How I Turned $3 Fence Boards Into $1.2 Million on Etsy
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- Опубликовано: 8 фев 2025
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Learn how I turned $3 fence boards into $1.2 million on Etsy with a simple woodworking business. I’ll reveal the best-selling products, Etsy success strategies, pricing mistakes, and key tips to make money with Woodworking and Etsy.
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Our goal is to help aspiring craftsmen do what they love for a living! We hope to share our knowledge in the woodworking field and CNC routering through training videos, CNC router techniques, unique projects, and practical applications.
One thing ive noticed as an Etsy seller myself, when I had my products priced lower, I had a ton of customers that would nitpick and complain about certain things. When I doubled my price, the complaints were gone, and I seen an increase in orders. From my perspective, the customers who are on a strict budget tend to be much more difficult that a customer that has excess income.
well spoken, i echo these results.
Excellent video! One tip I would give you that will put cash straight into your pocket is find all of those extra pieces like the bottle opener and the brass spicket etc. from a wholesaler at wholesale prices. Don’t buy that stuff retail like you said you buy the cooler from Walmart. Been through it 💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼… also, there are so many wholesalers of board especially fence companies. Just buy a pallet or two from a supplier. Do not get that stuff from Home Depot. All of this save money goes straight into your pocket.
Estimated shipping costs is around $63k (assuming 20% big cooler, 80% small cooler - which would get you close to the AOV in the video). That means you’d net around $60k and need to make 8 small and 2 big coolers per day (Monday-Friday)
This guy has literally gave every bit of info. needed for someone to start a business but lazy people aren't satisfied because he didn't list every single piece of the puzzle, where he got it, how much it cost, how long it took to assemble, and how fast it sold. Do a little research for the answers he didn't provide. Its really not that hard considering the amount of information he provided and remember it doesn't necessarily have to be coolers that you make. There are an endless number of woodworking ideas to build. You just gotta find that next big thing everyone can't live without! Great video, sure gave me some ideas!
he also has every single tool you would ever want XD
@@anthonydecesare4958 Just don't overthink everything. You can build this too with less tools. As Rocketbooste said but in my mind you don't even need a nail gun and a sander. If you are just starting, a hammer, some nails, good sanding paper ... that's all it takes and some muscles ;) and you get better with every piece you build.
@@_RocketRooster it could be because there is the IRS!
@@anthonydecesare4958 You accumulate tools that last over time once you determine what breaks or doesn't work of the cheap ones. If you're a person that has zero tools in 2025, make that one thing you change so you can better yourself and those around you. Tools I buy are lifetime. Heck I spent 400 on a toaster cause its repairable and old school, thing will outlive me and my kids. (Dualit classic for those wondering) It's easy to accumulate wealth when people stop spending money buying the same things 80 times.
love your videos and attitude. now please do a video on shipping large items. I think a TON of people would love to see that.
Yes this is something I've always wondered about. I'm in canada but still. The Info would definitely help
@@gcoca7450 Hi i have Etsy shop in India but I am in Croatia now.
Good sale in Etsy.
Agreed
Thanks!
Jose, thank you for supporting the channel, this does help the channel a ton, and means a lot. What else can I help with?
Great ideas, love the jigs
I can’t thank you enough for all the information you just gave out here! I just sat here and absorbed it all. Yes that hamster wheel! 🤦♀️ Some days I feel as though I spin it right off its axis! I also love how you have minimal tools to make a top notch product. Again, thank you for all of this great information! 😊
Thank you for the “just walk away” bit.
Great information! Would love to hear more about and see your shipping process!
Thanks so much for the advice on walking away if customers can't take the price. I started woodworking 4 years ago after retirement and I noticed I am just working and working but making little money.
such valuable info, we have been on Etsy since 2020, and I learned from you today youngman
The moment you're turning down work because you're in high demand, that's when you raise prices. I don't care what industry you're in.
That's being a bunghole price gouger.
I disagree. @@jwbmania
No. Thats fixing the initial error of charging too little. You just are a grub who wants free shit.@jwbmania
@@bobbillybobason It's not price gouging. Do you even know what that means? So, because I made a birdhouse and listed it for 5 bucks and I got 100 orders because it's stupid cheap for the quality I'm providing, I have to keep selling it for 5 bucks FOR YOU!!??? Obviously I made an initial error and the price needs a CORRECTION. Price gouging is tripling the price of water bottles during a state of emergency. You dont even know what youre talking about.
@@jwbmania You're the greedy one for wanting to take advantage of a poorly priced item because you're cheap.
Thanks for an extremely informative video and for the small print on the $$$ !
At first glance it sounds like low cost, high profit. Looking at the math, $277K ÷ $290 (using all large coolers, to estimate) = 955 coolers. If you had $123K profit before shipping, then deduct $75 each for shipping (= $71.6K), you made around $51K net profit. And that comes out to $54 profit per cooler. I don't know how much time went into making each one, not to mention time to package, drop off at the UPS store, etc, but these specific numbers whittle down to some very modest income. Not a lot of pay per hour. I can see why you needed to increase your prices! Which runs the risk of shrinking your customer pool.
I guess my point is: for anyone looking at whether this is work that can support your family, well - not by itself. That would require some diversity with a lot more products and more sales.
thank you for sharing your process ! and much congrats on the success!
Great video and very creative ideas!
Size v. Competition is genius!
I just checked on Etsy for personalized wooden cooler and yep! $249-350 or more for a personalized cooler. And they do come with lids.
Great job Ryan, wish I had the mind to understand all this.
What Home Depot or Lowes do you get your pickets from?? I've been to several in my area (Florida) and their fence pickets are always pure garbage! Warped, chipped & cracked to the point that they are barely usable
These are cooler than my cooler and that's cool.
Those rough sawn cedar fence boards look really smooth, like they went through a planer or thickness sander. And they are way thicker than what I can buy from my local HD. We’re do you get them.
Great video! Why did your orders go down 36% YOY?
Based on the net shipping expenses (your costs - fees collected) + ad expenses it looks like your final net profit was around $27k-$30k...is that correct? Is this after you paid yourself?
Great video!
Great lessons. Thanks for sharing.
I wonder about the shipping, is it broken down? I tried to ship a box last month, but since it was over 18" long the price was $85 at UPS and $62 with USPS.
Check with pirates hip. Get commercial rates!
So here's an idea I thought of while watching this.
Why don't you sell a backyard "Kooler Kit," where you sell the needed hardware (spigot, liner bag, snaps, etc) plus instructions and maybe drilling and cutting instructions to the maker. All they have to do is buy the wood at Home Depot and maybe a cooler at Walmart.
Or just sell the detailed instructions for like $25, and they can source the things they need.
This would obviously be for makers, but it would allow you to sell digital products to makers to sell their own coolers locally.
I do leatherwork, and my products are light compared to this, but I know lots of makers that just sell pdf patterns and make a living that way. They ship NOTHING. Their patterns keep selling night and day while they sleep or do other things.
Yeah there’s plans out there for cooler’s. They are even bigger. I forget but they have a cooler and something else in a set. I think second one is storage?
You need to raise price slowly over time until you’re not as busy but more profitable. Then, you can hire a guy to increase sales and pay him 50% of what you’d pay yourself. You get 50% and he can make more by working faster, longer, more efficiently and getting 50% of a bigger pie. This is supply side economics at its core.
What’s the name of that cooler insert material? And where do you find it?
He said that he found a local company to make them for him.
These are awesome! Any chance of doing a build video for the large outdoor cooler?
How do you ship something like that?
Really NICE !!!
Work backwards from the profit you want to make, add in your material costs, employee costs amd overhead (rent, electric, etc) amd that determines your price…then you look at the market amd see if it will sell
before ever deciding on the size of a product, do you always look at the sizes of boxes first so that you can easily fit it? is that always the formula to decide a products final size?
Can you share a link to your Etsy store so that I can buy one of your coolers?
I wish those liners were available somewhere. Anyone making those for me around here is going to want $30 a piece for them.
At least
If you have a sewing machine, you can find the textile materials for dirt cheap and make them yourself. I am sure it's not hard.
@@odbo_One I'm trying to find materials
How come they are perfectly squared and true if you don't use a jointer or planer? I've never seen a perfectly straight picket fence.
He said he used a table saw in the making of these cooler stands
❤❤❤❤ you are an honest man.
I bought a used table saw. I haven’t turned it on. I’m afraid of it. Im gonna see if I can find a way not to have to use it. Lol.
Great video thank you
Thanks
I heard etsy is extremely expensive to sell on. The shipping fees/ requirements and their selling fees.
You missed something: where’s the link in your video description to your Etsy shop?
Why should he give you his Etsy shop. Go open your own.
@@ChrisWhitley-tx1oz Swing and a miss. He should include the link here to drive buyers from this video to his Etsy shop.
Frio Coolers
@@ChrisWhitley-tx1ozso we can order a cooler from him, it’s a great product.
"Using these $3 (actually $4) fence boards" ... And a ton of hardware, coolers/liners, and other materials, but hey, that's not good click-bait...
Did I miss something, you show an operating profit of 123k before shipping but never mentioned your actual shipping cost
He shows 1,978 units sold. Assuming a 50/50 split of small and large cooler at $25/$75 avg shipping cost it's roughly $99,000 shipping cost. Net profit is closer to 9% based on this. Still profitable! This was a great video and breakdown
@@kmrwoodworks That would be pretty average profit over a year if so.
He mentioned that shipping cost were nowhere near 123k.
@@_RocketRooster define "nowhere near". If the numbers were really that good, he'd have told us. But the point is to get people excited and buy his course. All that work for 9% profit (as mentioned above) doesn't sound too appealing.
@@awlthatwoodcrafts8911 His course he is promoting is for cnc . The project he shows in this video wasn't use other than the stencil lettering but there's several ways to stencil. Not sure about you're 9% profit conclusion but wouldn't that include his labor cost? Surely you know he himself didn't build those coolers. I seriously doubt he is only making 9%. It wouldn't be worth it to him for the effort put in.
Correction: Etsy Accelerated course
Nice work! What do you say to a starting woodworker who’d like to start making products to sell on Etsy but the saturation of what already exists feels like an impossible task to overcome and find your niche?
Etsy is certainly a tough nut to crack, but not impossible. Like he said, it takes good product photography, but it also takes good SEO, i.e. tags, keywords, titles and descriptions, and that takes research. After all that, you have to have patience. You gotta leave things alone. You can't be tweaking stuff every day.
I got 3 sales in my first full month. Then I got 10 in each of the next 2 months. It was then that things finally took off. Patience.
What do you use to etch the names on the wood?
looks like a laser engraver
Do you sale plans for your woodworking items? If so, I would like to purchase some. I’m a beginner in woodworking. Thank you for the videos. God bless you
so the ice bag liner where can i buy it
Turn up your hearing aid and rewatch the video. He said he called around to a couple places near him and found one that could make that insert for him . Damn pay attention to a video
@heathboeddeker5401 super rude...no wonder you only have 21 subs.....if you know what that means....you Unc!
The entrepreneur has to be slow to jump in and fill the niche until he understands the total cost involved. On some products the shipping costs more than the product. The idea of pricing shouldn’t be on ensuring that everyone can afford the product, it should be on meeting a niche that’s willing to pay that price, even if he wouldn’t pay that much himself. If an entrepreneur prices his product low it’s just a matter of time that the big boys take his business because they can produce and distribute it cheaper.
Love it. Any plans for salen?
@CuttingItClose ❤
Thank you so much for your friendly, well-edited, inspiring video! We all have gifts and you obviously found a way to work for yourself, teach others, and be profitable. Way to go!
*We need to talk!!!*
Great info, but WHY distract from what you're saying by dubbing in a soundtrack?
The cooler thing looks good but if there is no lid to keep the air out, well here is Florida the ice would be gone in two seconds. That’s not a great buy for me.
Where did you get the liner for the picnic style coolers?
He says in the video where he got them from.
@@TerrapinCreations666 he actually didn't say where he gets the smaller cooler from
@@DenverBronx12he said somebody makes them for him
@@DenverBronx12 Yes he did.
@@MrDmorgan52 then I completely missed it. Where?
Like he's gonna say where to get the liner....yeah, right! good luck. Would be good tho if he says where to get them.
Thumbs down for telling a Li. E. because the only reason a cooler like that would sell on etsy is the personalized laser image/text. Yet you act like a laser was not needed when in fact the laser was the only thing that made a sale.
How do i get a scholarship to your academy??
It sounds like you're cutting it too close. :)
Who's your shipping provider?
Your cost to ship seems really low.
He's probably shipping by full trailer load and is able to negotiate a lower cost than you would get by shipping from UPS store.
The mistake that almost cost me everything… not realizing that $3.98 is closer to $4 than $3. 😅
People who make millions don’t make RUclips videos unless video brings more money than the actual product/service they advertise…
Revenue/sales aren't profits. Note that half the revenue was eaten up by Etsy fees and his production costs. Then he mentioned shipping costs but didn't give a breakdown on them, but I would guess that took another good chunk out of the profit margin. There's also a very good reason to make the RUclips videos even if you are seriously bringing in big profits on your other product. Each cooler only gets sold once. Every youtube video sits on the internet pulling in residual income for as long as people keep watching and you only ever had to make it once.
You are mistaken. This is called diversification and many artists do it because it's a must to have multiple income streams. It doesn't matter if you make wooden items, make music or paint.
@@stefanfyhn4668 makes sense, looking it from your POV definitely gives him more credibility
Those coolers at Walmart just went up 10%
The shipping is more than it's worth I can do without
So... net sales say $277k but thumbnail says $1.2m... Math needs to be re-mathed.
That was over the last 3 years. In the last 12 months are the numbers I showed.
@@cutting-it-closecould you share where you got the insert made or what type of material you used so it can be sourced locally?
$100 for a wooden box....and is that $1.2M gross or NET?
I don't believe this. This total means $170 per item. IMO this is just to sell courses. This is just like the micro green people.
I love non believers! Makes sure I make more money on my end!!! Keep doubting. He will continue making more and more money! 😂
@@irenovatedmvI love people who don't pay attention. He barely made any money if you actually look at the number of orders he did on the year.
Wow!! The shipping price, yikes…
If you pay 1$ a bale and sell it for 1$ a bale and youre not making money just buy a bigger truck? Kidding. good info.
exposure is still the biggest struggle
It's sad to see that the USPS is probably making more on your great product than you are!
Great product, but not just $3 fence pickets.
Those fencing post s are a lot more than $3 here.
Huge deception here. Why won't you tell us the actual profit AFTER shipping costs???
kewlars.....
There obviously cannot be much money in woodworking since every single woodworker on the planet has time to film, edit and post RUclips videos.
Lol I don't.
You have a confirmation bias going as you'll never hear from all the woodworkers out there who don't have a RUclips channel
"Outdoor Kewl-ers"
No thank you, I have a life.
Most of videos like this is clickbait......1.2 million ....right......
Your not a woodworker lmao
They are $4. Not $3. Just sayin'.
Jigs on a lazy susan…brilliant!!!
Of course, I would have to have the LS mounted somewhere semi permanent, maybe with magnets on the bottom of the jigs. Having a bunch of jigs that flop around as I put them away would drive me buggy 😵💫
Are these coolers the thing that inspired you to buy Frio?
low key slaps... slaps... get it, slaps?.... w.h.a.t.e.v.e.r