Many people don’t realize that there are many ways you can make money while woodworking – even from home. In this article, we’ll talk about eight ways you can make money woodworking from home. Whether you’re just beginning or more advanced, there will be something in this article for you.
How do you make money woodworking from home? Here several ways: You could make handmade projects and sell them. You could use a CNC router to create custom pieces or operate a laser cutter/engraver. Further, you can start a blog, create and sell digital plans, or even teach a class!
Don’t worry, if all this seems a little tricky or out of your reach, stick around. I’ll share with you how it’s possible to make money from home while woodworking and how you can get started.
Here are the 8 Best Ways to Make Money Woodworking from Home
In the next section, we’ll go over several ways beginners can get started woodworking from home and making money while they do it. We’ll cover each topic in depth, telling you how to get started, how you can make money, and how you can scale the business to make more money in the future.
Keep in mind, this list is just a starting point – there are many more creative ways to make money woodworking from home. The key is to get started and be persistent. Alright, let’s get into it.
Here are the easiest ways to make money woodworking from your home:
- Making and Selling Handmade Wood Projects Buying and using a CNC Machine for Woodworking Projects
- Using a Laser Cutter to Make Money Woodworking
- Starting a Blog about Woodworking
- Creating Online Videos
- Creating Digital Plans and Selling Them
- Teaches Classes about Woodworking to Others
- Refurbishing Other Old Wood Projects
Those are 8 of the top ways to get started making money woodworking without leaving your home. Now, let’s break each one down into more detail. We’ll talk about the cost of entry, how to make money, and how to grow.
Making and Selling Handmade Wood Projects
First, you can start selling handmade projects. Perhaps you already have something you enjoy building in your spare time. Keep in mind that you can sell almost anything, as long as you take the time to build it with care and you price it accordingly. Also, know that there are some pretty simple projects you can start with, such as a hanger for the wall or a nice storage box – people love homemade items, and they don’t have to be complicated when you begin.
Cost of entry: For this, you’ll need to develop some skills, and that will take time. Also, you’ll likely need to pay several hundred dollars to get some basic tools, such as drills, saws, and clamps. Regardless of what you’re making, you’ll need these tools.
How to make money: Start small. You might consider starting a website, but if you’re careful, you can also effectively sell products on Facebook or craigslist. Furthermore, if you live near a bigger city (or even a small city), there are probably arts and craft shows or farmer’s markets where you could sell your homemade items (you might be able to partner with someone who goes to a lot of craft shows, this way you don’t need to leave your home).
How to grow: Once you find a product that you know will sell, and you’ve been selling it locally for a while, then it’s time to grow. For this, you could consider starting an online store and shipping to areas around the country. Also, sometimes you can sell homemade products on Amazon or ebay – experiment with what works best for your product.
Buying and using a CNC Machine for Woodworking Projects
There are all sorts of CNC machines out there at all different price points. With these tools, you can create awesome projects with very little personal in woodworking. While you need to learn how to program and operate the machine, once you get it right, there are a ton of different projects you can create that people are willing to buy.
Not only that, but these machines are great because they create wood products that people love, without costing you a ton of time. If you’re curious, check out this guide to the best CNS machine projects.
Cost of entry: These machines can vary in cost but expect to pay around $500 to get started (this is for a very basic option). When you get into serious territory, you’ll be paying several thousand dollars. Also, keep in mind that, while the machine does much of the work, there is still a number of skills you’ll need to acquire to properly design and program the machine.
How to make money: At first, you can create projects by downloading the information to the machine and creating common projects. You can sell these items at many different places – starting with friends and family to see if the product is desirable, and then selling locally to craft shops, at farmers markets, and on local internet garage sale groups. However, you can certainly grow when you’re ready.
How to grow: First, you might start designing your own project – this gives you something unique, ensuring no one can buy your product someplace else. Also, you can start an online account on ETSY or Shopify and begin making money. It takes time and dedication, but many have done it.
Using a Laser Cutter to Make Money Woodworking
A laser cutter is another option for making money. This creates projects in a different way from the CNC machine, but still has a lot of capability. Laser cutters create interesting and intricate patterns in wood. Many people have seen that laser cutters give a project their own special “look.”
Cost of entry: The cost of entry includes learning how to use the laser cutter and then also paying for the laser cutter. While you can get a small laser cutter, if you want to scale your business, laser cutters can cost several thousand dollars. However, you can find cheaper options (or perhaps buy something used).
How to make money: With laser cutters, it’s best to start with something simple and then grow from there. Play around with simple designs and then try to sell several different things and see what sticks. In the beginning, you don’t want to put all your eggs in a single basket – chances are, it will take you several designs to get something right.
How to grow: Start designing your projects and selling something that is unique to you. Also, you can start taking on custom work, or customizing set projects. Finally, while it’s awesome to sell locally, you can also scale your business up by selling online or trying to distribute to stores (once you can make enough of the product, and it’s a proven seller).
Starting a Blog about Woodworking
If you live in a small space, or you want to have something that makes you money (even when you aren’t in the workshop), then think about creating a blog where you can help others with their woodworking questions. Blogs are great, as they give you the option to be creative, connect with others, and a launching pad to sell other products (we’ll get to that later).
Here are several things to know about starting a woodworking blog to make money.
Cost of entry: It doesn’t cost very much to start a blog – depending on how you design the website, it can cost anywhere from $150 to $1000 dollars (if you pay for custom designs. Or, it can cost nothing at all in the beginning – there are places where you can start free websites/blogs.
For a blog, you’ll need to learn how to write. You don’t need to be the next Hemmingway, but you do need to get in a consistent schedule, and this can be difficult in the beginning. Once you start regularly publishing articles/guides/reviews that people find helpful, you can begin making money.
How to make money: There are many ways to make money. First, you could use your blog to sell a custom design. Second, you begin to run ads once you have enough traffic. Third, you could have affiliate links to other products and get paid a commission when there is a sale, fourth, you could use your blog as a launchpad for an online class. These are just a few of the many ways to monetize a blog!
How to grow: Start by focusing on mastering one kind of monetization. From there, you can grow into other forms. Also, you can begin collaborating with other bloggers in the same space. You can reach out to other magazines and publications within your field and ask them to feature your blog. Just keep providing value to people and they will come back for more!
Creating Online Videos
Creating online woodworking videos is another way you can make money woodworking. How do you do this? Well, think about online video – on a platform like YouTube – as a video blog. You can post the same sort of helpful information with a video blog as you can with a written website.
Many people create how-to tutorials, daily vlogs, and reviews of various tools/programs. Keep in mind that, for the best results, you can have a video component and a blog component of your business. These work together, each sending people to the other, and helping you grow even faster.
Let’s talk about the cost of entry.
Cost of entry: To get started with this, it doesn’t cost a ton of money. Yes, you will need to have some tools, an idea for videos, and the video editing software/camera to get started. Many great video channels have started just using a good phone camera. Of course, you’ll want to get better equipment – but remember, if your information is good, people will come back. It also takes a lot of work getting started.
How to make money: So how do you make money with woodworking videos? You make money in the same ways as a blog. If you post the videos on YouTube, eventually you can make money from ads. Also, you can use affiliate links. Finally, you can feature your homemade products and sell them from your video platform.
How to grow: To grow this business, you have to be persistent. It might take several years to grow your audience, but once you have them, you’ll make steadier money. Also, you can create exclusive videos and then charge people to watch them. Finally, think about starting a video class (we’ll talk more about this later).
Creating Digital Woodworking Plans and Selling Them
Selling digital plans are a great way to begin making money from woodworking, while in your own home. What are digital plans? Essentially, you design and draw up plans for a project – such as a unique box or a chair – and then sell this design as a file on your website. There are a few reasons this is a great option.
For one, you don’t need to keep building and selling physical products. You can take the design, place it on your site, and then continue making money on it for years to come. Second, you don’t need a ton of traffic to get started. To run add or affiliate links (and make much money), you need to grow your business to significant sizes; however, with selling the digital plans, you can get started right away.
Cost of entry: It will take some time to design a good set of plans. You will need to ensure that the project is sound and that plans are easy to understand. If people don’t find the product helpful, they won’t come back, and they won’t tell their friends. However, if you take your time, learn how to create a good plan, then you could make good money (without spending a ton up front).
How to make money: You need to sell the plans online as a digital download. Essentially, someone will find the plans on your website, buy them, and then you’ll send them an email where they can download the plans for their own use.
How much do you charge? Well, for simple plans, you might only charge about $10. However, if you’re a professional, and you design a shed, barn, or house, you could charge several hundred to several thousand dollars to give people access to the plans.
How to grow: Work on creating unique ideas that people will enjoy. This will take some experimentation – there’s an art and a science to it. Also, if you can try to create more complex plans (while still making everything easy to understand), then you can charge more for the plans and make more in the long run.
The key is to improve your design skills, and to build up your website or blog so that you can reach out to more people.
Teaches Classes about Woodworking to Others
Teaching a class about woodworking is easily doable from your own home. If you already have a workshop set up, then all you need to do is find a way to help people along as you instruct them. How do you do it?
The first way (and one of the most common) is creating a video class. These classes can be featured on your own video sites – like YouTube – or you can place them on sites such as Udemy and Skillshare.
Second, you could create a detailed written guide, or even an e-book. Essentially, this document would have pictures, text, and diagrams to demonstrate everything to the students. You could consider selling this with the videos.
Cost of entry: For a class, you’ll need some way of delivering the course to your students. Some people use their website, but many will put their classes on a site, such as Udemy. You’ll probably need to invest in a decent camera and microphone to make good videos for the class. Also, you’ll need to set aside time to answer student questions.
However, if you already have the tools and the knowledge, there isn’t a huge monetary cost to starting a class.
How to make money: To make money, people will pay for the class. To sell the class, you can either advertise it on your own website, or you can upload it to one of the well-known online class sites. Every time someone purchases your class, you will make money. The more students you have, the more money you’ll make.
Many people use an online class as a way to grow other aspects of their woodworking business, such as a blog or a YouTube channel. So, in this way, think of the video class as another element of your woodworking home business.
How to grow: To grow an online woodworking class, you can do several things. For one, you can offer special memberships perks, such as extra videos, or more classes (for example, an advanced woodworking class that you advertise to people after they’ve finished the beginner class).
You could also provide video consulting, where you answer someone’s questions over a video call. Finally, if you have a large local following, you could offer private lessons where people come to your workshop to learn.
Refurbishing Other Old Wood Projects
Some of you might not have the space or the ability to build original projects from scratch. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t partake in the joys of woodworking – or the joy of making money from home.
Many people will refurbish old furniture and then flip it. How do you do this? You will pick up old and abused furniture from your area and then give it a makeover – you sand it down, repair it, and repaint it. You can be creative with it, and you don’t need a lot of super advanced carpentry tools (though, there is still a learning curve).
Cost of entry: You will need to buy some basic tools, such as a sander, paintbrushes, and polyurethane. Also, you’ll need to take some time to build up your skills. Refinishing furniture takes a lot more than just slapping on a coat of paint – you’ll need to sand it down, repair the wood beneath, prime it, paint it, top coat it – and on top of that, you’ll need to give it a flare of creativity that catches someone’s eye.
How to make money: You can make money several ways. Flip furniture and then resell it locally. For two, you could take on custom work. For example, some people might want you to repaint something for them. They would bring it to you and pay you to do the work.
How to grow: To grow, you’ll need to get better and better at your skills and start taking on bigger projects. Many people will be willing to pay more for something like a dresser. Also, you can start a blog about the process, teach a class, or create videos that inform and entertain others about refurbishing.
Okay, now it’s time to wrap all this up with a conclusion.
Conclusion: Making Money While Woodworking From Home
If you want to be a professional woodworker, realize that it will take time and dedication. There is no shortcut, and you’ll notice that nothing in this list is a gimmick or a hack – everything here requires real work, time investment, and persistence. However, if you’re dedicated, there are many ways you can make money woodworking from your own home.
You can start making and selling your own projects, you can create cool projects with a CNC machine or a laser cutter, you could start a blog or a video channel and show people what you’re doing, you could start an online class and teach students from all over the world, you could refurbish old furniture, and you can create custom digital plans and then sell them on your website.
Where do you start? Pick up one of these ideas and give it a go! Remember, the only way to build a viable business is with hard work, patience, and persistence. Nothing worth doing is easy!