Can money be made from a home shop?

[Scott Meskill]

Thanks for the honesty...

This forum is great, i love to hear everyone's experiences, especially after seeing the great creations you guys churn out. And the advice here is much better than my wife can supply!

[Tom Miller]

The key is to find your niche...you probably can't be competitive building cabinets....

Man, that's true enough even as a hobby! When it comes to furniture and/or cabinetry, etc. I stick to the stuff that we can't seem to find, or that we can't get at the level of quality that we'd like.

Regarding insurance: Seems like you could run into trouble if you had a fire (or other loss) in your "business-related" shop if it was not listed as such in the policy.

How about local zoning, HOA, etc. that might frown on a mfg business in the house? Are these real concerns?

Regards,
Tom

[Warren]

Tom: Certainly all are concerns which should be addressed. This is particularly true if you are establishing a woodworking related business on your property. You should also make sure that all taxable income is properly reported. Keep in mind that we're not discussing a production shop. Just a small operation to enhance income a bit. A selfsustaining hobby as it were.

The way I operate no traffic is generated in the neighborhood. HOA not a factor. The operation violates no codes. I have a rider on my home owner's policy which covers a myriad of activities. Living on a couple of acres I can operate the power tools any time I pretty well want. Also, it's Alaska and except for few pockets of late arrivals from America, we pretty much mind our own business and take care of our problems face to face. I guess we're not civilized enough to rely on HOA, cops, and etc. to settle all of our squabbles. It is getting worse though, as time goes by. Too bad. Life was good up here once.