Do you have minimal carpentry skills? Have you ever made some pieces of furniture with your own hands? Are you interested in start-ups in the furniture industry, modern trends in this area, and manufacturing technologies? If you can confidently answer at least one of these questions affirmatively, then perhaps you should turn your hobby or passion into a profitable business and organize a furniture business.
Furniture production is a highly profitable business with minimal risks, efficient marketing, a relatively low entry threshold for a start-up, and a fairly simple organization at the initial stages. Almost any interested person can start a business in the field of furniture production without large start-up capital.
How To Start?
Furniture start-up: how to start?
First of all, it is necessary to determine the positioning and the main approach to this matter. At the moment, there are two main approaches to organizing a furniture business. These approaches have a fundamental difference, both in terms of investment and in terms of implementation complexity. The first option involves the assembly of furniture from ready-made components and practically does not require serious investments. The second option involves opening your own full-cycle furniture workshop, which will be engaged in the production of components and the direct assembly of furniture from them.
Despite the theoretical complexity of implementing a start-up business model of the second type, with certain specialized skills and free space for furniture production, even it can be implemented with minimal investment.
Opening a furniture assembly business does not require any significant investment at all. At the initial stage, you will need a computer, a printer, a regular drill, and a small set of hand tools for woodworking and furniture assembly. You will also need to understand the process and specifics of furniture assembly. You can gain skills and get acquainted with the assembly process by buying high-quality pieces like wade logan, watching free video lessons, or reading specialized books available in the public domain.
The attractiveness of the furniture business for a potential novice entrepreneur lies in the possibility of organizing production with minimal investment, as well as relatively high profitability. This is at the level of 50-60%.
What Do You Need To Start?
An important point for starting a small business in this area is the organization of procurement. To start production, you will find and purchase all the necessary fasteners, accessories, consumables, and small tools, as well as all components for a specific project.
Specialized factories produce facade elements, fittings, countertops, and all the necessary components, where you make a purchase on almost the same terms as large furniture makers. From the factory, you can purchase the entire range of components that are necessary to create furniture. Also, for convenience, you can order the delivery of all purchases to the place of assembly.
Another point is the availability of space for furniture assembly. It is difficult to imagine assembling furniture in an apartment or other living space. The ideal option would be to rent a small warehouse. As a last resort, you can try to carry out the first assembly in a large garage in the absence of money to rent a place. Some craftsmen manage to assemble furniture even on the balcony. But such a decision is extremely irrational for such a business. Experts recommend choosing rooms with high ceilings, good lighting, and total footage of at least 215 square feet for furniture assembly.
You will also need to prepare or get somewhere all the necessary technical documentation for the projects. With such documentation, you can contact any warehouse or any specialized store. Here, you will pick up all the necessary accessories. In the warehouse, you will be able to cut materials according to the specified technical parameters.
As a result, you will receive an almost ready-made “Lego” with blanks of the required dimensions. You will only need to drill holes, mount fixtures, assemble furniture, and install fittings.
How Much Money Do I Need As An Investment?
Many aspiring entrepreneurs ask this. The fact is that investments in this type of business at the initial stages are really very small. However, even this money may not be available. Fortunately, there is a proven and common method to acquire it. It is worth noting that this is how some furniture entrepreneurs started their activities. They currently have full-cycle production, chain stores, and well-known brands.
The method is extremely simple – starting a business with the money of the first customers. If you had to order the production of furniture to order, you may have noticed such a feature of cooperation as making an advance payment. Furniture makers never make furniture for their own money. Usually, when ordering furniture, you pay 50% of the cost of the furniture, which fully covers the cost of materials.
Often beginner furniture makers do not even have their own car for delivery. They come to the warehouse or store by public transport and place an order. After a while, they hire a car to transport the materials to the workshop. In the workshop, the furniture is completely assembled. After which it is disassembled, the furniture “Lego” is delivered to the customer, where the furniture is assembled. Then, the full payment for the services takes place.
As you can see, organizing a furniture business from scratch is a fairly simple procedure that requires a minimal understanding of the field and practically no investments. After the required amount is earned on individual furniture orders, you can rent or purchase equipment, hire several employees and open your own furniture production workshop.
What To Do Next After Starting a Business?
Many entrepreneurs do not know how to develop a furniture business and how to organize furniture production. It happens precisely because of ignorance and fear of losing money that some entrepreneurs do not open their own large-scale production, even if they have money and extensive experience in the production of furniture for personal orders.
After the start of the business, there are two development models:
- expanding the scale of activities in terms of manufacturing furniture
or
- opening your own furniture workshop with a full production cycle.
Option 1
The first option involves opening and registering your own company, hiring employees, renting an office, and launching an active advertising campaign. Sometimes private entrepreneurs get more orders due to the reputation of your company. Plus, they give part of the profit to you. It is also possible to hire employees who will perform all the necessary work and receive a salary. And you or your manager will directly organize sales, attract customers and conclude transactions.
Option 2
The second option is more cost-effective and promising since the independent production of blanks for furniture in your own workshop significantly reduces the cost of production. In addition, opening your own workshop allows you to optimize all production processes, speed up the production of furniture and reduce transportation costs. In the case when the production of furniture happens at the same facility.
For business development in this direction, make sure to rent suitable premises, hire employees and purchase the necessary range of equipment.
The purchase of equipment, including a sawing machine to speed up the furniture production process, can be made for very affordable money. The potential earning happens in just a few months on individual orders. Also, to open a furniture workshop for several employees and purchase equipment, you will need from 20 to 60 thousand dollars.
Also, the right decision would be to find a good designer who can draw various furniture options. Through the Internet, you can sell furniture, even without having it in stock. Customers will order furniture based on its photo on your website.
As a result, we can say that the furniture business is a fairly simple, promising, and cost-effective line of business. It makes for an excellent choice for aspiring entrepreneurs with minimal starting budgets.
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