How To Turn Woodworking Into A Lucrative Side Hustle

Are you looking for ways to make money woodworking? You’re not alone.

Given that the cost of living in the US is on the rise, you’re right to explore additional income streams that make good use of your woodworking skills.

Luckily, this side hustle isn’t overly complicated. There are several ways you can monetize your knowledge and skills to get some extra dollars in your bank account.

This article reveals nine ways to do it!

Can You Make Money Woodworking?

Yes, you can make money woodworking.

Woodworking is one of many hobbies that make money, and if you have basic woodworking skills, there are multiple ways you can monetize them to make a profit.

You can create and sell wood projects like custom furniture and wooden utensils, teach other people woodworking skills, etcetera. The ways to make money with your woodworking skill are nearly limitless.

How Much Can You Make as a Woodworker?

There’s no set amount you can make when you start a woodworking business. It depends on your skills, how good you are at choosing profitable woodworking projects, and your ability to market your creations.

However, if you decide to make a career out of woodworking, the career website Zippia estimates the average salary of a woodworker in the US to be $51,598.

What You’ll Need to Make Money Woodworking

Before you can make money with woodworking, you need to have several items, including:

• Basic Woodworking Skills: If you plan to start a woodworking business, you’ll need basic know-how to create profitable woodworking projects.
• Woodworking Tools: Power tools, hammers, nails, wood glue, and screwdrivers are some of the tools you’ll use when shaping wood and building wood projects.
• A Workspace: You’ll need a space (like a garage or a woodworking shop) to bring your woodworking projects to life.
• Lots of Wood: When working on more complex projects like wood furniture, you’ll need plenty of wood.

Also, since you intend to turn your woodworking hobby into a business, it’d help to have a business plan and business model.

Where to Make Money Woodworking

Here are several of the best ways and places to make money woodworking:

1. Sell Your Woodworking Projects Online

The most accessible method for earning money with your woodworking knowledge is selling your creations online.

There are several websites where you can sell your wood crafts to international audiences, including Etsy and eBay.

If you choose this monetization method, you’ll need to keep your logistics in mind when choosing what to sell.

For example, while you can charge more for larger woodworking items like furniture, they cost more to ship.

How Much Can You Make?

You can make between $30 and $300 per item. If the item is in high demand, you can charge even more for it.

What Makes This Option Great?

Selling on online marketplaces is excellent because you can take advantage of the built-in traffic they enjoy by virtue of being name brands.

• Fees/Commission: The fees you’re likely to pay depend on the marketplace you choose to list on. If we use Etsy as an example, Etsy charges a $0.20 listing fee for every item you list on its marketplace. In addition, when you make a sale, the site charges a transaction fee that amounts to 6.5% of the item’s sale price.
• Payment Methods: Online marketplaces typically make payouts to sellers via electronic funds transfer, check, direct deposit, and PayPal.

2. Sell Locally

Rather than selling to everyone (local and international buyers) online, you can limit sales to the people within your area.

You can list your products on platforms like Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace. If you prefer to sell in person, you can attend local craft fairs and flea markets.

How Much Can You Make?

The way you price your items is up to you. You can make anywhere between $20 to $1,000 per item.

What Makes This Option Great?

Selling this way has the advantage of saving you shipping costs. If you sell at your local fairs, your customers can pick up the item onsite.

• Fees/Commission: The fees payable depend on the marketplace you choose to list on. While Craigslist doesn’t charge a fee for listings (with the exception of job listings), Facebook charges a 4-5% transaction fee depending on whether you earn more or less than $8.
• Payment Methods: If you arrange local pickups via Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace, you can accept cash, Venmo, Google Pay, Zelle, or PayPal payments.

3. Start a Woodworking Store

If your passion and pocketbook align, you can start a brick-and-mortar woodworking store to sell your wood crafts.

With that said, this monetization option requires a significant financial investment, and you’ll need to have some level of business acumen to make it work.

How Much Can You Make?

Depending on how effectively you’re able to market your store and products, you can earn thousands to tens of thousands of dollars every month.

What Makes This Option Great?

Starting a woodworking store is an excellent option because of its high-income potential. Also, you can sell other people’s products and earn a commission from the sale.

• Fees/Commission: Your business will have to pay licensing and zoning fees for its store if you set it up. The profit you earn from sales also constitutes taxable income.
• Payment Methods: Your woodworking store can accept cash, credit and debit card payments, or electronic transfers.

4. Sell Woodworking Plans

You don’t always have to sell physical goods. Other woodworkers are willing to buy woodworking plans. This method requires a platform you can sell on.

Therefore, consider setting up a blog to attract an audience and adding a store to it.

How Much Can You Make?

If you capture enough traffic, you can earn thousands of dollars selling plans to other woodworkers.

What Makes This Option Great?

You can earn passive income this way. Also, your earning potential is enormous, and unlike selling physical items, you don’t have to store inventory or deal with huge production costs.

• Fees/Commission: The fees associated with this method are annual domain name and hosting renewal fees for your blog.
• Payment Methods: You can accept payments via PayPal, Stripe, Google Pay, and Amazon Pay.

5. Teach Woodworking

If you have exceptional woodworking skills, you can teach other people who are interested in learning how to do it.

You’ll start with an easy woodworking project and up the complexity with each class or hour.

Making money in this way requires that you have a space big enough to fit your students, tools, and the wood you’ll be working with.

How Much Can You Make?

If you charge $100 per head, you could earn a few hundred or thousand dollars each session.

What Makes This Option Great?

This option is worth pursuing because it’s rewarding. You can get a sense of pride in teaching other people a skill you’re good at while making money at the same time.

• Fees/Commission: There are no fees or commissions associated with teaching woodworking lessons if you do it from a space that belongs to you.
• Payment Methods: You can decide which payment method you accept, whether PayPal, cash, or bank transfer.

6. Sell Woodworking Courses Online

Did option five pique your interest, but you don’t have the space for students? You can still impart your woodworking knowledge to people who want to learn via online courses.

Websites like Udemy are popular with internet users who want to learn new skills. You can host a course or series of courses on that platform and earn every time someone purchases.

How Much Can You Make?

Selling a course can be tremendously lucrative. You can earn money as long as your course remains on the platform, meaning potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in earnings.

What Makes This Option Great?

Unlike teaching woodworking in person, packaging your woodworking knowledge into a course can be a passive way to earn income.

• Fees/Commission: The fees and commissions payable depend on the marketplace you use. For example, while Udemy doesn’t charge instructors a fee to list their courses, the platform has a revenue-sharing arrangement. If students purchase your course through an instructor’s coupon or referral link, you pay Udemy 3% of the proceeds.
• Payment Methods: Platforms like Udemy pay via direct deposit into a US bank account and Payoneer (for international instructors).

7. Furniture Flipping

Flipping furniture is another excellent way to make money with your woodworking expertise.

Rather than start a woodworking project from scratch, you’ll buy an old furniture piece, do it up, and sell it for a profit on Facebook Marketplace.

How Much Can You Make?

You can make hundreds to thousands of dollars with this method.

What Makes This Option Great?

Furniture flipping is excellent for people who are starting their woodworking business journey.

• Fees/Commission: The fees and commissions vary depending on the online marketplace you use. For example, eBay charges a final value fee that amounts to 12.5% of the item’s sale price.
• Payment Methods: There are multiple ways to get paid when flipping furniture, depending on the channel you choose to sell woodworking projects. You can collect cash, direct deposit, ETF, or PayPal.

8. Create a Woodworking YouTube Channel

Another excellent way to earn money through this side hustle is to start a woodworking YouTube channel.

YouTube’s Partner Program lets potential content creators like you monetize their videos in a variety of ways.

The most common monetization method is through Google Adsense, where YouTube places ads before or during your videos.

How Much Can You Make?

You can make a few hundred to thousands of dollars monthly. Your earning potential depends on how popular your channel becomes.

What Makes This Option Great?

Starting a YouTube channel around woodworking can be a passive way to earn money from your know-how if you get it right.

• Fees/Commission: YouTube takes 45% of the revenue your YouTube channel earns from ads watched before or during your YouTube videos.
• Payment Methods: Google (YouTube’s parent company) pays via check, electronic funds transfer, and wire transfer.

9. Start a Woodworking Blog

Finally, you can start a blog that leverages your woodworking skills and knowledge.

You’ll write articles that cover subjects like how to build simple woodworking projects, the most profitable woodworking projects to create, and so forth.

How Much Can You Make?

You can make anywhere between a few hundred dollars to thousands of dollars per month. Your earning potential depends on factors like your chosen monetization method and your audience’s size.

What Makes This Option Great?

Starting a woodworking blog is an excellent way to make money woodworking because it gives you multiple monetization methods.

You can monetize your blog using ads, affiliate links, sponsorships, selling a course, selling custom pieces, and so on.

• Fees/Commission: The costs involved with starting a blog include your yearly domain name renewal and hosting fees and monthly subscription fees for keyword research and related tools (optional).
• Payment Methods: Affiliate partners and ad networks typically pay via direct deposit and electronic funds transfer. If you decide to sell products or a course through your blog, you can accept payments via PayPal or credit or debit card.

Why You Should Consider Woodworking as a Side Hustle

Starting your woodworking business can be an excellent side hustle for the following reasons:

• It Can Be Fun: If you enjoy woodworking as a hobby, you’ll love the fact that you can make money from it.
• It Has Huge Earnings Potential: Some of the monetization methods let you earn income passively for years, if not decades.
• You’ll Learn New Skills: When selling woodworking items, you’ll learn skills like marketing, pricing, and negotiation.
• You Can Meet New People: Selling at fairs and flea markets puts you in contact with like-minded people and other sellers.

Problems With Woodworking to Make Money

You might want to reconsider earning money from this side hustle for the following reasons:

• You Need Skills to Do It: There are few ways to earn money from woodworking without having the requisite knowledge and skills.
• Inventory Involved: Creating wooden goods involves carrying inventory, which you might not want to do if you don’t have the space to spare.
• High Costs: Making wooden goods isn’t cheap. You need to buy wood, tools, nails, glue, and other items.
• Profits Not Guaranteed: Your creations aren’t guaranteed to fly off the proverbial shelf. Also, if you don’t price your products well, shipping costs and fees can eat into your margin.

How to Make Money Woodworking: Step-By-Step Instructions

Here’s how to start a profitable business as a woodworker in a few straightforward steps:

Step 1: Decide How You’ll Make Money

The first step is to choose your monetization method. Will you go the traditional route and sell items? Or will you create a woodworking course, YouTube channel, or blog?

Your unique life circumstances and preferences should guide you on the appropriate path to take.

Step 2: Gather Your Materials

Once you’ve settled on a money-making method, the next step is to gather the items you need to make it happen.

If you opt to sell your wood items, you’ll need wood and tools to start. If you’re creating courses or a YouTube channel, you’ll need a video camera and something to record your voice as you speak.

Step 3: Get to Work

Getting to work involves doing market research to learn what sells, keyword research to use the words your customers type into search engines, and so on.

It also involves building or acquiring and fixing up the items that people buy the most.

If you start a YouTube channel or a blog, you’ll need to start working on the content relevant to each monetization method.

Step 4: Register on a Platform

To register on a platform like eBay, Facebook, and Etsy, you’ll need to provide a username, email, and password. You’ll also need to set up a payment method to collect your sales proceeds.

Similarly, you’ll need to create an account on Udemy or YouTube if that’s your chosen route.

Step 5: Sell

When you’re ready to sell your items (if you chose this route), take high-quality photos of each one to make your listings stand out. Also, research how the sellers of similar goods market their products with a particular focus on their advertising copy.

Things to Consider When Woodworking for Money

If you want to make money with this side hustle, you’ll need to consider the following factors:

1. Available Space

The first factor you’ll have to contend with when starting a woodworking business is the space you have available. You’ll need space to store your tools, scrap wood, and finished items.

If you go the teaching route, a garage might not cut it, depending on how many students you take on.

With the above in mind, it’s best to start small with a view to reinvesting your profits into getting more space as you grow.

2. Shipping

Creating wooden products is all well and good, but how will you get them to the final customer? You’ll need to figure out your shipping costs early on to answer the above question.

If you’re selling through an Etsy shop or similar marketplace, you might incur high shipping costs if you sell large wood pieces.

Therefore, it’s best to sell portable items that are easily shipped through such platforms. You can save building furniture for when you sell locally.

3. Your Skills and Knowledge

Woodworking requires excellent DIY skills and knowledge. You can’t expect to make any sales if you create shoddy products that fall apart after a few days of use.

Similarly, it’s unlikely that your customers will recommend your courses or blog to others if you provide inaccurate information.

As such, you need to know your onions if you plan to make money with this business.

4. Wood Types

Finally, you should ensure that you choose the right wood when working on projects. Wood type affects everything from the project’s quality to its ultimate sale price.

If you have a decent budget, you can use oak to make wooden items. It’s shock-resistant and longer-lasting. In contrast, while maple is inexpensive, it requires staining to look good.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Woodworking Projects Sell Well?

Woodworking projects that sell well include wooden picture frames, custom cutting boards, wooden coasters, wall signs, and garden decor (e.g., raised garden beds).

You can also sell custom-made furniture (like floating shelves and picnic tables), but you’ll need to figure out the logistics to ensure you stay profitable.

Is Woodworking In Demand?

Judging by the data on websites like Etsy and platforms like Facebook marketplace, there’s a decent amount of demand for woodworking products online.

What’s the Difference Between a Woodworker and a Carpenter?

The difference between the two is that the woodworker shapes wood while the carpenter is involved in construction.

You’d call a carpenter when you want to build a wooden shed in your home, while you’d call a woodworker when you want to build a simple woodworking project like planter boxes.

Similar Ways to Get Paid

If you’d rather do something other than woodworking, here are three alternative ways to make money:

• Make Money With Your Car: Even if you don’t want to work wood directly, you can still be involved in the process. For example, you can help other people transport their wooden projects while making money with your car.
• Get Paid to Talk to Lonely People: Woodworking involves talking to different people (customers, suppliers, etc.). If you’d rather get paid to do that, there are different websites that are willing to pay you to converse with lonely people.
• Get Paid to Watch YouTube Videos: Not keen on starting a woodworking YouTube channel? There are websites that’ll pay you to watch YouTube videos instead.

Wrapping Up

Woodworking can be an amazing side hustle when you know what you’re doing. Making this list was important to us because it shows several avenues for making extra money on the side.

If you could use the extra dollars, this list will be important to you as well.

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