Woodworking Business Quick Start Guide

By A. William Benitez

"Woodworking Business Quick Start Guide delivers the promise in the title. It's based entirely on my first-hand experience owning and operating successful one-person businesses for over thirty years.

For over 20 years in my woodworking businesses in Tampa, FL and then Austin, TX I built hundreds of cabinets and furniture pieces for all kinds of customers. In Woodworking Business 101 I share all the knowledge I gained running my woodworking business to help you avoid the common small business mistakes that keep woodworkers from making a profit.

For those just beginning, my book contains a helpful Getting Started chapter. For others who are already operating a woodworking business and may be struggling to profit from their skills, there are six additional chapters filled with detailed information, a preface, an introduction, a glossary, and a personal notes section that will help you with every step toward profitability

Woodworking Business Quick Start Guide serves as an excellent beginning with the basics of the woodworking business and including all other aspects of the business of woodworking such as licenses, local and federal taxes, best ways to deal with suppliers, setting up bank accounts both checking and savings, using and accepting credit cards, the critically important aspects of contracting for work, the difficulties of accounting including unique, much easier methods, and the less than pleasant task of dealing with the IRS.

Woodworking Business Quick Start Guide helps you to develop methods to get customers but more importantly it shows you the best ways to keep customers after that first job. In spite of its importance, keeping customers is often overlooked leading to a long term loss of income.

This book covers how to set up a functional shop taking full advantage of the space you may have available and the best ways to get the tools you need to build the projects you sell. Then it shows you how to carefully estimate the cost of materials and labor and set your job prices to ensure that you make a fair profit on every job. This will help you maintain your cash flow and ensure long term success.

The final section called Personal Notes includes just a few hints and tips I gleaned over the past few years to give you even more help in operating your business successfully.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Positive Imaging, LLC
• Release date: May 5, 2016
• ISBN: 9781944071073

A. William Benitez

From age twelve I spent my summers and weekends working with my dad, a general contractor, building homes and buildings. I contracted my first home at age nineteen and built my own home by age twenty. I’ve operated one-person businesses for more than 30 years. Twelve years of my life were spent working for local government managing federally-funded housing programs. I started as an inspector with a three month assignment and left as Director of Community Improvement with 78 employees twelve years later to do writing and consulting. Writing, Publishing and Consulting I established Rehab Notes Library, a publishing company that published a monthly newsletter (Rehab Notes) with subscribers in all 50 states, Canada and England and nine books on housing related topics. I also did consulting and public speaking on housing related topics for agencies and organizations in cities across the country. After 1980 when most federal funding was pulled from housing activities, I took advantage of my construction and business experience and started a handyman and woodworking business. Over Twenty-Five Years of Woodworking For over twenty-five years, first in Tampa, Florida and then in Austin, Texas, I built hundreds of small and large cabinet and furniture projects for individuals, companies and government agencies. During these years I began writing books about my experiences. Positive Publishing My company, Positive Imaging, LLC at http://positive-imaging.com, does what I call positive publishing for my books and the books of other authors. To date I've published over a hundred print and ebooks and presently have several books in various levels of completion.   

Book preview

Enjoy Your Free Book

Now Register To Win a New Fire Tablet

Or A $50 Amazon Gift Card

Your Choice!

Click Here to subscribe and Win!

Thank You!

Thanks for buying a copy of Woodworking Business Quick Start Guide. I’m certain it will help you to succeed in the woodworking business. If you have any questions about woodworking or the business I’ll be glad to answer them. Just drop me an email, and thanks again for buying my ebook.

Bill Benitez

http://papas-woodshop.com/

[e-mail]

Handyman Business Guidebook

Handyman Business Quick Start Guide, my complete guide, based entirely on over 25 years of first-hand experience operating my professional handyman and woodworking business is available now for only .99 cents. Get your copy NOW by clicking on the link below. Thanks.

http://ninetynine.handyman-business-guide.com

Woodworking Business

Quick Start Guide

How To Start and Operate

Your Own Woodworking Business

A. William Benitez

Published By

Positive Imaging, LLC

9016 Palace Parkway

Austin, TX 78748 USA

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author

Copyright 2016 A. William Benitez

ISBN 9781944071073

CONTENTS

Preface

Introduction

One-Getting Started

Two- Woodworking Business Basics

Three- The Business of Woodworking

Four-Getting Customers

Five-Keeping Customers

Six-Shop Space and Tools

Seven-Estimating Cost, Setting Price

Personal Notes

Glossary

Useful Links and Web Sites

A William Benitez Bio

Other Books

PREFACE

Back in 1989 I wrote a book entitled Simplified Woodworking I: A Business Guide For Woodworkers that was published by a small publishing company in Austin, TX. The book was well received by many woodworkers interested in the business of woodworking. It also received good reviews from two prominent woodworking magazines.

Fine Woodworking magazine wrote, "I think the book’s greatest strength is the wealth of common sense advice sprinkled throughout.

Woodwork Magazine wrote, it guides the reader through the potential minefields of contract labor, financial record keeping, IRS obligations, advertising, finding shop space, general organization, and a host of other things never mentioned in many books that wax eloquent on the glory and romanticism of woodworking.

Simplified Woodworking I: A Business Guide For Woodworkers was written when I had over eight years of experience operating my woodworking business in Tampa, Florida and Austin, Texas. It was a down-to-earth how-to book based on everything I had learned about the business by then.

I was reading through a copy recently and realized that it is still a good book with valuable information but now outdated and out of print. I first considered just making it into an ebook but because I learned so many more lessons in the next twenty years of my woodworking business, I decided to use the information in the book and add all the additional knowledge and experience and create it as an ebook.

Woodworking Business Quick Start Guide is the culmination of editing that book and adding twenty years of first-hand experience plus all the other knowledge I gained over the twenty-four plus years since writing the first book.

So this book is comprised of everything in Simplified Woodworking I: that still applies after all these years, the many things in that book that could be updated to be applicable to the present time, and a long list of additional information learned during many more years in the woodworking business.

I think you will find Woodworking Business Quick Start Guide of real value and I would definitely appreciate hearing from you with comments or questions at [e-mail]

INTRODUCTION

This ebook, like all my previous books on woodworking, is based entirely on first-hand experience as a full-time, self-employed woodworker. While running your own woodworking business is a lot of work, it’s also an adventure that I enjoyed for over twenty-five years. This book is another opportunity for me to share my experiences with you and others interested in operating their own woodworking business.

As indicated by the title, this is a basic business guide and is geared specifically for the one-person woodworking business. In the one-person operation, you are the cabinet-furniture maker, the designer, the sales person, the accountant, the helper, and the clean-up person, all in one. You have a unique opportunity to learn all aspects of the business and your level of financial success will depend on learning it all. This is no small feat and requires a dedicated person who is willing to spend every day learning.

Before coming to woodworking, I worked in my father’s construction business beginning as a cleanup person, progressing to helper then to carpenter and builder. Finally, I ran my own business. My experience with building cabinets and furniture was almost nonexistent because as builders we usually hired out the cabinet work.

I took a stab at being a general contractor and built several homes and did quite a few large remodeling jobs, but I got tired of the entire process of coordinating the work of subcontractors. So many times homeowners were disappointed because subcontractors failed to deliver on their promises. While discussing this problem with a contractor friend he asked me, Do you know how you can tell when a subcontractor is lying? I couldn’t answer that question, so he answered it, His lips are moving. That is certainly an exaggeration but at that time I could relate to