Since the article came out about
me in Woodworker's Journal I have had many calls asking
me about the business and if I could give them pointers
on how to get started. Not just woodworking but all types
of businesses. So I thought it would be great to put some
of my trials and errors into print so possibly I can save
someone else the grief I had to go through and find some
savings too.
I will be talking about some pit
falls you don't want to get caught in first. Later I will
talk about some great things that have happened over the
years. I am going to try and save you a little grief first.
Keep in mind, my customers are wonderful people. I have
very few bad apples. The points I will be talking about
will be the "few" over many years.
I will be launching a division of
this website allowing fellow woodworkers to advertise on
my site. I was asked if I was afraid of the competition
and I laughed and said I don't care what woodworker a customer
buys from as long as you BUY AMERICAN MADE!
I have sold on Ebay. I have sold
in other online auctions. I have sold on my own websites
and by word of mouth. I think my favorite by all means is
word of mouth to customers family members. It's a great
feeling when a customer is so happy their family buys from
you too.
I will list a few points right up
front. One of the biggest questions I am asked is about
shipping. Don't be afraid of shipping. It's not that hard.
The key is to pack it correctly and all should be fine.
Remember the American Tourister luggage commercial where
the gorilla throws the suitcase around the cage? Well, there
you have it. Pack it to withstand that exactly!!!
Supplies:
After years in the business I have
found the best box for the price is from Uline
Box Company. Tell them Connie sent you. They will be sure
and charge twice the price! Just a joke of course. They
would have no idea who Connie is except when an order isn't
right and I call them screaming. Your also going to want
to purchase their corner guards and edge protectors. Those
are great for saving the edges of your furniture. If applied
to the outside of the box it will help from crushing a weak
spot. Like between the legs of benches.
You can usually get a good deal
on bubble wrap from ebay, same with your shrink wrap. I
purchase packing tape, bubble wrap and my shrink wrap locally
so if your not near Toledo Ohio it won't help much. If you
are the call Cutting Edge shipping company.
Shipping Companies:
Now, the shipping company. I have
used UPS and DHL. DHL used to be awesome when it was Airborne
Express. Once DHL did a buy out things changed. I tolerate
them, but watch each move they make. Watch your bills if
you do online shipping. They have a habit of tacking on
a few extra charges that are coded with no code listed to
explain what it is. I simply fight them. I have been with
DHL for 4 years. Should have stayed with UPS. But my opinion
only. You can spend the money on insurance, but keep in
mind after your first claim they will try and fight you
each time after. They will use any excuse they can to get
out of paying. I had one experience they claimed the customer
had signed for delivery and that it was in good condition.
However, that was simply not true. As soon as I demanded
a copy of a signature they dropped it and paid the claim.
Keep fighting them, eventually they will get tired of you
and pay. We make out our claim forma and immediately make
out our appeal papers to save time later. They usually always
use the same excuse to not pay. For large items we found
the best to be Roadway Express. Their customer service is
super.
I always ask my customers to make
the driver wait while they open the box but they usually
won't.
Shipping damage? Your customers
will usually blame you. In fact almost anything that happens
will be your fault. I think they think you spend hours and
days and weeks building a piece of furniture then just before
you ship it you throw it off the roof of your shop and destroy
it. Not sure why they think that. I actually had a customer
last week that said a table top had a dent in it and thought
I might have hit it with a hammer to make it square. hahaha
that was very funny to me. When seeing the box it was so
obvious it had been dropped by the shipper on that corner.
But why argue with someone who is so intelligent. I mean
after all I am simply a woodworker nothing more.
All packages that leave this shop
leave with a IN PERSON SIGNATURE REQUIRED. 2 years
ago I sold a beautiful hall table on ebay to rickpykos.
The table was delivered I received the delivery confirmation
through DHL. The man claimed he did not receiver it. However,
he contacted a friend of mine and asked him to build a matching
end table. Hum? Interesting. I argued with him showing my
DHL proof. He still claimed he didn't get it. He ended up
taking us to court at which time I assumed I would win as
I had the backing of DHL. Guess what? The courts said since
I didn't have the actual signature it wasn't proof. Go figure!
We lost. I was shocked and could not believe this man knew
the game and knew how to play. You be the judge, think he
got it? Why would he need a matching custom end table if
he never got the hall table?
So be aware you must have a SIGNATURE!
Keep in mind some customers won't
be happy no matter what you do so try to make things right
but don't go to extreme to the point of costing you everything.
You are a human, you deserve respect. Never allow a customer
to push you around. We kindly offer a refund after we receive
the product back. However, we do demand the return of the
product. Trust me sometimes they try to keep it and still
get refunds.
Returns:
I do accept returns. When your selling
a custom piece it is hard for you to re-sell a return someone
else ordered. But given the stress level of trying to fight
the customer it is not worth it. Take it back, give them
back their money and move forward. I have found for every
bad customer you have 30 awesome customers. I usually request
they simply return it and keep their opinions to themselves.
I get a customer once in a while that will think a product
is terrible. I usually find it is because they do not understand
what real wood is. They assume it is going to be factory
veneer. Or they toss some insults out because they are such
a better woodworker than I am and they know so much more.
I accept that. Don't understand why they would have bought
from me when they could do such a better job themselves.
But brush it off, learn from it and keep moving.
Make the customer return the product
in the same condition they received it in. That's not too
much to ask for. Walmart wouldn't accept you destroying
a product and expecting your money back, why should we?
A few years ago I had a woman return an end table in a box
with no packing material. Needless to say it is an oak product
and arrived back here in pieces. I argued with her and the
damage. But she simply did a chargeback on her credit card.
(I will talk about chargebacks later) I filed against her
in court and won. Of course collecting is a different story.
They tend to not pay then either. However, ask your local
courts to make sure the judgment is recorded with the credit
bureau's. Eventually they will want credit for something
and it will knock their score down. That leads to a lower
credit score and a higher interest rate. We will be laughing
a website soon that a business can record customers that
have chosen that route. I see no reason for anyone to do
a chargeback.
Become your own worst nightmare,
start being a packrat. Save everything. All emails all correspondences
with customers. You may need it. I have approximately 76,000
emails in my saved folder. If the customer comes back for
more furniture in 5 years I have all their information from
the first sale. You may need it to show shipping issues,
you may need it to show records in an issue of any type.
Payment and Credit Card Merchants:
I DO NOT RECOMMEND PAYPAL!
Paypal is disorganized, lacks in customer service. Will
freeze an account for no good reason. Will not defend you
on any issue. They make it impossible to contact them other
than some robot with standard replies. SAVE YOURSELF and
run from Paypal! I use paypal, however I never keep any
money in it. Make sure you withdraw and keep your balance
low. Never tie your primary checking account to their
system. I don't recommend anyone to tie a primary account
to any merchant system simply because a customer can do
a chargeback after getting their product and your money
can be taken. Sure you can prove you sent the item, you
can show the signature and you may win but the problem is
it takes on average of 90 days to get your money back. Try
telling that to your accountant and your other obligations.
I know this will shock you, but there are people in the
world who deliberately try and steal from you. Hum, go figure!
Imagine that, a scammer on the internet, who would have
thought.
But seriously, your dealing with
the internet and there are people out there just looking
to get something for nothing.
I recommend a system that moves
the payment page from your website into their system. That
way you don't have to worry about security. I never see
a customers credit card number. I do this because I am a
woodworker, not a banking company. Their security and safety
mean everything to me. Leave that up to the professionals.
This seems to be a ok processing
company: Linkpoint
Their fees are acceptable and their gateway is easy to navigate
through. That's important when you don't understand a lot
about the internet and computers. Your quickbooks accounting
also has a merchant account, however they don't offer online
payment processing yet. The customer would have to phone
you with their payment. Many customers do not want to do
that. The good ol' checking account works great too.
Getting Yourself Known:
You can build the worlds greatest
product but if no one sees it what's the point? If no one
buys from you what's the point? I suggest a website. It
doesn't have to be an expensive website a few simple pages
will work. Which is why we will be laughing a portion of
our website that will allow others to build their own small
site for free. It will have a very simple interface so anyone
can have their own place. Be sure and check back for it.
I did this on Superior Feeders so breeder's could make their
website by themselves for free and they loved it. Here is
an example of a website a breeder made in our system: Example
They have their own menu, they can post their own pictures.
It's a great way to get your product out there without spending
1 penny. We spend thousands of dollars on marketing and
are more than willing to bring you with us at no cost to
you. We offer a links page if you already have a site and
would like to link it to us.
Of course when your ready to go
out alone on your own, we have an in house web designer.
He specializes in programming so anything is possible. His
prices are fair and his work is awesome!
Ebay is a great way to get started,
however keep in mind no one goes to ebay looking to spend
a fair price. They want $1,000 item for $1.99. You will
never bring the true value from ebay. But it's fun to get
your feet wet. I consider ebay customers to be a great training
tool. If your product is not up to standards, trust me,
they will let you know. They judge you very harshly so if
you pass ebay customers the rest is a breeze. I have been
selling on ebay for years and seen it all. I wouldn't trade
them for anything, seriously they taught me a lot. Kept
my head small enough to keep getting through the doors too!
Their fees are a little high and I wish they would do something
about that to help people like you and I. But they are a
huge company now so they don't care much about losing a
seller.
I don't recommend you buy any
books on how to sell on ebay. To me that's simply silly!
A little reading on your part will do the same thing for
free. Ebay offers all kinds of self help pages for free.
Or ask someone who has sold on there. Many sellers are willing
to help you get started. If you don't know or don't understand
simply ask. To me, the only stupid question is a question
someone didn't or was afraid to ask. If your not a woodworker
and want to wholesale. Do some web searches to find wholesale
companies. The books give you web addresses, but the same
web addresses also advertise themselves, just look for them.
They are out there. Use MSN
or Google If you need
any help getting started on ebay, I would be happy to help.
Ebay is also a great way to buy
supplies at a wholesale cost. I buy all my sanding belts
from this seller Barb
She has the best prices and her shipping is awesome! I order
it one day and have it the next.
Once you have your own website it
isn't going to do you much good unless people see it. To
be honest, hire a professional to submit it or learn about
meta tags and site promoting. If your married let your spouse
do that part. When picking a company to submit make sure
they have your best interest at heart. A good salesman can
say anything but sometimes it isn't true. Megan at Internet
Advancements seems to be a very attentive and a kind person.
If I were to hire it done I would hire her. But again, this
is a service you can do yourself for free if you truly want
to spend the time. Or again, we have an in house person
that will do it for about $40.00 a month. You worry about
your product and let them worry about getting your name
out there.
I DO NOT RECOMMEND ENGINESEEKER!
They take your money and offer no support. Their tracking
system leaves a lot to be desired. When you do get phone
support it seems like your talking to children. I could
certainly tell as little as I knew, it was more than they
knew. Notice I don't put a link to their site, that's because
it would only help them in their ranking and I wouldn't
want to do that!
Finishing Thoughts:
I will be adding things to this
page as I think of them. I hope this helps someone. If you
have any questions feel free to call me. I know there are
a million questions I haven't gotten to yet, but these seem
to be at the top of the list.
Don't forget to subscribe to and
read your Woodworkers
Journal. I would like to extend a very heart felt thank
you to Michael Dresdner for doing the article on my business
and myself. He is a wonderfully talented writer who has
the ability to make someone realize we are all special in
life. Thank you Mike!
