7 Ways to Make Money Woodworking |  From Hobby To Hustle

Woodworking is a great hobby for anyone. You get to build something with your hands, stop looking at screens, and the end product is a useful piece of furniture or decor that can live in your or someone else’s home for years to come. 

You can make your hobby even better by turning it into a lucrative side woodworking business. In this article, I’m going to share with you 7 helpful ways to turn your woodworking project into cold hard cash.

7 Ways To Make Money Woodworking

Starting a woodworking business or side hustle is a great way to make a little extra money on the site to pay for new woodworking tools, pay for a vacation, or have a little extra savings laying around. 

Here are 7 ways you can turn your woodworking skill into a money-making machine.

1. Sell Local Custom Furniture Projects

Starting locally is probably the easiest and simplest place to start to make money from woodworking. Local markets may not fetch you the biggest cash grab out there, but it will be the easiest to get your first sale. 

People are always looking for custom woodworking projects. Its a great way to get into the world of woodworking, learn new skills, and maybe even make a profit. 

You can use sites like Facebook Marketplace to post your listings. Whether you list your services or you list an already built product, people are on Marketplace all the time looking for home decor items. 

Here’s a good video incase you are bored reading already:

My advice is to do some research on what others are posting, ie the style, the price, etc. Once you have an idea of what the market is looking for, you can start to design and build your own wood projects and post things for sale.

If you are going to use Marketplace, just realize that you will need to find out what people are willing to pay for your wood products.

2. Sell Small Crafts Online

With platforms like Etsy, Shopify, and Amazon Handmade, it’s easier than ever to set up a digital storefront and showcase your handcrafted items to a global audience. You can easily make and sell your woodworking projects like intricately carved wooden toys, custom-made jewelry boxes, wooden signs, or even personalized cutting boards.

Source Etsy

There’s a market for all kinds of small crafts. These small crafts are easy and convenient things to sell online. Don’t forget to do your market research to see what items sell well. This might mean narrowing down into a niche. 

To get even more eyes on your products, you can leverage social media and online marketing. This is a great way to market without having an actual storefront.

3. Repair Old Furniture

If you have a knack for woodworking and enjoy restoring old furniture, there is a great opportunity to make money by offering your repair services. How many people do you know that have sentimental attachments to their old furniture pieces? How many of those people don’t have the skills (or tools) to restore them to their former glory?

By specializing in repairing old furniture, you can tap into this market and provide a valuable high-quality service. Whether it’s fixing a broken chair, restoring a worn-out table, or refinishing an antique dresser, there is a demand for skilled craftsmen who can breathe new life into old pieces.

You also don’t need to wait for people to come to you. Take a look for yourself on marketplaces or at used furniture stores for pieces you could potentially clean up and make new. 

Repairing old furniture also has a very low material cost and if done right, can lend itself to a high profit margin making this a great way to make money with woodworking. 

You can see in this video how it can be a fairly simple and rewarding process:

4. Offer Woodworking Services

Some people aren’t looking for the random coffee table or the perfect nightstand, you can offer to help others with various projects around the house.

If you are a keen DIY’er then this is a great way for you to earn some extra cash. If you would rather work in different places than one woodworking shop, you can start making money making house-type calls. For instance, you can do living room built-ins, porches or small construction projects. 

Just make sure you have a business plan and know the appropriate permits and requirements to run a larger business like this. 

5. Sell Woodworking Plans

Digital products are another great option to make money in woodworking. Let’s face it, you can only make so many pieces at a time, no matter how many hands or how much you work.

Source: Etsy

Digital plans allow someone to create your design without you doing the work. If you have a woodworking project idea that sells very well, chances are more people are interested in it. 

You can create simple step-by-step guides for small woodworking or even complex projects. Creating a woodworking plan can take time, but this can be a very profitable woodworking business. 

It also allows you to take make a little profit still. 

People love DIY projects, and there are a lot of popular products out there that you can easily make plans for. You can use sites like Etsy and Shopify to list and sell your digital plans online. 

You can even start a woodworking blog and cut out the middle man.  

6. Teach Others Woodworking

Thanks to the internet, information is more accessible than ever. You can use this to your advantage as a woodworker. Providing others with knowledge is another easy way to make money woodworking. 

People are seeking help to save themselves time. With a little preparation and a lesson plan, you can easily teach others with your own woodworking classes. 

Conveniently enough, you can do this in person and online. You can create a seminar for a local community which will boost your local credibility. At the same time, a simple course online can reach a wide audience and teach more people.

Places like Udemy are convenient places to market and house your courses.

7. Start a YouTube channel

If you enjoy filmmaking and taking others on the journey of how you bring an idea to life, you should consider starting a YouTube Channel. More people are turning to video for entertainment and education today.

Having a presence on YouTube can help establish you as a knowledgeable woodworker. The possibilities are endless with what content you can create also. You can go from scrap wood projects to easy woodworking projects and back again if you want. 

As long as you have a passion for woodworking and you let that show through, you will do great. 

Here’s a link to one of my videos (Im no pro, but we are giving it a shot!)

Tying It All Together

What I really like about YouTube is that you can use it to tie all of the ways listed above together. Its really simple. 

Use your local markets to get big custom furniture projects. From those projects you can make build plans and offer them online.

As you build a project, you can make a video of how you do it. 

Use your YouTube Channel to promote your services, skills, and plans. Building social credibility on the platform will also give you more opportunities to sell courses online to teach others also. 

How Start A Profitable Woodworking Project

 Starting a profitable woodworking project requires careful planning and execution.

1. Identify Your Market

The first step is to identify a niche market or a unique design or type of woodworking that sets you apart from the competition. To do this, you can spend some time researching current trends and customer demands.

2. Gather Up Your Tools

Next you will want to make sure you have all the basic woodworking tools you’ll need. My advice early on is to realize you don’t need all the fancy tools right away, just enough to get your projects out the door. 

Promote Your Services and Products

After you have all the basics covered, its time to start selling. 

Depending on your market, this may mean you need a website, Instagram, or a Facebook page to house your catalog of work.

If you are promoting your services in person, you can try attending local markets and even starting to market via word of mouth. If you are good you will have no trouble selling woodworking projects, and referrals will keep coming. 

Stay Organized

Being a successful woodworker is more than selling, you will also need to run the business side of things. Make sure you are carefully tracking expenses and remaining competitive in your prices. 

Wrapping Up

Woodworking is fun. If you like it for nothing more than to just get out of the house and away from the screens, I understand. 

IF you want to make money as a woodworked, there are plenty of ways you can turn your hobby into a successful woodworking business. These are just a few ways. I hope you found this helpful.