furniture

Commissions 101: How to Avoid Getting Swallowed Up in the Process

by Adam

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The thought of landing a commission, especially when you first start out, can be exciting, enthralling even.

So much so, that it’s easy to get caught up in the rapture and overlook some important points that mean the difference between a successful commission and a nightmare off an experience for both you and the client.

So what’s the secret to guarantee a successful commission process that leaves your client so satisfied, they’re already planning the next piece for you to build (and prevents you from being swallowed up in the process of landing it)?

Set parameters

Unless you want to be swamped with work you have no interest in doing, you need to set the boundaries for the type of work you want to be contracted for as well as who the ideal person to work with would be.

If you just hang your shingle out as “Joe Woodworker” who’s willing to take anything and everything that comes through the door, all the while secretly wishing you could design and build more challenging and self-expressive work, then you have no one to blame but yourself. You opened yourself up to that scenario by failing to set parameters.

It’s important even before taking your first commission to define what type of work you truly desire to take in. This is a matter of examining what you enjoy working on the most and also defining the way you work best. If your desire is to do work that involves a lot of handtools, then it doesn’t make any sense to allow yourself to accept a commission for 13 plywood topped cafe tables.

Also set the parameters for the lowest amount you would be commissioned for. In other words, define at what point a job becomes too small for you to do and end up being just a waste of your time and the client’s money.

Control the process

Conventional wisdom tries to tell you the customer is always right.

The reality is, that the customer is looking to you for guidance and control during the commission process. They’re looking to you as an expert in the craft to guide them through the areas they haven’t got a clue about.

It’s easy to believe you need to defer to the customer for every decision, and that this is in their best interest. But that actually ends up making their experience much more stressful than it should be.

The right customers are working with you because they trust you. They trust your judgement, your knowledge, and your experience.

It’s up to you to prove to them right in working with you for those reasons.

So, instead of letting the customer control a process they have no desire to, allow yourself to assume that role and guide the customer through these seemingly grey areas and prove your value in bigger and better ways.

Limit the choices

Imagine walking into a store and all they sold were Lie-Nielsen #4 smoothers. But, here’s the catch.

There were 25 varieties of this smoothing plane. They’re all #4′s but you have 13 different handle materials to choose from, different patinas on the bronze, engraving options, some with LED headlights, others with a built-in iPod…the list goes on.

As cool as it sounds to have this many choices, I’m willing to bet you’d be wandering around all day in that store completely unable to choose your favorite. You’d be suffering overwhelm due to choice overload!

Well, the same goes for your potential clients. When they’re coming to you for your work, it pays to make it easy for them to make a decision. Michael Fortune talked about this in our interview.

He suggests limiting the clients choices to just two variations. I can tell you from experience, this makes a huge difference in the decision making process. I found that just offering a third choice made it infinitely harder for a client to come to decision.

So, limit the clients choices and you actually allow for them to express greater freedom in the decision making process.

Get half up front

This is a big one. A lot of woodworkers starting out, don’t think to do this.

Let the client know from early on, that you won’t begin work until half of the agreed upon price is paid. Even then, it would be in your best interest to not sound over eager to begin.

It will get you in a bind later (More on that next). This is the money you need to order supplies, and to cover the time you spent and services you provided in communication with the client.

This weeds out the serious from the curious. People will indeed walk you through the whole design and estimate process just to get an idea of the piece and price, only to end up not working with you.

Being upfront about how much money needs to be invested for the project to happen will help encourage those who are serious to keep moving forward with you.

Bonus tip: Charge a design fee. Let it be known that you do not design a piece, even for consideration for free. You need to charge a fee for the design work and the client is responsible for paying it if they don’t go ahead with the commission.

Finish ahead of schedule

This one’s obvious. Exceed their expectations by finishing ahead of the agreed time.

This takes some preparation on your part before the commission is ever agreed upon. Before finalizing anything, calculate your approximate time for completing the piece…and then double it. Yes. Double it.

This may seem like a lot of time, but what happens if you have problems with materials and have to order more in the middle of the project (a far to real scenario on several of my past commissions)?

Also, what if you get sick or injured or burnt out and need a small break? It’s all things you need to account for. Doubling your time also means you get the chance to finish way ahead of schedule. That is a win for everyone.

Here’s another tip for you on time. Don’t set a deadline.

At least not with the client. If the subject of time comes up, one of the smartest moves you can make is to simply tell them you’ll let them know as soon as you can start, and when it’s almost finished.

Most people are very content with this answer. Especially if you’ve done your job in communicating that it’s an organic process and can take more or less time than expected.

This can really save a lot of pain in case something happens to severely delay the process and delivery of the piece.

If you’re the type that needs a deadline for accountability, then set one for yourself and seek to beat it by a few days to a week. That way you  over deliver on value and prove to yourself that you can indeed meet these self imposed deadlines.

To sum it up, if you want to be successful with every commission you take on, and avoid getting swallowed up by the process, simply remember that the foundation for excellence is over deliver on value, prove you worth by demonstrating your expertise, and make the customer feel like they’re part of something very special and elite.

Because they are. They’re coming to you for your designs, your style, your voice. That puts them in a league all their own.

Be successful with one, and you will be successful with the many others that your first one sends your way.

If you’re ready to make every commission wildly successful for you and your client, grab your copy of the Woodworking CAN Pay Your Bills E-Course today!

So what does it take to have successful commissions? What’s included in your process?

Is Woodworking School Essential to Starting Your Furniture Business?

by Adam

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Have you been looking at fine woodworking programs lately?

I bet chances are pretty good that you have been.

Most woodworkers like to think that at some point they can have the chance to venture out to a fine woodworking mecca and spend two years in the nirvana that would be 24/7 woodworking instruction.

In your case, you’ve been weighing whether that level of education would be essential to you fulfilling your dream of running your own woodworking business.

It seems logical that in order to create and sell high end furniture, you should first learn the techniques and skills to do so. Right?

After almost a decade out of my fine woodworking program, I began to examine this thought with the advantage of hindsight and decided to help you with your decision as to whether you should pursue a dedicated fine woodworking education as your next step to building your business.

Are there definite advantages?

Woodworking school is a very focused course of intense study.

You’ve got close instruction with a teacher as well as constant feedback from fellow students. It puts you in a working shop environment where you learn the tools, techniques, and mindset to design and build high end pieces of furniture.

If you pick a top notch program, then you walk out of there with a working knowledge and skill level that most can only dream of obtaining. You also acquire this knowledge in a relatively shorter amount of time than had you pursued this level on your own.

Also, you gain hands on experience with the proper use and upkeep of some professional quality machinery. Not to mention, you’re learning to work with deadlines, project specifications, and even managing multiple projects at once.

All of which can easily be translated into running your own woodworking business. It’s a saturated environment that has you eating, sleeping, and breathing woodworking. It’s total immersion at it’s most intense.

Are there definite disadvantages?

A lot of woodworkers would answer this question with a resounding, “no.” However, allow me to point out a not-so-obvious disadvantage.

You spend your entire time doing nothing but building your design and woodworking skills.

I know, I know. What kind of a disadvantage is this?

Well, most students in a fine woodworking program, are looking to eventually make a living designing and building high end one of a kind furniture. While exceptional design and woodworking skills are the foundation for exceptional product, spending your entire time on those in school doesn’t prepare you for the impending challenges of starting and building a business around that exceptional furniture.

I realize that most programs are very limited on time and your projects are incredibly time-intensive. It doesn’t seem to allow for much room to plug in a real world business education.

Also, there’s the cost. Woodworking school isn’t cheap.

It’s much more expensive than a conventional college, and most students leave with some heavy debt to pay. Do you really want the weight of debt hanging over your head as you work to start a business?

Is it essential to have that level of training before starting a business?

While attending school can be a big shortcut in skill building and experience, it does bring the question of whether it’s essential to running a high end woodworking business.

Upon leaving school, you would have an arsenal of skills at your disposal. The trial and error period for those foundational practices is now behind you and you can confidently execute everything from hand cut dovetails to precision bandsawn veneer.

So, it would seem that you come out of a woodworking program at an incredible advantage over those who didn’t attend.

However, everything you learn in school can be acquired on your own.

The downside to that is it takes longer to find the information and instruction, and you then have to apply it on your own without a knowledgeable teacher watching over your shoulder guiding you.

But there have been plenty of successful woodworkers who have built businesses using the self taught path. Not to mention, with the woodworking community turning more and more to the internet, the knowledge and experienced help is much closer than it once was.

One key secret my teacher gave me was the fact that working in your shop day to day is actually a better teacher than having a physical one.

Even after school, you’re going to be put in the situation of haivng to learn new techniques on your own without anyone watching over you. So, one could easily make a case for starting out this way in a woodworking business from the get go.

So, where do you fall in this discussion? Are you looking at attending a fine woodworking program? If so why?

 

5 Ways to Make Money Now With Your Woodworking

by Adam

When you’re just starting out in woodworking, it can be intimidating trying to figure out how you’re going to bring in steady cash.

The current economic scare these days doesn’t seem to help much. Not to mention the fact that in the beginning, most of us start quite aways off from our ideal vision of a woodworking business.

So, how can you make some quick money while building up your furniture offerings?

Here are five ways that myself and others have found to fill the money gap in between bigger furniture jobs.

Offer services

Is there a service you can add to your woodworking offerings? What can you do that’s related to the products you’re already offering people?

Often times, services can be a great way for people to being working with you. This makes it much easier to turn them into clients of your main offerings.

So, take a long look at what you do in the woodshop and see what types of services you can add on that can fill a definite need and that you can start doing ASAP.

Some common services are:

  • Refinishing furniutre
  • Furniture repair
  • Antique restoration & repair
  • Custom finishing
  • Kitchen cabinet installation
  • Custom trim and molding
  • Caning and woven seat repair
  • Upholstery service

Also, do you have an industrial tool that most area woodworkers don’t?

Let’s say you have an awesome 36″ industrial drum sander. You could offer services sanding large panels, doors, table tops, etc. Most woodworkers would gladly pay for time on a machine that will get the job done fast and efficiently.

The key to offering services is to be creative, look for immediate needs you can fill with the shop you already have, and get the word out fast. Then, you’ll have an additional income stream going in no time!

Turn your scrap into cash

Are you really going to use all of that scrap wood over there?

Yeah, I know. You have these cool ideas and someday soon…blah blah blah.

Listen. I’m a scrap hoarder too. It’s part of the qualifications of being a woodworker. But, typically, what ends up happening?

You either get taken over by scrap pieces covering every flat surface, or you end up throwing out perfectly good wood, just to get rid of the clutter. So, why not bit the bullet and turn that scrap into cash?

Ebay/Craigslist- Seriously, there’s a HUGE scrap market going on out there. Just do a quick search for scrap wood, and you’ll see what I mean. Take a look around Ebay for a bit and get a feel for the sizes and species being offered and look at what they’re going for. Then you’ll have a pretty good idea of what you can expect to get for yours.

Limited edition items - One of the best and most enjoyable ways to make some quick cash with scrap is to turn it into limited edition items.

Get the word out that you’re ready to make a new batch of these unique pieces and once they’re finished you’ll have people waiting to see what they are and how much can they buy it for.

Make your ingenuity into a product

Shop jigs – Do you have a favorite jig that you created for yourself? If so, then you have a new income stream.

Woodworkers by nature are inventive. It’s usually out of necessity, but the challenge is half the fun too. Am I right? It’s fun coming up with new jigs to fulfill a task. Chances are, if you needed that jig, someone else does too.

There’s two ways to approach this as a way to make quick cash: Take orders and make the jigs custom per order, or create digital plans in a program like sketch-up and sell them online from your website.

If you do this, make sure to include several elevations, cutlist, and detailed instructions in PDF format.

Furniture plans - Every woodworker at one time has searched for furniture plans. Why not turn some of your favorite designs into full on plans?

SketchUp is the program of choice these days for woodworkers, so create your plans like you normally would. Add all the different elevations and dimensions. Then include exploded views, joinery breakdowns, and a nice finished view. Also, add a cutlist and detailed instructions as PDF’s and viola!

You now have a product that you only make once but can sell indefinitely right from your website!

Sell smaller less expensive items

What can you do if requests for you main work are coming in a little less these days?

Go back to the drawing board and ask yourself what smaller less expensive items can you design and build. I’ve experimented with this and it can be a lot of fun coming up with ideas that are smaller and faster to make, but still reflect your unique design style.

These type of items can sell very quickly online, at art fairs, or even better, as a repeat sale to your past clients. Just notify them that you’re offering these smaller items as a new line and make it very easy for them to reserve one before you even build it.

In fact, if you make one, set it up on your site as an example and start taking pre-orders from your past clients that way. Guess what? You’re now getting paid to make them. Awesome.

Sell your tools

What?! Sell my precious tools?!!? Calm down. Let me explain.

Raise your hand if you’ve ever made a wooden handplane, spokeshave, or any tool for that matter. You really enjoyed it, right?

I do too, but not all woodworkers want to do this. They want the experience of using handmade tools, but they don’t want to take the time to build them.

So, why not sell a small line of custom hand tools that you can produce quickly and affordably. I know, you’re not James Krenov or Clark & Williams, but you don’t have to be.

Handplanes, wooden mallets, small chisels, spokeshaves, marking gauges, dovetail markers, marking knives…the list goes on and on. You could even design a getting started handtool kit with all the essential handmade hand tools included.

If you go this route, here’s a quick tip: Put up one or several videos on the sales page of your site showing you using the tool. You can talk if you like, explaining the process and benefits, but even just a short video showing the tool in action will help convince people to buy. Do that and watch the sales come in.

Well those are my top five tips to start bringing in money to your woodshop in a hurry. I’ve used a lot of these at various times and what’s great about them is you can start most of them with little or no investment since you’re just using the tools and materials you already have on hand.

So, what are some of the ways you’ve brought in some quick extra cash with your woodworking?

Here’s what some Twitter folk came up with.

So, now it’s back to you. What ways can you or have you been able to make quick cash in your woodshop?

Want to learn a 6th way to make money with woodworking? Grab your copy of the Woodworking CAN Pay Your Bills E-course today!

WWJ04: The 5 Qualities Pro Woodworkers Have That You Don’t

by Adam
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[audio src="http://www.woodworkersjourney.com/audio/podcast4.mp3" options="controls autobuffer" format="mp3"] What does it take to be considered a “pro woodworker?” Now, there’s a question that comes up a lot. Opinions vary quite a bit on this because everyone gauges the term differently. So, what does it take to be considered a professional in woodworking? In this episode I give my [...]

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