Taking it up a notch

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There are people that make money at turning but they treat the hobby as a business. They have websites, do craft shows etc. they sell pens but also a variety of other turned items. You can look under the marketing forum on here to get an idea of what they do. They also spend a lot of time to build their business.
 
I have turned this hobby into a part time business. I do this to recover my investment and make a few extra bucks. Since I'm primarily an at-home dad and my kids are in school, I use my free time to fill orders and make stock for the craft shows I do. Normally I do about 4 craft shows a year but now I am looking to get into some nicer, juried shows.
If you start doing shows, make sure they are geared for hand-crafted items. The first show I did, most of the sellers were selling essential oils, Norwex, Pampered Chef and repackaged items from China. Hard to sell a $50 bowl in that setting. Now I only do juried shows or shows selling only hand-crafted items and I've done much better.
I have found that pens don't sell for me. I love making them but I sell very few. Most of what I sell are bowls, ornaments, bottle openers, etc. And I prefer to sell utility pieces versus art/decorative pieces. I'd much rather have someone buy my bowl and use it than have it sit on a shelf somewhere. That's just my opinion because many people would rather make art pieces than utility pieces.

Hope this helps!
 
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Like Doug,
I do mostly craft type shows... most of the time I work a farmer's market/arts and craft show... it's a combination of farm stands and craft stands and has a pretty good following... it's every saturday from may to december so it gets pretty tiring... I couldn't live off what I make, but it helps to pad our regular income which is essentially social security... I also sell mostly bowls, pepper mills and wood stemmed wine glasses. I've done a few other higher end craft shows, but usually the costs are higher than what I do at the market, plus most are 2 days with set up the day before, so becomes a 3 day thing... last high end show I didn't have as good luck as I did the next weekend when I went back to the market... I did more in 5 hours at the market than I did over 2 days at the high end show.
 
I do it as a hobby and charge basically $20 to $40 a pen depending on the kit and wood cost. I make sure I recoop my expenses so I can buy more supplies.
 
Neededwill said:
I do it as a hobby and charge basically $20 to $40 a pen depending on the kit and wood cost. I make sure I recoop my expenses so I can buy more supplies.
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My story exactly. I've pretty well saturated my local market, but in the process have recouped my investment. Now I turn for fun. The pens I make are because I want to make them. If one sells, good--if not, I'll carry it or maybe gift it. I've got a case full of pens. When one sells I set that $$ aside for future tool purchases for different turning projects. My philosophy is -- don't start a project unless it requires buying a new tool :rolleyes:
 
brownsfn2 said:
This is a great post if you have never read it:

http://www.penturners.org/forum/f22/how-make-living-selling-pens-123207/

Andy makes more pens than any person I know. I am not sure if he is still doing it though. I think he went back into real estate.

When I think I am having a good week and make 15-20 pens I think back to this post. :)

It is a fun hobby!
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It is funny you posted that link because that is the very same one I was looking for and wanted to post. What that does is gives you a serious idea that it is not all glory and you better be prepared to sacrifice big time to jump in with both feet. Most people take on this idea of making a living with a cut back scaled down version but it still is not for the meek and feeble. Taking a hobby and making it into a work environment is not something I wanted to do. With that being said you still can make some money but again you need strategy and need to have things fall right. Have a marketing plan and be flexible with it. Good luck.
 
Thanks for all the responses!
I guess I should a got on welfare in my 20's instead of working for a living. Seems like I could have had at least a big screen tv free.
 
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