Want/Need/Reality dilemma

[Maurice Ungaro]

KC,
Go foward with this philosophy in mind: No "Should Haves". You'll be happier, and so will your bride.

Maurice

[Charles McKinley]

Hi KC,

You will be able to write off the cost against your profits. A well made shop on your 16 acres will definately enhance its value and saleability. Have you gone to an auction where WW equipment is being sold? Some people will pay more for stuff than it cost to walk into a store and buy it new. (A bad auction good stuff can sell for dirt also, resesarch your auctioneer.) With the gallery space it may bring in even more sales and pay for itself in even less time.

Go for it!

[Jerry Olexa]

Kirk. based on your note, I'd build it! You have the space (16ac) and ability and financial. It would be a good and enjoyable investment for the future, I wouldn't worry about the kids. We all march to different drummers.

[Dan Mages]

Here's another thing to think about. What about having a shop with a showroom for what you build? This may increase the sales of your projects and create some repeat customers.

Dan

[Darren Ford]

Kirk, if you delay it a few years, it will be more expensive to build. Doing it now will make you happier, more productive, probably safer, and save money. Sounds like wins all the way around.

[Carl Eyman]

Going into debt is something only you can decide. I've done some woodworking all my life (nearly 83 yrs). I've done better work and enjoyed it more in the past ten years than at any time before. So you are only 1/2 way through your wwing career. If you can generate $7500 to $10000 per year, it seems to me you can afford a larger shop. Perhaps a short term mortgage to get you the shop earlier and start generating that ww income earlier and perhaps in greater amounts would make sense. Anyway, good luck. I've read the good advice you've given others over a several years now. I am sure you have plenty left for yourself.

[Jim Schmoll]

Go for it.. I moved from a 1200' first floor of a dutch barn and storage on the top floor, to a 24X25 at my new house. I pull in 12-15K eack year part time and will retire this year at 60 only to build a new shop. The lady of the house thinks this is great, and keeps me out of the kitchen.....

Jim from Idyllwild CA

[Mike Mastin]

Kirk,

When I started Curly Woods, I took money from my 401K and decided to invest in myself and my future. I had recently been released from a corporate job that I had cherished for almost 20 years. It was a sobering day when they told me that I was being let go.
What would I do now? After about a week of feeling sorry for myself, I took action. I started investigating what it would take to begin a new business. I still to this day, say that God directed me on this path as I was always second guessing myself about starting a figured hardwood business. Everytime I would tell myself that this was foolish, something would happen to open doors that I never knew exsisted. My wife agreed to allow me this foolish leap of faith. She is my angel in life and I am blessed to have her.

I started out with a 6" JET jointer, a 15" JET planer, and 10" JET cabinet saw. These were all of the tools that I had when I started Curly Woods. Money was tight and justified that "I would not buy anything that was not for sale". So I only purchased lumber that first year. No new tools or anything else.

This philosophy carried me a long ways, but there came a time when I had to invest more in my future. I sold the 6" jointer and purchased a Delta DJ-20. I then realized that I needed a planer that had a helical cutter head to lessen the amouint of tearout that I was getting with all of our figured woods. I was simnply not able to surface some woods due to the extreme amount of tearout and this made it difficult to sell figured woods to people :-)
Money was again an issue. Well low and behold while gawking at all of the industrial woodworking tools at the Atlanta IWF with Steve Jenkins I stumbled upon a small booth with a guy that had a small 15" planer and he was surfacing really highly figured woods with now tearout! Then it also hit me that this planer was super quiet too! What was the secret. The Byrd Shelix head! And they mnade one for my planer!
It was a Godsend! I could afford to buy it and this would allow me to get past another issue that was limiting my growth potentials. Just before the new year I felt that we needed to do something to increase our sales. I talked to my wife and she told me that I should move to a location in a bigger town and be sure to have good traffic flow so people could see the store that might just be driving by. I was scared to death, but I started looking for a new building in McKinney.

The funny thing is about to happen. A few years earlier, well before I ever thought about starting any kind of business, I used to admire this building that was close to where I got my hair cut. I know that this a strange thing, but the building was well maintained by the landlord and it just looked like the kind of place that I would think that some business would do well.

That very evening after spending three or four days driving around with commercial real estate brokers and getting depressed about the lease cost of buildings, I picked up the little local paper. I started reading the paper and then flipped back to the classified section. I saw that someone had a building for lease on the street that I knew well, as I get my hair cut at a location close to the address in the ad. My interest peaked I called the number. It was late on a Sunday evening and I did not expect anyone to answer. I got a hold of the owner and he asked if I wanted to come down and look at it that night. I said yes.
As I pulled onto the street, I started searching for the address. As I drove I was totally shooked to see that same building that just a few years earlier I had thought would be a great place for a business, was the one for lease! It was everything that I thought that it would be, but it was almost 3 times the payment of our present location. I was scared to death at the thought of taking on this big of a lease. My wife and my lone employee at the time both pushed me to do it. I again let my faith in God lead me as I felt that he had brought me to this point and I would give it a try. The worst that could happen is that we would go out of business. At this point we were struggling to grow and I knew that I needed to do something different to expect any chance of things changing for the better.

Well its been a little over a year since I took that leap of faith. I now have a 24" bandsaw, a 16" jointer and just leased a new 24" industrial sized planer for the shop. We also have a forklift that is fairly new and this was another leap of faith as I had to commit to a lease on all of these new tools.

What I am trying to say is only you know what the gamble is worth and what it could mean to you and your family and your future. I know that you are skilled craftsman and work hard. Weight out the pluses and then make your choices. Investing in yourself is always a good idea to me :-)

I pray that your choice will be blessed and that you will find a way to make it work if this is what you want to do!

[Mike Wilkins]

Good comments from all who posted here. Another justification for larger space is the already completed projects. I only have a 16 X 24 space to work in, so whatever I am building has to leave the shop quickly, or risk being bumped, scratched or damaged somehow. More storage space will give you a place to store these items until sold.

I have to agree with other comments. Build and enjoy what you can now because tomorrow is not promised.

Good luck and watch those fingers.