Carpentry and woodworking never get old! People love to decorate and renovate their homes with new handcrafted wood pieces. The demand for wooden products is high, and you can make a lot of money from carpentry as long as you have an organized plan, are willing to learn, and have the right people to guide you in the business. Carpentry businesses can earn up to $2,000 from wood projects per month. If you have previous experience in the carpentry business or are starting from scratch, this post will give you the vital things you need to know to start a carpentry business.
Here’s our table of contents
Before you learn how to start a carpentry business
Before you grab your saw to make your new wood piece and start a carpentry business, let’s discuss essential pillars:
Researching
You can start by knowing what is already out there. The carpentry and woodworking business is crowded, creating a competitive market for you to enter.
You can study the market yourself or find someone suitable for the job. However, please ensure that whoever will help understands the technical and operational parts of a carpentry business well to give you the correct information.
Targeting
There are better courses of action to follow than serving everyone in the carpentry market. Finding your niche will help you put the right strategies for designing, pricing, and marketing your pieces.
Your market research, completed above, will help you find your niche and what they are looking for, making your creation stand out among other competitors.
Networking
Carpentry work is neither a one-person job nor a one-step business. You will have to bring a team together to complete the process and do the job efficiently. Loggers, designers, panel painters, suppliers, and vendors will all be on your database in your carpentry business. We will cover this in more detail down.
The Trio
After you understand your target, you plan your production line to serve their needs and create value through your art pieces. We need to start working on three main components to get this done: the design, the materials and tools, and the skilled carpenters.
Design
Designers will be your first contact people to network with. It would be best if you had an eye to follow the trends and create new signature designs only for your place. Relying on Pinterest to replicate designs is not the ideal scenario to follow. Designers are also crucial in giving the proper initial measurements of your piece.
Hardware
Your second network will include a list of suppliers and vendors for the materials and tools needed to complete the job. You need more than one contact for everything you need for your carpentry business. Prepare a suppliers list with references for loggers to bring you the finest woodcuts, paint stores to provide all the wood colors, wood accessory stores to get you a trendy selection of handles and knobs, and of course, the suppliers for the woodcutting machines.
You have a list of tools you should buy, including hand tools, power tools, squares, tape measures, and levels. To get started, you will need the following:
- Circle saw: to cut your wooden pieces into the correct sizes
- Sandpaper
- Jigsaw: to cut cleaner curves and corners
- Power drill: to drill holes faster so you can complete pieces faster and generate more revenues
- Clamps: to attach and bind multiple pieces together and create a strong bond
- Paint or stain
Painting and staining increase product value and protect your piece from direct sunlight and water.
Skillset
Carpentry is a highly-skilled profession. You need to bring in talented and gifted woodcrafters to implement the designs you have created and finish your masterpieces the right way. It’s not only about the hand that cuts into wood and sharpens the edges of your piece, but you will need skilled workers until you assemble the different parts of your piece and fix it together.
Remember, if you got everything right but the people sticking all the small pieces together need to be more skilled, you jeopardize your revenue stream.
Get Real – Do you want to know how to start a carpentry business?
You are now going live! Hire professional photographers to take the best shots of your pieces, get your marketing plan in place, and start telling the world about your brand.
A great segment of your customers will prefer checking out your pieces before they complete their purchase. So whether you decide to go online or offline, offer them the flexibility to check your pieces; visibility is really important to the business. If you are only an online store, then provide them with the option to pay upon delivery in case they want to return the piece after checking it out.
People want to see images of your woodwork inside apartments and offices to see how your pieces match their taste. As we said before, stay away from downloadable images and Pinterest content. Instead, please create your own and upload it on Pinterest!
Safety comes first in starting a carpentry business
Please ensure your staff understands all the safety measures when working with the woodcutting tools. A crucial step to ensure this is to train them and allow them to use the devices only after you ensure they are fully aware of the tools used and how to protect their hands. You can not understate the importance of safety training in the carpentry business. A study showed that 20% of carpenters reported injuries to their hands or fingers even though they had received the required safety training.
You also need to have your safety gear in your workplace. This includes, for example:
- Eye protection: safety glasses, goggles, and face shields
- Hearing protection: headphones or in-ear plugs
- Respirator (sawdust can cause serious breathing difficulties)
Watch for the bugs!
Yes, you read that right! If you are working from your basement as a start or renting a garage, which is not the best scenario, you have to know that wood stored too close to other buildings is likely to attract bugs and other pests which infect the wood. You can choose a well-ventilated area to store your wood, especially at the kickoff of your business. You will have to keep them for a while until the number of your customers increase, and you start to have steady orders for your wood products.
Don’t forget about the maintenance
Keep an eye on your tools and make sure they are used efficiently. Make it a habit to remind your workers to clean the tools after each use. This is also a chance to look for any damage or defects in all tools and report back to you.
To lower depreciation, plan for inspection and schedule maintenance with specialized companies to follow up. This prevents buying new tools early in your carpentry business. Additionally, it’s always good to remind new hires and woodworkers about the dos and don’ts of the tools. You have to ensure both their safety and maximize the usage of your tools.
Check out this article on how to maintain and repair your carpentry tools.
Ideas for trending woodworking ideas that sell
A few ideas of easy woodworking pieces that you can start within your carpentry business include:
- Floating shelves
- Kitchenware
such as customized cutting boards and wooden spoons - Wine racks
- Magazine racks
- Separators
- Storage boxes
- Coffee tables
Check out this channel for fun ideas about easy DIY woodworking projects, tools, and know-how about the business.
Never stop learning
Remember that starting a business in carpentry means a threat to forests. However, new technologies are emerging daily to counter this and help resume carpentry businesses the way they should. All you need to do is keep digging and learning about the field and the new technologies to sustain your work.
That was our guide on how to start a carpentry business – Final thoughts
You now have the basics to start your carpentry business.
The carpentry and woodworking business is easily scalable. You can always consider new markets and sell more items if you have an organized and practical plan. Your income potential increases as you gain more experience, establish more networks in the industry, invest in your learning, and bring in more advanced tools.
Finally, if you’re out of time and would like a consultant to help you plan this, here’s a perfectly detailed gig from one of our freelancers. I highly recommend it.
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Meet The Author Of This Article
I’m Jenny Ayman, a project manager in the development field with specific knowledge and experience in capacity building and entrepreneurship programs. I aspire to transfer the hands-on experience I gain in my professional career through writing.
Also, if you need help planning your business, I recommend checking out some of our freelancer’s business plans or pitch decks!
