Toronto Craft Alert

The author, Adam King

Today my husband, who is a custom furniture maker, sent me this piece from a section on FineWoodworking.com called “Reflections from the workshops”.  In it a woodworker muses about where he went wrong trying to start a woodworking biz from a conventional business standpoint.  Despite its title, “This secret cost me $20,000, but I’ll let you have it for free.” I didn’t find that it provided a concrete answer to a dilemma that many of us face – how to make our life’s passion financially sustainable without abandoning our personal vision the process – but I did find that it raised a lot of valuable points.   Here is a short excerpt:

If you’re planning on making a living from your passion, then you need to absorb entrepreneurial training into that passion. If you’re not passionate about becoming an entrepreneur than you’re just not passionate about your own success. There’s no way around it. Entrepreneurial thinking paves the way for working honestly and harmoniously with your values, principles, talents, and passions. You use these as tools for success instead of limitations to your success.

He ends by asking the readers to comment with their own experiences, and I found some of these comments to be pretty enlightening (even if some were woodworking specific).

Anyone involved in the process of starting (or hey, full out running) a craft biz would probably benefit from a read through.  Check it out right here.

I’d love for you to share any thoughts, questions, or advice the article inspires on the TCA.  We can all benefit from sharing our experiences – this is not easy stuff to go through on our own, friends.

xjenx