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Woodworking Home Based Business ToolsI mean think about it, currently I work forty hours a week plus I try to pick up overtime whenever I can just to make ends meet. I have recently been taking cuts in my benefits and the whole company has been told in a recent meeting that all of our annual raises are currently being put on hold until further notice. If that wasn’t enough I know I can’t argue about it because the company won’t hesitate to replace me with someone who will happily work for less. Personally I do this for myself and my family. The company knows how hard it is for people like me right now and uses that to make cutbacks that will make themselves more money. But what can you do? A man’s got to make a living right? Wrong. I decided to take control of my life and turn the table on these big companies. Although I plan to start small, in the near future I plan to “fire” my boss. The only motivation I need is to look at my bank account after working hours on end at my current job. Whether you do woodworking as a hobby or as a profession the thought has probably crossed your mind to turn it into a home based business. My reason for building this website is because I plan to start a woodworking home based business of my own and thought others would benefit from my research on the tools involved. The main focus of the site is really the machinery and tools involved in building a home wood shop. I added this page for those who were looking for a way to help pay for their hobby or make some extra money. Even if you don’t think you could turn that big of a profit, the tax benefits you can receive from owning your own woodworking home based business will make it worth your while.
Read this article from MSN Money to find out owning a business is described as “The Ultimate Tax Shelter.” Getting StartedIf you’re like me you got your experience in woodworking through your job and need to decide what tools are going to be necessary for building your product. The articles on this site can lead you in the right direction of how to find quality tools but you'll have to decide exactly which tools you need to get the job done. You’re also going to need to find a way to set up your shop so you can efficiently do your work with whatever space you have handy.If you already do woodworking at home as a hobby you probably already have most of the woodworking equipment you need to produce the product you plan to market. The biggest questions you have to answer now is what should that product or service be? Where should you sell your product? How will you advertise? Etc. For information on tools to help get this done click here to read on. PricingAfter you’ve been doing woodworking awhile and people find out about it, you’ll notice a question that keeps coming up from friends and family. “Well if you could make it, how much would you charge me to build…?” Personally I always end up sounding like a duffus when I try to explain that it depends on the price of “this and that” and the amount of time it takes. In reality I had no real good way of coming up with a fair price. Considering it was usually a friend or relative I didn’t want to give them a quote they would see as a rip-off.The system I eventually started using was a simple one. I came up with a plan for whatever it was I was to build and made a cutting list of everything I would need to make it. After finding the price of the supplies I still had to charge them for my time. I figured I would use the amount I was making at work and that would be a fair rate, so $12/hr. So my formula came out to be $12/hr plus the amount of money spent on supplies. Sounds reasonable, right? Wrong. I was drastically under quoting them and although they were happy with it, I was eventually going to have to just tell them I would not be able to make the stuff for them or find a new way to set a fair price. Find out how I came up with my new system here. MarketingYou can have the nicest work around at a great price but if no one knows about it, you can never make any money with it. So how do you get the word out?Word of mouth is possibly the best advertising method around. I mean who would you rather buy something from? Someone you have known for years telling you it’s a good product or someone you just met? So let your friends and family know what you plan to do. You don’t necessarily have to sell to them. Just ask that if they know anyone who might be looking for what you have to offer that they drop your name and contact information or give them some of your business cards to hand out. This type of marketing requires no money, very little time, and is very effective. Get 250 premium quality, color business cards FREE! Order today! Click here. Other methods that require money involve taking out advertisements in local newspapers, the yellow pages, and sending out flyers to mailing list. These can add costs to your overhead and they don’t guarantee a sale. Take mailing out flyers for example. According to the books I’ve read on marketing, a good result you can expect to get is a 1% return. So if you send out 100 flyers you can expect to get one sale. The price of a stamp in America as of May 17, 2007 is $.41. So it cost you $41 just to get one sale. After adding everything else in will you even see a profit on that sale? There’s a better way to market your product or service that is far more efficient. And unlike the flyer method where you have to find interested customers, they will find you! Keep an Eye OutI’ll be adding more tools to the site for you so be sure to return and check it out often. Or if you’d like, subscribe to my blog for immediate updates to the site.You can also sign up to receive my free WTE E-zine to get updates in the inbox of your email.
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