Create Custom Furniture - Gig Profile

The Idea:

Build hand-crafted furniture that people will be proud to buy.

How it Works:

With some artistic and carpentry skills, you can turn your unique furniture designs into hot household items. The first step to developing a hand-crafted furniture business is to determine what kind of furniture you want to make and what people want to buy. There are a lot of subcategories, from types of material (willow furniture, rattan, cherry) to usage (porch furniture, baby cribs, antique reproductions.) The marketing options for a hand-crafted furniture business are also varied. You can choose to place your pieces in consignment stores, sell wholesale to large chains, market to individuals through the internet or mail or even open your own shop or cooperative with other furniture makers. Good promotional tactics include emphasizing the unique quality of your pieces and developing a story about your company and the individual item to engage customer interest.

How Much Can You Make:

Hand crafted furniture can be sold for anywhere from a few hundred dollars per piece to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Hand crafted furniture sells for much higher prices than mass-marketed furniture because of the inherent individuality of each piece and the amount of time and energy that has gone into making it.