Cutting Board Business

[Kent Adams]

Go over to NC Woodworker, and contact "Boardsmith." He recently closed his cutting board business. He could tell you the pitfalls, and joys, as he's "been there, done it".

Bruce, I found his website. It looks like he sold his company to someone from Texas. http://theboardsmith.com/ The boards there are quite expensive, one is over $800.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

True that. Your signature really seals that statement.

[Michelle Rich]

Threadjack aside....

You do have to see if there is a market for what you want to produce at the pricepoint you want to sell at. The primary reason small businesses fail is due to a lack of consideration to the aforementioned question. Years back, at the height of the cigar craze, I was making and selling as many humidors as I could produce via craft fairs (in wealthy areas). It was only for fun and as the demand took a nosedive, so did my interest in continuing to make humidors.

When it comes to cutting boards, most people could care less if its finely crafted from beautiful stock, or a piece of bamboo. Even then, I've made several myself and always grab the composite board for chopping bc it can go in the dishwasher and is easier to thoroughly clean. I think you're looking for people to tell you this is a good idea, however, I personally do not think it is. Sorry. Talk to people about what they want and you'll be sure to get some direction. My non-woodworking business is in a very highly saturated area and outperforms all of my competitors. The niche I fill was extracted by talking to consumers in the area to see what they want and werent able to find.
Good luck

I think Peter hit the nail on the head. You must make what they want and at a price they will shell out. Here's my 30 yr experience. I am a turner and furniture maker. I make cutting boards to use up wood from furniture making. THEY WANT COLOR..they want bloodwood, padauk, purpleheart and burls, and they want it all for $10.00. When you explain the wood is not local and to get the color it all has to be imported, they think you are lying. What, has no orange wood nearby in those trees? they think it is dyed, or colored in some way..or they say..oh look, it's plastic, and I want wood. You explain it is wood. Oh they say, I like it but it is too expensive. So you take oak and make it in a chevron pattern to try to lower your costs. they ignore it..no color. What is your market? what is average price that stuff is selling at craft fairs & farmer's markets..and do you like to work for little $$$$. Go to the fairs and watch what people buy..how many are carrying bags? are they all in groups catching up with neighbors? is it a social event? Who buys in your area? wealthy? middle class? country or city? Do lots of research, you might be surprised.

[Kent Adams]

Michelle, thanks for the feedback. I don't really intend to sell at craft shows or farmer's markets precisely for what you identified. I may go to kitchen shows though just as a marketing tool as well as find local upscale kitchen supply retailers. I'm looking to do more in line with what these folks are doing: www.theboardsmith.com and http://www.mtmwood.com/

I wanted the craft show feedback to affirm what I thought which was people looking for bargains and impulse buys. I suspected these folks wouldn't be my demographic and a lot of folks are confirming that. I've made some expensive purchases at craft shows, but I know the value of what I'm looking at and I think most don't. I think its clear, judging from other's experience here, is that its probably best to work in a niche market (producer fewer products of higher quality and higher prices). One of the things I think I can add that those manufacturers above aren't doing very well is marketing and SEO optimization.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Instead of a wide belt sander, consider building a stroke sander with movable table.

[Kent Adams]

Instead of a wide belt sander, consider building a stroke sander with movable table.

I never knew those existed until your comment. Neat machines, but look like they take up a lot of floorspace?

[John Sincerbeaux]

I have been selling boxes in galleries and private commissions for over ten years.
Here is my advise:
1) Ifyou truly want to make money... Good money... in woodworking or any craft, you have to be an artist AND a craftsman.
2) You must produce a product that few others have the skill or knowledge to produce. Hate to be blunt here, but that eliminates cutting boards.
3) Have a "real" job to supplement your woodworking business. This keeps your passion and creativity fresh!

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Sorry to be a pest, but I assume Amazon wants a cut of sell. How much is their cut? Since Amazon is also acting as the receivable collector, how long until you get paid by them?

Sorry for the delay, the feel schedule is listed here:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/custom...nodeId=1161240

The general fee for most items is in the neighborhood of 15%

For shipping of cutting boards, I think that they will pay you

Standard shipping: $0.45 + $0.05/lb.
Faster shipping: $0.65 + $0.10/lb.

Hope This Helps

[Barry Richardson]

Kent, I have access to a 37" Timesaver, but they, Grizzly, and others make a 24" model, that would be quite a bit cheaper.... As for auctions, I have scored pretty big a couple of times with IRS Auctions. You should be able to find quite a few in your part of the country, out west here, they are very infrequent. They would be a good place to look for a used wide belt sander too... otherwise, I troll craigslist quite a bit....

[Barry Block]

I just recently signed on for a high end local craft show. It's totally an experiment and in addition to several small inexpensive items I will be showcasing a number of my furniture pieces so I am looking at it more as a marketing tool since its local. That said I certainly hope to make a little money. Now my sitiuation is a little better then most given that I produce a number of items out of my shop which supply me with a lot of scrap wood which is just large enough for cutting boards, tea candles etc so my cost is preety much nil. I also pay little to no rent or overhead since I share my shop with a retired millionaire. I can tell you that like a previous poster stated that if your purchaseing the wood out right it will be hard to make money.
With respect to cutting boards competition is steep. Online you have two problems, you have a retired guy looking to make some side money to fund his hobby making things rediculously cheap and then you have full scaled production shops with CNC's making personialied boards. Both make it difficult to charge enough money to do well at it unless your producing 100's at a time which will require a large investment. Search etsy and see how many cutting boards come up and just how low some of the pricing is.

My approach to the craft show has been to offer as many products to start and see what sells. i have boxes(mid to high end) End grain cutting boards, live edge boards,Inlayed boards, 4 tiers of tea lights, pens, bowls, plus one or two items(if anyone has any ideas I'd love to hear them). Pricing goes from 15-250$ Plus a few pieces of large furniture pieces(Barryblockwoodworking.com). Given my cost scenerio I can afford to charge significatly less then your average craftsman at a show so I hope that is my edge but who knows. Like I said if I can pickup even 1 custom job and sell a few items then I will consider it a success.

[Alan Wright]

I've made about 50 "nice" end gran cutting boards over the years. Gave about half away as Xmas gifts. Last year I decided I wanted a couple new tools and didn't want to take money out of my household budget. I made a dozen or so to start lo. I figure total cost of about $20 in materials each and about 2 hours labor per board. I have a fairly good "system" now, and yes, I have all the tools I need. I sell them for an average of $100 each. The idea of wasting my saturdays at craft shows makes me ill.

I had more requests than I could handle. Brought one to work (30 Peron office) and had 10 requests. I ended up selling about 30 and could have sold more. Put a bunch on my Facebook page and when people "liked" them, got requests from friends of friends. Getting customer's wasn't a problem. Now this was around Christmastime, so that helped, but if u make well made end grain boards, there seems to be a market. I made around $3000 gross, and had about $600 in materials. I was able to buy a $2,000 jointer, and a couple Festool Sanders for me effort. I just picked up about $300 in lumber today to get started for this Xmas season. I picked up some each of cherry, maple, sepele, walnut, paduuk, and yellow heart. Exotics are pricy, but staples are maple, cherry, and walnut. I wouldn't want to spend months making cutting boards, but there is money to be made. I figure I'm making about $30 an hour doing something I generally enjoy. Just making some mad money for me at this point.

[Kent Adams]

Thanks Alan. Glad I checked this board because I wasn't notified in my email about your post. You have the most cost detail comment yet. Good luck with this year's sales. I'll need a jointer and planer, which I don't have the room for yet before I can start. I'll just have to wait some more.

[Ian Moone]

I would make a suggestion if I may.

Like others here - when making furniture I used to turn many board off cuts into chopping boards (cheese serving boards) as gifts for family and friends at Christmas especially the women who are good cooks/kitchen proud etc.

Wooden chopping boards are great on knives and help slow the process of dulling them etc.

So you'd THINK professional chefs would love them for that reason and MANY do.

But having also run a commercial kitchen licensed by the health department... to serve paying guests, and inspected by health inspectors bi-annually i KNOW they actually HATE timber cutting chopping boards with a passion.

Their safe food handling literature is very specific about avoiding cross contamination of foods in both preparation and storage in fridges etc.

Using a timber cutting board that gets used on meat prep, chicken prep, fish prep & vegetables fruits prep is a BIG NO NO!

In fact they require the easy to clean Poly Boards and require multicolored ones specifically to help avoid cross contamination (Red for red meat prep, white for chicken prep, blue for fish prep, green for vegetables prep, yellow or orange for fruit prep and so on.

Its the same reason commercial chefs kitchens require up to 3 separate sinks.. 1 for hand washing prior to food prep, 1 for washing foods stuffs and a 3rd for washing up dishes and pots pans etc after food prep.

ONE of the big bug bears with timber chopping boards for health inspectors, is meat prep where the meat tenderizing mallet, is used and leaves big mallet 'dimple' imprints into the timber surface that accumulate food to then decay and contaminate every other food stuff used subsequently on the same board. Same applies to food trapped within knife cuts on the board.

I guess MAYBE something you could do is make "matching SETS" of chopping boards with say a bull (& sheep) laser engraved onto the end or handle of one with say red wood for red meats, one with a rooster for chicken prep out of say white oak, and so on... to match the color coded Poly boards - that professional food kitchens and chefs favor for health inspection reasons!.

Just a suggestion - maybe it would differentiate you enough from every other chopping board maker out there to be able to market into professional chefs and restaurants as a niche?

YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary).

[Roy Harding]

Ian Moone makes an excellent point regarding commercial kitchens. Although as I stated earlier, I DO sell custom boards to culinary arts students (usually their parents), I doubt many of those boards make it into a commercial kitchen - except, perhaps, as a display piece in the chef's office.

[Denny Nebgen]

I realize that I am late to the party by like 6 years here but, it would be wonderful to bump this to the top and see if Kent ever followed through with his plan and how he made out. I am a wood turner and I make cutting boards from scraps plus neighbor has a sawmill and I have access to more scraps. I do craft shows and farm markets. Some customers will not buy what you are selling but, others will. You are not going to sell out in a day for sure.

Personally I do not do well with online selling. People just do not buy my bowls, bangles, pens, cookie cutters, etc. online. I do much better when they can handle the craft work in their hands and see the grain up close. That is just my experience. YMMV.

I am curious however as to Kent's journey and how it turned out for him?