Any advice

[philpolish]

Hi all I thought i would just ask you friendly lot for some advise. I currently make pine furniture for a company full time. Money is crap and i am wanting to move on but there is not a lot of work in this area in my field.
I have my own workshop that is just about big enough to get by also i have the tools. I have been making my own things for a few years now for friends and it has grown a little through word and mouth also a bit on internet. My boss has visited my workshop without invitation and kind of said he didnt want me to sell pine furniture as it was direct competition with himself meaning i can not advetise.I just feel very frustrated at the moment having somewere to make the stuff and the know how but not being able to finacialy to give up the full time work. I wish i had gone into joinery, a few more opportunities.
Anyway just thought i would have a moan, has anybody been is this same situation and taken the plunge going down the self employment route

Thanks for reading Phil.

 

[wrightclan]

Hi Phil,

I'm not in exactly the same situation as you, but I do make furniture part-time in addition to another part-time (almost full-time) job. Others may correct me in what I'm about to say; but my opinion is that there's so much cheap and/or factory-produced pine furniture around, that it would be hard for a one-man shop to make a go of it building just pine furniture. I think you need to produce something which isn't readily available to the average consumer. Then you will find customers who are prepared to pay for something "unusual." By that I mean something designed better, built better, better materials, or simply built to the customer's specs. (Or any combination of the above.) Just my 2p worth. Hope my advice and that of others to come will be helpful.

Brad

 

[JFC]

Make it in Oak and double his prices !
On a serious note i took the self employed plunge many years ago and have never been out of work .
My boss offered me £180 a day from £60 a day , i told him to poke it as he could have paid me that last year . That was around thirteen years ago . Ive had work ever since .

 

[Scrit]

Others may correct me in what I'm about to say; but my opinion is that there's so much cheap and/or factory-produced pine furniture around, that it would be hard for a one-man shop to make a go of it building just pine furniture.

No Brad, you're spot on. The bottom dropped out of the pine market 4 to 5 years back with the Chinese storming the market. There was a big cluster of pine shops around the Newark area in Nottinghamshire - where are they now? Well, most of the ones that survived did so by moving production to Eastern Europe.

Phil

I agree with Brad - you need to find something else that is more unique or distinctive. Can you make a 2-door pine batchelor wardrobe with a single drawer for £185 delivered unfinished (ex-VAT)? Well that's trade upper price for Scandinavian produced stuff and those factories are making a profit - the Chinese stuff is even cheaper, even if the quality is tat. That means if you can't pay yourself £8/hour, pay yout overheads AND make a profit of £50+ on that wardrobe you'll not be here next year. People will, however, pay for what they can't get elsewhere (especially kitchens :roll: ), but if you go with pine stuff you'll always be in direct competition with the low labour costs elsewhere no matter how good you are simply because for many products the UK is a price driven as opposed to a quality driven market like Germany used to be (don't know if it is any more). As JFC says, make it in oak and double his prices! And yes, I'm into the "row my own boat scene" as I've just packed in doing the volume stuff to concentrate on more one of a kind stuff on the basis that it might just earn a bit more dosh ](*,) .

Scrit

 

[philpolish]

Thanks Brad yes I do agree with you I do need to move on to other things maybe something completely different who knows. I will just keep plodding on till something comes up.
Cheers Phil.

 

[engineer one]

phil, it is important to look at your employment contract,
unless there are specifics in it your boss cannot stop
you making things at home to sell.

however, if you have established a small reputation with friends
then the time maybe has come to see what they actually really want,
and what they would pay for it.

there are enough people with more money than sense, the
question is how you find them, and how you can convince them
to buy off you.

i would suggest you start with kitchens and bathrooms as
areas still ripe for getting extra commissions. in many places, there
is a return to some free standing kitchen items, maybe in oak,
cherry or maple.

think you will need to make a few trial piece to get some interest,
but certainly don't take on the mass producers.

try it anyway.

paul :wink:

 

[DomValente]

Hi Phil

Yes to all of the above, go for unusual pieces and you should be O.K.

Dom

 

[Anonymous]

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[Anonymous]

Going on your own is never easy, need a few lucky breaks to begin with, ie picking up good clients, good jobs etc.
If you do it, make sure your customer service and attitude is excellent, word of mouth is the best advertisement you can get.
If you can't afford to struggle for a few months don't do it, because I will virtually guarantee there will be tough times.
Having said that once you get established the financial rewards can be big, the job satisfaction is great and no boss looking over your shoulder.
If your the type of person who likes tackling problems then great, if however you avoid difficult situations and tend to bury your head in the sand self employment isn't for you.

Don't do anything on the spur of the moment, plan well ahead, good luck and let us all know what you choose to do.

 

[Anonymous]

Phil, Where are you based ??

Koolwabbit

 

[Richard in Smithville]

Phil, some time time ago a guy over here decided to go it on his own. I think he used to be a lawyer of something like that. Now he does all kinds of woodworking stuff. He's got a pretty big name over here now. Anyway, here is his web site.

I have met him but there is no connection. Just passing this along.
Hendrik Varju/Passion For Wood

Check out the gallery (and the prices!). People snap his stuff up. Plus he teaches. A lot of the items he has built has also been featured in magazines.

 

[johnelliott]

The others are right. Avoid pine, the market is too low. I'll add to what was said about hardwood, consider american hardwoods such as white ash and white oak. They tend to be cheaper and less waste (square edged and bigger boards). Also, they are lighter in colour and that's what many people want, especially in KITCHENS. If you want to make money then specialise in kitchens. There is no other room in most people's houses that attractr the same kind of investment. Ever heard of someone spending £10,000 on their living room? (could happen, I suppose)

John

 

[Anonymous]

If you get the right customers, get a lot of good breaks and you can produce furniture of the highest quality you can get thousands for a piece of furniture. Its about contacts and word of mouth, once your established you can start to be a bit braver with your prices and if you have so much work you can't handle it all, thats when you can start to really put high quotes out.

I've been pretty lucky with my clients and have Russians and chinese on the books (new wealth), I think it helps if your based around the London area as well, don't know where you are.

As John said Kitchens are a good option and fill large time spans. When you start up the most important thing is to have work on, rather than doing well on one job and then not having any work for a month.

 

[philpolish]

Thankyou all for your advise I do not have the tooling to do hardwood that is why I have probaly stuck with the pine. I normally just buy laminated sheeets and use pse for frames etc.. I can just get by with what tools i have for pine. I do enjoy making furniture but maybe I will have to do it as a hobbie and find a better payed full time job and maybe save for the tools overtime.
Thanks again Phil.