In terms of time, it was by far the busiest week for the project. In terms of money, it was by far the worst. In terms of potential, I think it was the best week we’ve had so far!
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It had been a slow few weeks before this, with almost no progress made. I needed to re-engage the time and effort, so I posted pictures of the “Farmhouse Style” table that I built for Pam on Facebook, and offered to build them for others. I thought if I could sell just one, I would give the project a nice boost. 

So, on Sunday, I headed to my garage and got my tools out (and also sold the file cabinet I grabbed a few weeks ago at an auction… bonus!). It was a nice day, and pretty comfortable to work outside, and I had a good plan. I worked on the tables for about 7 hours, and really enjoyed it. It was certainly a long and hard day, and quite a different type of work than my day-to-day job. 

As far as the profit potential for the tables, I originally quoted our customers $450 for the rectangle table and $500 for the round table. If these sales successfully go through, that means that I will return a profit of $650-700, which more than doubles the total project profit to-date! Plus, I think this is a repeatable venture, and might be worth pursing further.

Once the sales are complete, I will evaluate (and post updates here) on the process and any improvements I can think of, and my thoughts on the business opportunity and if I should pursue it. I do think there’s some pretty good, reproducible opportunity and I really enjoy building things, so I definitely have to consider it!

Thanks again for reading, and follow closely for some exciting updates as we explore this new venture! If you want to stay up-to-date, sign up for our email newsletter at the bottom of the page!  

It’s been a slow few weeks as personal and family activities hit their typical summer-time highs. That’s part of the game, though. Like many of us, my family is my first priority, and anything I ever venture to do will always have to be adapted and integrated into my life. We’ve had a ton of fun, had some new experiences with the boys, and were able to spend some time with friends we hadn’t seen in a long time. It’s been fantastic!

Looking forward, I can see some weeks/weekends without major plans, so I think it’s time to get back to work! Since I first posted up my table online and offered to sell custom-built options, I’ve received two interested customers within a week, which is great. This week, I’ll be working with them to understand the design they want, go and purchase materials, and get working on building their tables (and anything else that they want!). It will require some pretty substantial investment from the project money, but I’m confident we will get a good return on our investment, and this might just be the boost the project needs!

I’m also looking into “making it official”, which I think is a huge step mentally and emotionally. I think it’s probably time to formally create our first micro-business, file an LLC, and get the proper permits/licenses to sell things. This is a somewhat expensive and time consuming paperwork exercise, but I think it’s a HUGE step for us. We are officially starting a business! I’m not sure my exact strategy yet, but I think I’ll create a general LLC for business activities, and create “Doing Business As” filings for the different brands/efforts when needed (for example, “Nathan’s Company” will be the LLC, and will be Doing Business As “Nathan’s Custom Furniture” and “Nathan’s Garage Sale Items”… This will be a valuable thing to learn, and will add legitimacy to my ventures. Plus, I will then be covered legally and mitigate any liability risk I might encounter.

While the dollars aren’t stacking up quite as fast as I’d like day-to-day, I do feel that we are laying a good foundation for taking our project to a very small, but very real level of business, enabling us to make bigger gains at a time. Plus, I’m gaining invaluable knowledge and experience that will certainly help in the future when we try even “bigger” things. I’ve very excited on where this is going, and enjoying every minute of it!
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Thanks for stopping buy, don’t stop hustling!