Box Making as a woodworking craft business

BOX MAKING AS A HOBBY OR BUSINESS

Here is the question: Can box making become a profitable woodworking craft business?

Boxes have always held a fascination for me even when I was a small kid. From the pirate treasure to my treasure chest which held all my valuable stuff.
I still have a wood wood that I keep my so called treasures in. I have build boxes for both of my boys to store there treasures and they both use them.
So I think there is a market for boxes. A box needs to be something special for it to sell. By special I mean it has to either be decorative or it needs to be build to hold something special and needs to be marketed that way.
Decorative may mean use of a beautiful wood grain or combination of woods. Now special means it needs to cater to a need , such as i have listed below. These are just a few of the special box needs out there.

1. Wedding Box : to hold wedding cards, pictures or memories from a wedding, can be marketed through wedding shops.
2. Tea Box : To hold those special teas. Can be marketed as a gift box or direct to hotels and restaurants.
3. Toy box : Every Child need a toy box.
4. Jewelry box.
5. Keepsake box.
6. Bible box.
7. Men's Valet box.
8. Spice box.
9. Wine bottle boxes for special gifts.
10.Treasure chest, of course.
A box can be built for almost any hobby or collection out there. So built and market products to customers for a reason. Even my wife uses a box to store her sewing and quilting stuff in.
I have pen boxes, salt boxes, and candle boxes all over the house.
So the answer to the question is yes, if one puts there mind to it and builds something beautiful or something useful, there can be a market for it.
I will be doing articles on how to market on my web site. Please visit often : http://nokeswoodworks.com/

Woodworking and Crafts, sell on line at Etsy.com

Ae you looking for a place online to sell your woodworking, pens or other crafts without actually setting up a web page? Well the anwser might me a web site called http://www.etsy.com/ . Etsy has been around since 2005 and is an online make place for buying and selling all things hand made. Over 100,000 sellers worldwide have opened shop. Etsy really is a cool place to sell your crafts and it's easy to use. There are lots of categories to sell your goods. A few are candles, jewelry needlecrafts, quilts, pets, toys, supplies and woodworking.
Make sure you read and follow there terms of use.
http://www.nokeswoodworks.com

Pen Making as a craft business

One of my hobbies which I have turned into a sell-able craft is my pen making. Pens are made using a mini lathe to turn a block of wood or plastic to shape to hold the pen workings, which I buy as a kit. I will use this as an example of my costing process. Pen Kits can vary from $2.95 a kit to 59.95 a kit depending on what kind of pen you want to make. The pictures below are of cigar pens. The cost for this kit is $ 5.95. The wood blank will cost from $1.00 to 6.95 depending on type of wood or plastic. I will use $ 3.00 in this example. The pen kit is $5.95 plus $3.00 for the pen blank will total materials of $8.95. It will take me 1/2 hour to make this pen at $15.00 per hour labor. Now my labor and material total $16.45. I them add overhead and profit. I figure my overhead and profit to be the same as material and labor which is $16.45. This give me a total selling price of $32.90. I i always throw in a case and sell them for $34.95. I have pens which sell for more and I have pens which sell for less.
Please visit my website for more woodworking and craft information
http://nokeswoodworks.com