How to Start a Carpentry/Furniture Business in Nigeria

With the furniture industry growing favourably on a yearly basis, projected market conditions indicate that more people will demand items of furniture in future. In the light of this, furniture making comes to the fore as a rewarding business sphere in Nigeria.

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While experts estimate the capital of #3-5 million for starting a furniture business on a fairly large scale, you can expect to expend more or less capital depending on your business inputs.

If carpentry is the business idea on your mind and you’re pretty comfortable of making entrepreneurial fortune through the manufacturing and sale of furniture, you may rest assured that you’re reading this article at the right time.

Steps for Starting a Carpentry/Furniture Business in Nigeria

Conducting a Market Survey

This is really needed for you to figure out the carpentry niche that tends to reel in profit with respect to your preferred business location. Through an in-depth market survey, you should know the level of competition among local owners of furniture businesses. Importantly, your market survey is best done by getting in contact with the nearest players in the furniture industry and obtaining essential information from them. Doing this will avail you priceless background knowledge of the demand for specific furniture, the pricing model of furniture, the level of competition in the business sphere and the strategies for business success.

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As regards carpentry niche, you may have to select from a variety of choices including furniture manufacturing and furniture trading. While furniture trading requires you to only purchase ready-made items of furniture from their designers, furniture manufacturing entails fashioning out new furniture from raw materials and often requires more startup capital compared to the former.

Furthermore, it’s through a well-conducted market survey that you figure out the target audience best suited for your kind of carpentry as well as the varieties of furniture that align with their taste.

Writing a Business Plan

If you seem not to know well enough about the furniture industry, it could be risky that you handle the business plan writing by yourself. Therefore, you should consult a business advisor/expert and seek their professional hands regarding the business plan.

Specifically, the business plan should incorporate your projected startup capital, the costs of raw materials (provided you’ll be operating as a furniture manufacturer), the business inputs, marketing strategies and the projected turnover over a given business period.

Choosing a Favourable Business Location

Considering that you’ve carried out a thorough market survey, you wouldn’t find it arduous to decide on or select a favourable business location. If your kind of carpentry entails the manufacturing or sale of luxury items such as upholstered office chairs, deluxe sofas, etc., it’s strongly recommended that you site your business in an urbanized area.

Registering Your Business

You must consider business registration as well as business branding if you really intend to make dramatic waves with your furniture business. By business registration, you’re expected to register your carpentry business with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and by business branding, you’re expected to fortify the business with a slogan, a logo and a name that will distinguish it from those of competitors.

Purchasing Business Supplies

This, of course, is one of the startup aspects that will gulp the most expenditure. Particularly if you’ll be operating as a furniture manufacturing company, you shouldn’t try to cut corners regarding the purchase of supplies. Factually, you’ll have to purchase a reasonable amount of production tools.

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While wood is the major raw material for furniture making, the production tools needed at your carpentry workshop should include:

• Different varieties of saws –chain saws, jigsaws, hand saws, circular saws, band saws, arm saws, etc.
• Screwdrivers
• Hammers
• Chisels
• Router bits
• Router
• Sanders

You should note that the above list isn’t comprehensive enough as there are certain other tools you’ll have to purchase.

Employing Expert Furniture Makers

This is another expenditure-gulping aspect as it involves the hiring of expert carpenters. It’s these carpenters that will be responsible for the making of chairs, tables, wardrobes and several other furniture items you wish to sell.

Depending on what you deem affordable, you may hire carpenters on a part-time basis or employ full-time furniture makers.

Promoting Your Business

You’ll need more than the conventional billboard advertising in order to attract many customers to your furniture business. This is why you should factor in the cost of online advertising/marketing. Put simply, you’ll have to create and run a website that eventually sells your furniture online.

Conclusion

Furniture/carpentry business is one with favourable yearly growth estimates as more people demand items of furniture for both domestic and official uses. But for anyone to make success in this business sphere, they need both sufficient capital and knowledge (of marketing strategies).