Many companies that sell non-essential goods and services have found it difficult to maintain a healthy profit margin following the recent recession. Although some claim the recession is all but over, even if it is, its memories are still fresh; and some woodworking companies still have trouble selling certain luxury items people have become used to avoiding for the sake of cost savings.
If you’re wondering what these luxury items are, just think of any product or installation one could put off buying or installing for a few years, such as furniture or a new staircase. If someone wants to start a woodworking business, now is not necessarily a bad time to do it, but he or she needs a solid business plan from start to finish. Otherwise, he could end up with a storeroom full of nice chairs to sit on.
Starting the Smart Way
As a woodworker maps out a marketing plan, he or she should also consider how best to set the production line in motion. For most startups, buying woodworking machinery at discounted prices from used woodworking machines suppliers is a matter of necessity, not frugality. However, the supplier one chooses may affect the quality of the investment. Woodworkers should buy equipment from used woodworking machines suppliers that have the following characteristics.
- An equipment locator service that can find equipment in other inventories
- A reconditioning facility where pre-owned equipment is refurbished
- A large inventory
- Strong references and a good record at the Better Business Bureau (BBB)
- Financing options for qualified buyers
Moreover, one needs a seller who offers reliable pre-owned equipment, has a reputation for providing good customer service, and will take every step to ensure prospective customers acquire the equipment they need. Buying woodworking machinery at discounted prices results in cost savings. Combine that saving with the value of getting reliable equipment from a reputable seller, and you have a great investment.
Selling the Smart Way
The prospect of making sales in a troubled economy can challenge one’s confidence. However, one can still find a profitable woodworking niche even if it consists of work that one isn’t passionate about, but gets the company off the ground, allows it to cut its teeth, and puts it in a financial position to take on different types of work when the economy improves. Pallet making, panel making, and other utilitarian woodwork, for example, can still pay handsomely when one makes the right vendor connections and has economical shipping arrangements.
Pallets become rickety after a few uses, and wood panels are used in more products than one could name. Sweetening the pot is you do not need an array of equipment to produce these simple products. For pallets, one can simply invest in pallet-making equipment. For panel production, one needs panel saws. A CNC router with a large cutting bed is a good option, too. Producing pallets or panels might not be your forte, but it serves as an example of how one could prospectively run a profitable woodworking operation in less than the best of times.
How RT Machine Can Help
RT Machine does not provide business plans for woodworkers, but we do sell woodworking machinery at discounted prices. There are many used woodworking machines suppliers out there, but few compete with our inventory of reconditioned equipment and excellent customer service. To learn more about our equipment and services, visit our website, or call us today.
