I’m interested in founding / managing a local Maker Space in my small but active town. This is something that I’ve had rolling around in my head for a few years, but kept pushing aside because it seemed like such a hurdle, but I keep coming back to it.
What I’m envisioning is an ample sized shop space, ideally in a vacant industrial building close to the downtown area that can serve as a fully outfitted shop with communal access to large stationary machinery and have additional smaller spaces for individual bench spaces. There would be a “subscription” fee to gain access to the shop on a regular basis, likely tiered with basic access up to full access to the shop depending on which tier someone wanted / if they wanted their own permanent bench space. There are tons of little “shop rules” and other minutiae that could be discussed in this thread if folks have experiences from participating in communal shops that I’d certainly like to hear about, but that’s not really the main focus of this thread.
This could also be a place where classes or demonstrations to engage the community / budding woodworkers could happen which would not only have the potential to bring more folks into the fold of the shop, but also create a local “vibe” of creativity, productivity, and community.
I know that this exists in several places around the world already and is not a new idea, though there is currently nothing like this in my area for woodworking and never has been. I am acquainted with someone who does this very thing in Raleigh (state capital) and seems to do well between that pursuit as well as running his own design / custom woodworking business. I plan to reach out to him and ask more about specifics, but thought I’d ask here for more insight.
There is a local state university wood shop that you can only gain access to as a student, which feels different than what I’m thinking.
The big picture / creative talk could go on and on. Where I’m getting hung up are on the business considerations and potential insurance requirements / liability issues. I’m also interested in hearing input on how to pitch this idea to a potential “investor” as I don’t have the capital outright to make this happen alone (quickly while paying rent / mortgage on a building.)
Does anybody have any input or experience with this to share?
My main motivators for this are as follows:
To bring woodworking, creating and “making” into the local public eye in a way that becomes a staple of the local scene both artistically / culturally but also economically. Boone is a small mountain town that has (had pre-covid) a vibrant “local” downtown culture as well as Appalachian State and a lot of tourism from May - December from out of towners from all over who want to escape to the mountains.
To continue to build my dream shop and find a sustainable way to share it with others that have the same
passion for woodworking and quality tools. Over the past few years I’ve gone down the slippery slope of vintage machinery, (3 phase, heavy iron) and feel like that particular caliber of machinery had the ability to thrive in a setting like that and also be very attractive to other woodworkers who maybe don’t want to go through the trouble of acquiring and maintaining it on their own.
To do what I love as my job (don’t we all...) I’ve worked professionally both for myself in business and for others as a custom woodworker, timber framer, carpenter, project manager / contractor, as well as a custom band mill sawyer / sustainable, low impact logger prior to really diving into woodworking. I want to find a way to be in the shop everyday and surround myself with people who are interested and passionate about woodworking and get paid to do it. This very rarely happens in the trades and constantly trying to line up work as a custom woodworker / builder / etc really wears me down. I realize that a maker space wouldn’t be too much different fundamentally in the sense that there would need to be enough interest and actual “subscriptions” or other monetizations that would need to be there monthly or it would be just as stressful if not more so because of the potential overhead, but I’m willing to try and sort through that.
Ideally, I would manage said shop / maker space and be able to pay myself a salary of some kind that would supplement the custom / commission work I would continue with my own woodworking business (already in business currently.) The space would be my shop and also be a much more public / locally visible force than my current small basement shop on my own property (which is paid for, by the way...it is scary to think of creating monthly of a downtown shop space, but if the demand is there and the numbers work...)
Thanks any input!