This may not be the right community to post this in; it’s at least obliquely involved with woodworking.
I intend to hang a shingle as a furniture maker. Yes I know I know “Beware turning a hobby into a job because it’ll suck the joy out” before the pandemic I was working in a custom build shop, about the only thing I didn’t build for customers was furniture, and I kinda miss the pipeline.
In fact, I’d kind of like to find several other craftsmen of various flavors and open an “artisan shop”, where, say, a table I built is used to display vases the potter made, and so on like that.
I got, or rather built, that custom building job at a makerspace in the city, and I could get this venture off the ground with a quick message to the General Slack channel. Not only was the place full of craftsmen and artisans but it was plugged into the entrepreneurial world, people would pour out of the woodwork to either join up or point me to resources. Where I’m at now there’s just none of that.
I think I’m at the point where I just have to build something and put it up for sale. Just…before we bother with business plans and branding and logos and social media and all that crap, I need to open a personal Etsy account or walk into a local consignment shop and sell a thing I made out of wood just to prove I can actually do it.
This may wait until spring at this point; between a family member in hospice and the winter…
Can it be someone else’s turn to talk now?
Not sure on what country you’re in, but look into the ramifications about selling something as an individual compared to spending a bit of money to sell things as a corporation.
Furniture companies have been sued for furniture falling on and killing children, which is something that you don’t want to be liable for.
Also, if you have more than one person involved with selling things such as an artisan shop, and you’ll want more than a hand-shake deal about things like payment, hours required, pricing, etc.
Also, there could be tax reasons, depending on how much you sell.
…but maybe that’s what you mean by “business plans”
You have talked me out of building anything for any reason ever again, I’m probably destroying the things I have built already and absolutely destroying my tools.
It’s not my intent to discourage you! I just mean it’s one thing for Furniture Co. to get sued out of existence, it’s another thing entirely for Captain Aggravated (the actual human) to get sued out of house and home.
I know that for large pieces, as long as you provide instructions and sufficient hardware to attach it to a wall (like an L-bracket), it also reduces the chances that you (or the company) could be found at fault.
It’s very not likely to happen, but if something awful happens, you do want at least some barrier between yourself and litigation.
Again, not trying to get you to stop building things, just encouraging you to CYA.