Woodworking Dad Nets $2,000/Month

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

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Got a great story for you today. A woodworking dad brings in an extra $2,000 a month by working an hour or two a night after the kids go to bed. He's doing what he likes to do anyway, but he's getting paid for it. Going against the grain of boring plain Jane doors, this side hustler jazzes them up with paint, glass, and custom elements. Hey, what's up?

Welcome to Side Hustle School. Thank you for tuning in. My name is Chris Guillebeau. In every single episode, giving you a tip or a story like we have today, a case study, an examination of how a regular person out there, not a full-time entrepreneur, not a startup guru, how someone finds a way to create extra income without quitting their job. In fact, building additional security for themself away from their day job, even if they love that day job, it's all about choice.

It's about doing what's important to you. And being able to have more resources to do more of what's important to you. Wherever you are in the world, thank you for tuning in. I hope this episode brings you something helpful and interesting. I'll bring you the story in just 30 seconds.

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Woodworking has always been a hobby for Gus Brown. Gus, by day, works in the business of homeowner association management, that would be an HOA. But he loves tinkering in the garage and building things. At age 11, he built wooden crossbows, but eventually stopped because his bows were so good, they could be deadly. When he got married, he started building furniture for his wife and then their two sons.

After his wife posted a picture of one of his projects on Facebook, a friend of theirs asked if he'd be interested in paid woodworking projects. This friend's husband had just become a firefighter and didn't have time to do small projects for their business, which was called twisted vintage and had quite a following. Gus began contracting for them and they introduced him to the concept of installing glass in hollow core doors. Gus then created his own system for these doors that worked well and allowed him to predict how long each project would take. Now, this work got a lot of attention for his friend's business, but Gus wanted to go into business on his own.

The friends had no objection, so he continued contracting for them while getting his own work off the ground. He called it wood-taneous, a portmanteau of the words wood and spontaneous, and he specialized in transforming boring hollow core interior doors by framing them up with a glass window, a nice paint job, and a fun window decal. Those decals are completely customizable with whatever font and words the customer wants. Now Gus already had the equipment. He turned the third bay of his garage into a workspace, so there were effectively zero startup costs.

Once the business launched, his wife again posted on Facebook, and that's how he landed his first sale. She now helps out by responding to messages, returning phone calls, but he does all the hands-on work. Now, one of the challenges early on was that customers would sign up to get on his schedule, but a month later, they'd have a change of heart. Now they put down a $20 deposit to hold their spot, and that ensures that they're committed to following through. Just a quick side note, I think that should be a bit more than $20, but that's just me.

Now Gus charges clients based on the height of the door. Once he knows the height and what type of paint job, he'll quote them accordingly. "The cheapest option, which includes having the customer do their own paint, is around $400." Fancier options where he does the work, those are about 700. When the customer's turn comes around, Gus asks them to bring their doors to his garage shop if possible, but he'll also do pickup and delivery for an extra fee. Once the project is done, he collects payment via cash, check, Venmo, PayPal, or Zelle.

Basically, however you want to pay Gus, he'll take your money. Now when he is delivering or installing the door, he'll take photos for social media. He's active on Instagram, in addition to Facebook, but if the customer is picking up and self-installing, he asks them to take photos and share on their social media. Facebook Marketplace and a local TV spot have helped him get much of his business. Of course, excellent customer service and a quality product go a long way.

Over the past year or two, supply costs and delays have posed additional challenges. And here, Gus says being transparent with customers that projects could take three to four weeks has helped things run more smoothly. He's also had to pass some of those higher costs onto customers, but says his doors are still a fraction of the cost of what a typical door guy charges for a new door and all of the work that goes into it. Three years since launch, Gus nets roughly $2,000 a month after taxes and supplies. That's working for an hour, sometimes two, in the evenings after his kids go to bed.

The side hustle provides a nice additional revenue stream for the family, especially because his wife homeschools and they rely solely on his income. And in the future, he hopes to branch out into other products and take his hustle full time. He admits that door transformations are kind of a niche market, so he says he'll need to come up with those additional products to add to the mix to have enough business to pay the bills. Well, what can I say? Knock on wood.

Here's hoping the right doors will open for this woodworking side hustler. [Music]

Gus has some smart advice that he's gonna leave with us here. He says try to specialize in fewer products versus saying yes to everything. And this is especially important in woodworking or any kind of custom furniture work or anything of the sort, really. In this kind of world, custom work takes a lot of time.

So consider offering a few things with custom modifications. And that way the client still feels like they have an opportunity to choose what they want, but within the parameters that you offer. I think that is so smart. And no doubt he'll follow that as he plans to add some additional products, but all within certain constraints, right? Allow for some modifications, but not necessarily doing everything custom from the ground up.

Good work, Gus. Thanks so much for letting us share your story. Listeners, hope you enjoyed it as well. Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. To get the show notes for today's episode, including links to Gus's Facebook page, anything else mentioned in the episode, just go to sidehustleschool.com/1928.

Thank you so much for tuning in today. I hope you'll subscribe or follow. Come back for more. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]

From the "Onward Project."