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one man operation

7K views 35 replies 25 participants last post by  Pono 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Is it possible to run a cab/woodworking shop by yourself or do you need employees? Just curious to see what people think- Andrew
 
#2 · (Edited by Moderator)
I think the woodworking shop is a yes.

Cabinet, is probably not bad for assembling and doing the shop work and finishing, but I think you need a helper if you are going to install a kitchen….well more than once anyway.

Cabinets are a volume business, and someone to help cut up sheet goods and crank out operations with speed, I think 2 people is a more realistic minimum.
 
#6 ·
I've been supporting myself and my wife working my 1 man shop since 2006.
The way it works for me is that I split a shop with a buddy. (Cuts the bills in half)
We both do our own thing but when either one of us needs a hand, whether it's lifting something or installing, there's someone to help.
I think it would be pretty hard to do a lot of things without a helper, but I guess it depends on what your going to do.
I do anything from furniture to built-ins to the odd kitchen every once in a while.
Everything is commissioned,
I don't make anything, then try to sell it.
 
#7 ·
You can do it but it will limit how and what jobs you do.

Especially with a CNC and edgebander one person can
crank out a lot of work.

If you're going to do the cabinetmaker hustle, it's a tough
trade to learn and there's a lot to it. The hours can be
grueling. One way to perhaps enjoy it more and make
more money is to develop proprietary designs which are
too complicated for other shops to knock off.

If you're just competing in the commodity cabinet area
it's not easy. One cabinetmaker I met recently told
me he has his helper do most of the cabinetmaking and he
does the sanding and finishing, confessing that it's hard
to find competent sanding help.

You might consider developing as a finisher and doing refinishing.
You can market to interior designers who always want
stuff refinished or faux painted… along the way they'll
ask you to modify things and if they like that eventually
they'll ask for mantles, entertainment centers and so forth.
 
#8 · (Edited by Moderator)
I've got a friend that has been a one man cabinet shop for about 15 years. He's high dollar and builds only one set at a time.

He does it all, design, builds his own doors, turns his own legs, does his own carvings, makes all the trim work, finishing, counter tops, etc. Dovetails his drawers and uses no plywood drawers and no plywood end panels. He gets friends to help him install. He more or less subs nothing out.

He has a 12 week min. build time he tells his clients but can do a small set in 6 weeks. He gets 50% down and has a min. draw of $500.00 a week and bases that on the cost of the cabinets. He's doing a set now where his draw is 1K a week and told me today it should be about a 10 week build. He told me the balance his client will owe him after the install will be about 6K. His draws and final payment are his labor. I didn't ask the price of the cabinets.

He does all of this in a 24' x 40' shop. Owns his building, equipment with very little overhead, pays cash for everything, owns a beautiful home and drives a new truck about every 3 years paid for.

He also told me today he's four sets of cabinets out and he lives in an area where there are several large cabinet shops and doesn't per say bid on a job. He gives his price and holds to it.

He's good and people know it and know his cabinets don't come from nor look like they came from a production shop.
 
#10 ·
A 100% 1 man cabinet shop isn't going to happen. A 100% 1 man built kitchen is. The descrepency here is time, 1 man cannot produce enough work to effectively run a cabinet shop do installs and support himself on a reasonable wage.

A good portion of a cabinet shop is out of the shop consulting if you are doing custom cabinets, measuring, talking with clients etc. when your out of the shop doing this no monetary work is getting done, your spending money on gas etc.

Paul
 
#11 · (Edited by Moderator)
Working 100% solo long-term is an uphill battle. Nearly every woodworker I've met that has a decent income has help in some form or another. There's a minimum overhead to cover every month and the solo woodworker has to handle administrative tasks, finances, customer relations, design and shop maintenance besides doing the actual money-making work.

Under those conditions, it's not easy to get more than 40 productive hours in a week and even with low overhead, it's not unheard of for the first 20 working hours of the month to go towards paying off rent, insurance and utilities. Then vehicle bills and reinvestment takes another large chunk.

I could solo if I wanted to but only because I'd have help in the form of computerized tools that can be productive without direct input from myself. But you have to save up the money or take a loan to get those tools in the first place.

Starting out alone is fine but long-term, there's usually better return for everybody if multiple people are working towards the same goal. The solo entrepreneur should plan to invest a lot into tools and equipment to compensate for lack of manpower.
 
#13 ·
I might have some relevant insite. I am not a one man shop. It is my wife and I. At this time we outsource our bookkeeping, our doors. We hire out installation on very large jobs and do our own installs on smaller jobs. My wife does 40+ hours per week shop and job site. I do less hours than her shop/job site but do tons of other related tasks such as planning, bidding, purchasing, etc… We just purchased a CNC and hope we will improve production as a result, but until now my experience has been purely old iron machines and manual processing.

What am I getting at. Should something happen to my wife. Shop is closed. I'm done. Lock the doors. Her memory alone will kill me. Besides I doubt I could continue efficiently without her.
 
#14 ·
I am attempting the same journey - unlike a previous post - I am the one with the full time job too…so my time in the shop is in between everything else. For me the biggest issue is pricing - I don't do cabinets (kitchen) just not enough room etc. I do one job at a time, all commissioned and I am finally starting to get my pricing to the point where I walk away from the job like I didn't work for $8 an hour. Single person shop is very hard - there is so much involved in taking a piece of raw wood from start to finish - I use a couple of friends to help when the volume or weight gets to be too much, so far so good.
I am selective in the work I pick, based on my skill and space…try not to get in over my head (very easy to do).
Last year I did 22 projects (total billing 23K), ranging from a small jewelry box to a set of 8 foot long TV cabinets…didn't make any money (my fault), worked my butt off, but learned a lot.

Always have someone who can help in the background - the best suggestion I saw here was to share a big space - I'm looking to do that soon. Don't be timid about asking for good money - as long as your skill level matches the bill…

John O
www.custommade.com/by/jhostudios
 
#15 ·
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 : (
 
#16 ·
Best of luck in your venture. Judging from your other posts re: basic face frame construction, I would suggest you really do your research, and spend you time working out the kinks before you put any money on the line.
 
#17 ·
I've built a couple of kitchens on the side by myself but that was when I was a much younger man. I couldn't do it now. I'm older and have bad knees and a bad back. I'll still build a large piece every now and then but I have to watch myself. I think that kitchen cabinets is something that a one man shop should stay away from.

helluvawreck aka Charles
http://woodworkingexpo.wordpress.com
 
#18 ·
I've been everything from a one man shop building one kitchen a month to a 40 man shop putting out a house full of cabinets a day. One man is usually not enough, but 40 men was too many headaches.
My favorite was just two of us. We were older and didn't want bosses or employees. We both knew our strengths and weaknesses. I did the design, sales and ordering. He did the planning, cutting and organizing of the parts. We worked together to edgeband, assemble and finish and I did the install and collections.
 
#19 ·
Bing- I totally agree with your post, I would need to learn more before going into production. I was more or less interested if it was a possibility to run a shop like this. I should also add I have a full time job and enjoy doing woodworking on the side for family and friends.
 
#21 ·
I am not in business, but i have been talking with a lot of people that are in business for themselves, and are doing well. If you are interested you can check out some of the interviews I've done with craftsmen who are making their living through their work, and in there craft. check it out when you have the opportunity www.craftsmansroad.com and if you have any feedback I would be grateful to know what you think of these interviews. Good luck.
 
#23 · (Edited by Moderator)
i do cabs still from time to time
pushing panels and banding and boring
and assembling and finishing
is a lot more work than i need

i outsource to this company for the boxes themselves

(they will make them in any size/configuration you might need)
and will even order special ply's
standard is melamine in a few colors
or MDF for painted ones

i send them an order inquiry
they send me back a quote
to take to the customer
the customer pays for the cabs/delivery

they send me a list of door and drawer front sizes
with each inquiry

i just make the wood parts in whatever style needed
and do the install
while the sides are flat on the table
all hardware is installed

the parts come on pallets ready for assembly
you need to make kicks and supply all hardware

just do get some scribe fillers
so the drawers open in an inside corner
without banging into the knobs

they have dowel and conformat (screws) assembly
whichever you might like

while they are making the boxes and any parts
i can do the wood

saves allot of back breaking work
and cuts the time down to a few weeks or a month at most

check it out
you might be surprised
 
#25 · (Edited by Moderator)
Not a cabinet shop but I do have a full time one-man woodworking shop. I'm so far behind on my orders that I can always use help. I have tried different people to help in different ways but it just seems nobody can do the work as efficiently or as high quality as I must have done.

There are so many on-going decisions that must be made regarding things such as how to best use a piece of wood and what is acceptable and what is not. It defeats the purpose if I have to continually look over my helper's shoulder to be sure he's on track.

Plus, I just don't feel like I can wait for any helper to get acceptably proficent on each machine and each operation. I need the help now, not awhile later, after I have sacrificed my time to teach and wasted the hours that could have been productive for both of us. It's a nagging and aggravating problem with seemingly, no good solution.

I have tried farming out some of the work to other woodworkers and woodshops but, there go all the profits for that order.
 
#26 ·
Yonak, sounds like you could raise your prices. It will help weed out some of the low-paying work and give you more time for the profitable jobs.

Plus, if you outsource and find all your profits are gone, that's a clue you're underbidding. Proper outsourcing should actually save money and not cost more.
 
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