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A lot of brainy creative types get into cabinet making
Do people of average intelligence who can work to other people’s designs get into it too?
Depends, sometimes people's designs are not well thought through. Sometimes they want to stand next to you and tell you how to do your job when they really have no real idea about the knock on effects of "just do it like this".
it is quite possible to make and install an unpainted fitted mdf wardrobe for the same cost as buying IKEA and paying someone to install it. Allow a bit more for doing the design, yes but it shouldn’t be four times the cost, that’s taking the piss!
It's not though is it. Firstly, Ikea don't make fitted furniture, only freestanding, so anything you bought would need to be added to in a way that it could be fitted into place. So for a start it'd have to be conveniently the right size for the intended location with the right proportion of space each side to allow for scribes etc, it might need a plinth to level it as floors are rarely level, and obviously all of that additional stuff would want to match the finish of the main Ikea piece, be that wood veneer or painted.
I've no idea what a wardrobe costs on average from Ikea but for example the other day I bought a single sheet of 12mm oak veneered plywood 8x4' and it cost me about £30. Of course I had to drive 30 miles to Birmingham to pick it up too. Also, it is only veneered on one side and so the components I was making, I had to veneer the other side myself. All that takes a long time. I also had to buy a roll of oak iron on edging which once I'd cut all the components, had to individually prep each edge, iron on the edging, carefully pare it back to the surface and sand to finish. That's 12mm ply. A wardrobe fit would most likely use 18mm for the various bits to add.
This was just for a few drawers going into a narrowboat. If I had to do all of that to match an off the shelf Ikea wardrobe that I was modifying to make it look like a fitted piece, well, you can imagine... Oh, and not to mention that the Ikea wardrobe would be lacquered, and so I've got to organise that too, most often with a third party sprayer, in another town, which I have to deliver everything to and wait a week, then go and collect...
So in summary, no you can't get near Ikea prices but also, it's apples and oranges really as you can't buy off the shelf fitted stuff from Ikea.
Mass-produced fitted stuff I suppose is the realm of people like Sharps. Now I don't know how they go about what they do, but I imagine it might be a bit like kitchens where you have a series of standard units which are configured to get near to filling the space with enough room for scribing.. I don't know, and I've forgotten my point now, suffice to say, a lot goes into built in furniture.
As mentioned above, cabinetmaking is more specialist. It's not that often I get asked to make really unique pieces. Built in stuff tends to be the bread and butter, but it comes along once in a while.
I certainly need to be more proactive in pursuing the right market but I'm still relatively new to self employment. I'm also far less adept at the business side. In fact, I'd say the projects I enjoy the most are the ones where I'm doing it for nothing. Not great for business 😂
A friend asked me yesterday how much it'd be to make her 6 year old a wobble board to improve his core strength and balance, so I knocked one up for nothing in an hour or so. I love to help people and solve problems I guess. 😊
Put your wife’s phone through the business
Target the areas with the lawyers and doctors and try increasing your rate
Now the quotes I get become clearer....since spending all my money to move to a nicer area of town...
Kayak, you've clearly got a skills set and offer a service which has real value; can you be more discerning in targeting potential customers?
Time is money so...offer initial consultation/discussion (time limited) FoC; after that, stage payments after retainer to secure your services to be offset against final account.
Are you sufficiently confident to do that - yet?
Can you build relationships with architects/designers as they are good at finding the right clients and want reliable partners to deliver what they're selling; if you can crack that, you're off and running.
In a similar vein, I noticed my front wheel was out of true on Sunday. I'm doing a 30 mile race next Sunday, so would like it to be fixed.
I can do it myself, and can do a good job. However, it's dark and cold when I get home. And, basically, I CBA to do it.
So I took it to a local bike shop. Dropped off at 10am Monday morning, he said come back around 5pm, and it'll be ready.
£12.
I insisted he took £20, as it was worth it for me for him to do it.
He's got a skill that he needs to charge more for.
Also, I get this at least once a week, I travel around a lot for work, I carry a cup, and have decaf tea. Greggs (and many other roadside cafes) dont do decaff, I ask if they'll use my teabag, they supply the hot water and milk.
It is regular for them to say no charge for the water/milk.
What they are not seeing is that the water/milk/tea is the smallest part of their costs.
It's the service, rather than the product that they are selling us.
But, they dont see it, and have saved me probably £100 this year.
Other difficulties are people 'time' expectations.
I will get a query, the customer is given a quote. Sometimes they want the job straight away, the fabric is brought to me and I can give a decent time scale.
Other times I'm booked in to make for a show home. The fabric doesn't arrive on time and then it's a stupid mad rush to try and finish the job. Not easy when it's your own hand that is doing the work. Fingers can't move any faster.
Then I get the odd time when a customer is desperate to get their order (maybe they've moved house and a young child needs something up at the window) finished. I push them a head of the queue, then the customer doesn't turn up for weeks. Very odd.
Payment can be a bit of a worry for crafts/ trades people. We're constantly needing to replenish our stock. This of course is difficult when a customer doesn't pay you on collection their order (which if in a shop would be the case). This luckily very rarely happens to me, however I know it happens to others. Also with a made to measure bespoke order the customer can't take it back.
Fingers can’t move any faster.
You can only do,
what you can do,
with one pair of hands.
Just read the first and last 3 threads ... will read the rest later but this is how it works in the far east.
Labour/skills time cost = mention this in the far east and you are likely to be out of work.
So this is how they work ... don't ask me how they make a living but it is how it is.
Option 1. Customers provide materials etc -> the craft people provide labour/skills and will normally quote as much as the customers are willing to pay for. Here the labour/skills time is emphasised.
Option 2. Craft people provide all -> Labour/skills(time) will normally NOT mention as they are included in the whole service. Normally if compare to option 1 the labour/skills time will be much lower. The craft people labour/skills time is recovered through mark up of the materials (materials supplier(s) provides craft people with special price due to good business relationship etc) with a little labour/skills time. In a way they make up their labour/skills time by materials mark up.
Most people in the far east will go for option 2.
That is why things can be cheaper in the far east because labour cost is "not" really included.
Notice that if you are in the far east you don't hear labour cost that often?
Wouldn't a craftsman normally have at least one apprentice/assistant? Someone else to do the donkey work/less critical stuff while you get on with earning the $$$You can only do,
what you can do,
with one pair of hands.
(same basic principle applies to running ANY business tbh)
Wouldn’t a craftsman normally have at least one apprentice/assistant? Someone else to do the donkey work/less critical stuff
I think when you are meticulous with your work, 'donkey work' isn't really a thing. Sanding for instance, a total bore, but on the other hand it's incredibly easy to ruin a piece with cack-handed sanding. Rounding everything, knocking off crisp lines, sanding through 0.6mm thick wood veneers.
Nah, most craftspeople want to own the whole process. 😊
I made a kitchen island recently. Made it really well but got it painted by someone else as I don't paint myself. To be honest, the attention to detail isn't there and there are several areas which have let the job down and I feel responsible for that. Hopefully it'll be sorted though.