J + E Woodcrafts
Our Small Business
Near the end of 2022, Carrie and I decided to start a small side business and try to sell some of my woodworking crafts. After about 3 years of making things and selling them mainly on Facebook Marketplace we decided it was time to try and create our own website and try to sell through more avenues. Because of this, J + E Woodcrafts (JEwoodcrafts.com) was born. This is still extremely new but there are some things we have already learned.
How Did Woodworking Become a Hobby?
To give a little background on how we got here, I think it would be good to give a brief background. For those that knew me in my younger years, I was always an athlete. I mainly played baseball but also loved playing basketball and tennis. I played on a club baseball team as well as 2 different softball teams while in college, so was always pretty active. A couple years after college I started having some major issues with my legs. I would go through times where I wouldn’t even be able to stand or walk without intense pain. I had to give up playing sports. Now, fast forward 10 years and thankfully we have figured out what was wrong with my legs, and I am now able to move around much easier and with much less pain. At one point a few years ago, I remember telling my wife and sister that it was the first time in probably 6 or 7 years I had no pain in my legs at all.
Now that I was able to stay on my feet for a much longer time, I needed something that wouldn’t be crazy taxing on my legs but also something somewhat active. For a long time, I had talked about trying to build something with wood. I got started with woodworking right before the pandemic. When the urge to start woodworking hit, I was on a walk with Carrie and the boys. We picked up 2 sticks that I had every intention of carving into walking sticks. I went to Scheels and got a pocketknife and would sit out on the front porch shaving off pieces of wood thinking Jacob would be thrilled to do this with me. Well, he wasn’t and soon I realized the knife I had was very dull and I wasn’t getting anywhere with this plan.
Now that I was able to stay on my feet for a much longer time, I needed something that wouldn’t be crazy taxing on my legs but also something somewhat active. For a long time, I had talked about trying to build something with wood. I got started with woodworking right before the pandemic. When the urge to start woodworking hit, I was on a walk with Carrie and the boys. We picked up 2 sticks that I had every intention of carving into walking sticks. I went to Scheels and got a pocketknife and would sit out on the front porch shaving off pieces of wood thinking Jacob would be thrilled to do this with me. Well, he wasn’t and soon I realized the knife I had was very dull and I wasn’t getting anywhere with this plan.
My next thought was trying to build a side table. At this point, I didn’t even have a basic hand saw. So I went to Home Depot and got one along with some 2x4s (the same things they use to build houses) and started looking on the internet for how to build a side table. I had no idea what I was doing but I was determined I was going to do it. I found a plan that looked easy enough and about 3 weeks and several more trips to Home Depot later we had a side table…that would go to my mom’s lake house. My mom has always been supportive of this journey, so that little wobbly, about to fall apart table is still at the lake house. After building that side table, I was hooked. I wanted to try and build other things. I have built so many small things and a few small tables since. It has been fun learning new techniques and seeing where I totally messed up previous projects. I think that learning will never end.
The first thing I ever sold vs how it is made now. Notice the rounded edges on the right and the stain is the same color on both but look completely different as I have learned a more proper way to apply it and finish it.
What We Have Learned Thus Far
Like I said earlier, we are still very early in this journey, but we have already learned so much.
Time
First, it is a huge time commitment. Building the projects takes time. Taking proper photos takes time. Building a website takes a ton of time. Social media takes a ton of time. Making sure you have some sort of SEO set up to try to get any kind of organic traffic takes time. Kids and life take TIME. Being a good spouse and caring for your spouses needs while trying to juggle all these things also takes time. There are so many things that you may not think about that all take time. Keep in mind, this is all done before 730am or after 430pm. Something about a day job and bills and what not make those hours pretty hard to get any woodworking done. It would be nice if days were longer, but we somehow have to cram everything into 24 hours.
Website Building
While I do have a long background in digital marketing, I don’t have a ton of experience building websites. And by me saying I don’t have a ton of experience I mean that I have built 1 website from scratch, and I don’t mean this blog. Doing research to find out which site will work best for our needs, deciding which items to build and sell, taking photos, writing item descriptions, researching pricing, figuring out all the kinks from the website and testing out new layouts and formats. This is just scratching the surface of all that is involved. Could we have made it easier and paid somebody to build a site for us? Of course, but if you know Carrie and I you know that was never going to happen. Honestly, I enjoy tinkering with websites and trying to figure out new features or areas we haven’t been using and trying them out.
Social Media
Another huge area that takes up a ton of time is social media. I say that knowing we have only created a Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/JEwoodcrafts/). This means if we really want to get this area to grow and our business to grow, I’m fully aware I need to create an Instagram, Pintrest, and so many more. Being diverse in where we show our products, and our business is free and can help spread the word of what we do. The key is to not get discouraged. Right now, we have 57-page followers on our Facebook page. I’m 99% sure that at least 2/3s of those are friends and family. Which is great! Them seeing what we do and hopefully they will share our posts will only help to grow what we are doing. The best thing you can do for a small business like ours is to share our social media posts. That increases that net of people that see us by a huge amount and it didn’t cost either of us a dime.
Networking
This part is the hardest for me. I am horrible at networking. Most of the time I think what I build is pretty good but I also saw the whole process. I know where I messed up or where an imperfection may be so it is hard for me to look past that. I am happy to do all the behind-the-scenes networking from social media posts to writing blogs about the business to keeping the website up to date, but I am horrible at trying to grow our business in person. Carrie on the other hand is great at this. As much as she doesn’t want to admit it, she is a people person. She can tell people what we have and try to get them to buy without pressuring them. The time networking, just as much as the other aspects is well worth it. Networking and getting that word-of-mouth advertising is invaluable. Again, it is free, and people tend to trust those they know more than an ad they may see online.
Staying Disciplined
This part is also hard for me. Again, my background is in digital marketing so I know how much a solid website and marketing plan can help grow a business. Because of this, I want to throw what little budget we do have toward ads and totally ignore the advice I have given so many small business owners. If you don’t have the budget to run ads correctly, you are just throwing your money away. We may get a few more clicks to the website or to our Facebook page, but at what cost? Analyzing our cost per acquisition and not putting money where we are getting no sales or no new Facebook followers is just a waste and something that could eventually cause us to not be able to have this small business. Staying disciplined and realizing we are a very young and small business and accepting that is huge. Most people want to hit the ground running and expect to have $5,000 in sales a month from month 1. While that can happen, it is very rare.
Time
First, it is a huge time commitment. Building the projects takes time. Taking proper photos takes time. Building a website takes a ton of time. Social media takes a ton of time. Making sure you have some sort of SEO set up to try to get any kind of organic traffic takes time. Kids and life take TIME. Being a good spouse and caring for your spouses needs while trying to juggle all these things also takes time. There are so many things that you may not think about that all take time. Keep in mind, this is all done before 730am or after 430pm. Something about a day job and bills and what not make those hours pretty hard to get any woodworking done. It would be nice if days were longer, but we somehow have to cram everything into 24 hours.
Website Building
While I do have a long background in digital marketing, I don’t have a ton of experience building websites. And by me saying I don’t have a ton of experience I mean that I have built 1 website from scratch, and I don’t mean this blog. Doing research to find out which site will work best for our needs, deciding which items to build and sell, taking photos, writing item descriptions, researching pricing, figuring out all the kinks from the website and testing out new layouts and formats. This is just scratching the surface of all that is involved. Could we have made it easier and paid somebody to build a site for us? Of course, but if you know Carrie and I you know that was never going to happen. Honestly, I enjoy tinkering with websites and trying to figure out new features or areas we haven’t been using and trying them out.
Social Media
Another huge area that takes up a ton of time is social media. I say that knowing we have only created a Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/JEwoodcrafts/). This means if we really want to get this area to grow and our business to grow, I’m fully aware I need to create an Instagram, Pintrest, and so many more. Being diverse in where we show our products, and our business is free and can help spread the word of what we do. The key is to not get discouraged. Right now, we have 57-page followers on our Facebook page. I’m 99% sure that at least 2/3s of those are friends and family. Which is great! Them seeing what we do and hopefully they will share our posts will only help to grow what we are doing. The best thing you can do for a small business like ours is to share our social media posts. That increases that net of people that see us by a huge amount and it didn’t cost either of us a dime.
Networking
This part is the hardest for me. I am horrible at networking. Most of the time I think what I build is pretty good but I also saw the whole process. I know where I messed up or where an imperfection may be so it is hard for me to look past that. I am happy to do all the behind-the-scenes networking from social media posts to writing blogs about the business to keeping the website up to date, but I am horrible at trying to grow our business in person. Carrie on the other hand is great at this. As much as she doesn’t want to admit it, she is a people person. She can tell people what we have and try to get them to buy without pressuring them. The time networking, just as much as the other aspects is well worth it. Networking and getting that word-of-mouth advertising is invaluable. Again, it is free, and people tend to trust those they know more than an ad they may see online.
Staying Disciplined
This part is also hard for me. Again, my background is in digital marketing so I know how much a solid website and marketing plan can help grow a business. Because of this, I want to throw what little budget we do have toward ads and totally ignore the advice I have given so many small business owners. If you don’t have the budget to run ads correctly, you are just throwing your money away. We may get a few more clicks to the website or to our Facebook page, but at what cost? Analyzing our cost per acquisition and not putting money where we are getting no sales or no new Facebook followers is just a waste and something that could eventually cause us to not be able to have this small business. Staying disciplined and realizing we are a very young and small business and accepting that is huge. Most people want to hit the ground running and expect to have $5,000 in sales a month from month 1. While that can happen, it is very rare.
How Can You Help?
At the end of the day, are we happy we have started this small business? Absolutely! While there may be times of discouragement, we also hope there will be times when we are overwhelmed with orders. Want to help us grow? Share our Facebook posts. Share this blog post. Share the link to our website. These are all free and take less than a minute.
Happy 2023!
Happy 2023!
1/6/2023
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