Selling wood crafts for profit (Woodworking projects that sell well)

So you want to make money woodworking? Here’s what you need to know about selling wood crafts for profit.

You can make a full-time income by creating and selling wood craft projects. The best woodworking money makers include customizable furniture, signs, home decor, toys, foodware, and gardening equipment. Sell your crafts locally or online at marketplaces like Etsy or Amazon homemade.

Imagine, turning your passion for woodworking into a profitable side business. You can finally turn your CNC machine or lathe into money with your projects.

Luckily for you, I’m going to show you some of the best wood crafting projects for making a little extra money. I’ll even show you the best places to sell your wood crafts. If you are passionate about woodworking, you can make money.

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Can you make money selling wood projects?

It is possible to make money selling wood projects for profit. Customers are willing to pay for quality craftsmanship for decorations or useful items or tools. Focus your efforts on creating the best decorations or tools that everyone can see having in their household.

The key to making money with wood projects is quality. 

If I’m going to put a wood vase or decorative piece in my house, I want it to look good. Don’t try to sell your customers a $100 item that looks like it was made in a high school shop class.

You must choose projects that look good and are useful based on what your customers are looking for. 

Most Woodworkers fail when they produce projects that they are interested in and not their customer. They also fail when they don’t put quality above all else.

How much can you make as a woodworker?

A woodworking hobbyist can expect to make between $1,000 and $2,000 per month. Woodworking as your full-time business should allow you to earn a full-time income, between $3,000-$5,000 per month. Starting your own woodworking business is not an overnight success and earning money takes time.

How much does it cost to start a woodworking business?

Starting a woodworking business will cost approximately $4,000 to $7,000. Basic tools will cost you between $1,300 to $2,000. Enough wood to get started will cost between $2,000 and $4,000. You will also want to plan for any miscellaneous costs, which were unplanned.

Basic Tool Cost – $1535

It is estimated basic tools will cost you around $1500. How much your final cost will be depends on the brands, tools needed or already purchased, and wanted additional tools. An example of required tools is listed below.

Tool	Estimated Cost
Router	$90
Circular Saw	$60
Table Saw	$400
Miter Saw	$200
Jigsaw	$40
Hand Saw	$20
Chisel Set	$60
Power Drill	$100
Combination Square	$25
Sander	$60
Finishing Sander	$50
Mallet	$15
Hammer	$15
Wood Screws	$50
Wood planer	$350
Total:	$1,535

Wood and unplanned costs – $4,000

Your initial purchase of wood should cost you between $2,000 and $3,000. The cost depends on how much wood you’re planning on stocking. Other costs such as shipping, farmers market fees, gas, and unexpected costs can add up quickly, so budget accordingly.

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How to make money woodworking

Make money woodworking by creating your first projects and then start selling locally. As you get a feel for what people like, adjust your projects accordingly. When you’re ready, start selling your wood crafts online or you can reach a larger customer base.

Create your first projects

You can’t sell anything without an inventory. Therefore, you need to figure out what you are going to sell.

Your first projects should be a collection of items. In other words, don’t make the same thing over and over again. You want to have a variety of offerings because you never know what’s going to resonate with people.

Start selling locally

The best place to start selling is locally. You don’t have to worry about selling online and shipping your projects to customers. All you have to worry about is creating great products and finding people to buy them.

Finding places to sell locally is rather inexpensive. You can sell at farmers markets, craft shows and flea markets. 

This is your chance to have a low-cost method of finding your best sellers. Are wooden vases your best selling item? Maybe people are more interested in garden boxes.

Start selling online

Once you have a steady flow of business from local supporters, you should branch out to online business. Selling woodworking projects online allows you to reach a large customer base. 

Selling online is a bit more complicated than selling locally. Now you have to manage the internet marketing side of a business. You are now taking a proactive approach to getting customers rather than letting them come to you at a market.

Selling your projects online isn’t the easiest business model. However, selling online is how you can take your woodworking projects from part-time to full-time income.

Start a YouTube Channel

As a bonus money maker, you can start a YouTube channel and film your woodworking projects. Give new Woodworkers great tutorials and teach others how to woodwork. You can monetize your YouTube channel with display advertising and Google AdSense.

Starting a YouTube channel is just one more way of turning your hobby into an income. Most hobbyists find themselves earning more money from YouTube than they do with their hobby.

What wood crafts sell the best?

The best type of wood crafts to sell include furniture, picture frames, household decorations, toys, and gardening equipment. Making customizable wood crafts like signs are another popular seller when it comes to wood crafting.

Remember, people like to purchase quality items and we’ll pay additional money for a customizable. I may want a garden planter box, but what if you could wood burn my favorite saying into the box?

Listen to your customers and see what they have to say. What do your customers want?

Furniture

Furniture is a popular wood craft item, especially in Oregon. There are lots of people that love the rustic feel and wood furniture fits perfectly in cabins.

Examples of furniture include entry benches, unique shelving pieces, coffee tables, chairs, and dining tables. You might even be able to turn a few heads with custom cat litter boxes.

The main downside to furniture is how big and bulky it can be. Therefore, furniture is usually best sold locally rather than online.

Additionally, not a lot of people can haul large furniture themselves. Therefore, you can increase your profits by offering a delivery service.

Garden Planter boxes

Garden planter boxes are hot selling items when it is Garden season. Every year, people are looking for new ways to plan fresh vegetables and herbs.

There are literally thousands of different ways you can put together a garden box. People absolutely love looking at different designs and seeing what is going to work best for their situation.

In addition, people are willing to pay between $5 to $10 just for the plans to make their own garden box. As a matter of fact, some of the best sellers on Etsy are plans to make your own garden box.

So you could create garden boxes to sell locally and plans to sell online. The plans can be as simple as creating your own PDF with pictures showing a step-by-step garden box being made. If people like your plans, they’ll buy them and you’ll get an instant 5 to $10.

The only downside to the Garden planter boxes is the seasonality. You’ll see better business during the spring and summer months, but not much during winter or fall.

Wood Signs

You can make a lot of money by creating wood signs. People love purchasing wood signs home decor, especially if the sign is about something they love.

There are many different ways to build a wood sign for profit. For example, you can make a wood sign shaped like a dog bone with a saying about dogs. You can also make a sign in the shape of a state with emphasis on the hometown.

Home Decor

People go crazy trying to find home decor that fits their house. You can make a lot of money by creating different items like key hooks, lanterns, wood bases, and mirrors.

Most home decor items are small enough that you can ship them. Therefore, selling your home decor items on Etsy can be very successful.

Not only are home decor items easy to ship, but everyone needs a place to live. Simply by making home decor items you’ll have thousands of potential customers.

Serving Trays

Serving trays are another good seller. For example, think about a cheese platter and creating an awesome piece for serving cheese and other snacks. You’ll make even more money if you include some cheese and snacks.

Toys

Wood toys are actually still a popular item. People love to buy toys for their children or as gifts for other people’s children. Examples of wood toys include airplanes, cars, puzzles, play gyms, lawn mowers, and educational toys. 

You can make toys for adults as well. Examples include chess sets, drinking games, connect four, and practice swords.

Picture frames

Shopping for picture frames at a craft store is extremely boring. It seems like all the frames are similar or the same, but overly expensive. You can be creative and sell picture frames like nobody has ever seen before.

Bowls and Utensils

People like to eat. Wood bowls and utensils are perfect for people who like to eat. You can make items such as salad bowls, utensils, chopsticks, and plates.

Coasters

Wood coasters are fun items to sell because they are lightweight and easy to ship. In addition, wood coasters are easily customizable to adapt to a large customer base.

Simply browse Etsy and you’ll see that there’s tons of different combinations of coasters.The possibilities are endless when it comes to selling coasters online. 

Boxes for Essential Oil or Jewelry

Essential oils have been growing in popularity for some time. As a matter of fact, people consume so many different essential oils that they need boxes to store them all. You can make customized wooden boxes for essential oils or jewelry.

How to find in-demand woodworking projects? 

Use Google trends, Google Keyword Planner, and Google search to find in demand woodworking projects. The more searches or interests the product has, the more likely you are to sell an item of your own.

You first need to come up with ideas  of woodworking projects to sell. In order to come up with a complete list of woodworking projects, use Google Search.

Start typing into Google and let the auto suggest feature give you ideas for products. For example, you can type “wooden” followed by each letter of the alphabet to come up with ideas.

Here’s a few examples of what comes up:

• Wooden advent calendar
• Wooden American flag
• Wooden activity cube
• Wooden apple bins
• Wooden box
• Wooden bed frame
• Wooden blocks
• Wooden beads
• Wooden bench

You’ll have lots of ideas by the time you reach the letter z.

You can then plug these ideas in the Google Trends. Google Trends will give you insights as to where these items are popular and how popular they are comparatively.

For example, wooden blocks are more popular than a wooden American flag. 

Google translate also tells you about the seasonality of items. As you can imagine, wooden Advent calendars are more popular during Christmas time.

You can also use Google Keyword Planner to find estimated search volumes. In other words, how frequently people are searching for these items on Google.

Google Keyword Planner will give you additional suggestions for project ideas. For example, you could make wooden letter blocks or building blocks.

So in order to find profitable wooden projects, compare your different project options. Use Google Trends to get an idea of popularity and Google Keyword Planner to estimate demand.

Where can you sell wood crafts?

You can sell wooden crafts locally or online. Sell your products locally using farmers markets, flea markets, Craigslist, Facebook marketplace, and craft shows. You can sell your products online with Amazon handmade, Etsy, and Shopify.

Amazon

Amazon homemade is open to Artisans who make and sell homemade goods. When the sale is made, you’ll be charged a 15% referral fee. Amazon isn’t the cheapest place to sell your wood crafts, but they can refer a lot of business.

Etsy

Etsy is the go-to place for handmade and craftable items. In order to sell on Etsy, you will have to pay fees of $0.20 to list an item and a 5% transaction fee with a 3%+$0.25 processing fee per sale. As you can see, the fee structure is a little bit more complicated, but it is cheaper than selling on Amazon.

Craigslist

I’m sure you are all well aware of Craigslist. Craigslist is free to use and can generate a lot of business for your woodworking projects. When you’re brand new to woodworking as a business, Craigslist should be your go-to for generating sales.

Farmers Markets

Farmers Markets are usually an inexpensive option for selling your wood products. Typical fees are less than $50 for a booth. However, each Farmers Market is different so you’ll want to check with your local farmers market for actual costs. 

Facebook Marketplace

Facebook Marketplace is another good alternative to Craigslist. If you are selling on Craigslist, you might as well cross-post your items on Facebook Marketplace. You can even advertise the fact that you do customized wood products to meet any family’s needs.

Shopify

I don’t really recommend Shopify for anyone that just wants to be a hobbyist when it comes to woodworking. Creating a Shopify store and marketing yourself is a very complex process. However, if you are very serious about starting your own woodworking business and scaling, Shopify maybe for you.

Flea Markets

Just like Farmers Markets, you may have flea markets in your area. Flea markets are usually really cheap to get into. Therefore, use flea markets as a way to keep your costs low.

Craft Shows

Your local area may have a craft show that happens every year. Check your local community events and find out how much it would cost to set up a booth. Craft shows are a good way to find like-minded people and sell your products.

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Summary: Selling wood crafts for profit

As you can see, selling wood crafts for profit can be a good side business or even a full-time business. You can make money selling wood products, but you want to budget around $4,000 to $7,000 in start-up cost.

Start out by coming up with your initial ideas of wood crafts to sell. Google is a good place to get ideas of woodworking projects. Run those ideas through Google Trends and Google Keyword Planner to find out if the idea is actually worth doing.

Start by selling locally. Selling your wood crafts locally is the easiest way to make money. However, branching out into online sales opens your customer base to thousands of individuals.

You can supplement your income by starting a YouTube channel. Some Woodworkers find they make more money through their YouTube channel than they do selling wood products.

Some of the best places to sell your wood crafts include Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, flea markets, farmers markets, craft shows, Shopify, Etsy, and Amazon handmade.