# How the Beatles Might Change My Woodworking Career.



## pashley (Mar 22, 2008)

I had a bit of a revelation the other day.

I thought about the Beatles (though it could be any successful artist or software author), and how insanely rich they became because of their music. Yes, they did concerts, though really not all that many; the great bulk of their wealth came from record/CD/MP3 sales. They went into a studio, and over a six months, created their famous "White" album, which then went on to sell 30 millions copies, worldwide. Not bad for six months work.

Then I thought about what I do with my woodworking sideline - built a piece, sell it; built another piece, sell that one. Rinse and repeat.

That's a bit like the Beatles making an album just for one person, then going back into the studio, and making another album for another person.

No way to make decent money.

So, I reasoned, how to apply that concept to woodworking?

Selling plans that I have created. Make a great product, put a decent amount of time into creating a nice plan, and selling it, for say, $12. Again, again, and again. Put the work in once, and keep selling it for years.

I'm capable of this, thanks to my computer, photography, writing and design skills; it is do-able.

Discuss!


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## Puzzleman (May 4, 2010)

It can work if…you still need to the proper marketing of it. It could be a little easier to identify your target market as there are books, websites and other things geared just toward woodworking.

A suggestion to get the exposure is to submit a plan to one or several of the magazines and see if they run it. Would give you exposure and start the building of a list of names for future sales.


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## Elizabeth (Oct 17, 2009)

It can work. I've done something similar for a couple of knitting patterns that I wrote. It's nice to sell something multiple times and only have to do the work once! But it did take a long time and a lot of effort/testing to get the pattern into its current form.


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## DrDirt (Feb 26, 2008)

Challenge is same as the music industry "Napster" types - how many copies will you sell versus a buy one and duplicate it for everyone in your local wood guild etc.

Liability? I don't know but even though it gets built by someone else - are you then "responsible" for the design?
I sort of do NOT think it is an issue based on all the plans out there, and books on building decks etc, that any failure is likely due to skill of the craftsman and not that there is a flaw in design, but if you design a special Cantilevered Rocking chair, and there is joint failure - - - can someone SUCCESSFULLY claim it is a bad design?


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## donjohn24 (Oct 15, 2010)

Have you considered the numerical size of the potential market for your product, compared with the Beatle album example?

They were targeting *millions* of music lovers, mainly young people with lots of cash to spend, but you would have an infinitesimal market by comparison - not only would it be just woodworkers, but only those who would be willing to buy plans (and want to make your particular items).

No matter how excellent your design, I can't see you retiring on the profits very quickly LOL


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## MrsN (Sep 29, 2008)

do you ever follow scroll girl's blog here on lumber jocks? She is a pattern designer of scroll saw patterns. I think making general woodworking plans would be similar. Not as easy as you would think. You need to sell a lot of $12 patterns to make a living.


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## KnickKnack (Aug 20, 2008)

I did that a long time ago now - with software. The best day was the order for an additional 10,000 licenses - all we had to do was to fax the client a piece of paper authorising the additional copies. Ah, good times.
I think size of market and preventing it just being posted on the internet are going to be your biggest problems.


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## SCOTSMAN (Aug 1, 2008)

I don't think there will be the same market for your plans( which the world of woodworking is full of, and give them away free mostly)as was at the height of beatlemania when the beatles were doing there thing a much bigger market and the time was right for them.If the beatles came along tomorrow they would probably not survive for long.They came along when the world was intrigued by a need for such things..The beatles fame popularity is unlikely to ever be repeated by anyone,and has been tried many times.Maybe you feel your patterns will be sought out my tens of millions of addicted woodworkers they won't be.A good idea which will be ok for some extra pin beer money but not a get quick scheme don't believe me talk to your bank manager and ask for a loan for such an adventure ( which is not new if it were that easy everyone would be doing it just like every teeenager has had dreams of being the next big stars and 1 or 2 do and even then don't last long).Please don't as they say give up the day job or dreams of a day job.Typically people get old machine manuals and sell photocopies of them for extra money few ever live off that as anyone can copy these and sell them do you have plans for anything not already tried then that might be interresting but everyone will copy them and give their pals a fee copy.In Short have fun and very best of good luckAlistair


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## jusfine (May 22, 2010)

Would be an excellent idea if it would work!

If you have the kind of talent they had, you will be rolling in the green stuff in no time at all.


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## Sawkerf (Dec 31, 2009)

It might work and - if you go for it - I wish you the best.

Yes, the Beatles made a fortune with their music, but how many groups do you suppose never made it past playing gigs in local clubs and finally gave up and got real jobs. - lol

I had some buddies in college who had a garage band that did pretty well in a two state area. They did lots of covers and a few original songs. That's all they ever did, however. The last I heard of them (40 yrs ago), one was selling insurance, another had taken over his parents farm, and one had been killed in Nam.


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## Magnum (Feb 5, 2010)

*GO FOR IT!!! *

I did when evryone was telling me "You're Nuts." "Never Work", BLAH BLAH!!! That was more than 25 years ago. I sold the "Rights" to it about 17 years ago. I Retired at the Ripe Old Age of 49.

YOU have the RIGHT IDEA! *You're selling Paper, Your Time and Your Knowledge.* ANY Business with a *Large or even Medium Overhead has to crack that nut before you start making anything for YOU.* Your Overhead would be How Much??? PHFFFT!

If it doesn't work, are you going to have to declare Bankruptcy??? If you DON'T at least try it …How long and How often are you going to say ….DAMN! I WISH I had of etc. etc.

How much will you stand to lose with that* HUGE (NOT!) Capital Investment?? *

What did I do?* PAPER And KNOWLEDGE*. I had a Good Personal Reputation for shall we say "Knowledge In The Investment World".

I put together an* Investment Newsletter *(First Class Snail Mail, for a reason) and sold it on a Monthly Basis for $85.00 for a years subscription. I COULD have Charged $800 to $1,200 per year. I went the "Other Route".

I Contracted out the Printing, Mailing and Mailing List Management.* THAT was my Overhead *that I could walk away from any time I wanted to.

In 3 to 4 years, some "Corportate Connections", and a few "Other Things", it was up to *12,000 Subscribers NOT a Huge Number really. You can do the Math. *

*pashley: "I'm capable of this, thanks to my computer, photography, writing and design skills; it is do-able."*

It sound to me like you have a *LOT more Skills than just Woodworking*. Why not bring them Into Play also. Can you "Write" about them? Put them on "Paper"? "Design" something else? "Instruct" on one of your other skils …on Paper?

So …..... How you doin' so far?????

Regards: Rick


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## DKV (Jul 18, 2011)

Print your plans on one of those musical greeting cards with a Beatles song. They will sell like hotcakes…


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## davidmicraig (Nov 21, 2009)

Using your Beatle analogy, do keep in mind that the White Album was not just a 6 month project but a Magna Opus reaching its peak after decades of work, practice, and acheiving a sound that was previously unheard of. As already mentioned, the overhead is not large and you should be encouraged to pursue your dream. Maloof's family will be very well off for generations to come in the retail of his rocker plan. Try your hand selling plans to magazines, gauge the interest in your material and see what new things you can bring to the table. Just don't lose sight of the fact that any dream requires time and labor.

David


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## rance (Sep 30, 2009)

Pashley, I say go for it. I've considered the same thing. I'm guessing that writing a book might be better though. Just a bit less likely to be copied and passed around. I'm not saying it won't happen, just less likely. I'd stick with snail mail rather than an easilly reproduced electronic file. Let us know what you try.


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## Puzzleman (May 4, 2010)

Pashley, You have gotten a lot of feedback here both positive and negative. Only you know what your goals and requirements are int eh areas of time, money and income.

You have to make the decision on your own and follow your instinct. Reread all of these posts and take what you learn about the good and bad things and incorporate the possible situations into your business and marketing plan. Put your plan away for a week and then take it out and reread it. If you still feel good about it, go for it. If not, either trash the whole idea or revise the plan and put it away for another week. Repeat until you are satisfied with the plan.

Starting a business is a fun and scary venture. Either way, HAVE FUN. If you can't have fun doing something, why do it?


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## pashley (Mar 22, 2008)

Yes, thanks for all the helpful feedback.

There are a couple of apparent misconceptions and missing information I'd like to address.

First, I don't pretend that there is a market of millions for my product, like the Beatles had; but woodworking is a popular hobby, and I think a market in which guys NEED plans for projects they don't, or can't sketch out themselves, is reasonabley large. More than once, I've had fellow LJs ask me for plans for my projects. On LJ alone, there is almost 38,000 guys registered, which would make a nice target audience for web ads.

Regarding people stealing or "passing along" my PDF plans. Sure it can happen, but I don't think it will be enough. MP3s were easy to steal because so many people wanted them, and you could get them easily on peer-to-peer sites, like Napster, or other file-sharing services, like PirateBay, where they swap applications, movies, PDFs, music and so on. I would be quite surprised if you found ANY woodworking plans on these sites, as they are primarily apps and entertainment. I might point out that the music industry was going nuts with electronic transmission of their product, now it's the prime way of getting music. In short, pilfering is not a concern.

I'm doing this, not as a full-time, must-do, do-or-starve venture; it would be a sideline that could grow into something worth doing full time. Thinking about it, I think I would be more satisfied, artistically, building an interesting piece, creating good plans, and selling them (then, moving onto the next piece), rather than build one piece over and over. They just aren't selling anyway; not that they aren't good, interesting pieces, but because not many people want to spend that much money on a clock, table, chair, etc. Also, having it NOT in front of them to experience is a detriment.

Now, how to market it. I could do my own website, and hope that Google bestows it's blessing upon me; I could take out an ad right here on LJs, or similar websites. I could let a retailer sell my plan alone with theirs, and split the profits. I'd have to look into that.

Let's look at the upside of selling plans, versus building and selling:

*1) Low overhead.* No wood to buy, fingers to lop off. No parts, no glue. No packing boxes or shipping materials. I need a computer to be able to produce good plans on, and I have that already.

*2) No shipping.* Shipping is a pain, and very costly, sometimes a detriment to a sale. Try shipping a table across country, you're looking at a minimum $200. I've had stuff sent back for repair due to shipping damage, and yes, I do pack carefully. Shipping a PDF? Next to nothing.

*3) Recurrent income.* Building a plan once can produce income for years; building a single piece produces income once. Granted, the income from the latter is substantial, but nevertheless, over the long run, the income from the plans could be more, given the very low overhead.

*Rick:* it was very uplifting hearing your story. Yes, I am multi-talented. I can do my own photography; i have the equipment, and am good at photography (see my clock pics). I can write well, layout stories, and am adept at using Google Sketchup for the illustrations. I believe I design pretty darn well too. My weakness is marketing, and how to get going at that. You have asked what I have done so far. Well, i've checked out the building and selling aspect, and that hasn't worked out, so I've done THAT research, lol. I'm just at the mulling over stage right now to see if it's a feasible idea, that has a market.


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## donjohn24 (Oct 15, 2010)

Well, *Pashley*, you seem to have thought the subject through rather than just had a 'good idea', so I wish you well with your enterprise, and - having purchased plans before myself - might even be one of your first customers.

BTW, you mentioned your own website and being 'blessed' by Google. I understand that one of the factors that causes a site to be listed high in search results is the number of links both to and from the site to others. For this reason, have a 'busy' Links page, and get your site on the Links pages of lots of other sites to your mutual benefit. Even my little one would help!


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## pashley (Mar 22, 2008)

Thanks, *Don Johnson.*

I'm not sure of which route to take; I'm putting out the feelers for major sites, like Rockler, to see if they take plans on commission, and if so, what is their cut? Probably 50%.

I have no issue with setting up a website, technically; I just want it to be found.

An idea occurred to me while looking at your projects: perhaps making a business agreement with someone that has an original design - like your TV stand - and I would draw up and sell the plans, and you would get a flat fee, or a per sale fee. I would of course have to build each piece so I could get the plans right, make possible improvements and so on, but it would increase my pool of ideas, and would give a business opportunity to guys like yourself that have drawn up the plans already in Sketchup, and want to make something on them.


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## Tennessee (Jul 8, 2011)

Pashley: Basically I agree with Rick.
I did that exact thing years ago, about 1976. I ran across an estate sale that had 3-4 big boxes full of very old Popular Mechanics in them. I discovered that they had a woodworking project 2-page article every month. Now, these were very old, definitely pre-WWII. I took twelve of the best plans I could find in the magazines I had bought, and took them to my lawyer who definitely told me the copyrights had run out on these magazines and these were now basically public domain.
I found a draftsman, and I bartered a trade - I built him a nice tabletop light table, he made me professional exploded drawings of the 12 I had picked, in this case, 12 childrens toys of the old age. (1900-1915)
Then I talked to the marketing genius of International Correspondence Schools, a fellow I had met at a party. He advised me to simply put a simple 1/8th page ad into a popular wood magazine, and see how the first month went. He assurred me that each month would grow to a point, and when it began to fall off, pull the ad and put up more plans.
At this point I only had about $200 in this deal, which was basically the table and the ad. In the first month we sold just about 200 orders, which were 12 for $1 plus $1 shipping. it worked!! For some strange reason, I decided to pursue refinishing instead, and went onto a twelve year run successfully refinishing antiques and furniture.
I always wondered how well I might have done with simple mailers and a lot of incoming checks….and I still wonder today.

On the other hand, obviously we are not the first to think of these things, the woodworking sections of bookstores are littered with patterns, as are the back of all the magazines.

But you never know until you try.

Paul


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## SignWave (Feb 2, 2010)

You are on the right track in thinking about marketing a product that can be sold many times. I'm thinking on the same lines. I have a salary job, and I realized that if I work twice as hard, I'll get a bonus, maybe 5%. If I were doing a job where I got paid by the hour or the job, for 2x the work, I'd get roughly 2x the pay. Following the general plan you're talking about, the return could be zero (failure), but could be a very large multiple (as with the Beatles, Microsoft, Steven King, etc.)

From a business perspective, this is maximizing Operating Leverage. The trick is to find something where the marginal cost is small, and the potential number of sales is large enough to get a large multiplier. And you are correct that keeping fixed costs low is a good idea. That means a faster payoff of the original investment, and that the cost of failure is low.

There's more to it, of course, but this is a well established path to success.


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## DKV (Jul 18, 2011)

I have another idea. After the buyer has used the plans and built the project ask for the plans back. You can reuse the same plans and save on printing costs.


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## pashley (Mar 22, 2008)

*DKV,* I hope you are joking!

*SignWave*,Thanks for the encouragement. It's becoming now a matter of "Dang it, I can make money at this!" more than actually making money, if that makes sense. In other words, I can crack this nut!

*Tennessee*, that's quite a story, but wow, only $1 per? I know it was 1976 and all, but man, that seems cheap. I would say $5 for 12 plans, back then?

Some things that need to be ascertained:

1) What plans are people looking for most? Jigs? Clocks? Cutting Boards? Something else?

2) How much to charge per plan? $9.95?

3) How to handle advertising, payment and distribution?


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## rance (Sep 30, 2009)

Pashley, as someone who NEVER buys plans, I've bought 3 from WoodGears.ca (Matthias Wandel). Reason is that it saved me a little time and I got the full SU drawings. These were reasonably priced enough too. He wasn't trying to make a killing from me. I also wanted to support his work. And from a buyer's perspective, I also like the idea of no shipping charges.

Truth be told, I can not see buying plans for most of the work I admire. But there are lots of folks who do.

Something else to consider is selling through Amazon. I know you can sell POD (Print On Demand) books through them, what about POD plans.


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## jlt (Dec 17, 2011)

I am one who has actually bought a few plans. I think $5 is a fair price and cringe a little if I pay more, although I have paid a little more. I probably wouldn't go past $10 for a plan. I'd be a repeat customer if I found the plan to be complete and accurate and also appreciate when there are options presented for things like joinery methods, since everyone has different tools and skill levels. It is also nice if there is a little flexibility in style options. That would probably increse the number of potential buyers. There are a lot of free plans available for small projects like clocks, end tables, chests, etc. from the woodworking magazines. This is another case in point of including the proper amount of detail and complexity as well as accuracy in plans. I would build some magazines plans and just get ideas from others. As for the plans that I have purchased, I have bought a plan for a scaled down rocking horse clock (ok, there is a clock plan but too complex to appear in Wood magazine), as well as a matching set of plans for bedroom furniture. I did buy the plan with hardware for a murphy bed once too. It included a video to supplement the plan and that was quite helpful. I would suggest you market to the intermediate skill level since that is the sweet spot for being able to follow plans and take on a little bigger projects and the really skilled are probably designing and building on their own. Good luck!


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## pashley (Mar 22, 2008)

*rance,* I am looking into Amazon as a "store" for my plans; obviously, they are a major player in web commerce.

*jlt, * I'm thinking in the $9.95 range for plans, as I intend to make plans that are not just a collection of mechanical drawings, but also an article to go along with it, describing the building process, giving tips, and so on.

I also would like to make the plans simple enough so that average Joes can make them, and not have to have more esoteric equipment, like a mortiser or lathe. I don't know if you guys have seen the Wood Smith Shop on TV, but this is the route they take, and I think it hits a bigger audience, and makes projects less overwhelming for the less experienced woodworker.

Next question is, what kind of projects would sell?


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## EEngineer (Jul 4, 2008)

Not a bad idea… just get the plans right! I no longer buy plans of any kind. I get my inspiration from pictures of projects I see and then draw them up myself. Reason is, the few times I actually bought plans I would get about 1/2 to 3/4 of the way through the project and find a mistake. Since the biggest reason I would buy a plan is to save all the calculating it takes to make sure everything is tight and square any mistakes defeat the entire purpose of buying a plan.

And lest you think that a "big name" is any guarantee… my router table was built directly from Norm's NYW plans. I bought it half finished from a guy who had to move and couldn't take it with him. The deal included the videotape and the measured drawings purchased directly from Norm. It bugged me that there was a patch to fill a miscut dado in the carcass. Sure enough, when I went back and checked the plans there was an error in the location for that dado cut. It has probably been fixed since then, I have had the table for about 4 years now and who knows how long ago the original maker bought those plans.


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## pashley (Mar 22, 2008)

*EEngineer* I hear you about the mistakes. I bought full-size drawings of the somewhat famous Kevin Rodel's mission chair of Fine Woodworking, and found a mistake! I reported it to the people at FWW, and they acknowledged it. As I recall, a stretcher length was "X" inches in one view and "Y" inches in another. I caught the mistake before even cutting, as was scratching my head, trying to figure it out, saying, "The plan CAN'T be wrong", but it was.

Before I sold a plan, I would once again, build the project as per my plans, and make that the proofreading. I would also instantly correct any problems caught by people that purchased the plan.


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## crank49 (Apr 7, 2010)

Woodgears.ca was mentioned earlier by Rance.

I, too, have bought some of Matthias Wandel's plans. When I first started reading this thread that's exactly the first thing that came to mind. He has some great ideas, ingeniuos methods, and the ability to put it into plans and sells them. Nothing complicated or expensive on the marketing side.

Another example came to mind was from another woodworking site where one of the members sells plans for wood drying kiln based on a home dehumidifier. I think he has sold 100s if not 1000s of these plans.


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## pashley (Mar 22, 2008)

Woodgears.ca has got the right idea. I think I would feature nicely photographs photos in his project listing page, instead of just rendered SU, but he has some interesting plans ( a router pantograph?), and higher prices.

If I only knew what he makes a month on his site! LOL


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## rance (Sep 30, 2009)

After having recommending Amazon, I have to say that when I looked into them a year or more ago, it looked like the actual percentage you would end up with is rather small. How does this compare with what you've found?

Also, I looked into selling Books with Amazon. Would selling Plans be any different as to payout?


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## Tennessee (Jul 8, 2011)

I've bought a couple plans off NYW, and I too found a GLARING error. They had, years ago, this wonderful spindle poster bed made of oak. I had the lathe, the barn oak, I was raring to go!
I bought the plans, but somehow, no one ever remembered to mention that the bed was actually a childs's bed! ARGH!! When I got the plans, I opened them up and immediately saw the measurements, and said to myself, why so small? Oh, heck, this is not an adult bed! I could have sized it up, but at that point, what was the purpose of the plans save for a picture or two. To this day I don't know if they sent the wrong plans, or if they actually misrepresented the plans. Either way, that was enough for me.

I never sent them back, they just became the last I ever bought, and I drug them out a number of times to tell 
people about how stupid was this mistake?

PASHLEY: As far as what plans, I would think any plan that saves a family money would be good, or any kitchen item would sell. I think that would do way better than say, segmented bowls, or anything discretionary that people don't really need. But I would also put in some things that people can build that are enhancements to their homes without breaking the budget. For reference, see the monthly little ditty that Lowes puts out, which has about 5-6 simple projects that most people can do, adds value to their home, and looks OK to most eyes. They mail it out to Lowes customers, and it's free, but it makes a good reference.


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