Survey: Best town for a woodworking business

Re: Survey: Best town for a woodworking business

Moses Yoder in White Pigeon, MI


>It would definitely be Berea, Kentucky. I like Kentucky, both the scenery and the heritage, and Berea has a very widely known reputation. It is still a small college town, but a good craftsman with ambition I think could make a decent living there.

Re: Survey: Best town for a woodworking business

thomd coralseacat@yahoo.au


>Not like I would know, but San Fran, Mendo and distant environs if I was an artist chraftsman type and if I was restorations, repairs, reproductions it would be either across from Franz Klauzs place, or the east somewhere with rich people.

Hmmmm...

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA


>Santa Fe, New Mexico. Lots of rich PHD's and tourits types there. Great skiing when you get furstrated with WW and customers.

Greene & Greene furniture would fit right in.

Otherwise I'd be looking in the SF Bay area.

Re: Hmmmm...

Todd O. Cronkhite Maine Native, Presently Away


>Never been there, but I hear tell that DollyWood up in the Pigeon Forge TN. area is quite nice. Mostly tourists from what I understand, so you'd have to be making small tricket type things I suspect. My buddy tells me that it's quite nice up there in the mountains.

Me,myself I'd be looking for something in the North East sector. Mystic Seaport springs to mind.

Knowing the local cost-of-living would be a major factor in my decision making process as well.

Gonna quit your day job?

Todd O.

How many of us make our living with wood anyways?!

Gary B in Central NY


>I think North east as well, Boston, Connecticut, etc. period pieces could do quite well. out of those who do, who are cabinetmakers, who are furnituremakers? just curious, because, i'm a furnituremaker, though for what I do, It might as well be cabinetmaking.

Re: Survey: Best town for a woodworking business

Glenn Madsen - on the road from SF


>Well, St James always told his students that they could be wood artists there, if they were willing to be poor....

I prefer the area, working wood as a hobby, and earning my living in another profession.

Re: Survey: Best town for a woodworking business

Larry Williams


>Roy,

Right now arts and cultural districts are the in thing for city planning and economic development. Some cities and towns work with banks to offer low interest and/or no down payment loans with tax incentives for artistic people to relocate. Some states, like Kentucky, have support and marketing systems for artists.

My wife works in municipal economic development and, from what she's seen, Paducah KY is probably doing the most to attract an artistic community right now. Their program along with State support is strong enough we've even considered relocating there.

Myrtle Beach

Jim in Burlington On


>There's a never ending supply of cash and big money condo's being built there.

Re: Survey: Best town for a woodworking business

Ted Wong


>I like San Francisco and the North coast too. Kind of like a meeca for craft. Collge of the Redwoods has helped give the region notoriety. The camaraderie up there is great and so is scenery.

Re: Myrtle Beach

thomd coralseacat@yahoo.au


>That's true around here too, though not to the same extent I imagine. Problem is for a lot of those people wood is just a "look" it's in it's out, your stuff ends up in the landfill.

Re: Myrtle Beach

Jim in Burlington On


>I agree that a large pile of the furniture is beach crap. But there are 2 larger shops in town and just about 30 minutes out of town is a huge antique lumber salvage place. There's certainly has to be some big custom cabinet work for restraunts in town somewhere. Seems to me there was a few custom places in Litchfield and close to Pawleys which would be my dream retirement spot.

It depends ...

Clay C in Miami


>Hmmm - nice question! I've spent the last 5 years almost exclusively in tourist spots (South [Miami] Beach, FL; Mendocino/SF, CA; Highlands, NC), here're my observations.

I think it depends in large part on what you want to make.

'Studio' furniture sells well at quite a few established galleries, but from all I've seen, it seems to be a awfully tough row for a one-or two-man shop. Even the tourism Mecca of Mendocino, with all of the College of the Redwoods grads thick in the woods (literally), its own famed ww guild, two large and established studio furniture galleries, and a very affluent client base, does not have many one-man ww storefront/galleries (I can think of only one, and even there the ww is barely half of the enterprise, plus his workshop is off-site.)

"Smalls" (boxes, etc. - especially turnings*) lend themselves particularly well to tourist areas, both for being able to carry a reasonably wide price range of stuff, and providing things people can easily carry home. (Think about how your clientele got there -- Seems most people drive to Myrtle Beach for example, but most fly to Las Vegas, so you might be able to sell slightly larger pieces in Myrtle?) (*For a storefront, I think turning is simply more fun for a layperson to watch than most other woodworking. One nice guy here in all-tourism/seasonal Highlands, NC does just this - he has a big bowl lathe in his main shop window, and he can draw a crowd!)

Decide, in general, whether you'd prefer to make and sell 1000 $50 items, or 10 $5000 items. Some tourist areas draw more affluent crowds almost exclusively, some draw far fewer, most are somewhere on the spectrum in between. (Though it's foolish not to carry some inexpensive items in any storefront.) (And, places change over time. Key West, for example - not so long ago - was full of fine art galleries. Now, cruise ships drop off 2000 passengers for 4-hour visits (often two a day), and the competition for your T-shirt dollar has become fierce indeed.)

"Workshop/storefront" itself can be tough as well, if by that you meant an all-in-one space - In any tourist area with enough foot traffic where you'd want to have a storefront, I'd look hard at both cost of space and zoning restrictions (though zoning probably only contemplates all of the noise and dust of power tools in siting a woodwork shop!) Naturally, areas that draw very affluent tourists usually have rents to match. They are also mostly seasonal, and comparatively dead for half the year or more.

Again depending on what you like to make, I might consider an artsy/gallery-district area before a more general tourist spot. (In Miami, for instance, that would mean maybe the Design District instead of South Beach.) On those monthly "Open Gallery Walk/Tour/Nights" such districts always have, fine woodworking would really stand out amidst the often vile paintings, and the people who walk in your door there are much more likely actively looking to buy, not just looking to be entertained and paw the merchandise.

And, them's my thoughts on that - it's an interesting question!

Clay

Seagrove, NC and here is why

bill tindall


>This place has over a hundred potters. Now if enough people come there to support a hundred potters that is a bunch of people with money to spend. As far as I could determine there are no other crafts in the area. So, tons of customers and no competition for a woodworker

Re: It depends ...

thomd coralseacat@yahoo.au


>Great post.

Workshop and strorefront are not necesarilly the same thing as storefront workshop. I don't want to be doing the work in the window, except maybe as regular promotional thing certain days. In Kentucky there were quite a few shops I saw that had it all wrapped into one though.

Funny how regional things vary. In Oregon I got to know a Myrtlewood shop owner, and he did pretty nice turning in the back of his shop right next to the Ocean. Seemed like a very viable business but not a very interesting craft life. That kind of thing could exist anywhere but it seems regional in nature with roots much deeper than the modern interest in turnning.

I have heard some pretty amazing numbers floated for really first rate reproduction work, and one advantage of that one can grow as an executer of woodwork almost indefinetly. An interest in design, and and interest in skill have almost taken me in opposite direction. If I did it for a living I guess I would have to decide.

NYC

Adam Cherubini


>I don't find myself in that position currently but I may be soon and its doubtful I'll take my own advice BUT: New York city would probably be the smartest move for high end furniture sales. Folks in cities in general express their taste and wealth inside their homes. They have no shady streets, lawns, or sprawling homes to spend their money on. They infrequently have nice cars to polish. The inside of their apartments is their escape. Their floor space is low, typically their wages are high, so I think they'd be more willing to spend more on a table or chair or chest than the average suburbanite.

Whatever you decide, consider the Starbucks rule. Starbucks painfully researches areas to see if there are enough folks in the area willing to spend $4 for a cup of coffee. When Starbucks opens a shop in an area, other (shops who glom unto Starbucks market research) follow. I wouldn't open a shop where there is no Starbucks.

That's my two cents

Adam

P.S. I think the big problem with an NYC shop is paying for the shop space. Joel may have a great location, but its not exactly a conventional storefront.

The other side of this is asking what a store front buys you. Joel may say he does a ton of internet/phone order sales. He may do better working out of a garage in Jersey! Were I to have a store front, I'd probably use it for teaching or as museum space.

Re: NYC

joel -( tools for working wood)


>NYC is certainly the richest market in the US - but it's also the toughest. In Manahatten iteself there are almost no workshops. The shops are in Brooklyn , Queens, and NJ. To make a living you have to be very competive and get hooked into the archetect/ decorator market depending on what you do. Ask Frank Klausz how tough it is. You get to bid jobs against guys like him. If you are successfull you get to build some of the highest end jobs in the world. But not everything is high end. we also have a low end. and a lot of jobs are actually built in shops far away from the city.

furniture is a tough sell. Takes a lot of space to display, and isn't a commodity. There are a few galleries and high end shops that sell what basically amounts to custom furntiure but almost everyone I know who does mostly furniture does it through decorators and architects.

I think Adams point is well taken - before you relocate your shop make sure you have access to customers who can afford you - either local ones or figure out a repping system for some far away market.

Lately there has been an influx of Chinese cabenetry but we get visitors from all over the world - some of them in the city doing installations. Crews that have been sent from Israel, Italy, Brazil, Egypt, you name the country that are either based here are sent on a one shot deal to install something, fix something, sometimes they are doing really amazing work.

Tere are 8 million people in New York City, and at some point in the day you figure they all want to sit down on something.

note:

while doing business is NYC is a pain, no space and we get taxed to death, I do walk to walk and being in NYC speeds up shipments both into and out of here. I also like to think that when you are in a retail market that is so demanding that even McDonalds offers free delivery it keeps you on your toes. Come visit when you are in town.

I'd love too, but... *LINK*

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA


>I'm no Maloff...yet ;^)

So, I'll have to stick to the day job to pay the wood and tool gods.

For a while anyhow...

Santa Fe and the surounding areas (Taos in paricular) is a magical place.

Besides this place is in Albuquerque, it's a big store too they had to clean up some drool on isle 5 when I was there.

Right down the road from Santa Fe!


Woodworkers Supply

Cleveland!

Joe in a Cleveland suburb


>Just kidding. Sorry.

Roy, could you ask this question on the regular Messages forum too? I'd like to see the responses on the noisy side too. This is an interesting question.

Actually, Cleveland may not be so bad of a location. Downtown Cleveland has a ton of development going on with new condos being built and old warehouses being turned into living spaces. There�s a lot of money moving in. Those people don't have a place to buy furniture except way out in the burbs. Good place maybe for a Thos. Moser store.

Joe

(out of place in the Hand Tools forum)

Re: Cleveland!

Steve Wargo


>Cleveland, is not as bad as you may think. In the early part of the 20th century Shaker Heights was THE wealthiest community in the U.S. and there is still a ton of "Old Money" there. I do a bit of business there. But about half goes to other parts of the country.

Park City, UT

Ellis Walentine


>That's total hearsay, as I've never been there myself, but it makes sense that a playground for the wealthy and discerning buyers is the place to sell one-off stuff. I don't know about production items unless they are highly individualized, whatever that means.

Ellis

Re: How many of us make our living with wood anywa

Moses Yoder in White Pigeon, MI


>What is the difference between a furniture maker and a cabinet maker? Does the furniture maker also do upholstery?

that is a beautiful place, Ellis!

VTAndy4

I like the starbucks rule!

Roy Anderson

Park City is exactly what I was thinking about

Roy Anderson


>I visited Park City several years ago and it is jammed with rich tourists and crafty shops. There was a shop selling very high end furniture, custom made, heavily carved, and they were shipping all over. There was no workshop there, though, just a store. And there are a few downsides, like rent for store space and housing and it's really, really crowded. It is a beautiful environment, though.

Vail is much the same, only more so, in every respect.