Starting a furniture making business and other stupid ideas…
I have been immersed in the world of woodworking since 2018, which doesn’t seem so long ago on paper, but it already feels like another life time. I am often asked how I got into the craft and if I learned from someone in my family. The short answer is: No, I learned everything I know on my own through a combination of reading books, watching videos, and lots and lots of experimentation and trial and error. It began with a naive challenge to myself: I needed a new computer desk to replace a rickety particle board desk that was on the brink of collapse and I, arrogantly, having never used a proper tool beyond a screwdriver in my life up to that point, thought to myself: “Why not just make one myself? It can’t be that hard…”
Now, 8 years later, having long since cut apart and repurposed the wood from that first desk, built a better one, filled my home with my own furniture, and now starting a furniture making business.
Why?
Starting a handmade craft business is probably high up on the list of stupid, least likely to become rich, most likely to fail business ventures. Especially so for high end furniture, which necessarily costs an arm and a leg. But, I am ignoring that logical side of my brain that’s telling me this is stupid, and I’m going for it regardless of it’s likelihood of true success (whatever that is), and my reason is simple: starting a furniture making business is stupid for my bank account, but wise for my soul. It is what I am truly passionate about. It fuels me. It’s all I want to do, besides spending time with my lovely wife of course (love you, honey).
I’m not totally naive. Like many woodworkers, I have a day job that pays the bills. It’s a good job. Stable, great co-workers, work that feels important with actual lives at risk if not done well. It’s the sort of job that many make a life-time career without too much complaint and inevitably drink the Corporate Kool-Aid, believing completely that it all matters. I think we convince ourselves of this, or at least pretend to, to stay sane and because it is comfortable. It doesn’t take much for wandering thoughts and day dreams to shatter that illusion.
I started C. S. Hause Furniture & Lumber to begin my slow but steady foray into my real dream career: furniture making. I am taking the low risk, low reward approach: My day job still pays the bills, I’m not taking out any business loans to kick-start the business with big fancy machines, or to sign a lease on a store front somewhere in town. There’s no debt, no real overhead, no panic to find customers to keep the lights on. I already have everything I need in my home workshop. The only real expense was the upfront cost of lumber to stock up my racks for sale (oh yeah, I’m selling hardwood lumber too! More on that in my next post…), but the way I see it, even if I don’t sell even a single board (I have), I can always just make more beautiful furniture out of it. After all, I am still a woodworker in need of quality hardwoods for my own projects.
The down side to this strategy is that I can’t commit all of my time to it, so furniture commissions will be slow to craft and deliver, which obviously limits my profit potential significantly. In the short term, that’s fine by me. It’s not truly about the money, what’s important to me is the craft and building a strong framework to grow the business into over the long term. And, at the end of the day, if my skills and creations can’t cut it, and all I can manage to amount to is being the neighborhood “wood guy”, I can be content with that too.
On the topic of stupid ideas, this blog is another. I don’t actually expect anyone to intentionally read anything I write. I’m not a writer, this is probably going to suck (you’ve been warned). But, I like to write to get ideas out my head onto paper, and to share my thoughts and ideas with other like minded folks. I also consume a lot of woodworking writing, videos, and social media which has afforded me a solid understanding of the popular techniques and commons explanations that are always bouncing around online. So, when I discover something through my own work that I’ve never seen before or is at least rarely mentioned, I make note of it. I intend for this blog to be my dumping ground for all of these little discoveries I’ve made over the years; a place to write all my thoughts and observations from the workshop, whether they prove to be useful or not.
We’ll see.