Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
Re: Retirement career change, advice needed
Roy Anderson
>Thanks, Pam.
That's hard core advice. No doubt from the school of hard knocks. It's the business operations side of things that I think I will excell at. The marketing and product development side will give me a little trouble.
O.K. Heads Up. I'm not making coffins!
Roy Anderson
>Thanks for the well meaning suggestions and I'm sure it's a growing market. But no.
However, on second thought, I used to know a guy that had a coffin in his dorm room in College. He slept in it. I can see custom making coffins to fit in the standard dorm room with a hidden beer cooler that the R.A. can't find.
Re: Retirement career change, advice needed
Ted Wong
>If you have a good amount of woodworking knowledge and like to share that knowledge you may consider teaching. Or managing a shop at the local tech college or vocational school. A lot of tech programs have evening hours and need additional staff for those programs. It's a great way to work around others that enjoy the same thing as you do and make a steady income.
It was offered as sheer satire, sorry.
woodburnbob
It kind of depends on what "retirement" means
Michael Recchione
>There are the retirement businesses that are basically hobbies that pay for themselves (mostly) and that make no difference to your lifestyle from a financial standpoint, there are retirement businesses that supplement an already decent retirement income from pensions, Social Security & investments and just have to make the difference between getting by and having a little extra spending money, and then there are second careers that are expected to pay the rent and put food on the table and are the only thing standing between you and greeting at the local Wally-World.
If you're in either of the first two categories, then I'd suggest forgetting about what's practical and just do what you love and are passionate about - life's too short and you only get one shot at this ride. If you're in the third category, then you need to think more carefully. Someone on this board once said (he may have been quoting someone else) that the definition of a full-time professional woodworker is someone whose wife has a good job with benefits. (You could substitute "husband" for "wife" with no loss of generality :-) ).
I don't mean to be discouraging, but if you're really going to depend on whatever you do after you leave your current job for survival, then maybe it would be a good idea to break in slowly, either by transitioning while keeping your day job, as someone else suggested, or by trying to work for someone who is already established and successfully doing what you'd like to do, so you can learn the ropes of the business. Then, once you have a real feel for what it takes, you can strike out on your own with confidence, knowing not only that you'd like doing it but also what you need to do to make it work.
I took it totally seriously
Roy Anderson
>It's a concept that has legs. There may be movie rights involved.
finish carpentry
bill tindall
>Can be done alone or with a helper. Minimum tools. Little heavy lifting. Good demand. Opprotunity to pick up custom cabient work (don't mean kitchen) or trim work.
Re: I will send you all the royalty checks you des
Bob Hutchins in central TX
>Howdy Roy!
Living in Temple now; lived in Belton before that and in Sugar Land after moving from Clearwater, FL. Native of Raleigh NC.
I'm a Tar Heel born and a Tar Heel bred, and when I die I'll be a Tar Heel dead!
Whereabouts are you?
BobH
Re: Gas Fireplaces
Thom D
>Phoneying up the phoneyed up. Still I like money. i amy look into this. Is that mostly a fall thing?
Re: O.K. Heads Up. I'm not making coffins!
Thom D
>Woodcraft had a book at one time, on coffins. Certainly going to be a Boomer lifecycle thing.
Re: O.K. Heads Up. I'm not making coffins!
Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX
>I suspect that the debt laden boomers probably haven't bought funeral plots and with more competition for those remaining, expect the price to increase; therefore, expect the percentage of cremations to increase. Still, high end wooden coffins will probably be a good business.
Pam
Re: O.K. Heads Up. I'm not making coffins!
Thom D
>Cremation means that one burns the coffin too, I know they don't necesarilly but it's a possibility. Then there is the add on of a nice urn.
As a motorcyclist have you seen those V-twin urns?
Re: O.K. Heads Up. I'm not making coffins!
Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX
>I've seen lots of v-twins. Are you talking Sportster?
Pam
Authoring Books
Mike Fitterling
>Actually, there is a new way to do self-publishing these days that is good option. Print-on-demand. You pay a certain amount to setup your book and then they are printed as orders are placed. One we use for a set of books we publish also sells for to major distributors for us. I think that some of the ones we've done this way have run a couple hundred $ to setup; a lot better than the $15,000 we might have paid for traditional printing. Once setup there are no more major expenses, except of course, advertising. You pay as you get paid, keeping the difference between your cost and the sale price.
This all presupposes that you have something worthwhile to say in your book and that it fits this type of printing Don't plan on doing a coffee table full color book with this type of printing. But, a perfect example of the kind of book that can be produced this way is the Tage Frid Teaches Woodworking books. Simple line drawings and photos work well. Also, it is prohibitively expensive, IMO, to do hardbound books this way.
But first you have to ask yourself: What do I have to offer that someone else has not already offered? How will what I write benefit the reader? Do I have the writing skills to pull it off? (You don't have to be eloquent, but it doesn't hurt, but you definitely need to know your grammar and punctuation.) Do I know where my market is?
This type of writing works best in a niche market (like woodworking) where you offer a unique solution(s) to particular problem(s) a typical woodworker might face. The more specific, the better.
You will have to spend money for advertising. If a woodworking book, then some of the mags are the obvious place to market. That will be the hardest part for someone without a "Name". If someone like, say, David Marks did this, selling would not be a problem, but without a well-known name you will have to establish yourself.
The up side of this process is that, unlike a typical author who receives royalties, you will receive the complete profits from each sale. So, though the unit cost of each book is much higher than traditionally printed books, the up-front costs are less and the return per book will easily exceed what you would expect from a royalties only arrangement. But the marketing and retail sales will will be completely your responsibility. Don't count on the printer selling to distributors to support you; they sell at big discounts so your cut is much smaller. You want to sell yourself at retail to get the most bang for your buck.
This is certainly not for everyone, but you mentioned writing, so I thought I would throw it out there.
Cobra GT . . .
Steve Mackay
>I DID deveiate from millitary models once. The lady wanted a model Shelby ( I came out with 15" long ) to place her husband's ashes in. She keeps it on her hearth. Hes in the trunk.
Re: O.K. Heads Up. I'm not making coffins!
Thom D
>I can't recall eaxctly which of the Harley jugs the urns were in the shape of probably evo.
What I do
Thomas Skaggs, Foothills of Mount Level
>I start by creating a portfolio. Web sites are useful but it's better to create a nice portfolio with good photos of your work. I take my portfolio to galleries and present myself and my work to the owner.
This is what I did with the gallery I am working with at present. Once the owner saw my work she was interested enough to take some work as a trial. Soon after, she invited me to participate in a show with other artists.
A year later I was one of her top three selling artists and now I have my own show, starting next month.
Tommy