This may not be the right community to post this in; it’s at least obliquely involved with woodworking.

I intend to hang a shingle as a furniture maker. Yes I know I know “Beware turning a hobby into a job because it’ll suck the joy out” before the pandemic I was working in a custom build shop, about the only thing I didn’t build for customers was furniture, and I kinda miss the pipeline.

In fact, I’d kind of like to find several other craftsmen of various flavors and open an “artisan shop”, where, say, a table I built is used to display vases the potter made, and so on like that.

I got, or rather built, that custom building job at a makerspace in the city, and I could get this venture off the ground with a quick message to the General Slack channel. Not only was the place full of craftsmen and artisans but it was plugged into the entrepreneurial world, people would pour out of the woodwork to either join up or point me to resources. Where I’m at now there’s just none of that.

I think I’m at the point where I just have to build something and put it up for sale. Just…before we bother with business plans and branding and logos and social media and all that crap, I need to open a personal Etsy account or walk into a local consignment shop and sell a thing I made out of wood just to prove I can actually do it.

This may wait until spring at this point; between a family member in hospice and the winter…

Can it be someone else’s turn to talk now?

  • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.worksOP
    2·
    7 days ago

    Not sure I mentioned it but I have been looking into local consignment shops and that sort of thing, I’ve searched up several, looked at their websites to get a feel for what their business is like, and I’ve been preparing to walk in there with questions like “What sells in this area? What just flies off the shelves? What would you want me to sell here?”

    Anyway I think it’s important to spend at least a little time as a “hobbyist that sells some of his work” because it’s easy to get into that level of “What about import duties on international orders” kind of crap. I need to build and sell something.