Three Things I Learned in My First Year of Owning a Small Business
I have officially been in business for one year. In that time I’ve dipped my toe in the water to many different pools to see which one suits me the best. Some worked out, others didn’t. Some I was successful with, but didn’t like. Other things I loved but weren’t successful.
Here are three things I learned in my first year of owning my side business.
Try new things and Pivot if they don’t work
I’ve dabbled in multiple sales channels. I started with Etsy and had very little success. The platform is highly competitive with so many people doing the same or similar things it is hard to stand out. And if you do, someone is likely to copy you. The grind of that platform was not aligned to what I wanted to do so I stopped trying. I still maintain a few items there but I have no plans to continue offering physical products online at this time.
Second, I tried Facebook Marketplace to sell larger items locally. I had mild success with the platform and sold a few items, but the amount of requests resulting in sales was taxing. Most people ask a question and never get back to you after you answer. I became tired of being treated like a robot so I stopped using that platform. For me, Facebook Marketplace is the garage sale online platform. The buyers are trying to find good deals instead of quality items. Not the platform for me to sell on.
Now I am focusing on custom orders. I want customers to come to me and I attract them by making and displaying high quality furniture on my website and social media to show off my skills. I have been contacted for pieces directly with a much higher success rate of a commission compared to the other platforms. I get the opportunity to work with clients directly to design a piece to meet their needs. I get to provide the experience I want instead of being subject to a prebuilt platform like Etsy or Facebook.
It is slower and clients don’t come as quickly, which is fine for me as I don’t do this full time, otherwise I’d do more marketing to bring in clients. One way I’m “marketing” is by writing these blogs. I started the blog 6 months ago and in that time have over 30 articles. Each of those articles increases my online presence, letting Google know I am a website worth showing in search results so those in Portland looking for custom furniture can find me.
I also tried a craft show. It wasn’t a total success but it was a good experience. I already wrote a blog, My First Craft Show - The Results, about how it went.
In one year I’ve tried many different ways of selling to see what fits what I want. I suggest you do the same with your small business. Experiment. Try new things. And don’t be afraid to stop doing something you don’t like, even if it is working. If you are like me, you don’t have to rely on your side business to pay the bills so don’t turn it into a job you dislike just to make money. Make it the way you want it and the clients will come.
Say No
When you first start you’ll want to take on every job you get offered and often you’ll do it for less than you should because hey, it’s money.
Don’t do that.
Say no to the jobs that aren’t worth your time. If someone comes to you asking for a coffee table and says they have $200 to spend, say no. Tell them how much it will cost you in materials and tell them the full price. If they are okay with that then they are a client you want, if not, then that’s fine too.
You have a specialized skill. You have specialized tools. You can do something many people cannot and your time is valuable. Don’t undercut yourself because you think you should, that will just set an expectation that you are a low cost option and that isn’t the case. The low cost option is IKEA.
Charge what you are worth, always.
Sacrifice up to a point
This last one is the most important. Running a small business on the side of a full time job requires a lot of time. As the owner and operator I have to be committed to getting work done. I also have to remember why I started this business in the first place. My long term goal is to become independent. I want the free time back that I’ve been sacrificing to build Keaton Beyer Woodworking plus more, but there is no sense in sacrificing too much now. That will only cause me to lose motivation to continue. I know that’s ambiguous, here’s what I mean.
On a recent weekend I had an install at a client’s house. This client was amazing and the job was a good one. I was hired to replace two built in melamine countertops, install shiplap, and install 4 floating shelves. As with many woodworkers bidding a job they don’t have experience with, I underestimated the time it would take, especially for the installation.
Now normally underestimating the amount of time I would need isn’t a big deal because I’m working out of my garage at home. I can be with my family on weekends and put in extra hours during the evenings. But when I needed to be at a client’s house, that’s a whole different story. Not to mention the extra time I didn’t plan for preparing. I am not a mobile shop. I don’t have a work van setup with all my tools in it, ready to go every day with what I need plus what I may need along with spares and backups. I had to pack up everything and unpack it every day I went onsite. That’s a lot of extra work both for the physical movement of tools and also for the mental preparation to make sure I have everything on my list.
The short version of this winding tale is, I was scheduled to do the install which I thought I could do in one day but I really needed two. Not a big deal but my family had plans and I missed out. My wife took the kids to a farm for a sunflower festival. They got to jump in a bouncy house for the first time in their lives. My daughter fed a baby goat, another first, and I wasn’t there. That’s the opposite of what I want from my business. I want to be there.
My key learning is to know where to draw the line. I can sacrifice my personal relaxation time, or going to the gym, or seeing friends to advance my business, but not my family.
This section relates to the first, but I found out through trying that I don’t want to do built in work. Maybe someday if this business takes over my full time job and I can work during the weekdays at normal hours. But I no longer want to sacrifice family time on weekends.
An activity I didn’t miss. Visiting the Live Steamers in Molalla, Oregon.