How to start a furniture business

Furniture Manufacturing Business

Have you ever tried to make furniture yourself, with your own hands? At home. At home, in the garage.

If you are not at all familiar with this issue in general and the process of organizing a furniture manufacturing business in the so-called "home conditions" (as a result of this knowledge and skills), then I will tell you that this is done very simply! <

Learning to make furniture yourself and, perhaps, start your own furniture business - believe me, everyone can do it!

What do you think the furniture business is in Russian today?

- does not require large investments; - has a profitability of 80 to 300%; - a product that all people use; - can exist and develop independently of the technical equipment of your future enterprise; - will never end; - it develops more and more every year.

A business that people are already doing and quite successful. A business that even a full-time student can do.

Individual production and mass production of furniture today have become outrageously simple ...

Today there is a real opportunity to make high-quality, modern, absolutely any furniture of any configuration that you are used to seeing in a store - be it a kitchen, wardrobe, wall ...

And in order to make this furniture, you don't need to have any machine tools - just a computer, a printer, a hand drill and a small amount of hand (not electric) small tools in the form of screwdrivers, hammers, etc. And of course knowledge of how all this is assembled, I emphasize, is not manufactured, but assembled.

Does this sound unlikely to you?

Furniture business is an excellent choice for starting a young entrepreneur. People always buy furniture, regardless of the season and weather. Even a crisis will not change anything in your business, except that it will reduce the class of furniture from luxury to classic. Therefore, opening a furniture shop is a good and promising idea that will surely bring you great profits.

Market research

Furniture production can be divided into three main areas:

• Release of classic office furniture (cabinets, partitions, sideboards, tables). The main emphasis is on functionality and austere appearance.
• Release of kitchens and headsets. The kitchen is the face of the home, it is here that people spend most of their free time, so it should be equipped with comfortable and high-quality furniture. Every year the demand for kitchen sets is growing by an average of 15%.
• Custom furniture production. This is the most promising type of business. Furniture is created according to the client's requirements, according to individual dimensions and drawings.

We recommend staying at one of these options, or combine three areas in your business at once.

Please note: in metropolitan areas you will face serious competition, so it is best to start this business either in small cities, or enter the market with an original and promising proposal.

Be sure to find out if there are similar workshops for the production of furniture in your city, what services they offer, what are the real terms of furniture production and the price range of your competitors. Think about what you can do better to entice customers.

Space requirement

To set up a full-fledged factory, you need three full-size premises. This:

• Furniture production workshop. Its area must be at least 100 m2.
• Office. Managers will work here, concluding contracts for the purchase of raw materials and accessories, as well as for the sale of finished products. Often the office has a small exhibition stand with samples of materials and furniture, or even a small shop.
• Warehouse. This room will be used for storing material and finished products. It should be spacious (about 70-100 square meters) and dry.

These premises can be located in the same building or be scattered around the city. For example, the workshop itself will be located on the outskirts, and the office with samples will be in the city center or in a convenient walk-through place. This will significantly increase the number of potential customers. The warehouse can also be located on the outskirts near the factory. This will allow you to reduce rental prices by several times and avoid complaints from residents about the constant noise from cutting material.

Business Features

The furniture business is one of the many options for profitable business activities. This way of making money is distinguished by the simplicity of the production process, good profitability of products, constant high demand for goods with subsequent assembly. Furniture manufacturing is not subject to seasonality, sharp changes in exchange rates and other external factors that often destabilize a business. Production is focused primarily on the local market - the target audience is the population of the city in which the enterprise will be located, and the immediate vicinity.

However, even such a business is not without its drawbacks. First, the local market attachment. On the one hand, it is easier to sell products, but at the same time a significant part of the audience is lost. Secondly, there is high competition. Over the past decade, along with large furniture companies, quite small private traders have opened in the country, engaged in the manufacture of custom-made furniture. Therefore, the market is rife with supply. Finally, thirdly, success will be determined by the qualifications of the staff. Basic woodworking skills are enough only for making primitive samples of economy-class furniture, and creating expensive and high-quality furniture will require professionals in the team.

Hence, furniture manufacturing is not only wood sawing, body assembly and subsequent installation at the customer's premises, but also furniture design - the selection of colors, shapes, and certain materials.

Thus, we can conclude that with a competent entry into the market with a ready-made and formalized offer and opportunities, a small furniture company can establish itself as a good manufacturer, acquire an appropriate reputation and establish product sales.

Select a material supplier

High-quality and inexpensive raw materials used in the manufacture of any product is one of the determining factors for the company's success. The furniture business is also no exception here, so it is extremely important to choose a reliable supplier of wood, wood-based panels and accessories.

In order not to be mistaken when choosing a woodworking company, you must adhere to the following conditions.

Reliability - it is advisable to work with trusted companies that provide services and provide their products for a long period of time. The likelihood of sudden bankruptcy and default of obligations for such organizations is much lower than for those who opened recently - the statistics of company closings confirms this. However, this does not mean that the novice supplier will necessarily turn out to be unreliable - it may well be that for some time he will supply materials even at a reduced price (dumping upon entering the market). But it's still better to focus on proven companies.

Pricing policy - when choosing a supplier, it is necessary to analyze the prices of competitors. Do not forget that maximizing profits is primarily associated with minimizing costs - the cheaper the raw materials, the more you can get for the sale of furniture at the same price. But the fundamental factor is still quality: you shouldn't chase after cheapness to your detriment.

Ease of cooperation - some suppliers provide additional services in the form of storage of certain materials, their loading, delivery and unloading to the customer. Of course, this is reflected in their cost, but nevertheless saves the entrepreneur from many problems associated with the purchase and delivery of raw materials.

Location of the supplier - everything is simple here - the farther the supplier is from the place of production, the more expensive is the delivery of materials. Therefore, it is cheapest to work with local woodworking companies.

Prompt response to an order - furniture production is a very spontaneous process: today you can receive an order, and in a few days you need to install furniture for a client. But at the same time, some materials may be missing in warehouses. In such a situation, the supplier's responsiveness determines the quality and pace of the company.

Is a furniture business possible from scratch? What is needed for this? It is one thing to make custom-made little things, and quite another to set up mass production. Or do not you need to establish production, but you can simply be content with a workshop for the repair of pieces of furniture? There are many questions, but do not be afraid.

Who can do the furniture business?

Practice shows that any adult is capable of doing business in the repair and production of furniture, even if he is still a student. It can be not only a man, but also a woman. Here it is important to understand the nuances, to know what accessories and components to buy, but first of all, you need to have enterprise.

The furniture business has a good profitability of 80 to 300%. The numbers are impressive, aren't they? Manufacturing equipment lasts a long time, so you do not need to change it often. And modern equipment allows even a beginner to organize mass production, while the manufactured items will be of high quality.

Where to start?

To understand how to start a furniture business, you need to draw up a business plan to clearly represent the initial costs and when they can be recouped.

• Knowledge is required. You can make modern furniture, analogous to what is sold in expensive salons, but for this you need to know how it is assembled.
• A computer and a printer are required.
• At the first stage, you can get by with a minimum of equipment: a drill (you can actually choose a manual option), screwdrivers, a hammer, a set of tools for wood.
• Furniture business can be turned into a waste-free production and parallel to the production of pallets for solid fuel boilers. Large costs are not required, and profitability is over 50%.
• Room. If you are dealing with piece goods, then a separate room is not required, you can collect items in the garage or even on the balcony. If you dream of organizing a workshop for the production of furniture, then you will need to consider renting premises and workers who will help.

Process essence

• Preparation of documentation based on the measurements. Here it is necessary to make a list of the necessary components, accessories, etc. With the documents, you will visit specialized stores and warehouses. In warehouses, you can get a cut of materials based on the dimensions in your documentation.
• Nowadays furniture factories open their offices in all cities. This makes it possible to buy production-quality facades and corresponding fittings, countertops and all the necessary components. Everyone can purchase everything they need. Sometimes you will not find something on the window, ask the sales consultants. If, nevertheless, the store does not have the necessary items, you can place an order and receive it in a few days.
• Glass is needed for cabinet furniture. It can be purchased from glass workshops, where it will be cut exactly to the required dimensions. This way you get the finished glass.

As you can see, you will bring home a complete set, which resembles a constructor familiar from childhood. All that remains is to drill the holes and assemble the furniture. Then insert, if necessary, glass and install the fittings.

One of the most profitable and stable types of business is the production and sale of furniture. By investing in such an enterprise, you can provide an income of 40% per annum. Success largely depends on the chosen niche and the quality of the promotion strategy. Therefore, you need to be smart about drawing up a business plan and focus on the latest trends in this area.

Furniture business concept

The essence of the furniture manufacturing business is the organization of an integrated enterprise for the manufacture of the selected type of product and its subsequent sale.

Companies that work with furniture mainly rely on specialization, that is, narrowly focused production of goods for a specific target customer. Now there are many companies that prefer to produce furniture for pharmacies, supermarket salesrooms, bookstores, etc. However, entrepreneurs have gone further: there have appeared organizations that exclusively produce tables for computers, chairs on wheels or office partitions, counters, chairs for a bar.

Select production specialization

According to marketing research, the most promising direction is the production of office, kitchen and specialized furniture.

In recent years, built-in furniture is gaining popularity, which is made individually for each client, taking into account the architectural features of the apartment.

It is possible to produce furniture from valuable types of wood - beech, oak, mahogany. Such exclusive interior items are in demand among consumers with above-average incomes, which guarantees high profits.

When choosing a production specialization, you can focus on the dynamics of adjacent markets.

Upcoming laws can influence demand in the furniture business. With their constant monitoring, you can choose the right moment and take a profitable niche. For example, after the change in the requirements for the minimum area of ​​pharmacies, the demand for furniture for pharmacies increased significantly.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Furniture Business