7 Ways To Make Money As A Woodworker
Whether you’re a beginner woodworker just wanting to learn the craft and enjoy the hobby, or you want a side business or full time business as a woodworker, there are many ways you can make money as a woodworker, and here I will share my 7 Ways To Make Money As A Woodworker.
In order to generate income and make money, you naturally need to “sell” something, so the 7 ways to make money are all by selling something.
Sell Materials
Selling materials can include multiple facets of the craft. Materials to be sold can include consumables, lumber, knobs, legs, and more. Let’s look at each.
Consumables
Consumables are pretty much anything that needs to be repurchased over time. Think sandpaper, screws, nails, wood glue, etc. These are thing that you may decide to buy in bulk. If so, mark up the materials slightly and sell them. You may win customers simply for the convenience factor that you have the materials on hand, rather than the customer needing to wait 3 days for an online order to arrive by mail.
Lumber
Unless you own a sawmill and/or have a consistent resource to get logs from, you’re probably not going to win the purchase from a customer simply by selling rough cut lumber. However, what you can do as a woodworker, is buy rough sawn lumber and process it through the milling phase. For example, you may purchase a 5/4” piece of Walnut that is 12 feet long and rough sawn. You then joint the edges, plane the surfaces, cut the material to whatever length customers want, and sell the lumber to them in its milled up, cleaner condition.
Another method of making money selling lumber may be to sell veneers, edge banding, or project-specific materials like cutting board strips. You may even consider selling lumber as a “kit” to build XZY project.
Knobs, Legs, & Accessories
You can make money selling project specific parts that aren’t always readily available. For example, if you’re proficient in the wood lathe or metal lathe, you may be able to make custom table or chair legs, cabinet knobs, capsule box lids, and more that can be sold to other woodworkers who need those custom pieces.
Sell Finished Products
Selling finished projects has traditionally been the “normal” way of making money as a woodworker. You spend time making tables, cabinets, chairs, shelfs, whatever, and you sell them to whoever is interested. I consider there to be 2 ways of selling finished projects. The first is the “hope to sell” where you complete a project, then hope to sell that project when an interested buyer comes along. The second way is a commissioned project. This is where you and the customer discuss their wants and needs of the custom job before you begin. Often you would collect a down payment for the job and build the project that is already spoken for, as it is going to your customer.
Selling finished products can be much more that just tables and cabinets. These days, everyone likes wooden products and honestly, the more unique and weird the product is, the better. These weird items sell like crazy, especially if you are the only one making those products. Think outside of box.
Wooden projects can include, but not be limited to:
Tables
Chairs
Cabinets
Shelves
Boxes
Dressers
Cutting Boards
Lamps
Vases
Bowls
Pens
Wine Racks
Wall Decor
Outdoor Shade Structures
Custom Holders for Specific Items
Accent Pieces
Picture Frames
Wood Shop Jigs & Tools
Sell Plans
As you practice the woodworking craft, you may decide to make a set of plans for yourself to follow when constructing an elaborate project. I personally make a detailed step-by-step set of plans for every furniture project I complete. This takes a little time upfront, but allows me peace of mind during the build process as I know that the piece will come together as I had imagined. Since you have already invested the time and effort to make these plans for your own use, why not try to sell them? Other people may be as interested as you are in building your project. Selling your plans is a great way to recover some of the time invested upfront, and will become passive income that is generate of these plan sales. To see some examples of the plans I have made, Click Here.
Sell Templates
Selling templates is very similar to selling plans. However, templates can be sold as a digital product or as a physical project that you ship to the customer. I have had projects that required a custom shaped table leg, or a custom sized router jig, and more. These templates are tweaked until I get exactly the results I want. I then save the template for future use. Similar to selling the plans, why not sell your templates. As an example, click here to see some of the templates I have made.
Other people in the woodworking field may be interested and in need of the same template you were in need of. You can sell your PDF file template to others for a passive income stream. You can also make physical template pieces based on those digital files. Some people may not have the means or machines to make the templates themselves with your digital file. So, shipping them the physical MDF or acrylic template may be beneficial to some woodworkers.
5. Sell Knowledge
Selling knowledge is a great way to generate income, but be careful with this one. From the customer’s perspective, nothing is worse that purchasing a course or other medium that should contain useful information, but simply doesn’t. If you are an expert in a specific area or concentration of woodworking, sell your expertise!
Selling your knowledge can be done in many ways. You could offer a digital or online course on a certain topic.
Some examples could be:
How To Cut A Dovetail
How To Apply The Best Wood Finish
How To Make A Mortise & Tenon Joint
…and the list goes on.
You could also offer in-person classes as another way of selling your knowledge. There are public maker spaces that you can rent time and teach a class out of the space.
You could potentially seek a job through a reputable company and offer to teach classes. Woodcraft for example, hosts in person classes.
Consultation is another way to sell knowledge. Some woodworkers are at a very beginner level and just need basic help getting started. You could offer your “knowledge services” on an hourly-based rate to help with logistics, business, or process assistance in the woodworking craft.
Bottom line is, whenever you decide to sell your knowledge, make sure you are providing value to the customer in a way that they cannot find it anywhere else, and make sure you’re selling something worth the cost and not something that woodworkers can find for free elsewhere.
6. Sell Entertainment
Are you a good entertainer or love to make people laugh, but also a great woodworker? Consider selling entertainment.
This can be done by selling content or in-person time of either completing woodworking projects in a funny way, or in a helpful and informative way.
These services can be sold online as digital content, but also in-person. Some people may be willing to pay to watch you work simply because your process and methods are so intriguing. Others may find your work ethic to be comedic and be willing to pay you for time to watch. Use your imagination and personal unique spin to add entertainment value in what you do.
7. Sell a Service
Selling a service or services is probably the second most common way to make money as a woodworker. When you sell a product you are also selling your services used to make that product, but those aren’t the services I’m referencing here.
Services you could sell include, but aren’t limited to:
Furniture refurbishing
Furniture refinishing
Slab Flattening (if you own a CNC router…or want to do the work by hand)
Wood processing & Milling (maybe you own a 24” planer and all of your neighboring woodworkers only have a 13” planer)
Sell Contractor Services (maybe someone wants an entire addition on their home and will pay you for your contracting services…make sure you check your local area for additional certifications/permits needed to do these services)
Sell Painting or Staining Services (if you have an awesome paint sprayer that yields perfect results and coverage, some woodworkers may seek you to paint all of their projects instead of them painting the projects themselves)
Sell Laser Engraving or CNC services (if you own the correct machines that others do not have…addition customization with engravings or inlays will add value to woodworkers’ projects)
There are a number of ways listed here that you can make money as a woodworker and be financially successful. As with any craft or industry, you won’t make millions overnight. Be persistent, marketing your services well, and over time, the business will come. Become the best at what you do, and people will begin to open their wallets for a piece of your personality, materials, knowledge, products, or services!