If you're a woodworker like me you've probably
watched a TON of Matthew Peech's videos. He's an awesome builder and very entertaining. Watching
him always gets me so motivated to go out and build something. I'll think about what supplies I
need, plan how to go about it, maybe even schedule some time to build it. But then by the time I
end up ready to make something, I start finding enough excuses to not do it. And then I end up
building nothing at all. Then, like clockwork, Sunday rolls around he releases another awesome
video and I watch again getting super motivated, but end up not building anything. Well, this week
I'm going to break that cycle. I was determined to make whatever it was Matthew Peech was building
that week, and then attempt to sell it. Sunday morning came and I was ready. After church I
hustled home to see what video Matthew Peech had released this week which if you haven't seen it
you should stop here and go watch his video first. But, in this week's episode of make money with
woodworking Matthew shows how to modify an old build that you've definitely seen (his squirrel
picnic tables) and turn it into something new. With a couple small modifications you can turn it
into these condiment picnic tables. I watched the video, made sure to drop a like, and then off
to my shop I went. I started by just building one unit. It took a couple of hours, but there are
several mistakes I made along the way. After that session in the shop I ended up with this guy. Not
too shabby, but I wanted more. I decided to make three sets to sell. But then I went to the wood
pile and I was shocked...I was out of pickets. Maybe I should have been prepared, but how was
I supposed to know Matthew Peech was going to make something out of pickets this week? I went to
Lowe's and picked up the materials I would need to move forward. This ended up costing me around $35
for everything I needed. I then started building. The process took a little bit longer than I
expected. When building five at the same time, I thought I could get them down to sub 1-hour each.
This was probably possible, but not the way I did it. My problem was the builds are similar enough
that I could justify working on them together, but the dimensions were just off enough that I
ended up making several mistakes along the way. And then even when I didn't make a mistake it
was causing me to second guess my measurements and slowing me down. So I ended up taking about an
hour and a half per table. If I did it over again, I would first sand all the boards I was going to
use down, then cut them into their one inch and one and a quarter inch strips, then then I would
move into making just the condiment table setups. And then after I completely finished those I
would move to make the paper towel holders. Keeping the workflow processes separate like
this I think would actually speed me up quite a bit. So eventually I got them all built
and I switched over to marketing. My selling platform of choice is Facebook Marketplace.
It can definitely be frustrating sometimes, but it'll get the job done...eventually. First
I picked a target price. I wanted to test what I thought was the higher end of the market so
I set the initial value at $30 but then set the price for a set at $50. I made sure to
Stage the scene took some good pictures and then wrote a killer description. For pictures I'm
always looking for three types the first is just a plain shot without a background. The second
is a shot with dimensions on it so people can tell how big the object is. And the third is
a shot of the object being used. I posted my listing at 7:00 p.m. on Monday and started to
wait. Two days later I had just six views on the object and only one save. I had received zero
messages asking about purchasing one. I decided to re-brand a little bit. I dropped the price
to $25, updated the description a little bit, and put it back out there. But I waited four
more days and got no no additional views. I'm not exactly sure what happened here but I
think it's a combination of two things. The first is the general weather conditions. I'm
in the Indianapolis area in early March so the weather doesn't exactly exude cookouts and summer.
We've had a couple of warm days, but I think these would sell a lot better as we move into spring
in the next two weeks. And the second thing I think is bad marketing. Sometimes you can think
you have a great plan in marketing but then it just doesn't resonate with your potential customer
taking good pictures and creating a good listing is a skill that can be improved over time. So I'm
going to continue making some small modifications to my listing and see if anything turns around.
So that my experience so far building and trying to sell these I'm going to keep trying as we
get closer warmer weather, so be sure to check the pinned comment to see any updates. I'd love
to hear any experiences you've had with selling these or similar items in the comments.
If you enjoy woodworking make sure you are subscribed to Matthew Peech. He's got an awesome
channel it's an absolute Legend. Then consider subscribing here as well. Thank you so much for
watching and I'll catch you in the next one.
