Andrew,
To answer your question; yes, you can run a Cabinet/woodworking shop by yourself, but the real question is; how much to you want,need or expect to make doing woodworking.
The disadvantage to running a one man shop is;
1. When you're not in the shop, your shop is closed.
2. You wear "all" the hats; designing, selling, purchasing supplies, building, finishing, delivery and installations, follow-up, clean-up, maintance and all the administrative duties that go with owning a business
.
3. You have to design and engineer projects to be delivered and installed as a one man band.
4. If something is wrong or there's a problem, you get to take all the blame. (can't blame it on an employee).
5. Scheduling of your time is critical. It has to be a perfect blend of how much time to spend at marketing and sales, designing, material acqusition, administrative duties, actually building projects and of course installations.
6. If you ever decide to sell your business, it's basically worth only what your tools are worth at that time, all the rest of the value in your business is YOU.
7. Vacations, sick time, (yours or your families) or just days off directly affects your business and bottom line.
I know, it sounds like I'm negative about a one man shop, but I'm not. These where all things I had to figure out and accept when I decided to keep my shop as a "one man band".
For me, the advantages of being a one man shop worked out fine.
1. It taught me to take total charge of my life; I had to learn to say "no" when I was presented an unrealistic time schedule if I was to get a contract. It was up to me to schedule my time, not someone else or their schedule.
2. I realized my business was "Me". It would be totally up to me if I was to be successful or failed.
3. I had to realize there where only so many hours in a day ( the same 24 as everyone else), so I had better make the best use of it.
4. I love working by myself, I'm not into management or babysitting. I love to take all the credit for a job well done and not afraid to take responsiblity if something is wrong.
5. It was much easier to adjust and adapt when things slowed down. I had one paycheck to worry about!
6. I realized I didn't need employee's to get extra work accomplished. Known as outsourceing.
7. Pricing, marketing and selling had to be a top priority if I was to make a good living.
8. For me, it left a real opening to sales and marketing. So many bigger shops had to stay focused on only what they were set-up for. Another words, if they were a cabinet shop, most didn't want to fool with doing a custom home office, bar unit, entertainment centers, etc. They couldn't make a profit if they had to change their everyday set-up of running cabinets.
It left the door wide open for me. Those were the jobs that I could get creative and make the most money at. I didn't have to rely on just one market or "one room" of the home to market to. It gave me the chance to build furniture as well as cabinetry.
Like I said before, it will depend on the individual and how much they need, want or expect to make from their business.
Here's a simple question you can ask yourself; If you can bill and get paid for 40 hours a week @ a shop labor rate of $50.00/hr. as a one man shop and working 50 weeks in the year, is $100,000/yr. enough? (materials billed seperately).
Just asking : ) or : (