CU Woodshop - $10,000 to join?

[John Schreiber]

This seems to be a legitimate business opening up. The building is under construction at this time and the people described as owners are real people who live in the area.

I just sent the owners an e-mail with a link to this thread. I asked them to let me know if there are any misunderstandings here and and invited them to participate in the discussion.

[Jim Foster]

These guys seem to be trying to get 95 people or so to cover the inventory for a Rocklers's franchise. Or am I missing something?

Here is a link to the newspaper article about this business. From the article it sounds like you are buying into the business(store and shop).


http://www.news-gazette.com/news/bus...ss_to_supplies

[Michael Schwartz]

the 1000$ a year membership fee is more than reasonable and it is 1/7 what I pay for rent and insurance on my current shop.

However the $10,000 buy in sounds risky, and I don't know how accurate the drawings are as far as shop layout that shop could quickly become cramped if you had more than 10 people working in there at any given time.

Keep in mind for instance when I am working on a project I have my table saw, router table, etc... setup for a task at any given time and there are times I would like to leave a machine set for a few hours, even days to be able to come back to that setting.

That shop setup might be interesting if your a hobbyist living in an apartment, condo, or retirement community and are not working on any serious projects. Maybe thats the anticipated market.

If your going to spend the 10 grand, ask questions, and pry all you can. I would also consult an attorney as well. If the place goes out of business you might very well loose that. I doubt from the looks of it that its a scam but in this day and age you have to keep an eye out for that as well. Regarding the part ownership as well find out what you get out of that in terms of a dividend, or a share of profits.

[Rick Gifford]

What concerns me is the chance to lose you money if that business goes belly up.

A dance club opened here in town many years ago... people flocked to it and paid hundred of dollars for life memberships. The place closed shop in less than a year and everyone lost their money.

$10K is just way too much. However it would be great to have access to rent time on equipment. The $1000 a year maintenance fee after paying $10K is another whammy.

Im not cheap, I spend alot on my tools. But man thats alot of cash for something you dont really own.

[Dennis Coleman]

Hello woodworkers. I am the one behind the woodworking shop and store that John Schreiber pointed out to you. Obviously there was some “sticker shock” as most of the comments were related to the cost. First, let me point out that we realize this isn’t going to work for everyone, but it’s definitely not a scam. In a scam, the developer walks away with a profit regardless of the outcome. In this situation, if our venture fails, it will be the founders who will suffer by far the greatest losses. Yes, it is a lot of money for a hobby, but how many of you have spent more than $10,000 on a boat, or a motorcycle, or an RV? In all of these cases there are significant annual costs, and your purchases depreciate rapidly. Obviously there is a certain amount of risk in our venture, but if we are successful, an owner will have access to The DreamShop for the rest of his or her life, or until their stock is sold or willed to someone else. If you have the space and the money to set up a complete professional grade workshop of your own, that’s great. We would love to sell you the equipment to fill it up. But for those dedicated woodworkers who don’t, we think we have another option.

I don’t want to use up all of your space responding to everyone’s comments here (it's a pretty long story), but for those of you who are interested in hearing the whole story, please send me an email at dcoleman@CUwoodshop.com and I will be happy to give you a more detailed explanation of our project and will try to answer the questions raised.

Thanks for your interest.

[Chuck Saunders]

Hi Dennis, welcome to the creek. Thanks for taking your time to give us the real story. I think that the sticker shock along with not knowing what is what has kept this thread going. Please feel free to share as mauch as you care to share. If nothing else, we learn how someone else is doing it. I would love to hear more.

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Dennis, it sounds like a great option, and as stated if the shop is a professional grade shop, the $10K doesn't buy one machine, let alone a shop full.

I can see where your approach would be of interest to people who can't have a shop at home, or aren't interested in the upfront and maintenance costs.

Please continue to keep us informed, it's a very interesting solution.

Thanks, Rod.

[johnny means]

I just moved out of this place www.stentonguild.com. $800 a month got me a large office, private John and 500 sf. of bench space that was just for me. Blades, knives, sanding belts, etc were an extra $30 a month for the kitty. smaller spaces started at $400.

Just shy of $10,000 a year.

[Joe Jensen]

I just moved out of this place www.stentonguild.com. $800 a month got me a large office, private John and 500 sf. of bench space that was just for me. Blades, knives, sanding belts, etc were an extra $30 a month for the kitty. smaller spaces started at $400.

Just shy of $10,000 a year.

Very cool way to work. Did you do this professionally? If so, did you move to your own space?

[Terry Gerros]

I would agree with pretty much every post so far...Way to expensive. They must be planning for early and sustained retirement. Wonder what the hours of the shop would be, if the store is open 8-5? Curious to know if they have any "experience" required for membership. Think of the liability insurance. I don't know about most people here, but I personally don't believe I would want to be in the shop with 5 other people at the same time. Just think of listening to rap, country, rock, classical, jazz simultaneously, when all you want to hear is the hum of machinery.

[Richard Wagner]

Unlimited access to a professional shop full of equipment...wouldn't that be nice. I'd consider it if it was anywhere near to me. I could sell off all of my equipment to pay the up front fee and about 6 months worth of membership and just about break even.

NO. That won't work. The kids and grand kids won't have any place to built Christmas presents.

Most comments here have indicated that is a high cost to pay. This leads me to believe that most have not attempted to purchase liability and medical insurance for a place like that must be.

[Eric DeSilva]

I don’t want to use up all of your space responding to everyone’s comments here (it's a pretty long story).

Given the interest in the thread, it might be worth the time to explain the concept here. There seems to be a lot of interest in this model.

I followed the links to the site and even read the article (http://www.cuwoodshop.com/newsgazette.html). If I read the article correctly, there will be up to 95 members, each ponying up an almost $1K/year fee, so you will have operating income of up to $100K/year and a shop that has about $150K-$200K of equipment. Do I understand correctly that this is sufficient for the operating expenses of the Dreamshop, since the article indicates "[c]apital raised from the sale of shares will be used to provide inventory for the retail store." It seems like it should be a sufficient amount of money.

The article indicates members "also need to contribute time to the enterprise – probably 30 to 40 hours a year – providing cleanup, acting as shop supervisor or working on projects to furnish the shop."

The article also indicated that you are operating a store next door, and the Dreamshop equipment will be "used in demonstrations for the retail store." I was under the impression that most woodworking stores have such demo areas that they fund themselves.

As previously noted, the article states that the capital raised "will be used to provide inventory for the retail store." I was under the impression that most stores are required to buy inventory with their own funds.

It might be easy to misread things and conclude that this venture is underwriting costs that your store would have to fund in any event. I would be interested in whether the article correctly represents the situation.

[Jim Foster]

The building, according to Google maps, looks like it's about 60x60, but there are three buildings sharing a common driveway so it could be one of the other buildings. NOTE: It seems the Google image is old or is listing the wrong building on the road, John in the next post provides some more data.

Given the interest in the thread, it might be worth the time to explain the concept here. There seems to be a lot of interest in this model.

I followed the links to the site and even read the article (http://www.cuwoodshop.com/newsgazette.html). If I read the article correctly, there will be up to 95 members, each ponying up an almost $1K/year fee, so you will have operating income of up to $100K/year and a shop that has about $150K-$200K of equipment. Do I understand correctly that this is sufficient for the operating expenses of the Dreamshop, since the article indicates "[c]apital raised from the sale of shares will be used to provide inventory for the retail store." It seems like it should be a sufficient amount of money.

The article indicates members "also need to contribute time to the enterprise – probably 30 to 40 hours a year – providing cleanup, acting as shop supervisor or working on projects to furnish the shop."

The article also indicated that you are operating a store next door, and the Dreamshop equipment will be "used in demonstrations for the retail store." I was under the impression that most woodworking stores have such demo areas that they fund themselves.

As previously noted, the article states that the capital raised "will be used to provide inventory for the retail store." I was under the impression that most stores are required to buy inventory with their own funds.

It might be easy to misread things and conclude that this venture is underwriting costs that your store would have to fund in any event. I would be interested in whether the article correctly represents the situation.

[John Schreiber]

The building, according to Google maps, looks like it's about 40x40, but there are three buildings sharing a common driveway so it could be one of the other buildings.

The building is under construction right now. I haven't taken a tape measure to it, but 200' by 75' looks about right.

I don't know if this will be a successful business model, and I couldn't possibly afford it, but I don't doubt for a minute that it's an honest attempt to try something new in the world of woodworking.

I'm following this very closely because it's about a mile from where I live.

[Scott Wigginton]

Birds-eye view of the buildings in question.

Biggest issue I see that hasn't been raised is their expected hours of operation (8-5 weekday, 8-12 sat) which I see only appealing to retirees.

Another question would be lumber/project storage for when you can't complete an item in a single session.

Big plus is being able to step next door for when you change your plans and now need to change some aspect of your hardware