Interest in producing furniture

[barrysumpter]

Hi everyone,
I've just been retrenched and don't expect to find any IT / Computer Programming work until Feb 2001.

So I've got a bit of time to decide wheather or not to follow my IT career or perhaps research the possibiltiy of moving to a wood working furniture / distribution/ manufacturing business.

I would like to know if anyone is interested in doing somthing like this:

http://www.woodcanada.com/

Does anyone know if there is something like this available in Australia?

Anyone interested in discussing this either on this forum or in private?



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Thanks,
Barry G. Sumpter
Proud Tritoneer

[DonN]

Barry
I would stick to IT work, you will make more money. Good IT people are hard to find. Good furniture makers grow on trees. I'm one of the ones growing on a tree.
Donn

[ubeaut]

G'day Barry

I take it that you are meaning to become an agent for manufacturers - from backyarders to the big factory producers.

Donn hit the nail right on the head. I.T. definitely looks like the way to go for my money. However, there are a lot of people out there who are making some pretty good stuff and are brilliant at what they do, but have no idea as to selling the work when it is done.

There are furniture agents who go out on the road and wholesale directly to shops. They are hard to find and are only partly effective. There is a need for some sort of direct marketing for individuals and bigger manufacturers who don't employ their own or a contract agent. Maybe this is an opportunity for a bit of an entreprising bod like yourself.

However before you jump on in head first, do a bit of market research to find out where you will get your clients and if there is a percieved need amongst them for this service etc. etc. I would also make this initially a part time thing until fully established, this could be a year or more. Take the IT work and make money to support what could become a sort of obsession, that could in turn lead to you chucking in the IT stuff all together.

Hope this is of some help to you.

Cheers - Neil

[barrysumpter]

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for the responses guys.

And thanks heaps for the advise to stay in IT. When I wrote the origional message I didn't expect any jobs/contacts would be available until February. As luck would have it a couple of nice contracts have peaked my interest and I've been able to peak the interest of a couple of agents. Hopefully I'll be able to sign on before Christmas. My plan is to stay in IT until this business gets off the ground.

I truely think that good IT people are everywhere with 30,000 IT jobs avaiable. (I read that in a Tuesday Computer Age about 5 weeks ago.)

Being a contract furniture agent certainly peaks my curiosity as I believe I'll need to do this myself for my products or hire someone to do it. I've come up with lots of ideas and have reseached for others.

Have you had a look at the hyperlink in my first message?

I used WoodCancada as an example of a company who is inerested in finding woodies/business people, training them, getting them started with exact products, wood supplies, templates, advertising materials, web sites, and client contacts.

They seem to have everything sorted out. Although they probably sell most of their products to Canada (??? population) and USA (250 Million population).

My thought was to take the training, give their products a fair go and then add my own Australian designs and move into helping and selling Australian designs from other Australians to Austalia, New Zealand, and all the other countries close by.

My hope was that either someone has already gone thru this course and is actively selling these products or will tell me why it didn't work in Australia.

Or maybe someone can tell me there is another Australian company who is doing the same thing as woodcanada but with Australian products and Australian wood.

And if not then maybe someone is interested in starting one.

Its purely fictional at the moment but I get this tingle when I think about getting out of IT and being my own boss.

------------------
Thanks,
Barry G. Sumpter
Proud Tritoneer



[This message has been edited by barrysumpter (edited 28 November 2000).]

[ubeaut]

had a quick squiz at the link last night but a good look this morning. Seems pretty good but.

I would hate to see you chuck a whole heap of money down the drain on what may work in Canada and the US but could be a bit of a fizzer here in good old Oz. Remember we only have a fraction of the population of Canada and a minute number when compared to the US. What works there more often than not doesn't work here.

From my observations, kit form furniture doesn't seem to work too well here. I think you will find it has been tried many times over with varing degrees of disaster and distreess. The easiest way to see if it works is try the yellow pages and find someone who is doing it. If you can. We recently had one in Bendigo who lasted for almost 12 months, but he has gone the way of "Why me? I thought it was a good idea!" It was. The local back yarders and hobbiests got some great ideas from him.

You also have to remember the exchange rate and shipping costs. You can more than double the prices quoted on the site by the time it lands here. You will also need to count on a 4 to 6 week delivery time. Then add import duty and GST etc. Your 75% profit is starting to dwindle pretty dramatically.

Then if the design of the chairs takes off, beware of the: "Copy and import from the Phillipenes factor".

All this may all seem pretty synical to you and it is meant to. I am a synical bastard when it comes to something like this. http://ubb.ubeaut.com.au/ubb/mad.gif

The other thing you need to consider is do you really want to be your own boss. You will become an assembly line production worker, 9 - 5 will become a thing of the past, etc. etc. etc. http://ubb.ubeaut.com.au/ubb/frown.gif

I would be doing a lot of research before going into this one. Check out the furniture shops and and anywhere else likely to sell these products. Check out prices, find what their wholesale prices are and see if you can compete, etc. etc.

Hope this also helps.

Cheers - Neil http://ubb.ubeaut.com.au/ubb/smile.gif

P.S. By the way at least there are 30,000 IT jobs available. Go through the Age and see how many furniture manufacturing or similar jobs there are available. You should be in great demand. As Donn said: Good IT people are hard to find. Good furniture makers grow on trees. That's why there are 30,000 IT jobs and none for the woodies.

[Sandy Johnston]

Give it a go.

With your I.T. experience you should be able to start up a web site with a shopping cart system and advertise some "Local" product (overseas, the dollar value would look better with a calculator link on your site, to show the great value the client is getting for thir pound, yen US dollar etc).
Set up a mail box for "Clients Custom Ideas" and "a catalogue for "orders" with some sort of costing sub-structure that YOU can price out.
Secure a deposit for "Commissioning the work" with possible upfront or "pay off" before completion, through fantastic plastic.
When the work comes in for "one off" items out of Australian timber, and the quality is built into the product, you have a winner. By contracting out the work to local woodies, every one wins. Client, Contractor and Middleman.
By doing this in your "spare" time you not only help the local woodies but probably hone your I.T. skills too.

Give it a go and Best of Luck.
Sandy

[barrysumpter]

Thanks for the comments everyone.

I've started this response many times over the last week but havn't been able to submit.

Anyway, a bit of further research into building products, by Aussies for Aussies.

Sourcing the wood here in Australia was a given until I made a few calls to find out that the cost of getting the timber to my woodshop is more expensive than importing the product (in pieces) to put together here.

Customs would prefer that I source timber and manufacturing here. But again, the cost is phenominal in comparison to just importing.

Again, importing the peices already cut to fit and having them delivered is considerable less expensive than just purchasing the wood here. Not to mention the fact of manufacturing the pieces here.

The kit form seem to work pretty well for Ikea.

Anyone know the population of NZ?

I'v made heaps of calculations as to how many to import as a trial run. And how much it would cost including tarrifs and shipping to my front door.

All the proper paper work required etc....

Building, sanding, and finishing estimates have been taken into account.

50% is the cost of the materials and shipping. Less in bulk. Another 10% to 20% is the finishing.

The only thing I've not sure of that I can think of is the time and cost of effort for promoting the products. And they seem to have the advertising materials figured out as well.




------------------
Thanks,
Barry G. Sumpter
Proud Tritoneer