Here you go Steve:)

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I went at my Natural Edge jewlery box's today and finished five, that will be it for this week as I have to make 6 Birdseye Maple trays tomorrow and 7 large Picture frames. Thursday and Friday are my rock wall, Saturday and Sunday is a massive craft show at the largest University in Halifax, we do extremely well at this show as it's in the richest part of the city. The first three are Indian Rosewood, very, very dark wood and the final two are Murimarachi. I imported these woods from Peru and Costa Rica. Then, and I should start a separate post as I am curious. During the season I start work at sunrise and generally get home after dark so I tend to eat on the road pretty much 7 days a week, we do however eat healthy food. Maybe Chicken wings or pizza twice a month, we stay clear of the fast food joints. Anyhow I had to go to the city at 7 a.m. to pick up two cases of Non Reflective Conservation Glass, decided I would stop by an Italian area for fresh pasta, then headed to the wharf to buy Sea Trout. OMG the supper I made was friggin amazing. My son left class early and drove home from University (45 min) when I told him what I was making and my daughter came home from school all smiles.....they love my cooking. I was curious how many others like to cook and what is their favorite dish. My classic is Pepper Steak, it honestly is amazing according to everyone who has tried it, you can cut my steak with your fork.

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Andy
Halifax, Nova Scotia

[Steve]

Lawn care business tips

That is really cool! Do you have to use any hardware to allow the drawers to slide in and out or no? Also, how the heck do you create those drawers! Do you start with drilling a hole and then saw the drawer out and then hollow each one? Do you cut all the way through and have to put a piece of wood as backing on the back or do you not cut all the way through? Its almost as if you used a laser to cut them each out. It's amazing!

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[picframer]

Originally Posted by Steve

That is really cool! Do you have to use any hardware to allow the drawers to slide in and out or no?

Also, how the heck do you create those drawers! Do you start with drilling a hole and then saw the drawer out and then hollow each one?

Do you cut all the way through and have to put a piece of wood as backing on the back or do you not cut all the way through?

Its almost as if you used a laser to cut them each out. It's amazing!

In short the first thing you do is cut the back off and set it aside, then lay the box on it's back and with a 1/16" blade in the bandsaw, make only one entry point and start cutting the drawers out, next cut the front and back of the drawer off, hollow out the drawer, glue back together, glue the back on, sand and finish.

No hardware required

[Steve]

That is cool! I would have never thought of doing it that way.
What's the biggest sized natural edge box you have ever done like that?

I'd imagine they could get pretty big if you wanted to work with bigger pieces of wood.

[picframer]

Originally Posted by Steve

That is cool! I would have never thought of doing it that way.
What's the biggest sized natural edge box you have ever done like that?

I'd imagine they could get pretty big if you wanted to work with bigger pieces of wood.

9 Drawer, made in in February it was a major ordeal for $400.00, I can make 10 X 2 drawer which sell for $85.00 in the same amount of time and the 2 drawers sell as fast as I make them.

[Steve]

That is fascinating! It seems as with everything, there is a sweet spot that has to be hit to maximize profits. If you go too big, you could lose out on sales and profits, while if you go to small, you could lose out just the same.

[picframer]

Originally Posted by Steve

That is fascinating! It seems as with everything, there is a sweet spot that has to be hit to maximize profits. If you go too big, you could lose out on sales and profits, while if you go to small, you could lose out just the same.

It very difficult at times, I made the same mistake in woodworking as I did in lawn care, what I thought would be a hit, fell flat. So I had to go a different route, in woodworking my son and I are at the top of the food chain when it comes to prices, we get it as I have never seen anything that we make elsewhere including the internet.

[Steve]

When you are trying to find that sweet spot whether it be in lawn care or wood working, how much of it just comes down to experimentation or how much of it is looking at what others are doing and replicating it?

[picframer]

Originally Posted by Steve

When you are trying to find that sweet spot whether it be in lawn care or wood working, how much of it just comes down to experimentation or how much of it is looking at what others are doing and replicating it?

For woodworking and Lawn Care is was listening to the customer, "Do you make....." If I herd it three times I made it, the other thing I did is if you asked for a custom piece, quite often I would make two, sell you one and put one on display and see how long it lasted. Quite often a customer would say "I really like this, do you make this in a different wood?"

Yard Care it was listening, advertising the service and if demand was there, buy the equipment.

Our big University craft show is this weekend, I work the booth from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., son takes over until 8 p.m. OMG it was busy today. It makes for a long day as I am up at 4, out of the house by 5 as it takes about 1hr 20 to 30 min to set up, gives me time after to grab a coffee, hopefully breakfast and get ready as there are major line ups waiting for the doors to open at 7.

These are a few pens and coffee scoops I made in the evenings this week, wish I had more as they are hot sellers.

We will sell 80 to 90% of the display by tomorrow afternoon, two years we have sold everything. I received about a weeks worth of work in orders, all orders are 50 to 75% up front, most clients pay 100% up front for special orders.

And a picture of my good friend Scott www.scotianironworks.com, we have been friends for over 15 years and do all these shows together and almost always get a booth next to each other so that we can watch each others things for bathroom and food runs.

[Steve]

Great display you have there! As I was looking at it, I was thinking about what is the best way to help sales when you can ultimately sell out of everything. Do you think having some kind of photos of the product on the back wall would help to keep the booth look full even when it has sold out? Or is it worthwhile to keep one of each big selling product so people can look at the product, hold it and then order it for later delivery?

Or is it best just to sell it all and make more as needed?

Also,

I made the same mistake in woodworking as I did in lawn care, what I thought would be a hit, fell flat. So I had to go a different route

When you think about this and through your years of experience, why do you feel it is so difficult to come up with what will actually be a hit? Why do you feel there is always this huge void between what you feel will be a hit and what the consumer wants?

I bet this happens to everyone too! It's just that most tend to give up and feel they just don't have what it takes to make it in the business world, but if they only kept on, they might have found success.