Baltimore resident John Reiff has been both a real estate developer and a lawyer. Outside of his work in real estate and law, John Reiff’s hobbies include woodworking. Woodworking can be as involved as making furniture or as simple as making decorative knick-knacks, but turning a woodworking hobby into a profit-making venture requires planning.
While the hobby itself might be enjoyable, setting up a business that would generate income requires a few things. A prospective woodcutting business would need a budget that takes into consideration the costs for material and equipment costs, product demand, and the time needed to make the product. A simple method for setting prices would be to add the cost of materials plus the time (for example $10/hour). Alternatively, another way to calculate price would be to multiply the cost of materials by three. Woodworkers could also price their products by researching the market for comparable prices. Then, woodworkers would also need to factor in the probability that some of the materials would be returned.
Woodworking hobbyists must also determine where they initially want to sell their products and for how much. Some of the traditional ways of selling products are through trade shows, boutiques, and directly to consumers. Auctioning off woodwork is another possible suggestion, but again, woodworkers would have to assess the product to make sure it is not too above or below the bid price.