# Ideas to Supplement Income



## BradinPA

The economy has knocked me down a notch. Overall, I am fine. However wife and I have prioritized our budget and spending and set up strict budget. The woodshop budget took a hit down to $20 per month.

My wife has agreed that if I can make extra money building and selling, all profit can go back to me and this woodworking habit.

So I am looking for ideas on what might be marketable to build and sell in order to supplement my income. I was thinking perhaps adirondack chairs or blanket chests. Any other ideas?


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## hObOmOnk

Business savvy?
Market?
Skills?
Materials?


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## roman

birdhouse and birdhouse lights have done well for me in the past. people seemto love garden art, like old fashioned looking wheelbarrells, water wheels.

If you have a lathe its inexpensive and quick to make those wooden tools that squeeze all the joice from lemons and limes. Same for turning wooden christmas tree lightbulbs

cheers


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## BradinPA

Business savvy? Don't know, but I have common sense. My wife has home mail order business. I do her taxes, so I have a little business knowledge.

Market? That is my question. I am open. I am thinking probably start out local or craft shows. Perhaps Etsy. I am looking for ideas for what sells. I do not plan on setting up an internet business.

Skills? Intermediate. 18th century reproductions are beyond my skill set. But I like to think of my woodworking skills as capable.

Materials? My shop is fairly well equipped - TS, 14" BS, 6" jointer, lunchbox planer, router table, mini lathe, wide variety of hand planes, etc. I have access to buy from many saw mills in my area with Pennsylvania woods. I don't particularly like working the ultra-hard exotics.


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## terrilynne

Craft-shows-are-a-good-way-to-get-your-items-seen.
Along-with-your-furniture-items-you-also-want-some-smaller-less-expensive-items.
Childrens-chairs-and-tables,cutting-boards,crosses,candle-holders.etc….
With-your-mini-lathe-you-could-make-some-wooden-jewlery.
The-smaller-items-sell-quicker-and-will-at-least-make-up-for-your-booth-fees.
Make-sure-you-have-business-cards-to-give-out-and-your-tax-ID-#
Check-your-area-for-stores-that-will-sell-for-you-on-commision.


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## MrsN

If you want to do craft shows you will likely have to spend money to make money. You would need to build up inventory, get display materials (tables, tents, table cloths, racks and shelvs…)and pay vendor fees (just off the top of my head) After your first show you may still be in the red. 
Etsy is cheaper up front, but to make sales you have to promote your site. Spend lots of time on their forums, do some of the facebook/twitter stuff. If you have some time it works for some people. 
I would not over look word of mouth. Tell everyone you know that you make stuff, show pictures or have stuff around, and tell them you are looking to start selling the things you make. since you are not trying to get an income out of your woodworking, a sale or two a month would help boost the shop budget.


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## bent

maybe try furniture repair? the material investment for it is minimal.

it seems like just $20 wouldn't get you very far in building up any kind of inventory. even if you have plenty of lumber already on hand, $20 might not even cover hardware and finishing supplies.


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## rtriplett

Although furniture would give you a big amount of cash from a sale, I don't know how well big items sell right now. I have done about 15 shows this year, mainly selling cutting boards and boxes. I have seen kids furniture and some outdoor stuff sell. I agree with others that you need some small, inexpensive items ($10-$150 to cover expenses of a show. Sometimes my boxes sell well, other times it's all cutting boards. Sometimes 6" x 9" boards and other times big boards. Think of the time of the year, the local of the show ( second home area, June weddings,) Farmers Market- food prep items, tourists- local interest items. I often have a hodgepodge of small things I think might sell. Often the type of wood will sell an item more than the particular style of construction. i have sold ear ring stands at times and other times not. Now I am working on a sewing box prototype out of Aromatic Cedar. Mainly I have fun- but I kept my day job.
Hope these thoughts help.
robert


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## stratiA

I am in the same boat. my family and I are currently heading into crafting as a way for our family to make extra cash and fund our 2011 family vacation. I am mostly making children crafts. Its not the fine woodworking I aspire to make but I have made a few bucks. Its enough to warrant my continuing. Besides my children crafts I have made some other small projects. I've tried to sell clocks, small wine racks, boxes and such. Nothing spectacular but ok. I made most of them from free or cheap hardwoods. Because of low material costs I charged fairly low prices. Regardless of low cost and decent quality, I haven't sold any of them. My realization is that in this economy people are more willing to spend on their children than themselves. Secondly at craft fairs or anywhere else somebody can build it cheaper and better than you. Or they may be better at marketing. Thus you need an angle or unique aspect to wade through all the other sellers. If these don't exist you are at the mercy of random shopping. It seems to me more customers and women in particular are willing to purchase a cute children items for $20 than a man pay $50 for a desk clock. Just my .02 cents. There are plenty of people in this lumber jock community that make a living woodworking. Do some research see what can work for you. Good luck.


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## dq2

Although I haven't tried it, I have seen others that cut the parts for children's step stools and package the parts with an assembly instruction sheet. Have a couple samples of painted pieces to show creativity. The booths that I have seen usually have 3 or 4 styles to choose from, including small tables, to show versatility.


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## rhett

You can sell 100 widgets for $10, 10 widgets for $100 or 1 widget for $1000.

People of average means will afford $10, this is 85% of the market

People of above average means will afford $100, this is 14% of the market

People with unlimited means will afford $1000, this is 1% of the market


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## Knothead62

dq2, what would your liability be if someone put the stool together and it collaped, causing injuries?


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## MortTenon

There are laws governing the manufacture of toys for children that are causing some to rethink doing them at all. I know people who make toys and they are concerned about inadvertently running afoul of the law, or liability in the case of an accident. Little kids aren't often held responsible for their lack of common sense.

I make birdhouses and feeders from (usually) free plans that I get from a multitude of web sites. I adapt them to make them my own and I sell them at local art fairs and farmers' markets. We're in a rural area in AZ, which gets a lot of tourist traffic in the summertime but is locally poor, and so sales depend on the crowd on any given day. The tourists, who are mostly from the desert areas, don't generally buy birdhouses, so I don't sell a lot of them, even though I get a lot of compliments. My wife makes natural stone bead and sterling silver jewelry and we share a booth, so most of the money comes from the jewelry. I will occasionally have a good day and sell two or three, but it would not provide an income on it's own. Ours is a retirement business; a hobby. I don't think I could make a living doing this, at least not with these products and not in this area.


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## snowdog

This was an enjoyable read. I don't have a lot to input but have thought about building up an inventory of "sell-able stuff" mostly to use all that scrap wood I have been collecting. Good luck with the quest for extra income. With a little luck we (the US) will find a way out of this new economic catastrophe that we seem to be heading for. I have been working on my survivability skill  hunting and planting <laugh>


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## roman

I met a woman who solely does craft shows to support her childrens "expensive" hobbies ofrep hockey and downhill skiing. She assembled, then sold jewellery where most items were priced around the 20 dollar mark and told me that no matter how bad the economy is, no matter how close to "maxed out" a womans credit is, no matter how bad her personal issues are, she will always find, borrow, and or finance 20 bucks worth of jewelry.

I would have never believed her if not for the fact that I happened to be at a craft/art show where she had a booth and the cash register never stopped long enough except for the time it takes to swipe a credit card.

In terms of sales and profit margins she blew the doors off every woodworker/painter/photographer.

How hard is it to assemble a 20 dollar set of silver ear rings?


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## HorizontalMike

Budget? Dang! You must be one those who still have a JOB! Remind me, and just what IS the problem? LOL!


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## MortTenon

My wife's jewelry is in that range, up to maybe $28 for a long necklace with a pendant. Many days I will sell nothing and she will carry us. We only do one or two a week, they pretty much end in mid-October, and we have no plans to to travel with our stuff. I would still like to diversify a bit and find some woodcraft items that would appeal to the locals. They would have to be practical and cheap…


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## rance

Wow, some of you sound like you are lawyers (or you play one on TV).  Or maybe you work for OSHA? 

Make toys and label them as 'adult widgits, not for use by children'. Gotta get folks back to taking responsibility for their own actions.

Adirondack chairs, pens, unpainted wooden toys, wooden kits. Also consider teaching woodworking classes. 
http://www.woodcraft.com/stores/Default.aspx?locationType=state&location=PA


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## Raspar

As mention above, this year I started doing the bazaars that are local. I have done ok, but I think I am looking more for a gift market. I have been able to do pens, cutting boards, and bottle stoppers. I have 4 more for this year in November and hope to do well at these. I have not had to be serious, but have the same deal profits go back into the shop. Anyway keep searching and wish you the best of luck with this.


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## Beeguy

I will give you a different take on this. Think about how much free time you have that you can dedicate to woodworking in a month. Now take away at least 12 hours of that time for every craft show you intend to do. This is not counting the time you spend in the shop making the items. The items don't sell, pack, transport, set up or take down themselves. You will spend a lot of time not doing any woodworking.

I have kept bees and sold honey for a long time. For 10 years we did a weekend farm market. We really did not like being there but we were making a nice sideline income and with three kids in college it was worth it. What I did learn from this was that honey is the necessary evil of wanting to keep bees. And others don't always put the same value as you do on your work. After a number of years we gave it up and we now sell from our home and to wholesale customers. The money is less, but I spend a lot more time doing what I like (keeping bees) and also had more free time that I could finally do the woodworking I wanted. There were times we had good days and times we did not but you had to be there. If you can find a way to market your items without devoting a lot of time to the marketing then you are in good shape.

To me time is extremely valuable and I really don't want to waste it doing something I don't like. If you are just looking for a few extra bucks to feed your woodworking fix, look for a part time job a few hours per week. I guarantee you will spend much less time doing this than you will if you go the craft show route. You may even be able to do something related to woodworking. I don't mean to dissuade you from selling your work, I just want to give you some perspective on what some roads will entail. Good luck.


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## MortTenon

I agree, Beeguy, but I enjoy the bs-ing and camaraderie that goes with the art fairs, and the interesting people you meet, so I guess it's a win-win for me, as long as I can make a buck or two as well. I have been a salesman of one kind or another for most of my life, and for the most part I enjoy the interaction. There is some work involved, but that's not a bad thing. Keeps you in shape…


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## rivergirl

Brad- where are you in PA? I am also in Pa- just a bit north of Pgh on the Allegheny?


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## Puzzleman

Brad, Your market is right in your face. Why not create something that fits in with your wife's mail order business? She has a list of customers, she knows what sell to these customers and most importantly these customers buy from her. So why not try to make use of what is already there instead of creating something new.

Concerning the comments concerning the laws covering children products. I make my living creating children products from wood. Following the law takes a little work but when I can put someone's fears to rest, they appreciate it. I have done the proper testing as specified by the CPSIA. Trying to go around the rules is doing what the Chinese did when they put lead in the paint. I will not go to that level as I am proud of my work and want my customers to know that.


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## rivergirl

What does your wife mail order ?


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## Finn

I make and sell wooden toys and boxes at local craft street fairs here in west Texas. I offer items for as much as $100 and as little as $3. I make the most $ making $5 items. Toys mostly. Some toys I can make $20+ an hour making but I cannot sell them anywhere near fast enough to make much profit, I make lots of cedar boxes with a decrotive cut out on the lid and sell them for $10 each. They sell well. 
My woodshop has every tool I need and the sales have about paid for all of it over the past three years, so this is a self funding hobby, not a real income earner. I pay about $800 a year for liability insurance and I attend about 25 street fairs a year that cost me about $750 a year for gas and space rental. My wife sells her crocheted items at her material cost and cannot sell much at all. I have sold 14 of $100 cedar trunks in the past year by word of mouth, and earn about $3 an hour making them. I am retired so i work on making these things about 5 hours a day 7 days a week. Life is good!


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## shopdog

Brad,
You have skills, and a nice woodshop. No doubt you have wood scraps like all of us…cutting boards.
If you can get creative like the cutting board gurus here at LJ, you can pack some samples in your car, and go over to New Hope, PA. Some of the stores there might sell your stuff on consignment.


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## 8iowa

I'll suggest that you look into finding a home improvement "nitch". I recently did our walk in closet with custom shelving and drawers out of solid white pine. It looks much nicer than the vinyl coated wire shelving sold at the big boxes, which is expensive stuff. If people are willing to spend that much money improving their closets, some of them might prefer a nice wood custom job. Now my wife has another closet for me to do.

It seems as if I can't get out of the home improvement mode. Another project has been installing pull out shelves for the lower cabinets in the kitchens, both in the U.P. and in Gainesville. This involves making the shelves out of maple and using ball bearing sliders from Rockler. My wife loves them, and doubtless many other ladies would as well.


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## rivergirl

I WOULD LOVE NEW CLOSETS with beautiful wood organizers… but not paying for them…


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## brian88

This is a great forum…I have also been trying to come up with a sell able item to bring in extra income…the two main questions I have are….what can I make quickly and cost effectively to sell…how do I market them?


> any ideas other than hobby shows?...I have tried craigslist and eBay to sell cribbage boards and have sold about a dozen in a year…should I try some flyer's


? I have thought about making scroll saw boxes (never tried to do one yet but looks fun) cutting boards, serving trays…etc. How can I use face-book or twitter to promote these small items???


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## helluvawreck

Well. I wish that I could think of something on the side that you could do for some extra money. Other than just general custom woodworking I can't think of anything unless you live near a tourist area like Gatlinburg, TN where tourist buy tons of wood crafts. However, I sure do wish you the best and hope that you make it through this recession/depression[?] in a reasonable financial condition. If we just tread water in times like this we are doing ok.


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## bob61

Does anyone make and sell birdhouses? And do you make and money at it?


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## JoeinGa

Well, this post is 5+ years old, and it was the last thing Brad posted on. Wonder if he's even still around? And what did he do (if anything) to make it thru?

Before I realized the date on this, I was gonna be a smart-azz and suggest THIS as a short term income supplement… 
.


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## conifur

CASH CROP!!!!!!!


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## snowdog

its funny how it has changes (it seems so fast) that now talking about pot on open forums is acceptable. I am not commenting on the good or the bad of it , just that it has surely changed in my life time and it seems to be just another indicator that I am getting old.


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