One of the biggest mistakes hobbyists make when starting a woodworking business is that they get carried away with their passion. They’re so excited and pumped up that they think creating a successful woodworking business is easy and a passport to quitting their day job.
This is normal and a lot of people think along these lines.
Some people are good at writing. Others are good at editing. Others are good at data entry. They think that if they apply these skills online, they can have a full-time online business overnight.
You might want to think about five key issues before deciding to pull the trigger and starting your own online-based woodworking business. These five key factors can go a long way in determining whether your planned business will be a success or a bust.
First, you have to understand that the internet is a relatively fair playing field. You don’t have to start big to become big on the internet. In fact, there are many brands that pull in tens of millions of dollars a day that were once started in somebody’s college dorm room or at someone’s parents’ basement.
You don’t have to start with scale to operate on scale. That’s how awesome the internet is. You can be some poor kid in the middle of the United States with a hundred dollars to your name and at the end of the process, make several million dollars a year. It really all boils down to what you know and how hard you are going to work to put what you know into use.
The next thing that you need to keep in mind is that you have to under-promise and over-deliver. When building a business on the internet, brand identity is everything. If you develop a brand that over-promises and under-delivers, you’ll be shooting yourself in the foot.
Word of mouth spreads fast online and you’ll develop a reputation for asking too much money while producing shoddy products. That’s the kind of position you don’t want your brand to be in.
This is why it’s always a good idea to focus on value. For you to get what you want, you must first give others what they want. This is where under-promising and over-delivering comes in.
The third factor to keep in mind is that perception is everything online.
It’s easy to say that you know what the truth is. It’s easy to say that reality is what matters most, but let’s face it. Reality is whatever your market thinks it is. That’s the bottom-line. You might not agree with it, but you can’t run away from this fact.
This is why it’s always a good idea to conduct yourself in such a way that you’re always building up your brand. You know that people are watching and that sooner or later, people will talk. Focus on that perception. Make it match the kind of brand identity that you desire for your online business.
Another factor to keep in mind is that it’s very easy to have a “if I build it and they will come” mindset. Unfortunately, this assumption kills many online business dreams.
Instead of thinking that you have come up with something that is the best thing since sliced bread, try not to reinvent the wheel. Look for existing demand and build your woodworking business around that demand. In this way, you’ll build your business on demand that is real and not mere perception or assumption.
Finally, you have to realize that specialization is the key to gaining a following. You have to be good at something rare enough that people will pay attention to you.
If you’re going to be good at something that everybody else is good at, you’ll be hard-pressed to distinguish yourself from the marketplace. You’re not really building a brand that stands out from the noise.
So, be aware of all these finer points before you embark on a woodworking business.
