Worthwhile to advertise Woodworking on Craigslist?

[Andy Pratt]

I'm just starting out as a functional business, learning the trade while I still have a regular job in preparation for doing it full time in about a year. I'll be moving in a year and don't want to spend money on "real" advertising in my current location. As such, I've been keeping constant posts on Craigslist in the hopes of drumming up some business and learning how to deal with customers.

So far, I have had numerous inquiries, some detailed and serious, none of which have panned out into actually starting construction on a project. I've been primarily communicating by email, and discourse usually breaks off around the point where I offer a detailed estimate/plan for the project. Often this occurs after some serious investment of time on my part to obtain&plan for the details necessary to make an accurate quote. I give them a ballpark up front, so that's probably not the issue.

I'm wondering if, by the nature of Craigslist it's just a bad place to be hoping to drum up woodworking business. Since we all go there hoping to find pretty good deals, is it unrealistic to hope for custom woodworking business through this site? It seems like so far, once I help people work out an intelligent plan for their project, they take off with the idea and I get nothing in return. Also, I've yet to get a request for a fine-quality project, always just functional level plywood or MDF stuff. Any thoughts on if I should continue to bother posting every week?

Thanks,
Andy

[Paul Johnstone]

. Any thoughts on if I should continue to bother posting every week?


I think if you continue to post, you should say in your post that this is custom work and therefore will be more expensive than furniture they can find at Walmart. If you have an entertainment center, blanket chest or whatever that you have made for yourself, perhaps post a picture of it as an example of your work and say "A piece like this would run $X".
That should weed out the lowballing bottom feeders. I can seriously see people reading your post and assuming that you could make something for 1/2 the cost of Walmart...

I only do woodworking for a hobby (not a business). People are surprised when I tell them how much materials cost when they ask. I think people assume that there's only $10 worth of materials in a bookshelf, for example.

[Geoff Potter]

Most people are so conditioned to the cheap goods we get from China, Taiwan, India, etc. that they have no real conception of what craftsmen charge. I think you should try to hook up with an interior designer or a remodeler that does custom work and work your way in. If you are good, word of mouth will do it from there.

[jason lambert]

In my experance people on Craigslist are just looking for a bargin. I have had nothing but bad luck there, however you may hit the right person if you can stomic it you just need to be very strict and ask for money before you do any design.

[Dave MacArthur]

No one who is willing to pay the 3-4 times WalMart cost for custom furniture is going to be furniture shopping on CraigsList... sorry but that's just a bad marketing concept right out the door.

Think about WHO your market is-- people with high incomes, who have enough disposable income that they are willing to pay for custom furniture. Therefore they probably have all the other ego/art vs. utility mindset that goes with it... Therefore they are probably hooked up with designers, interior decorators, or are going to dedicated furniture stores. They are NOT browsing CL to find some start-up fly-by-night custom furniture maker (not intended to disparage you). IF they are looking for a custom furniture maker, then they will expect PROFESSIONALISM with at least the minimum earmarks of a business--they will be looking in the yellow pages, maybe via online googling for a website, and through other professional decorator contacts.

I agree with Geoff that your best time/return spent would be developing relationships with interior decorators or remodel contractors. CraigsList is by it's nature a "find the absolute cheapest!", and that is NOT what the mindset is of someone buying custom furniture.

[Andy Pratt]

Thanks for all the replies everyone, everything I've read makes a lot of sense. Any recommendations for productive ways to drum up a small amount of business without dumping a lot on advertising? If I wasn't moving across the country in a year it would be different but... If I could do one project of $2-300 a month I would be pretty happy for right now, just to start getting some real world experience.

[Richard M. Wolfe]

A friend is trying to get a woodworking 'enterprise' going and finding it's a pretty slow go. Because it costs nothing to list on Craigslist he put a listing on there. He's gotten two customers in the past two weeks for lumber.

Will it work for handmade items? Try it and see. I wouldn't hold may breath waiting for calls, but if you get just one hit off it it's probably been worthwhile. You may get exasperated and wish you hadn't because people who cruise Caragslist are by and large looking for things for pennies on the dollar. You might just want to state something to the effect don't expect bargain basement prices because you're not selling bargain basement junk. It may generate nothing but all you've been out is the time it's taken to list it.

[Benjamin Dahl]

Another suggestion would be to make something on spec, like a blanket chest, chest of drawers, bedside table, etc and then post it to see if you get any bites. I would make something that you might have a need for in case it does not sell.
Ben

[J. Z. Guest]

No, not worth it. For the most part, Craigslist is for folks who are looking for a low price. I'd look to ebay, and market your work appropriately.

I've tried to sell certain things for reasonable prices on craigslist, and I get insulting, lowball offers. Kind of frustrating.

[James Hendrix]

Two things that worked for me.

1. I found a craft mall and put a few pieces of my furniture in there. I think the booth was around $45 a month. I averaged $400 a month. Could have made more if I was quicker at keeping my booth stocked. I did not make the typical craft show stuff (pine shelfs with hearts cut out). I made china hutches and vintage type items like step back cupboards and sideboards (I might be using the incorrect names).

One guy did make the typical craft show items. All out of pine and stained the same color. I have to admit, at the first of each month, his booth was crammed and almost empty at the end of the month. This cycle happened every month.

2. When the weather is nice, I do alot of my woodworking in my driveway and have gotten a lot of business with people driving by, stopping and asking about the pieces I was working on. It generated to several nice sales on custom pieces.

I took a few years off from woodworking as I had so many orders that it took the fun out of it and I went thru a burnout. Ended up selling all of my equipment. I started getting the bug again at the first of the year and have completed purchasing the equipment I wanted. I plan on doing a couple of pieces each month, but am trying to limit what I take on this time around.

[Dan Barr]

hope this helps out.

http://www.etsy.com/

i agree with the others on craigslist. thos people are only looking for cheap. cheaper than wal-mart cheap. but, thats just a reflection of how broke we really are and how much we are still underpaid in THIS day and age.

also,

you could make a piece or two and put them on ebay with your reserve set to whatever is acceptable to you. maybe worth a shot.

ciao,

dan

[Eric Larsen]

10 years ago, I worked at a newspaper that had the following as their fax cover sheet:

"Doing business without advertising is like winking in the dark. You know what you're doing, but nobody else does."

I always thought that was a clever slogan.

[Jeff Wright]

Thanks for all the replies everyone, everything I've read makes a lot of sense. Any recommendations for productive ways to drum up a small amount of business without dumping a lot on advertising? If I wasn't moving across the country in a year it would be different but... If I could do one project of $2-300 a month I would be pretty happy for right now, just to start getting some real world experience.

Targeted marketing may be a way to go. For example, determine what neighborhoods in your area are upper end income. Then, ask a friend in the real estate business to print you out the mailing labels for those selected areas. You provide the blank labels, and he usually pays nothing for the addresses. Even better would be for him to print a list of addresses and you hand-address a marketing piece in an envelope so that it gets open. Or, send a postcard . . . it is already open and will get at least a glance. Then you can use mailing labels and not negatively impact your mailing piece. And the postage is cheaper. Send it first class. If you are no good at layout work or writing a sales piece, get some help from someone who is. You could probably go to your local newspaper advertising department and offer to pay a few bucks to a low-paid ad writer to write it for you. The piece need not be a fancy glossy . . . even better that it isn't. Instead, focus on copy that is well written and addressing the needs/wants of your prospective buyer.

This approach allows you to dedicate a fixed amount of ad dollars and know that your market is at least partially qualified. It wouldn't hurt to re-mail them every so many months. For advertising to work at its best, you need repeated hits.

Finally, keep track of your mailing costs and how many jobs you get and their income. This way you will know precisely how well your advertising is working for you. You will be able to calculate how many dollars of income you are getting for each dollar of marketing. If the answer is good news, you could then feel comfortable and confident in cranking up your efforts and expanding your business.

[Alan Schwabacher]

Set up a website, and every other piece of advertising you send out should have your URL on it. You don't need a fancy website (though that would be nice) but you do want to show some work, specify what you do, and provide a way to contact you. If you put your location and some phrases like "custom furniture" on it, you make get customers courtesy of Google.

[Allen Tomaszek]

It doesn't cost anything to post on Craigs List so I would keep doing it. Even though there are a lot of people looking for deals there you can also find good customers. I sell figured hardwoods and usually pick up one or two new customers each time I post. Just because people might be looking for deals doesn't mean everyone that's looking doesn't have money. Good luck.

[Frank McKinney]

The cheapest, and best, advertising is word of mouth. It usually builds slowly, but doesn't cost and can snowball. Build something that you can display at home or somewhere locally. Join a woodworking/art co-op that may have an outlet for marketing your craft. Network via local lumber/hardware retail outlets. Folks looking to have something made may ask those folks for referrals.

Just some thoughts, not that I've ever sold anything that I made of wood. I do spend a lot on advertising via different methods for my restaurant, but word of mouth and good product/customer service keeps me in business.

Frank