I know there's a market, because I live near DC and they've been raping the country and pumping all the money here for over two decades now, and there's a lot more money than sense in this part of the country.
Definitely a good market. Shit place to live, but if you're OK with it...
I am good friends with a contractor who specializes in kitchen remodels, and he was telling me that he's both drowning in work and having trouble finding cabinets he can get sooner than 5 weeks, so that's what got me down this road.
So far, so good.
I had another friend with a business talk to me about marketing and remind me that the work isn't going to find me, and I actually have to fish for it.
That's not necessarily true, but his point is taken well in any event. Since I got old and nobody will talk to me about me as engineer, I have gone from $300+/hr to 20 working on a construction crew with my friend Roger. We are drowning in work. We do NO advertising. Our reputation is sterling. We do top flight work and we don't exercise the customer's sphincter. Word of mouth can be very effective advertising.
I went to the craft fair down the street at the beginning of the month, and I counted eight woodworker tents there, and six of them were only making cutting boards - so locally this seems to be an area full of fellow 40+ types who are trying their hand at running a business but who only know how to do one or two things (one of the remaining tents was laser cut chotchkys that were probably all patterns sold on etsy). I'm a hand-cut dovetail guy, so there's very little actual competition in the craft market that I can't destroy, as an additional revenue stream.
I spent time in college as a cabinet maker. I also worked as a machinist and pattern maker. As for "hand cut dovetails", perish that notion. You are not going to make ahd cut joinery at a profit, unless you are charging thousands per unit. You may do a few, but it will likely be only a few... unless you pull a M ark Kostabi, the utter charlatan NYC painter who convinced countless people to vomit up hundreds of thousands of dollars for his worthless paintings that were painted by NYU art students getting paid $4/hour. I kid you not. He even called his customers "idiots" on camera, and his art went even higher. Can't fix stupid.
I worked at a place called "Carpentry Unlimited" in Long Island City in Queens. My job was building carcasses for architectural work. I once built a carcass for a liquor cabinet in 1983. It was 6' tall, 4' wide, about 2' deep. It was a built-in. The face was veneered with Carpathian Elm burl, $360 per sheet in those days, God only knows how much now if even it can be gotten any longer. The cabinet was $35K. In 1983. You could still buy a house for that in those days.
So it CAN be done, but I'd advise against it.
Machinery is your friend.
I'm under zero illusions about what I have to learn (and buy) to be able to crank out cabinets - and what I'm worried about is that's where my attention is going right now.
So that's why I'm asking -
Who has done this before (starting a business) and what sideswiped you on the way? What were specific pain points?
My business, of course, was engineering consulting, PM, analysis, and so forth, but having worked in at least two very successful cabinet shops, it is obvious that the equipment is essential. All else equal, time is life. But I would also say that if you create a better quality cabinet, people of means will beat a path to your door. I just spent $11K on cabinets for Bibi's 800 square foor kitchen, which I also happened to build myself. $11K for that much cabinetry is very inexpensive, less than a third. That aside, I was appalled at the quality o f the carcasses. The faces are beautiful and well made. The carcasses are SHIT. Had I produced even one carcass so poorly as that, Bill Wolf would have fired me on the spot, right after beating be to a pulp. And yet, the quality of these nonetheless is notably better than what you can buy at Home Teapot or Highes.
So I do believe that there is a definite market for a better mousetrap in terms of quality. All-ply construction of the boxes, rabbeted/dadoed joinery GLUED fukkin' together. Mine are not glued and I avoid thinking about it because I now want to shoot my laptop.
And for God's sake don't go all Hebrew on tooling. Get the best, which isn't always the most costly, though often it is. For example, don't buy a cheap panel set. Get the good stuff and get an old timey shaper to run it. The new stuff isn't as good and it it hella $$$$. I am a BIG fan of large table saws. I prefer sliding tables in the 16" capacity. These can be terribly costly new, but I regularly see reasonably priced used units such as SCMIs. A feeder is also a good idea if you're doing lots of long ripping.
If you can find one reasonably priced, and it is difficult to do so, a Neuman Whitney planer is what you want. They weigh about 7000 pounds as I recall, but they are the cream of the crop with a true helical head... four of them. You can rough and finish plane a board in one pass. Be aware that re-blading them will cost you on the order of $20K, but of course is you are careful, you may never have to do it. The inserts are solid carbide.
And if you want a radial saw, there is only one that is properly designer, Unipoint. New, they are $20K, but you can get a good used unit for $1500.
Bandsaws: Oliver all the way for verticals. I used to use a 40" direct drive Oliver. It was a joy. Horizontals: Ellis, but $$$ and hard to find used.
I also like large old world jointers. Things like morticing machines are really not needed unless you decide to get into things like doors, and I might suggest just that. Those with money and who are building or remodeling often like making statements with front entryways. You can charge like the devil for custom doors and you could market a line of high security offerings. Build a sandwich of hardwood inners and outers with a 1/2" AR500 plate in between. Edge with bronze channels. Find a blacksmith to make your hinges. I made a 500# armored door for my basement. I also built the hinges, the barrels of which were made from 4140 drops out of Douglas Barrels here in Nitro, a famous rifle barrel outfit. The bearings I machined from bronze and the pins are grade 12 socket head bolts. Smooth as silk. Find a smith to make the fasteners. I know a few up your way. I'd have wrack myself to recall his name. Known him long years and still can't vomit him up at the moment... getting old sucks.
Producing standard cabinetry is a sound idea, but it would likely require extra hands, especially if you want to break that five week wait time by anything significant. You know as well as I that these things are time and labor intensive. We had about 8 people in the LIC shop. I'd say that you would want at least one employee.
Anyhow, equipment is crucial because the better you have, the better the work and the better your life. If you have something brewing with the contractor, I'd suggest you talk seriously with him and come so some agreement if possible. Based your confidence as sufficient, finance the tooling if you must and get to work right away. That is the best advice I can give for what it is worth.
As for bumps in the road, those are unpredictable. But whatever you do, you have to get a strong hand on turnaround times. Nothing will piss a customer off more than promising something in four weeks and delivering in six. It can completely fuck up a project. Learning to estimate properly is an indispensable skill. I was quite good at this with large software projects. I never once came in over budget or late in thirty years, and some ran into the hundreds of millions of dollars. Whatever you think its going to take or cost, add at least 20% or more. That way when you deliver early and charge less, you get smiles on the other end, and thanks, and surprised faces, and the world smiles upon you. Much of this is about perceptions.
Also, it is absolutely vital that you actively manage customer expectations. Be willing to do ANYTHING for them that you are able, on the understanding that changes cost money every single time, no exceptions. Scope creep is a real problem and often times customers expect you to make changes for free. Not even once because if you do, they will come back for more and more and more and... This is just human nature and you are well behooved to take control. You must establish the policy at the outset and make certain that the customer understands and accepts this principle. That way, you no longer have to concern yourself with whether they are fickle. If they ware wiling to pay, you're willing to dance. And when they ask if you can do X, you say sure, let me see what's involved and I will get you an estimate. That will often shut them right down, and if it doesn't, jolly good so long as the money is green.
And if you choose to do true custom architectural work, money will be far less of a concern, but remain kindly and respectful of the customer's finances, even if you don't have to. But in such cases, lead times are likely to be longer, unless you put together a crackerjack team that has the right flow. This can be important, but finding people today is challenging because the young generation is, sadly, not up to the rigors of real work. I'm on a crew of four and we cannot find youngins who last more than a couple weeks. They are weak in mind and attitude. They just have no sand at all and think they should be paid for looking pretty. It's very difficult.
And to that point of being a boss, treat them well, PAY them well. If you have the right people, it is all worthwhile. As a project manager and putative boss, my job was to see to it my people had what they needed, and I was constantly going to bat for them. The result was making budget and schedule. My biggest thanks came when people would come to me at the end of a project and say that they'd love to work with me again. I could ask for no higher compliment.
As for actually employing W2 workers, that's a very big nut. I'd suggest paying under the table, but that's a risk. I get paid under the table. So the general rule of thumb if that if you're paying Johnny $10/hr, he is costing you about $30/hr with all the bullshit that you have to do in the way to taxes, insurances, and other HR bullshit, and believe you me it is 100% BULLSHIT. But that's what you have to do. You could hire on 1099 basis and maybe have them work three weeks/month "part time", but that MIGHT be also a risk RE: the IRS. I've never done it and so don't take advice from me on that point. I would not want you to run afoul of those bastards. I'd consult a lawyer on that issue, by all means.
The fact is that the jerkoffs we call "government" have made running one's own business a pain in the ass. I ran mine for 20 years and paid a grand total of $1500 in taxes, all 100% above board. So that's the last thing: get a GOOD accountant. He will be worth his weight in guano, I promise. Steve enabled me to raise my middle finger to the IRS, operating as a sub-S corporation. My first twelve years saw no taxes on about $4 million. I paid $1500 on that sum, and just said fuck it to filing thereafter. And now I'm poor trash with nothing for them to steal from me, so I'm basically good. The less I have to do with Themme and their agents, the better off I feel. YMMV.
I wish you ll the best and if there is anything with which I can be of help, let me know. You know where to find me.
