Building a Successful Furniture Business from Scratch 

With the fast growing economy and ever increasing investment in the real estate, furniture business remains one of the most profitable businesses in the market. As more people seek for office and home accommodation so does the demand for furniture. With as little as Ksh. 75,000, you can set up your furniture business venture and make lucrative profits. And guess what! It’s not necessarily that you have the skills to succeed in the venture. Come along, let’s find out, what you should consider in putting the business on its track.

Decide on Whether you Need to Specialise your Business

Furniture business can be either household, office furniture among others. You can also choose to concentrate on one niche. For instance on home furniture, you may opt to focus on sofas, wall units, beds, and tables among other furniture. Depending on your preferences and also the market demand, you can specialize or focus on both types of furniture.

Choose a Strategic Location

Set up your business in a strategic location preferably on a busy street near residential places. Your business should be located in a visible site whereby people can easily spot on. You can display your furniture outside your business premises or create a small well-lit workshop for a start then expand to a showroom as the firm grows.

Required Tools and Equipment

Start off the business with the most necessary tools to save on capital. A must have tools include a hammer, a working bench, jack plane, chisel, tape measure, hand saw, hand drill, mallet, try square, and a bench vice. These tools might cost you less than Ksh. 20,000 since they are locally available. You can as well as outsource other necessary tools especially powerful ones at a fee.  Other essential equipment such as materials, washers, glue, cushions, varnish and others are also available locally and at fair prices.

Get a License

Ensure you obtain your business permit from the relevant county government offices. The fee varies depending on the type of business, location and county government itself. Nonetheless, typically, it ranges between Ksh.8, 000 to Ksh.15, 000 per annum. Furniture enterprise does not require any other license, therefore, once you have the business permit, you ready to go.

Management

As a starter, it is not always advisable to sell your ready-made furniture since it may fail to meet your diverse customer’s needs. Therefore, have a few quality designs to act as samples for clients and for selling purposes as well. Alternatively, have a picture display of a diverse range of furniture designs. However, as you go on with the business, take the customer’s orders and deliver the best notch products based on their specifications.

If you do not possess the carpentry skills and depend on employed workers, ensure you communicate the customers’ orders well and do some follow ups.

Also, ensure that you maintain good customer relations with both the clients and employees. Listening to your clients’ needs keenly, engaging them and delivering the best products beyond their expectations leave customers satisfied at your services. Therefore, they are likely to make referrals or become long term clients contributing to steady growth and success of your business.  Likewise, treat your employees well for instance by listening to their needs, giving them a decent salary package and other benefits. This way they will be motivated in their work hence producing the best quality furniture. As you start your business, you can have two skilled employees.

Set Prices for your Furniture

Pricing of your products should be considerate, covering your expenses and services while earning a fair profit. Also, you can consider the available market price. Nonetheless, good quality sofas go between Ksh.35, 000 to Ksh. 150,000. On the other hand, quality wall units range from Ksh. 22, 000 to Ksh. 100,000 while high-quality dining table ranges from Ksh. 20,000 to Ksh. 65,000. These prices vary depending on the design, size, type of materials used, and market price among other contributing factors.

Conduct Thorough Marketing

The success of your furniture business will depend entirely on your marketing strategies. Social media is a powerful marketing tool for your business for instance Facebook, Twitter and Whatsapp messenger.  While marketing your business products’, samples of your products should be clearly displayed, specify your location and contact information as well as use a language understood by your targeted clients. Referrals from family, friends and even clients play a significant role in marketing your products.

Final Word

Furniture business is a viable business opportunity that is gaining popularity owing to the steady market demand. To succeed in this business, ensure to conduct vibrant product marketing, maintain good customer relations and deliver unique, top-notched products that meet client’s needs. There you have it! Get into the furniture business and smile all the way to the bank.