As someone who used to sell handmade wood products in the past: Don’t do it unless you know what you are getting yourself into. It takes the fun out of making. You need to work within a budget and with time constraints and any flaw or mistake means lost time and lost money.
It started as a hobby for me, then people around me asked to make them some things, which I did. Then it snowballed into people who had heared from a friend of a friend kind of thing. At first I liked the attention/praise and was honored people liked it enough to have me make it for them. I also liked the idea of making and instead of it costing a lot of money it would be cost neutral or even make a few bucks. Then as time went on I started to hate it, gave me a lot of stress and I gave up on making for a couple of years.
Only recently I once again made a piece and fell in love with it again, it’s an eyecatcher in my office and I love it. Everyone who sees it comments on it. Some people have asked for me to make something after seeing it, but I’ve said no. Only said yes to my best friend who asked without any deadline and only to pay for the materials and not the hours, so it wouldn’t be a job, just a shared project kind of thing.
But if it works for you, more power to you, good luck!
I’ve lost two very serious hobbies this way. If you love something, don’t turn it into work. I actually just recently got back into one after >10 years away.
Before the pandemic, my full time job was project manager of a rapid prototyping and custom manufacturing shop. I built all kinds of stuff, from touch screen information kiosks, weird awards and trophies often that did something, electronics. Several products I designed for customers are on Amazon right now. We also ended up doing a lot of unobtainium car and motorcycle parts.
I’ve been in that place of seeing two parts I just put a lot of work into making not fit together, and the amount of time it will take me to fix it means we’re not turning a profit on this project. I’ve had to show certain customers to the local patch of pounding sand. I’ve had more work than I can do and not enough work to pay my bills.
And I’d rather be back at it, possibly as owner of the company this time, than what I’m doing now. I’m strongly considering hanging a shingle.
As someone who used to sell handmade wood products in the past: Don’t do it unless you know what you are getting yourself into. It takes the fun out of making. You need to work within a budget and with time constraints and any flaw or mistake means lost time and lost money.
It started as a hobby for me, then people around me asked to make them some things, which I did. Then it snowballed into people who had heared from a friend of a friend kind of thing. At first I liked the attention/praise and was honored people liked it enough to have me make it for them. I also liked the idea of making and instead of it costing a lot of money it would be cost neutral or even make a few bucks. Then as time went on I started to hate it, gave me a lot of stress and I gave up on making for a couple of years.
Only recently I once again made a piece and fell in love with it again, it’s an eyecatcher in my office and I love it. Everyone who sees it comments on it. Some people have asked for me to make something after seeing it, but I’ve said no. Only said yes to my best friend who asked without any deadline and only to pay for the materials and not the hours, so it wouldn’t be a job, just a shared project kind of thing.
But if it works for you, more power to you, good luck!
I’ve lost two very serious hobbies this way. If you love something, don’t turn it into work. I actually just recently got back into one after >10 years away.
Before the pandemic, my full time job was project manager of a rapid prototyping and custom manufacturing shop. I built all kinds of stuff, from touch screen information kiosks, weird awards and trophies often that did something, electronics. Several products I designed for customers are on Amazon right now. We also ended up doing a lot of unobtainium car and motorcycle parts.
I’ve been in that place of seeing two parts I just put a lot of work into making not fit together, and the amount of time it will take me to fix it means we’re not turning a profit on this project. I’ve had to show certain customers to the local patch of pounding sand. I’ve had more work than I can do and not enough work to pay my bills.
And I’d rather be back at it, possibly as owner of the company this time, than what I’m doing now. I’m strongly considering hanging a shingle.