Hi everyone,

As a woodworker, I find it challenging to balance maintaining high-quality craftsmanship while still keeping my business profitable. The increasing competition and rising material costs make it harder to meet customer expectations without compromising on either quality or price.

I'd love to hear how others in the industry are managing this balance. Do you prioritize premium pricing for craftsmanship, or have you found strategies to reduce costs without sacrificing quality? Also, how do you communicate the value of quality to customers who may only be focused on getting the lowest price?

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

This is one of the reasons I mostly abandoned the 18th century woodworking that I started in business with. Lots of little details that take a lot of extra time that don't look like they do. Hey, it's just a corner bead. Or hey it's just a few wraps of moldings. Even back then when things weren't insanely priced for raw materials it was still a struggle to get a good profit and a happy client at the same time. Now with finishes 2x the cost, plywood up 50% and lumber 40-100% more than it was 4-5 years ago it's a real struggle.

I was always adamant about my installs with perfect scribes making things look like they grew out of the wavy floors and walls. Now I still do a good job with the scribe but no where near like I use to. Can't afford it.

Hard to do a good job finishing without a lot of scuffing and precision, so you need to charge more for it. Especially raw material costs. It's always disheartening how my raw materials costs more than a ready to install cabinet and it's just plop here's the materials.

The best thing to do is find clients that can afford to pay you. No easy feat. But I've got a few GCs now that are tired of the box cabinets and all the compromises of fillers and lost space when a custom cabinet will fit just right and you just have to convince the client it's worth it.

Chin up.

Interesting observation you have. I asked myself the same question back during the recession, when I lost my job and decided open my own shop. I think my clinging to doing a good job and giving good service helped me make it out of that mess.
I learn here on Woodweb from others, there are three things you can offer as a woodworking business; quality, price, and service, but you can only realistically provide 2 of those. Pick the two you want to provide and focus on that. I picked quality and service. Understand what that means to your target customers and you will have good referrals and hopefully a good business. I/you/most of use can not compete with mass produced work, so don’t. Offer things like grain matches, shorter lead times( you might have to work more, but you make more money), higher quality hardware, and don’t underestimate the value of being a “local” craftsman. Most people in my town love to buy local.
Figure out ways to get in with the higher end customer. For me, it was connecting with high end contractors. Not sure what your location is or is like, but be creative and figure things out.