# Afraid of success - a hobbyist's dilemma, a Catch 22



## DonOtt (Jul 10, 2009)

Hey fellow LJ's…

So, here I sit, back at work (the one that pays the bills - ugh) and I have a dilemma, a Catch 22, if you will. Allow me to explain….

I am a hobbyist woodworker, I make things for friends and family and try to sell some things I make. I have recently advertised at work for the Christmas rush that I am making cutting boards, cheese boards and wine racks. I have some mild interest and have had a few orders placed with me. I posted a few new items on Facebook and have received a few more orders. Then, I posted on another site where all things are bought and sold but only received one hit.

My son said I should expand the area I'm trying to sell to and perhaps do up a web site. Awesome idea but here's where the catch comes in.

Being a hobbyist means I do this woodworking thing part time, in my spare time. I had hoped for more orders to come in and who knows, they still may. I would love to advertise to a larger audience *HOWEVER*, how successful do I want to be doing this? I don't want to be out in the workshop (garage) several hours a night. every night and for 8 - 10 hours on Saturdays and Sundays, and neither does my wife.

So, do I dare push the limit and risk becoming semi-successful or do I remain in the shadows, happily allowing orders to trickle in with no fear of being overwhelmed? *sigh*


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## helluvawreck (Jul 21, 2010)

My work is work and my hobby is a hobby. I'm going to try to keep it that way for myself.


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## lumbermonkey (Jul 23, 2011)

When hobbies become work I feel you start to look at it like you look at work, a job to pay the bills when u would rather be at home playing with wood. I agree with Landog . Next thing you know your gonna a need to find a new hobby to relieve the pressures of woodworking.


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## DrDirt (Feb 26, 2008)

I'd say go for it, because - maybe you get a big rush but keep in mind the focus of the moment is the christmas season, so even if you get buried there are only 9 weeks before Christmas, and include shipping time at the holidays.

You have to answer the question for yourlself but have it ready " If I advertise some more and get slammed, I will - - - - _ " fill the blank

Maybe it means you need to take a few days vacation and spend a bunch of extra time in the shop, and since it is seasonal, with a nice glass of eggnog in hand decide if you want to do it next year again.

Lots of people plan this way around the christmas craft fairs, so they have a couple busy months every year, and the rest of the time it is pure hobby.

Good Luck

Dave


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## Puzzleman (May 4, 2010)

I believe that you know the answer already. You have stated twice in your post that you are a hobbyist. If you do not want to work long hours at night and weekends, then do not advertise much more than what you are. With more orders comes more work and then more hours. Starting off slow this year and letting your products sell themselves for in the future, will increase slows gradually.

Now if you really want to make a job out of woodworking (which I did and I still enjoy what I do) and possibly create a second income (job). Then advertise more. Remember a lot of people will not order till late in the season.


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## EPJartisan (Nov 4, 2009)

When I was in college and I fell in love with woodworking, I was given some advice by the guy who ran our 3D lab. He said if you want to be happy, NEVER take on commissions, NEVER take orders, NEVER make gifts! Do it all for yourself, dream big, be fearless, and be in front of the market with the new and the interesting. SIGH! he didn't mention how much harder it is and how poor i'd be.


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## seabiscuit (Oct 6, 2011)

You are making a huge leap. If a test bed of places around you produced almost no orders, what makes you think you would get orders on a larger scale? Unless you have a background in business and are willing to take a loss for the next 5 years, I wouldn't even consider it. Lots of people think "oh, it's easy to create a brand and run a business." It's not. In your avatar, you look a bit old - work, retire, wood work for fun while you are waiting…


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## DrDirt (Feb 26, 2008)

Ahhh academia

Well EP he said that from the comfort of a tenured faculty position that he can never be fired from (so long as he doesn't take a rifle to the clock tower…anything short of that is OK) and has retirement and healthcare benefits…..it is easy for him to make such a suggestion for how to be happy in life when you don't have to compete and feed yourself in the real world.

So if someone COMMISIONED you to do a half million dollar piece to be installed down at Navy Pier…lord how miserable would that be…..cause to be happy you must never accept and order or commission???


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## lanwater (May 14, 2010)

My thought is that the minute you start selling, your hobby becomes a business.
With the business, welcome all the olibation that comes with it and stress.


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## CharlieM1958 (Nov 7, 2006)

It's one thing to make what you want to make, and THEN try to sell it. But taking orders, especially for something that entails a lot of repetition like cutting boards, is a sure way to make you end up hating your "hobby".


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## Sawkerf (Dec 31, 2009)

Don-
One solution would be to take 10 - 11 months a year and make the stuff you want to make - and as much of it as you want to do.

Around this time of year, offer the stuff for sale. When it's gone, it's gone. If it doesn't go, there's always next year.

If you get into taking orders, you give up control of the what, when, and how many. The customers will decide those things for you. - lol


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## live4ever (Feb 27, 2010)

I ruined another hobby that I loved very much by going into business. It is a slippery slope because it is rewarding to see yourself perform the hobby at a level high enough to compete in the marketplace, but at the same time this comes with significant costs and possibly loss of enjoyment with your hobby.


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## Smitty_Cabinetshop (Mar 26, 2011)

Interesting discussion to be sure. I'd fall into the 'make a bunch, sell that' way of thinking offered by Sawkerf. A hobby is likely to stop being a hobby when deadlines are introduced, and woodworking is too important to me to risk it.


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## Wood_smith (Feb 12, 2010)

Ditto on smitty and sawkerf- make things you like to make all year long, and find a sale, fair, show, whatever once a year. It's not like your making cookies… cutting boards don't get stale and will never go out of style.


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## Finn (May 26, 2010)

sawkerf has it right:
I spend 40+ hours a week in my workshop making what I like and then sell at about 30 shows a year. I do take a few orders but prefer not to. Mostly, I just make stuff and offer it.
I worked at construction my whole life and when I retired I realized that the only thing I did not like about construction was the pressure to make $ or meet a deadline. I now avoid that in my hobby. Life is good!


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## LeeBarker (Aug 6, 2010)

Some are advocating a very safe plan:

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."
― Theodore Roosevelt

Others suggest you could take a leap and have one of those "good problems" to solve.

On risk:

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
― Theodore Roosevelt


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## doordude (Mar 26, 2010)

I'm with puzzelman, stay in the shadows, and keep it part time, on your own schedual. over time the orders, will come to you as you may branch out in doing certain shows.


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## johnnation (Jul 5, 2011)

A lot of people say don't turn something you love into a job because you'll end up hating it. Who has a job they love 100%? No job is pure fun, so why should your woodworking hobby turned profession be as well?


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## BentheViking (May 19, 2011)

Can you work more efficiently…maybe doing batches of products in an assembly line type thing? Or figure out how many you think you can make/want to make and take that many orders…maybe be a bit conservative so that you aren't working like an elf up to dec. 24th…


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## rance (Sep 30, 2009)

Advertise a little. Then raise your prices to regulate your free time.


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## Tennessee (Jul 8, 2011)

I'm going to take a little different tack. I have been in woodworking of some sort since 1971, sometimes as a second business, sometimes just making things for fun and selling a few, and sometimes just making presents. (But not very often)
You said you were back at your "other job - the one that pays the bills." UGH - (Your words)
That infers to me that what you REALLY enjoy is working with wood, not the other thing.
I find myself in the same category. I am a salesman by day, for a mechanical contractor, and every evening, and most of my Saturdays, I work in my shop on guitars.
It's growing, and as it does, I raise my prices. So far, I seem to stay about three behind. That's OK.
I am in my early 60's, and I feel that once I retire from sales, in about 3-4 years if all goes well, I will then be full time at guitars, whatever that looks like.
I sometimes don't want to go to my evening job and that's OK too. I always take a day or two between guitars. I also don't do woodworking on Sunday. So you can have your cake and eat it too, as long as you realize what you are getting into. If you make a good product, and if you do some advertising, you will get orders. I don't spend any money for advertising save the $19.99 a month for my website. Everything else is Facebook, I submitted to a couple magazines for free, etc. And it has grown as people have found out about me and my guitars. If you LOVE making what you make, then you will LOVE it more when people hand you checks for it. And you will be challenged, that comes with the territory, and you will make mistakes, (I've been known to throw a guitar body I screwed up out onto my driveway where my wife found it.) But overall, if you love woodworking, and it sounds like you do, then by all means start and let it grow. What's the worst you can do - shut it down?


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## EPJartisan (Nov 4, 2009)

DrDirt, LOL I didn't say I took his advice… just that it sits in my mind. I make gifts.. LOTS AND LOTS of gifts. and then I work a second part time job to pay for things between money making projects. I keep my work as "ART" in my mind so that I always get excited, but man do I need a business manager.


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## mpwilson (Aug 1, 2011)

How about making stock for sale, rather than making pieces to order?

That allows you to set your own pace and accept orders as you're inclined.


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## DonOtt (Jul 10, 2009)

A lot of great and differing points on here. I'm 53 years young and for now, woodworking is a nice hobby. I love to get out in the workshop (garage) and fart around making things. Doing things for family is rewarding in one sense but making things for friends or others and earning a bit of cash is rewarding in other ways.

It's nice to have people believe that what you create is worth money. Will I ever turn this into a full time business? No, probably not. It was never my intention to turn this into a full blown business. Kudos to those who do but I want this to remain just as it it…a hobby that I can make money doing.

My original intent of this topic was to see if there were other hobbyists who had the same fears/nervousness of advertising your product too much and turning the trickle of business into a flood. For now, most of what I do will be done when ordered or requested. I made up a bunch of the smaller cutting boards and felt the need to advertise my wares a bit more because I didn't get the response I was looking for. When considering where I wanted to advertise (city/area), I came up with the 'what if?' of "what if I advertise in a larger area and I'm suddenly faced with orders I couldn't fill or orders that would turn this into just another job, something I don't want…..I already have one. I like my job and the reason for the 'ugh' is I would much rather be standing in front of a tablesaw than my computer but, the computer I sit in front of pays the bills, not the tablesaw.


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## Tennessee (Jul 8, 2011)

OK, Don - fair enough. You seem to know your limitations, what you want to do, how you want to do it. And if for some reason the orders explode, you can explain to people they will wait, or you can just turn a few down. Good luck!!


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## DrDirt (Feb 26, 2008)

EPJ I think I understand (but disagree) with the guys point - that "you should be working for what YOU would like to do rather than trying to please others with your efforts - because when you are building to somebody else's idea you lose some of your creative inputs"

Where I disagree is that if you build for others and especially making gifts - those gifts of the hand and heart are a joy for both myself to give and the recipient to receive - - - so the advice that to be happy you must " NEVER make gifts" is not true. Similarly we choose what comissions we wish to pursue and which customers we should avoid based on fleshing out the idea with them…So his key to happiness of not being in the business of woodworking doesn't HAVE to be true….our lives are what we choose to make of them - I would agree that if you are hamering out bids for cabinets trying to stay creative but be lowest bidder….one would certainly lose their passion for their work - - but that is still our choice.

As Obiwan said to Annakin - - "Only the Sith deal in absolutes"


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## ArlinEastman (May 22, 2011)

Keep your day job for awhile, it still provides health insurance, retirement, and several other things you could not do on your own.
If it gets really busy get some help for awhile and then when both of you are super busy, you could go out on your own then.
Arlin


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