution for you.

Outright is a free super streamlined service that tracks all your money going in and out.

It connects with accounts like banking and PayPal. It automatically inputs every transaction, keeps monthly records, generates P&L statements, and even calculates all your taxes for you. Without you lifting a finger. And, it’s FREE.

As I’ve moved away from offering services and have been selling primarily through my own site, I’ve used Outright as an alternative to Quickbooks for quite a while and couldn’t be happier.

All you have to do is log on and take a look. Nothing to input, nothing to type, nothing to forget and let pile up. Plus if you still need to include services and invoicing into your business, Outright integrates very smoothly with Freshbooks, Harvest, and others. Making the tasks of bookkeeping almost 100% automatic.

Mint

This is the best service out there to keep track of personal spending and it’s free.

It connects to your bank account, and for the most part, automatically organizes your spending into categories based on the transaction. You do need to go in and occasionally give something a new label or category. You can set up budgets, and make savings goals which automatically tell you how much to put aside each month.

It connects to checking accounts, savings accounts, and even investment accounts. Plus it compiles everything into a super easy to read graph and makes it very simple to see where your money is going and where to plug the holes that are draining your savings.

This service has saved me money as it exposed where I was spending unnecessarily. Not bad for a free web service. Plus there’s a great mobile app.

As you can see, setting up a bookkeeping and financial tracking system is a lot easier and more affordable than you thought.

(Now just because this system will do a lot of the work for you doesn’t excuse you from keeping a sharp eye on it and maintaining awareness of your money coming and going.)

Using a combination of my online bank account, Outright, and Mint, I’ve managed to make my bookkeeping extremely hassle free and have it set up to be almost 100% automatic.

This frees me to take care of work that I’m much better at and also gives me incredible insight to how my money is working for me and my business.

This type of system will take the overwhelm and hassle out of the process and actually give you a greater advantage and insight into your money and how it is working.

This new year, you’ll find yourself looking forward to checking your finances rather than dreading it and putting it off until the tax man comes knocking.

Over to you now. Have you needed a simpler approach to bookkeeping and finances? What are some of your favorite tools and software for your woodworking business?

For a simple approach to setting up your business in 2011, grab your copy of the Woodworking CAN Pay Your Bills E-course today.

I can hear the collective *GASP* as you read that tittle and I see your hands starting to tie the noose in the orbital sander’s extension cord.

Before there’s any mob lynchings, let me preface this post by saying, that what you’re going to read is the biggest mistake I ever made in business starting out. Simply because I ignored this fact for a long time.

Don’t get me wrong. Your woodworking and design skills are essential to your business, obviously. But the problem for most people starting out is that they ignore a simple truth that makes what they’re doing a true business.

And ignoring it is killing their business before it’s even had a chance to take off.

And that simple fact is…woodworking has to take a back seat to make your business successful.

As a woodworker, you’re passionate about the craft and everything that surrounds it. However, you have to make a transition from thinking like a woodworker to acting like an entrepreneur and business owner.

This means developing a passion for success and it comes with a whole new set of lessons, tools, and techniques to learn.

If that bothers you, examine why. And if you’re utterly resistant to that idea, don’t develop your business any further. It won’t work. You’ll never have a successful business and lifestyle built around your passion without adopting your role as a marketer. That’s the lifeblood of your business.

It’s a tough transition to make after spending years totally immersed in woodworking. But a balanced diet does a body good, and if you continue to approach things from a woodworking standpoint only, then you’re taking all the right steps to end your business before you’ve even given it a chance to take off.

Approach learning these new skills and mindsets like you do with your woodworking skills and techniques.

You didn’t learn the intricacies of the handplane in one day. You learned it through constant use and messing up. The same applies to learning to be a marketer and entrepreneur.

Devour information and then put it into action. Train yourself through repetitive action. Test and use different skills and methods to see if they fit your business, adapting until they work for you.

Don’t be afraid to get rid of something that isn’t working. In business and marketing, less is more as long as you focus on the few effective techniques that grow your business. Remember, it takes strategy, intentionality, and permission to make mistakes and learn from them. That’s how you grow in the craft, in business, and in life.

Woodworking is what you do. Mastering these skills is essential to offering a superior product. But in order to make a living from these superior products, you’ve got to pursue the mastery of skills that will mean success of the business.

However, like I said above, making this transition is hard for a lot of you. It certainly was for me. I went through hell and back just to finally get the right perspective on what it takes to make it all work.

So, now it’s over to you. Can thinking like a woodworker really kill your woodworking business?

If you’re ready to learn how to make a kill-proof business, then grab your copy of the Woodworking CAN Pay Your Bills E-course today.

How come no one’s teaching this stuff?

That question was emphatically brought up during a recent strategy session with another woodworker. I’ve heard the question before. And at one time, I asked it myself.

But something about it really stuck with me this time. “Why isn’t anyone teaching the basic principles of running a woodworking business?”

Sure, you see the occasional blog post, magazine blurb, or paperback book now and again, but where’s the consistent stream of info that’s revealing the true foundations of a successful woodworking business and lifestyle? Why is this topic avoided so purposefully in mainstream woodworking?

Is it because it’s a taboo subject? Are they worried about exposing trade secrets? Are they fearful of giving wrong advice that results in you suing their proverbial pants off?

Actually, it might be due to the fact that they know you far better than you know yourself.

They know you’re a big talker

Sure, you talk about that dream of yours. You know, the one about running a shop and making a living with woodworking. You mention it quite a bit actually. But, let’s face it. That’s all you’re really going to do about it, isn’t it.

You say you’ll start the business when this or that is in place, but who are you kidding? They got you pegged. You’re more likely to practice hand cut dovetails blind folded than take the risk of starting your dream business. And they know this about you. They know you’re all talk and no action.

They know you’re going to quit before you ever get started.

Let’s be real here. You’re going to get scared and quit at the first sign of failure, aren’t you. They know that when it gets a bit too hard and confusing, you’re just going to give up instead of innovating and finding the solution.

It’s safer for you just making pretty things in your woodshop than it is turning your passion into a business and lifestyle. You like fear better than freedom. And they know this.

They know you’re just going to blame them when things go wrong.

When something doesn’t work out the way you had hoped in your woodworking business, (assuming you even start one) they know that you’ll be the first one telling them that they are to blame.

Hey, why not? You got the information from them, right? Of course it’s their fault. They know you well enough to realize that when things go wrong, you lack the courage to suck it up as a lesson and look inward to find the cause and solution. They know you prefer the easy way out. Always.

You see, the mainstream folks know you very well. They know that despite your outward desire for woodworking business information, your inward desire is nice and cozy with digesting the same woodworking knowledge over and over again.

It’s safe, comfortable, and you can do whatever you want with it anytime. They know that if they gave you the hardcore stuff, you’d turn and run to the nearest place that was doling out the rhetoric you need for your sense of security.

They truly know you better than you know yourself.

Or do they? How about you let me know in the comments.

Ready to show them they’re dead wrong? Grab your copy of the Woodworking CAN Pay Your Bills E-course today!

There’s a lot of reasons people take up woodworking as a means of generating income. But, What’s the number one goal for you starting a woodworking business?

At the core of every scenario you create for yourself, is one element that every woodworker has in common.

It was the foundation upon which all other desires and perfect instances were built. In fact, you could call it the solid foundation that every woodworking shop is truly built on.

Freedom

• Freedom to be creative

• Freedom to use your time on your terms

• Freedom to design from your soul

• Freedom to create what excites you

• Freedom to build furniture in the ways that interest you most

• Freedom to come alive through woodworking

• Freedom to turn passion into profit

• Freedom to design a lifestyle through woodworking

• Freedom to be in the shop whenever you feel like it

• Freedom to build a brand around you

• Freedom to find people desiring your work

• Freedom to make money with your talents and abilities

• Freedom to never work a “job” again

• Freedom to design and build anything that comes to mind

• Freedom to choose between working in the shop or playing with the kids that day

• Freedom to decide who buys your work and when

• Freedom to dictate the course of your life

• Freedom to use nothing but hand tools

• Freedom to build production furniture

• Freedom to use handplanes all day

• Freedom to break all the rules when designing your next piece

• Freedom to make money doing nothing but what you love

• Freedom to go to bed grateful and wake up excited

Every human desires freedom of choice, freedom of movement, freedom of living. Woodworkers are no different.

At the end of the day, holding up the perfect scenario of you in your ideal shop, is the solid foundation of freedom.

It isn’t just a woodworking business that you desire. You desire the freedom that you believe can only come from a passion based woodworking business.

What’s your idea of freedom with woodworking? What does your ideal woodworking scenario look like?

Are you getting tired of seeing the ideal woodworking business in your mind, but not knowing the steps to make it happen? If so, check this out.

[audio src="http://www.woodworkersjourney.com/audio/podcast2.mp3" options="controls autobuffer" format="mp3"]

Thanks for all of your feedback about my first podcast here on the Woodworker’s Journey. Well, you said do another so here’s my second podcast.

If you were at #woodchat last Wed. you know we talked about woodworking and burnout. You all had some great suggestions for getting through it and even preventing it. It happens a lot more than we would like to admit.

Today’s podcast is a quick tip that’s going to make it almost impossible to set yourself up for getting burned out again in your shop. I bet it’s something you haven’t thought of before, either.

For more inspiration along your woodworking  journey, be sure to subscribe to the Woodworker’s Journey.

In case you missed #woodchat, here’s the transcript from that great discussion on burnout.

Amazing background music composed by Dereck at Lostwars.

In the first installment of the Pricing Your Work series, we looked at how adopting an hourly rate pricing structure is actually keeping you from making a better profit from your passion by becoming a slave to the clock.

In this second part, I want to reveal to you an often overlooked pricing technique that does indeed allow greater freedom in your work and keeps you from being a slave to the demands of the clock.

Oh, and it helps with the profit end of things too!

Are you charging for the process or the product?

When you use per hour pricing, you’re basically charging people for the process of making their furniture. Seems logical right?

We need to cover our costs and time. Yes, but you’re overlooking the end result.

The final product is a combination of your design expertise, artistic vision, refined skills, and the client’s desperate needs and fantasies. So, what you end up with is more than a table. It’s a collaboration of skill, desire, and need. So what you really end up with is an object that brings value to the customer.

Whether it was commissioned or a speculative piece, there is an inherent value that the final product possesses. It’s a value that occurs on several levels. So, when most woodworkers set out to price their work, they often overlook or outright ignore the end value that the furniture will have and provide.

How do you even begin to price this…value?

It’s pretty obvious this can get a bit foggy because we’re not dealing with the usual concrete steps that most woodworkers are used to.

So to begin to understand this value, you have to understand the one person who truly determines it – your customer.

You see, when people buy, especially luxury items like hand made furniture, they have price as a secondary concern. Actually most folks have it further down the list of importance.

What is at the forefront of the buying decision is what’s known as perceived value.

This is the value that the customer places on that beautiful piece of furniture. But the perceived value isn’t just about the piece itself. It comes from other factors like, the ease of transaction, overall experience with you and your work, and not to mention what your furniture can and will do for them.

So , where do these customers get the idea of perceived value? Guess what? It’s you.

It’s all in how you communicate.

Marketing is simple communication – communicating benefits and offering solutions in ways that really hit home with your ideal client.

Everything you do regarding your furniture and your business is a form of communication, so therefore it’s really a form of marketing.

Design, construction methods, wood species, finishes…these all are a part of marketing, believe it or not. And these areas that you think are just part of the process, are really areas that add benefits to your final product.

Perceived value is also based on the benefits of using and having your products. The customer has to see these clearly over and over in order for the perceived value to be obvious and worth their precious time of acquiring your pieces. That’s where you come in.

It’s up to you to communicate those benefits clearly and often so that the ideal customer sees you have them in mind. Communicating these benefits is what builds the perceived value of you and your work.

So now to the pricing. Obviously, the better you are at telling ideal customers about the benefits they receive working with you, the higher your prices can go…to a certain degree.

Just because perceived value is at the top of most customer’s lists, doesn’t mean price isn’t a factor. Your prices need to match the value people recieve and that can’t happen unless your work is up to the highest standards it could possibly be.

The worst thing that can happen is for a customer to become disenchanted with you and your work because the level of craftsmanship didn’t meet the level of price they paid. FAIL!

So when setting your prices, you have to have a clear understanding of who you serve, how you serve them, and how good your work is. It’s a gut check for most woodworkers because we’re famous for undervaluing ourselves…constantly. But, it’s worth the time to get very clear on your true value and worth as a craftsperson and stop selling yourself short.

You’re not being humble when you devalue yourself. You’re selfishly denying your customers, your business, and yourself the benefits and long term rewards that come from knowing your true worth and going out and getting it.

By taking a long look at the value and benefits your work provides, you can then begin to see where your prices need to fall.

I’m willing to bet for most of you, it’s higher than you thought (and if your first response to this is that your customers would never pay what you think you should charge, then you need to fire your existing customers and get better ones. But that’s a different topic).

As you can see, in order to understand how to price for value, you have to begin understanding yourself and your customer.

Gaining clarity on these two individuals opens up the doors for you to grow and fulfill not only the customer’s desires, but yours as well.

What overlooked value does your work bring to the customer? Have you been factoring that into your pricing?

This is the first in a series of posts covering the topics around pricing your work.

What’s the most confusing and painful aspect of woodworking?

Mentaly speaking, I mean. (We’ll not get into the physical pains associated with our craft.) I’m willing to bet that for most of you it’s the quest to disocver the answer to the ever-present question:

“How much should I charge for this?”

Pricing is one area that woodworkers can really get it all wrong.

Even with all the discussions, blog posts, articles, books, and forum threads dealing with this subject, we’re still seeing more and more people throwing their hands in the air out of total frustration and confusion. And with all these apparent discussions going on there still apears to be a lack of resources on the subject. We haven’t seen a book published on the subject in almost ten years.

Strange? Well, maybe not considering most of the advice being drolled out is irrelevant, outdated, and based on a big fat lie.

It’a a lie that keeps woodworkers from really growing and doing their highest most valuable work, while breeding complacency for just being active. And there’s a pretty good chance that you’ve been buying in to this lie for a long time.

Before we expose this giant falsehood, let’s take a look at what’s being passed around as the common pricing formula for woodworkers:

What you consider the end-all is really just a starting point.

Here’s a version of the standard answer to “How do I know what to charge?”

Shop rate  x  number of hours  +  cost of goods  +  15-30% “profit”  =  what I should charge.

Look familiar? I bet you’re using something very similar to this right now. I sure did when I first started out.

This is what’s widely accepted as the end-all pricing formula for anyone making furniture or selling related services. But, there’s a flaw.

It’s just a formula for covering your costs, not for making profit.

Now before I appear to rip this all to shreds, let me say that covering your costs is a very good thing. If you’re going to make a living selling your furniture, then you have to know your overhead costs, material expenses, and what your time is worth.

Using this formula will help you get a foundation for making sure your time and expenses get covered. But that’s it. That’s all it does. This isn’t a pricing structure that is designed to bring in real profit and make every pass of the plane and chop of the chisel a valuable action.

If you’re looking to make a living creating beautiful high end furniture or related work, then you have to come to a point where you no longer accept your time as anything less than precious. Every movement must produce the highest value and bring about the greatest of results. Each moment must be used on the most important work you could ever be doing.

An hourly based pricing formula like the one above, doesn’t allow for your time to be used on only the most important game changing tasks.

Instead, it holds you prisoner to the clock. Time becomes your master, when in reality, you’re the one who’s supposed to be controlling time.

In order to start making life easier on you and bring in profit that allows you to grow, you have to move away from a per hour pricing structure. Before doing that, though, you have to become aware of the un-truth that’s holding you back from living and working at your highest level.

Time ≠ Money For The Small Shop

You’ve heard the overused archaic saying, “Time is money!”

We all grew up hearing it, believing it, and praciticing it. Well, guess what? Time DOES NOT equal money.

This is one of the greatest untruths for the creative small shop woodworker that exists in society today.

The idea of time equaling money is based on old factory and mass production mentalities. You had a certain number of products to make and move and 8 hours of production time was found to be the most effecient for maximum results.

Now, if you’re reading this than most likely you’re a small independent shop with anywhere from one to just a few people doing the work. You create beautiful objects of distinction and provide unique services that can never be reproduced in mass quantity. Everything about you says high quality work with careful attention to details. And yet, you’re adopting a production mindset with how you approach your work and your pricing.

In reality, for a small woodshop, time doesn’t equal money. Time equals time. That’s it. Plain and simple.

It’s always going to be a constant struggle if all you do is try to squeeze in as many billable hours as possible in a day.You WILL NOT make money trying to beat the clock completing projects. You will only find yourself overworked, exhausted, stressed, and still grossly underpaid. Is that the life you envisioned having as a woodworker? So why are you still tolerating it?

The reason time does not equal money for the small shop woodworker is because your time is too precious and your product is too valuable to be sold at an hourly rate only.

What if you only had four hours at the most  in your shop everyday? How could you maximize that time so you made money? Is it even possible to do that?

If your income is dependent on billable hours, then no, it isn’t possible.

Your pricing is dependant on working “X” number of hours for “X” number of days a week. (For a lot of you that quickly turns into 7 days a week, doesn’t it.) If you stopped believing the lie that time equals money, then you free yourself to be able to do the highest and best work in a shorter amount of time. Did you catch that? Work less earn more. Yes, that’s what I meant to type.

Let’s say you did indeed only have four hours a day to work in the shop. Imagine trying to make a profit if you worked 4 hours a day at a certain amount per hour. Also, I would be surprised if you were even able to have all four of those hours be billable time anyway.

Shop cleanup, maintnence, fixing mistakes, etc all take away from doing the work that pays. Every second of that time needs to be devoted to the most imprtant work possible. The work that maximises your skills and talent to produce pieces of the highest possible value. Setting your prices by the hour simply wouldn’t allow you to get ahead in this scenario.

Freeing yourself from the lie of time equals money allows you to begin working on the most important life changing tasks and projects.

It gives you total control over your time and makes room for delivering the highest possible value in all you create and getting paid for that value. It brings you into the space to reclaim your time as your own.

It means you’ll never be duped again by society’s limitations on work and life.

So, what are your thoughts on time and money? Is there a disconnect in how you’re pricing your work and how long you spend in the shop? Is this simply the post of a dreamer?

Tell me all about it down below.