A sad truth about woodworkers is that an awful lot of them should have stayed as amateurs and not tried to make a business out of a craft they loved. The word “amateur” literally means “for the love of it.” But when you try to turn something you love to do into something that will support you and your family, it’s very easy to suck the pleasure out of what you are doing. 

That is, unless you learn to love the business side, too.

It’s hard for many woodworkers who delight in craftsmanship and the joy of creation but disdain the monetary side of their vocation as something base and unbecoming of the artist. 

They remind me of science fiction writer Robert Heinlein’s popular character who would not die, Lazarus Long, who once said, “Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards”.

Business should be seen as just another skill you have to learn to be successful as a professional woodworker. Think of it as taking on a large and particularly challenging woodworking project. 

Maybe the project requires special techniques or materials. Maybe it requires tools you don’t have or skills you have not learned. What do you do? You either learn the skills yourself and acquire the necessary tools, or you subcontract to someone else who already has the expertise and equipment to help you complete the project.

That’s exactly what the business side of your operation is. Either learn the skills and acquire the tools for business success or hire a business manager who can do that for you while you concentrate on the craft.

If you are using finances as a measure of success, as all real businesses must do, in my experience, the most successful woodworking businesses fall into two camps. 

In one camp, a business expert from outside woodworking takes over a woodworking business and applies proven business strategies to make the business successful. In the other case, the woodworker who founded the business learns to embrace the business side of the operation and achieves as much personal joy out of the business success as from the act of making beautiful things.
There is also a component of self-worth involved. 

Too many woodworkers don’t seem to value themselves or their work as highly as they should. They are too quick to lower prices to make a sale rather than finding customers to pay their price. They have trouble seeing the value of their work as perceived by their customers. That leaves them shortchanged.

Woodworkers and their families deserve a fulfilling life with a comfortable income and humane hours. That only comes with embracing the skill of business.