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?
Is it lack of time keeping you from opening that etsy? You could say 'on may 1st, i'll take those first steps' or whenever you think you'll have time. I've written tons, but never tried to publish out of fear, so if it's a psychological block, i get it, but I can't help, lol.
i do have an llc, so if it's anxiety about that end, i can say that part's manageable. I got a book about it for my state at the library when I started, so I wouldn't miss any legal steps.
Well some of it is I'm getting more and more skeptical about Etsy itself; so I hear the platform has been going a bit downhill, trying to slide from the storefront for handmade craft goods and into Temu for Pinterest users.
Boiling down several paragraphs, what little market research I've done has consisted of looking around at things I think I can build and seeing what's out there and what prices they're selling for. End tables make the most sense, a lot of projects the math doesn't work, I'm not sure how people are turning a profit at the prices they're asking without mass production. But I know I can build an end table and comfortably sell it for the prices I see asked on the platform. I have a lot of questions like "will people buy an $800 table from a brand new seller?"
I would have to actually make the table. I have a very small wood shop, I cannot set up my table saw indoors there's simply no room, so I have to set it up outside. It is currently winter; it's rather cold to be in bare hands and short sleeves to safely run power tools, the days are short, it's colder out than the "apply between" ranges printed on my bottles of glue and cans of finish. It may be March or April before my next big project.
I've also had the idea of looking around at local consignment shops and stuff like that, to see about selling locally, and on that I've gotten as far as writing down several business names and addresses.
Etsy isn't great these days, yeah. I've been looking for better alternatives (for buying xmas gifts ), and there are some, but I haven't given them a shot yet.
Woodworking does seem tougher for selling online than, say, wirewrapping (have a relative trying to figure out selling those). I see facebook pages and personal websites for those sorts of local businesses, instead of etsy. A local blacksmith has an instagram. If you looked to build a website with pictures of old pieces, that'd give you a link to put on a card where anyone can see what you're capable of. Eventually with a contact form for whatever you want to sell (custom orders? small batches of a similar item?) when you're at that point.
The gallery here is nice: https://ridderworks.com/
My father talks about starting a business in a new town. He sent out a thousand mailers in the late 70's and got one customer who reccomended him around to her friends. That first customer or store buyer is tough. My business had a slow period and we advertised in a local mailer. It was expensive and we got one call out of it, lol. We're also temperature limited (house painting) and winters can get slow.
Thinking about working locally, i get some good business out of local paint and hardware stores. If you want to do custom work, they often keep business cards for recomendations when customers ask. For singular, prebuilt pieces, I also see small furniture pieces for sale from local sellers at gift shops.
Any local farmer's market? https://www.reddit.com/r/woodworking/comments/34qfhi/thoughts_after_my_first_farmers_market If you get some small stock and sell here, you can give out cards at the same time.
Getting started is tough, but unfortunately I enjoy spitballing this sort of thing. Feel free to ignore any and all ideas that sound useless, and especially ignore any that are irrelevant to your situation, lol.
Not sure I mentioned it but I have been looking into local consignment shops and that sort of thing, I've searched up several, looked at their websites to get a feel for what their business is like, and I've been preparing to walk in there with questions like "What sells in this area? What just flies off the shelves? What would you want me to sell here?"
Anyway I think it's important to spend at least a little time as a "hobbyist that sells some of his work" because it's easy to get into that level of "What about import duties on international orders" kind of crap. I need to build and sell something.
Good luck!