If you are thinking of starting a woodworking business, then you need to consider both wide-ranging business strategies – such as finding a responsive customer base – and easily ignored details, such as how to make your construction processes more efficient and how to find the right customers for your products.
Although these points of consideration might seem obvious, they are very easy to overlook when you are first starting out.
You will most likely be focusing largely on the type of products that you will make. There is nothing wrong with this because it is the most important aspect to consider, but you should avoid focusing on the end result at the cost of other factors.
Here are some top tips for starting a woodworking business in 2021:
Use laser tools to make your processes more efficient
It is no secret that woodworking is an incredibly labor-intensive process. While it might be part of the joy of craftsmanship, and the reason why you fell in love with it in the first place, spending days (or even weeks) on each project is not ideal if you want to sell a lot of products.
This is why laser wood engraving can be a godsend for a woodworking business. It allows you to massively speed up the engraving process, because the laser tooling does all the work.
The upshot of this is that you can produce significantly more engravings which, if you have enough demand, means you can sell more as a result. The long-term potential of using laser tooling is that you can grow your company faster, and cope with far more demand than you otherwise would.
Focus on one single area
One of the most important tips you need to remember if you want to start a woodworking business is that you should try and focus on one area – or at a push, a select few areas.
The reason for this is that specialization helps you to build a reputation faster and create an impact in a specific market, rather than spreading yourself thin across a number of larger markets.
Specializing also allows you to easily tool up for a specific task, without having to spread money across a wide range of tooling. You will have more cash to spend on one single area, meaning you will be able to do a better job at a faster rate, which is what your customers will be looking for anyway.
Find your audience
Following on from the previous point, it is crucial that you specify in order to find your audience. This is because it will make it easier for potential customers to find you in the marketplace.
For instance, if someone types in ‘woodworking’, then it will be difficult to position yourself above hundreds of thousands of other search results. However, if they type in ‘wooden engraving’, for example, and then the state you operate in, they are far more likely to find your brand.
