What to write on retirement plaque
5 Places to Find Customers RIGHT NOW!! for a Woodworking Business
okay what do you wanna do for the intro
not sure let's just start it okay
today's video is gonna be about five
ways to find customers we're gonna give
you a couple stories of places that
we've found customers and unlikely
places and hopefully you can use those
same sort of ideas when you're looking
for customers too so before we get into
it the first thing like this is this is
the major key of the video you know how
when you run into somebody at the
grocery store that you haven't seen in a
while and it's like hey man how's it
going and you're like oh I'm good are
you good change that conversation
instead of saying like oh I'm good how
are you
something kind of pointless yeah change
it to something that means something so
like hey man how are you doing and
you're like I'm great I just got my
woodworking business off the ground
things are doing really well how are you
that right there sets the tone of the
conversation it's just one little tweak
if you can just learn to literally
rehearse that line in the mirror if you
need to but just replacing that hey I'm
good how are you with hey I'm trying to
do XYZ how are you doing you're gonna
realize very quickly that a lot of
people are looking for a nice custom
furniture my buddies and I use this
exact same tip in Los Angeles going all
over filming everything he had a video
production company I made websites my
other buddy was a photographer and we
just made that one switch of hey man
we're trying to get this video
production company off the ground that
one line got us in so many cool places
that got us into recording studio and
two exotic cars into music video it was
just it's snowballed from there so yeah
just make that one switch my buddy's
actually still in LA so if you want to
follow him I got a link to his channel
right here he still does all that cool
stuff films exotic cars and music
concerts and stuff like that so and you
never would have known unless you said
something like you would have never had
any idea the conversation you could go
that direction you you have absolutely
no idea who is connected at home until
you open your mouth and kind of let them
connect the dots for you so just make
that one switch and you'll be way better
off all right so the first story that we
have is we're getting ready to pack up
the shop we've got all of our tools are
pretty much put away ready for packaging
and one of the things we realize is that
we have a bunch of extra wood over here
that
just never got around to building the
project so we never got around to
selling what we were gonna build with
them we have three to four cookies we've
got a live edge slab we need to get rid
of and so what I did is I just opened my
phone and I started scrolling through
the contact list and just reaching out
to people that I hadn't texted back in a
while or just people that I haven't seen
in a couple of days just saying hey I've
got some extra wood if you're interested
in buying something hit me up super
discounted prices we're about to leave
everything must go sort of you know
thing don't make it cheesy but that's
kind of what I did I just scroll down my
phone list so the first tip is if you
open your context and just scroll them
you know A to Z I bet you you could go
half way what's half way through the
alphabet
so it's twenty six half of that is
thirteen ABCD I bet you between L&M o L
and a half you can find at least ten
people that you can reach out to that
you know are in your local area that
maybe haven't talked to in a while you
can call catch up and just say hey start
at my woodworking business started my
furniture business was interested if you
were looking to find furniture or if you
know anybody else that was I bet you you
could find at least ten people that you
could just call and catch up with if
nothing else and that may lead to more
stuff in the future too so you never
know alright so the second place we
found that is really good to find
customers and people who need furniture
built for them is work so the first time
that's happened to me when I got a
request at work I was literally just
sitting in my office and my friend
Wilson sat down and just goes do you
think he could build me a desk like yeah
of course I could build you a desk no
problem what do you want it to look like
and right then in there we got into some
of the details of what she wanted the
desk to look like we got her a proposal
it ended up working out and boom she had
a desk and she absolutely loves it and
then from there people heard that I had
built her a desk and they wanted other
things and it just kind of started to be
this snowball effect that word got
around really fast throughout the office
that's kind of how office settings go I
feel like when one person finds
something out they spread the
information before you know it it's some
big spider web it's called gossip
there's a word for that except it's not
like no good gossip good recipe yeah
good gossip going around the office and
before I knew it I did I had more people
coming in another time we had somebody
come in and ask us for retirement plaque
there's somebody that had worked there
for years and years and years and
everybody liked him they wanted to do
something really nice threw him a big
retirement party and they came and asked
us said hey we want to make them this
huge plaque we wanted to be solid wood
will do the engraving because at that
time we didn't have our x-carve or any
sort of laser engraver and they said we
just don't know where to order something
like that from and I said hey we got you
absolutely so we made them a huge what
was it like two foot not even like three
foot by one and a half foot solid cherry
plaque from then on out we were known as
the people who made the retirement
plaques who made the going-away plaques
who made signs and whenever somebody
needed something like that they came
right to us and the other nice thing
about selling at work is the fact that
everybody pitches in a couple of bucks
right it's usually not one person buying
that entire retirement plaque so you
don't have one set person that's
complaining about your prices because
everybody's pitching in a little bit of
money it seems doable and you're not
gonna have a lot of complaints that way
so do that whole snowball effect of
everybody spreading the word that we
were the retirement plaque people we did
start getting a lot of jobs we did a ton
of requests and honestly we started
getting so busy that we couldn't make
all of them so we had to raise our
prices and that's really what you need
to do your free time is very valuable
that is the time you spend with your
family that is the time you spend with
your friends
so when you're getting so many jobs that
you don't have time to build everything
that's when it's time to raise your
prices so when you do raise your prices
that often times means you will get a
lot more knows people are going to
reject your prices sometimes however
when that happens you should be
balancing the prices you're charging the
money you're making with your free time
and once that comes into balance you
know you've hit a really good number of
projects you're taking in that way you
don't start to hate woodworking you
don't start to get your hobby your
business because all of a sudden you're
making enough money to where your free
time is worth it and also you have few
enough projects to where it's manageable
all right so another place that a really
good place to find jobs is any clubs or
organizations that you're a part of in
town very similar to the work scenario
Jenny just explained we also had another
like I guess a retirement somebody who
is the head of this organization was
stepping down after many years and
everybody wanted to pitch in and give
them some sort of a retirement gift and
it was really nice at this point we had
our x-carve as one of the first projects
we did and we were able to do everything
from going up the boards to planing it
smooth to engraving it to painting the
letters in and then finishing it and
then delivering a final product so we
made a lot more money just on the margin
because we weren't outsourcing the
engraving to another guy in town who had
like a laser engraver so that was really
fun just to see a little bit extra money
from that even though our price was a
little lower than what we normally
charge because we didn't have to
outsource anyway reasons and numbers and
stuff but that's also a really good
place to find work because not only do
you get to do things for the
organization whether that be a
fundraiser you get to auction something
off like put your branding on whatever
you're giving away or auctioning off and
people will take notice one of the best
things about clubs in town is that it
mixes incomes right think I'm like a Boy
Scout Troop you've got everybody from
really low income to pretty high income
in most areas that's just a really good
way to meet people that might be in a
different economic class than what
you're used to selling to so when you
make a really nice ornate gift or when
you make the trophy for something or a
commemorative plaque and you put your
branding on it you know maybe some of
the richer parents are gonna take notice
of that and then realize hey I'm trying
to buy a brand new kitchen table that's
custom made and all that sort of thing
so just keep an eye out for that
and if you want more information on like
how income varies and why you should
chase higher levels of median income
check out our video on that it's up in
the corner here
number four another really good one we
drive by this every single day we don't
have kids but we drive by the park where
there's a couple of baseball diamonds
and tea balls going on right now we
don't mind just yesterday and we saw
that they were having some sort of a tea
ball tournament outside and it was just
the light bulb went off for us of like
hey they every kid gets a little five
six dollar participation trophy now my
opinion on participation trophies is for
another video but if somebody's gonna
spend the money if they're gonna buy him
anyway they might as well buy them from
you so we were just thinking like what
if we built a tiny little plaque and
sold it for four or five dollars each
for each kid that would be a really cool
thing put their sports team on it with
their logo and the year like that would
be really easy to just crank out on the
x-carve you can even do multiples at the
same time and then cut them all out on
the table saw and then router the
profiles that right there would be five
ten dollars a plaque and it would be
something handmade with the kids name on
it and stuff like that so that would be
a really cool option get that perfect
cross-section of every income level when
you play something like t-ball so you
get the you know the lower-income kids
and the higher income kids everybody's
parents are standing on the sidelines
hopefully and you can start to talk with
them this is also a really good area
that you can start to just work on your
sales skills you know talk about them
talk about their kitchen their life a
their house and oh you just moved in do
you need any more furniture or something
like that and if they look at you weird
and they're like oh this dude's trying
to make a sale my kids playing t-ball
and they walk away from you who cares
you're probably never gonna see them
again this is a really good area for you
to go get your butt kicked to get used
to rejection and really just start to
build your skills as a salesperson this
is something we preach in the courses
and our videos you need to have a really
good portfolio have everything on a
platform like Instagram where you can
literally just pull it out and in two or
three seconds have your Instagram pulled
up and you can just show off all your
cool stuff on Instagram follow us on
Instagram Jennie do it yes that's that's
a really great way to just kind of get
your butt kicked and get some reps in
with your sales okay so all the people
we've talked about in tips numbers one
through four don't work for you you're
just not getting anybody to bite tip
number five we have is referrals if the
people you were talking to you directly
don't want or need anything
you're just kind of getting rejected
there ask for the referral I mean I'm
sure they have friends that would want
something just because they don't want a
custom kitchen table or a coffee table
doesn't mean that they don't have a
friend that just moved into an apartment
just bought a new house wants to refresh
all of you know their look for their
living room or anything like that there
are so many options all you have to do
is ask it is it's as easy as hey I
understand you don't want anything
that's totally fine I get it but do you
happen to know somebody who might be
interested so that's number five ask for
referrals bonus nachos we have a bonus
tip for you guys so tip number six our
bonus is repeat customers just because
somebody only bought something from you
once doesn't mean they won't buy from
you again we get most of our work from
repeat customers will make them one
thing they love it or will make them one
thing and they want everything else to
match and there you go you've got five
follow-on projects just from making one
person a sign or one person a table
something like that so super easy it's
just going back talking to those people
that you've already discussed work with
and bringing it back up saying if they
need anything else also when you deliver
the first item you make them take note
of all the other furniture they have in
their house that way when you call them
back and you say hey how are you liking
your coffee table and they're like hey
great I love it it looks awesome in my
space you can say I also notice that
that corner right by the table yeah
behind it looks a little bare I think it
would be awesome if we built you a
custom bookcase to put there that also
matched your table what do you think
about that and then they're like yeah
that would be really cool so just by
taking note during a delivery of all the
furniture somebody has in a room is
another way to get a repeat sale all
right go down in the comments let us
know if there's anywhere that we didn't
mention that you know is a great place
to find customers we'd love to have you
help us and share and just help this
community grow and make some money so
thanks so much for your help okay
because we're about to go into the next
memory card stuff I feel like an idiot
for asking this every single time but
please like the video it really helps us
out a ton there's a huge difference from
what I asked and what I don't ask so I
guess I'm just gonna keep asking yeah I
got a
anyway if you think we've earned it
please like the video also hit the
subscribe button if you're new to the
channel we'd love to hang out with you
and share what we know and everything
that we talked about today will be
linked in the description any channel
and Instagram stuff like that and you
can also check the cards at the end of
the video they're gonna be right over
there and I think it's all and we've
only got 30 seconds left so anything
else okay why my eyes are burning that's
words club
[Music]
