Home business chopping boards. Oiler divided by blade walls. Home Production Ideas for Men

* Calculations use average data for Russia

Initial investments:

from 200 000 ₽

Required area:

Today, carpentry workshops are becoming a rarity, so before starting your own business in this direction, you should seriously think about what products you can offer to the market.

A carpentry workshop is a business that can become not only your hobby or a means of earning, but also a calling. Thus, a deed that brings both material and spiritual satisfaction, pleasing both soul and pocket. But for such a happy combination, you will have to try very, very hard. In this article, we will not talk about creating a large carpentry shop, but confine ourselves to actual advice on opening a small workshop at home “for one” with the prospect of turning self-employment into something more.

Pros and cons of joinery as a business

Benefits	disadvantages
the carpentry business belongs to the so-called business “on the ground”: workshops are opened on their own sites, in garages, sheds, and so on. You work at home, and at home, as they say, walls help; such a material as wood will always be in demand even in the era of super popular plastic. This is a natural and environmentally friendly material that has been associated with home comfort among people for centuries and remains so today. Moreover, many things are still impossible to make from something other than wood; the carpentry business has low costs relative to many other types of business; carpentry means wide range products that you can produce. And this means that you can always readjust to the production of other types of wooden products and choose a new niche if they suddenly become unpopular and market conditions change; carpentry business is a certain freedom in the issue of pricing. Wooden products can cost both a penny and hundreds of thousands of rubles. It all depends on your skill level and ability to sell your products dearly.	a carpentry shop cannot exist without a master. This is the kind of business where you will need to invest yourself and all your strength - the exact opposite of the modern so-called methods of "passive earnings"; as in any business “for one”, everything is limited by your physical strength and time. Often many people, coming from work for hire, are disappointed and understand that “doing business for yourself” is not when you work when you want, but when you always work; it is no secret that carpentry workshops today are a dying business. This is due to large factories that produce products cheaper and present them in large construction and furniture stores and hypermarkets; carpentry workshops usually do not have any permanent and large orders for one master, so it takes a lot of time to form customer base, execution of small orders; there are great risks in joinery work injuries... Severed fingers and serious cuts are common; the financial return on the expended efforts in most cases does not justify itself. Most single workshops are effective different reasons (unclaimed assortment, incorrect pricing policy, inability to sell and find a client) cannot build a business in such a way that it brings them constant and high income.

The first thing to start with in the carpentry business is the presence of hands and the desire to create something with these hands. People who are going to open a carpentry workshop, and even more so, to make money on it, should focus on improving their skills. But before starting to seriously embark on the issues of arranging the premises and equipping it with equipment, you need at least in general terms to understand the current situation on the market. The business approach to carpentry differs from the hobby approach in three ways. This is a rational and deeply thought-out approach to the choice of specialization, to the quality of work and to the methods of promotion.

The first place to start is with the question of what exactly you will be producing. Wood is a material with an infinite number of uses. First, look at what small carpentry shops specialize in today, that is, your future competitors, and how they are doing.

Carpentry shops usually have two options regarding the choice of assortment: broad specialization or narrow specialization. In the first case, the emphasis is on quantity (more customers, more assortment, more choice), in the second - on quality (narrow assortment, high quality performance, narrow audience). In other words, if you learn to create many different wood products, you can offer them to more people, and by focusing on one or two products, it will be easier for you to improve your craft and create exclusive products.

What products can carpentry workshops produce:

Doors / windows... The most obvious solution for a carpentry workshop is to create doors and window blocks that everyone needs, and earn extra money from installing them. The problem is that doors and windows have been actively “stamped” for a long time major manufacturersand the market is very saturated today. The carpentry workshop is in most cases useless to compete with factories. The price for these products will still be cheaper, and it became difficult to surprise the customer with anything.

Stairs... Ladders give you more room for creativity. Unlike doors and windows, the carpentry workshop, which specializes in staircases, has the opportunity to offer original sizes, unusual shapes, unusual breeds, and a unique performance in general. However, there are already many companies on the market that create ladders and have achieved high level skills in their field, and it will be very difficult to catch up with them from scratch.

Furniture... The situation with furniture is about the same as with the first two categories. Now on the market there is a huge amount of furniture for every taste and budget. Thanks to such hypermarkets as Castorama, Leroy Merlin, Ikea furniture is becoming an increasingly affordable and mass product. However, even the variety that is on the market leaves many opportunities for creating an exclusive range that cannot be found in stores. A small workshop can rely on an original assortment, offering tables, chairs, chests of drawers, wardrobes, armchairs, etc. from expensive types of wood and with an unusual design.

Small goods. This broad category of goods, which has one quality in common - size. Here we mean souvenir goods, and all kinds of gift kitchen sets with cutting boards, spatulas and rolling pins, and frames with baguettes, and board games, wooden toys (unusual ideas wooden toys can be viewed) and so on. If, say, in jewelry, size does not matter, then in carpentry everything is different. Even for an author's wooden product made from expensive wood, you cannot help out a lot, since the price of 1500-2000 rubles will seem to the buyer excessively high. An ordinary consumer will always have an alternative in the form of a plastic product at a price 5-10 times cheaper. Connoisseurs of original art will always have to be obtained with great difficulty. Therefore, before deciding on the production of wooden toys, pipes, salt shakers, ashtrays, cutting or gingerbread boards and other things, think about whether you can regularly produce and sell at least 50 of these small products in order to get at least 50 thousand for them. rubles. Or is it better to make one chest of drawers in the same time and sell it for the same money?

How best to position your products today

The second question, which is also better to think about in advance, is the issue of unique selling proposition and the issue of quality. To make your products different from what the mass market offers, first of all, pay attention to the material. First, what kind of tree will it be? What colors and what consumables will you use? What will be the design of your products?

* according to Yandex Wordstat as of 12.09.2018

What room is needed for the carpentry shop

Let's return to more traditional questions related to the opening of the workshop itself. To accommodate a small carpentry shop, a room with an area of \u200b\u200b50-60 square meters is best suited. meters. Renting such premises will cost about 20 thousand rubles a month.

Average rent per rent industrial premises in Russia, rubles *

Premises 50-60 sq. m	Premises 70-80 sq. m.

* according to the analysis of Avito ads as of 09/12/2018

Of course, not everyone can afford to rent, especially at the start. Therefore, most often carpentry workshops are opened at home, using sheds, garages or basements for these purposes.

Ready ideas for your business

When choosing an area, first of all, you need to take into account the length of the room. If you will be engaged in the manufacture of door and window frames, then the length of the room should in no way be less than four meters. The interior of the workshop should be warm and dry, as wood is afraid of moisture. When equipping the room, do not forget that you need even floors, as the machines must be stable.

For smooth operation it is advisable to supply the workshop room with three-phase electricity. In the event that the workshop room is built of wood, the wiring must be laid in wires or corrugated pipes, and sockets and equipment must be grounded.

If the workshop will be located close to housing, take care of soundproofing the walls and doors. It is desirable that the windows face in the direction where there are no residential buildings. It is also necessary to comply with the requirements for fire safety... The interior cladding of joiners is usually treated with fire retardants, which prevent fires. It is advisable to have a dry powder fire extinguisher in the building, or at least a bucket of sand in case electrical appliances catch fire.

Ready ideas for your business

Many workshops do not pay much attention to ventilation. However, without an influx of fresh air into the workshop, you are doomed to constantly inhaling wood dust. And this threatens certain health problems, which you can easily find out about from the Internet.

What equipment is needed for the carpentry shop

The equipment issue is one of the most difficult to plan a carpentry workshop. It should be borne in mind that there is no universal and generally accepted list for the carpentry workshop. The choice of equipment depends on a large number of variables: what exactly is produced in the workshop, the area of \u200b\u200bthe premises, the volume of production, the experience of the master, and so on.

Therefore, you only have a desire to create wooden products, say, your own furniture, and you only have experience in making simple products that do not require any special tools (tables, simple shelves, stools, etc.). In this case, you should start not with the purchase of serious units and machine tools, the purpose of which you do not yet have a clear idea of, but with the acquisition of the basic set itself. It can be conditionally divided into four groups.

The minimum basic set of tools that will allow you to create simple furniture

Hand tool	Accessories and consumables	Measuring instruments	Power tool
Saw for wood and metal hand		Roulette 3-5 meters	Screwdriver
Manual planers and planers	Clamping clamps	Metal ruler 50-100 cm	Hammer drill
Mallet with rubber or wooden striker	Forstner drills for drilling blind holes with flat bottom	Metal elbow, side 30 cm.	Jigsaw
Nail hammer	Drills for metal with a diameter of 2 to 10 mm in increments of 0.5 to 1 mm	Level 50-60 cm	Belt sander
Wood chisels (set)	Drills for wood with a diameter of 2 to 12 mm
Straight and Phillips screwdrivers (set)	Carbide tipped drills
Furniture stapler	Screwdriver bits (set)
Pliers	Marker or pencil
Shoe knife

Adjustable wrench

If you do not spend money on buying a workbench, but assemble it manually, then 30-40 thousand rubles will be enough to buy such a set. With a wider scope, screwdrivers and jigsaws, of course, cannot be enough, the list will expand significantly, and it will take at least 200 thousand rubles to equip the workshop, and more than 300 thousand rubles with the purchase of a good milling machine.

A sample list of equipment for a small carpentry shop

Here are some guidelines for purchasing and using equipment that carpentry shop owners advise to adhere to:

The price of equipment should correspond to the level of development of your business... Many craftsmen with no experience are tempted to spend money on unjustifiably expensive equipment that does not correspond to the level of development of their business and needs, and also does not provide any significant advantages in speed / quality. It should be remembered that expensive equipment of elite brands is always less liquid than cheap and “popular” equipment. It is both more expensive to maintain and more difficult to sell. Therefore, for a start, it is better to do with the most proven devices. For example, if your products do not have a great length, the so-called molding, there is not much sense in necessarily purchasing a milling machine for 100 thousand rubles or more. For a start, it is better to get by with a hand router, which can do almost the same thing, but it will cost several times cheaper.

Strive for equipment versatility... You should not unnecessarily fork out for those types of equipment that can be replaced or that will be idle just like that. For example, spend money on a plunge-cut saw with a guide rail when cheaper and more versatile circular tables exist. Even if you need to dissolve the sheet, it is easier and faster to use the services of firms that own panel saws, which can at a low price and with more high quality dissolve the sheet.

Purchase new equipment gradually or with large orders... It is most reasonable to think about purchasing new equipment as skill grows and after large orders. The rest of the time, you should try to gradually set aside a small share of the profit for amortization expenses, and from them to acquire new machines.

Observe priority principles when placing equipment... If drilling and lathes are located near the workbench, then the grinding machines are placed at some distance from the workplace. In addition, a good craftsman should always have everything at hand, so the workbench usually has cabinets, racks and hanging shelves.

Do not forget about safety precautions. As safe and familiar as the process may seem, have a first aid kit nearby. Also use safety glasses, heavy clothing. Work with buttoned sleeves; if your hair is long, hide it in a hat.

Don't clutter up. When arranging the premises, keep in mind the purchase of new machines in the future. Ideally, the free space should be twice the space for the machines. Lack of space can disrupt technological process... The work plane must be approached from several sides. Also, you should not turn the room into a warehouse: the tree should go into circulation, and not roll around in the corners.

Do I need to hire workers in the carpentry shop

At the initial stage, while the volumes are small, it is easier and faster for the master to act alone. However, this does not mean that no hired force will ever be useful to you. Carpenters usually require rough work assistants or an apprentice. They can carry boards, jointer, remove shavings and debris, or perform other simple tasks. As work force usually used by teenagers looking for a summer job or young people.

It is worth noting that experienced carpenters are usually in no hurry to grow a full-fledged replacement for themselves. And their fears are understandable: there is a great risk of growing out of a student into a competitor who can win over clients. Therefore, the business is often limited to auxiliary workers with contractual wages.

Please note that average salary carpenter in Russia at the time of this writing is about 38 thousand rubles, in Moscow and St. Petersburg - about 54.5 thousand rubles. Therefore, if you are sure that your net income will not differ much from these figures, think again about the advisability of opening your workshop. Today the word "business" is very popular, but at such low rpm, being hired will have much more advantages compared to sailing on your own. In this case, it is wiser to continue to engage in the production of wood products in the form of a part-time job and a hobby, gradually gaining experience and a client base.

Average level of salaries for the professions “joiner / carpenter”, “assistant carpenter / carpenter”, rubles.

* according to announcements on the Avito website 12.09.2018

If you have an idea to open a carpentry workshop, but you yourself are not going to work in it, then the chances of finding a free joiner who will work for you are close to zero. All experienced masters, as a rule, are attached and have a good income, and “worse and cheaper” masters often abuse alcohol or have experience of being in places not so remote and, shall we say, lost to society. In this case, it will be easier and more rational for you to place your orders with existing workshops and pay for their work, and then deal with the sale of finished products.

In everyone's apartment in the kitchen there is a tool necessary for cutting various products - a cutting board. Initially, it was stone, then iron, bronze, and only then it became wooden.

Although plastic counterparts have recently appeared, wood planks are still popular. I recently managed to get into a workshop where cutting boards are made, but what I saw did not go with my ideas about such a simple utilitarian kitchen item on which vegetables, meat and other food are cut.

As a theater begins with a coat rack, a workshop where wood products are made starts from a warehouse where wood is. To our master, whose work will be discussed today, it comes ready-made, dried at a certain temperature for several years. Fresh wood cannot be used for the production of boards, since the finished product will deform over time from shrinkage.

Here in the warehouse a certain temperature regime and air humidity are maintained, which prevent the wood from drying out too much and becoming too humid. This table, which hangs on the wall of the workshop, shows the optimal percentage of humidity at different temperatures.

There is also a hygrometer that shows the degree of humidity in the room. True, the master said that he had incorrect readings).

For the manufacture of some boards with a particularly complex pattern, a CNC machine (numerical control) is used. The machine is small, it is enough to connect a laptop with a predefined program to it.

The drawing of the board on which the cutter is currently working is inspired by the famous work of Maurits Escher "Reptiles".

The cutter will work wonders if desired

This is how the board looks after the machine is running. If you look closely, you will see that this future board is glued from pieces. We will find out why this is done further.

If the base of the board is made of walnut, then the inserts are cut from other types of wood, differing in texture and color - oak and rosewood.

As the master told me, the machine cut out the figures on the board in such a way that when inserting other figures of reptiles, no gaps were found. The figures turn out to be very tightly fitted to each other.

In this photo you can see examples of gluing. The multi-colored section is glued from different types of wood. One of the most difficult boards to manufacture will be glued from such material. At the end of the post, you can see her.

The master takes a simple board, processes it, aligns the edges. Then the board is cut into pieces, which are turned by the butt end and glued together. Moreover, the gluing is done not in an arbitrary order, but in a special way so that the annual rings are directed in opposite directions, this will prevent the boards from deforming when the humidity changes.

Why is this done? Due to the vertical arrangement of the wood fibers, the knives do not dull longer, since the knife blade does not cut the fibers, as in ordinary boards, but penetrates between them - it slides. The fibers return to their original state after culinary hassle on it. Accordingly, the board does not deteriorate, and the chefs do not have to sharpen their knives several times per shift, as is the case with conventional boards.

In addition to walnut, hornbeam, ash, maple, oak and beech, valuable wood species such as American cherry, movingu, mahogany are also used as material. As you can see from the markings on the wood, it is from the USA, there is from South America and Africa.

Other types of wood.

After the wood is cut into pieces and turned upside down, it is glued together and clamped in clamps - a special press. As you can see, there are shields of different thicknesses. The thicker one will become the board, and the thinner shields will be used to cut patterns and shapes on the surface of future boards, like the figures from "Reptile". After gluing, the shield will be ready in an hour, but it is recommended to load it after 24 hours.

For gluing, a special glue is used that does not have formaldehyde in its composition, is allowed for contact with food and has great water resistance.

This is how the room looks like, where all the tools necessary for carpentry are located.

Cleanliness and order is perfect! As you may have noticed, the workshop has all the machines and tools for making any wooden product... A carpenter's paradise

Special clamps for large boards.

We will not touch that board with reptiles for now, work on it will take more than one hour, therefore we will process another. After it is glued, it is driven through this grinding machine - a thickness gauge. In fact, this is a modern plane.

Then the sides of the board are cut with a circular saw.

The sides are sanded on another machine with vertical belt movement. The corners are immediately rounded.

Then the board is again driven through the drum sander.

This time the surfaces are sanded more delicately. However, this is not all.

Pumps are attached to each machine to collect sawdust from wood processing. After processing by machine tools, the product is polished with a hand grinder. First, a coarser sandpaper of 120 grit is used, then 240 grit in order to finally polish the board

Finishing touches to round off the edges and you can say the board is finished.

After all the above operations, the board takes a bath of mineral oil, which has neither taste, nor color, nor smell. The oil is made from petroleum, but it is completely safe, and it is even used in the cosmetic field.

The same board with reptiles, which is shown at the beginning of the post, will turn into the same one. After a while, when the board is saturated with oil, it will be allowed to dry, then treated again with a hot mixture of mineral oil and wax in a ratio of 4/1.

Other boards are sent to the same oil bath.

And now let's go to the "Show room" of elite cutting boards). In this room, the boards are packed and await a meeting with their future owner.

Hygrometers monitor humidity levels.

This board just tore my mold about simple, utilitarian kitchen utensils! I can't even imagine how you can dare to shred food on a work of art

It took a lot of hours to create a 3D effect board. By the way, these boards are the most expensive, and it is clear why.

And this board can be safely hung instead of a picture!

The master also makes special boards for beating meat. There are even grooves for blood drainage.

I will also add that the end boards, due to the material and production features, are thick and heavy, but they do not roll on the cook's table / work surface. No need to put a rag or wet wipe / towel underneath, hold at risk. The boards are additionally equipped with rubber (sometimes silicone or plastic) legs, which are insurance against water accidentally getting under the board.

After the board has passed all the stages production process, it is packed in a film.

A little hot air and you're done.

This map shows where the ordered boards went - mainly Russia, Europe, the USA, there is even Japan and Australia.

Material selection
Made from solid material: saw cut wood, wide board or plywood sheet
Step 1: design
Step 2: preparing the tools
Step 3: processing the wood
Step 4: details
Step 5: protect
How to make a board from fragments
More ideas

The cutting board must be clean and sturdy. It can perform 2 functions: be a decorative accessory, serve as a cooking device.

The creation of a kitchen board is a creative process that does not have a clear algorithm.

What can be a cutting board

The technical composition must be free of toxic impurities.

The groups are fastened with clamps, aligned with slats in the upper and lower planes (see photo).

When the glue dries, the group workpieces are sanded and planed to give evenness.

Dividing a large board into narrow pieces allows you to machine workpieces. Oriented to the width of the planing equipment working areas.

The processed group workpieces are leveled in thickness, glued, lubricating the side ends with glue, and fix the structure with clamps.

Step 5: trimming and final sanding

When the glue dries, the board is cut to the desired size, the surface is sanded again. The corners can be rounded off with a router.

A small groove is cut along the perimeter of the board. There will accumulate juice formed when cutting food.

Step 6: oil treatment

The finished product is treated with oil.

In a similar way, a board is made from fragments of any shape.

More ideas

For boards, you can use driftwood, unusual fragments of wood. Sometimes clear forms are avoided, they are dispensed with by grinding and impregnating the product with protective oil.

In the finished board, you can cut a hole to remove scraps, grind the cut, attach legs to the board, etc.

Care

Wood boards absorb odors and accumulate bacteria. To prevent this from happening, you should polish, soak the product with oil at least 3 times a year. The service life of the board will increase.

In the apartment of each reader of this reportage in the kitchen there is a tool necessary for cutting various products - a cutting board. Initially, it was stone, then iron, bronze, and only then it became wooden). Although plastic counterparts have recently appeared, wood planks are still popular. I recently managed to get into a workshop where cutting boards are made, but what I saw did not go well with my ideas about such a simple utilitarian kitchen item on which vegetables, meat and other food are cut.

Today, in we will learn how the most expensive cutting boards are made in Russia.

There is also a hygrometer that shows the degree of humidity in the room. True, the master said that he had incorrect readings).

For the manufacture of some boards with a particularly complex pattern, a cnc machine (numerical control) is used. The machine is small, it is enough to connect a laptop with a predefined program to it.
The drawing of the board on which the cutter is currently working is inspired by the famous work of Maurits Escher "Reptiles".

The cutter will work wonders if desired).

This is how the board looks after the machine is running. If you look closely, you will see that this future board is glued from pieces. We will find out why this is done further.

If the base of the board is made of walnut, then the inserts are cut from other types of wood, differing in texture and color - oak and rosewood.

Other types of wood.

For gluing, a special glue is used that does not have formaldehyde in its composition, is allowed for contact with food and has great water resistance.

This is how the room looks like, where all the tools necessary for carpentry are located.

Cleanliness and order is perfect! As you may have noticed, the workshop has all the machines and tools for making any wooden product. A real carpenter's paradise).

Special clamps for large boards.

Then the sides of the board are cut with a circular saw.

The sides are sanded on another machine with vertical belt movement. The corners are immediately rounded.

Then the board is again driven through the drum sander.

This time the surfaces are sanded more delicately. However, this is not all.

Finishing touches to round off the edges and you can say the board is finished.

Other boards are sent to the same oil bath.

And now let's go to the "Show room" of elite cutting boards). In this room, the boards are packed and await a meeting with their future owner.

Hygrometers monitor humidity levels.

This board just tore my mold about simple, utilitarian kitchen utensils! I can't even imagine how you can dare to shred food on a work of art).

It took a lot of hours to create a 3D effect board. By the way, these boards are the most expensive, and it is clear why.

And this board can be safely hung instead of a picture!

The master also makes special boards for beating meat. There are even grooves for blood drainage.

After the board has passed all the stages of the production process, it is packed in film.

A little hot air and you're done.

This map shows where the ordered boards went - mainly Russia, Europe, the USA, there is even Japan and Australia.

Well, for those who want to do with my own hands end cutting board - master class. If you have all the tools and machines shown above, then go for it!

And as a bonus, watch the video of how boards with drawings are made, just great!

We continue to talk about people who, despite economic difficulties, take risks and create, albeit small, but their own own business... Earlier we wrote about the lawyer Svetlana Korabel, who bought a farm in the region and. Also our hero was a DOSAAF teacher from Verkhnyaya Pyshma, who. The history of the blacksmith businessmen is also curious.

We learned about the hero of our today's publication thanks to Facebook. Just before the New Year, photos of joyful people with cutting boards began to appear there more and more often. Then it was completely unclear what it was, but the price - from 2 to 6 thousand rubles - surprised and intrigued.

They are made by Mikhail Zernin. Looking at his photo, you might think that he is a middle manager, if not an executive. But no - he's a joiner.

But until last summer, Mikhail, like his wife, worked in the field of HR and was engaged in corporate trainings. Near four years they lived in Moscow, since their wife was offered a good position, and Mikhail got a good job. However, they immediately decided that they were in Moscow temporarily in order to earn an apartment.

When we returned to Yekaterinburg in 2014, I found a job similar to the one in Moscow. But somehow I quickly realized that I was no longer interested in this. Moreover, I got into a company that worked according to the old foundations. As a result, I quit, - recalls Mikhail.

For a while, Mikhail simply did not know what to do. Such a process of finding oneself. But I had to earn something, and therefore I started freelancing - once or twice a month I conducted training, and the rest of the time I was free.

My brother makes wooden stairs in his workshop in Sukhoi Log. And I saw a bunch of enhancers on the Internet - various business card holders, phone holders - made of wood and decided to try to make them, - says Mikhail.

We communicate with him in the workshop, which is located in the basement of the Yekaterinburg Art Fund on Onufrieva. In fact, there is a joinery coworking space (we have one, it turns out), where people can come to work with their hands.

February 2016 became a turning point for Mikhail. Someone of his friends threw him a link to a video on how to make butt-cutting boards. And asked to make him the same.

Still, we will tell you what an end cutting board is. Its main difference from the standard one is that the wood fibers are located perpendicular to the cut surface, and the knife blade, as it were, pushes the fibers apart. When using a regular board, the knife simply cuts the fibers and because of this quickly becomes blunt.

When I made some boards, I posted the photos on Facebook. As a business coach, I am used to receiving feedback... As a result, I received many comments “Wow!”, And some asked to do the same for them. It inspired me to continue, - explains Mikhail.

Mikhail made the first board for sale in March 2016. Its cost was determined quite simply - the cost of materials and the road to his brother's carpentry workshop, as well as a markup of 20-30% (although in joinery it usually amounts to hundreds of percent). As a result, 6,900 rubles came out for a large board made of American walnut and ash.

For comparison, an ordinary cutting board costs from 500 rubles, and quite a high-quality one - from 1000 rubles. However, end boards are, in principle, much more expensive - on bulletin boards in Yekaterinburg you can find options for 4-6 thousand rubles. One of the market leaders is the manufacturer from Izhevsk MTM Wood - their cost of some options reaches 22 thousand rubles. Such a high price is associated not only with a large amount of manual labor and the duration of the manufacturing process, but also with the cost of materials - rare wood species cost up to 400 thousand rubles per cubic meter.

In parallel, Mikhail continued to engage in trainings, since his hobby could not yet feed his family.

I did the last trainings without much pleasure. Although before my work ignited. At some point, I realized that it was time to finish - in the summer of 2016 I conducted the last training, - Mikhail recalls.

By that time, the hobby was gradually gaining momentum - he made five to seven boards a month. But with an average check of 4-5 thousand rubles, the amount was not very large.

Despite this, Mikhail decides to take a radical step - he sells his Renault for 500 thousand. Part of the money immediately invested in the purchase of machines: drum-grinding (about 50 thousand), a band saw (also for 50 thousand), CNC milling machine (150 thousand). Plus, it uses the equipment that is in the carpentry coworking.

To sell boards, Mikhail made a shop on the resource "Fair of Masters", where similar masters display their products. But sales didn't go there. Mikhail attracts most of his Russian clients through Facebook.

Sales on the American site Etsy.com went much better. The first board was sold there only seven months later, but now customers come from there regularly.

Approximately 70% of sales are accounted for by Russian buyers, and 30% - by foreign (most often - the USA). Prices are slightly different: for example, for Russians, a board costs 6,500 rubles, and for foreigners - 150 dollars. The difference is explained by the commissions of the online platform where the goods are exhibited, as well as delivery costs.

Mikhail does not regret the radical changes in his life.

Every day I have a feeling that it was not in vain that I changed my field of activity so abruptly. Especially when I look at the world map, where I mark the cities where my boards were bought from. So far there are 58 such points, - says Mikhail. - Now the boards feed me and my family. December turned out to be very good - more than 20 pieces were made and sold. We managed to both earn and increase the base.

In such production, word of mouth is important for promotion - people like Mikhail's boards, they write about it in social networks, tell their friends, and as a result, new clients appear. By the way, Mikhail also came up with the name thanks to Facebook.

It was originally a Handcraftedgift, which means handmade gifts. But at one of the exhibitions, the presenter simply could not pronounce it. Then I decided to announce a competition on my page, - said Mikhail.

This is how the Zernin handcrafted brand was born. In principle, it is quite a logical step - with his surname Mikhail guarantees quality.

If we talk about income from such an unusual business, then a decent profit appeared only in November. The best was December, when more than 20 boards were sold. Mikhail says that this is exactly the level to provide for a family normally. But even in this case, the income will be less than, for example, it was in Moscow.

Mikhail is calm about this. Now he is 34 years old. He admits that he makes plans for a maximum of a year. For example, he plans to try to make a table using end technology, to launch the production of chess boards (a couple of them have already been). However, he expects that in five years he will be engaged in carpentry production. It's great when a hobby becomes a source of income.

If you also do interesting business, production, then write about this to Sergey Panin by mail [email protected]website or in any of the messengers by phone +79193707070.