so for today's topic we are going to be
talking about the power of selling
smalls so basically small items cheap to
make fast to make
i mean like items that can be made
you know for two or three bucks but
you're creative with it and you can sell
it for twenty dollars thirty dollars
those things add up you do not have to
make a two three hundred dollar item in
order to make
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money so let me show you some of the
things that i've made over the years out
of scraps out of cheap material because
i did not have the money to go out and
buy high grade material
wall art is huge people will spend money
on anything to hang as a decoration okay
my kids actually made these to sell this
was scrap flooring that's what it is
tongue group scrap flooring but you can
literally make it out of any type of
scrap wood that you have if you use
pallet wood if you use whatever they
sold these for twenty dollars a piece
and they sold a ton of them again charge
what you want
design them how you want leave them
blank they made white ones they made
colored ones they made just plain wood
they made distressed look at the
different sizes in this that is actually
what was used to make the cross that is
in this piece of wall art easy 20 bucks
that was back then now you could
probably get 30 40 bucks in the right
places this was thinking outside of the
box and they did great with it so a lot
of this video you're going to hear me
say the word divergent so divergent just
means
going in an opposite direction thinking
outside the box pretty much so you have
to be able to look at something and then
in your mind say hey this is how i can
make money with this you have to be able
to think about things that other people
can't you have to be able to see things
in your mind that other people can't and
it will come to you as you hone in this
skill as you build it up so let me show
you what i'm talking about was in an
antique shop one day and they had a box
of these tens
okay pretty cool
they're the old tins that used to line
the the roofs and the walls and things
like that but they had a whole box of
them and they were like i don't know
five bucks for probably you know 50 of
these things it's just a piece of tent
so
i thought they were super cool so what i
did was
put the frame for it
so now
this old piece of tin
is wall art this is an example of
thinking outside the box thinking
divergently i sold these for 20 apiece
now that was back then nowadays you
could easily get 30 bucks think about
how much a picture frame costs and if
you take a close look
this frame is actually made out of
furring strips burning strips are going
to be a key another way to think outside
of the box when two by fours are
outrageous right now spring strips are
still cheap so this was made out of a
two inch furring strip that right now
cost two dollars and eighteen cents for
an eight foot stick so this is just an
example of thinking outside of the box
just like some of the other projects
that i've posted let's say the fan
trellis i had someone comment that they
wanted to make theirs at a cedar a cedar
two by four and their area was forty
dollars well don't use two by fours what
else can we use let's think about this
well guess what a cedar fence picket
that is six foot long five and a half
inches wide
is only three dollars and ninety nine
cents and that's cedar and you can get
that exact same fence picket and time
for two dollars and eighteen cents so
think outside the box
two dollars and eighteen cents for a
board that is six foot long
six inches wide it's pretty cheap
compared to the price two by fours and
there are a lot of things that you can
build out of that so if you do not have
the money especially right now you know
when lumber's so high to go out and buy
extra material by thinking outside the
box you can afford to do some projects
or
use leftovers use the scraps from other
projects a perfect example of this is
the fan trellis that we just made the
fan trellis has cut off ends there will
be leftovers there will be scraps let me
show you what i just made and this is
one of the projects that i made at the
same time that i was making the fan
trellises do you know why
okay squirrel table
yeah
maybe a little cheesy people love them
they bought them like crazy twenty
dollars a piece
bought em like crazy could not keep them
up i actually give this project to my
kids said hey guys take off with it i
sold them i still have people asking me
for squirrel tables so as an example
from the scrap
material because you know how those
woodworkers are you know a six inch
piece of wood that's this long and this
thick we can't throw away you know which
is good
think outside of the box what can i use
that for so
the fan trellis it had the leftover
pieces and i'm like what can i make out
of that well i made squirrel tables
before
it took me less than three minutes to
assemble this probably making the cuts
things like that around five minutes
five minutes from scrap wood from
another project that i'm selling for
fifty dollars
the stuff that a lot of people burn or
throw away i just made another 20 item
that's what i'm talking about b
divergence see what other people can't
or don't okay and i've talked about
these before but this has probably been
one of my most profitable products yet
coasters i had access to some old four
by fours this was just some time four by
fours but had a nice grain to it you
know this one does too i could probably
make some out of this piece
so what i would do is i would just go
through my different pieces of 4x4 until
i found a nice pattern
and then that heart would be all through
the middle of this
cut them into three quarter inch pieces
and made these coasters
again not going to spend much time on
these because i have covered them in
another video but i made these for my
wife because she wanted coasters for the
house i didn't want to spend the money
for coasters on the house because i knew
i could just go make some
and she put them online she put them on
facebook sold them as a set of six for
30 bucks and she had tons of orders so
anything functional that you can make
out of what's lying around and you may
not have an old 4x4 laying around but
search for different things again i get
a lot of people ask me where i get my
reclaimed material
facebook marketplace is great craigslist
even though it's kind of an older site
it's still great for finding things like
that but it does not even have to be old
it's the grain that people like even if
it's coming off of a pallet there's a
piece of oak or whatever this thing is
made out of check the grain out check
the end grain see what it would look
like as an in-grain coaster so this is a
perfect example of how important smalls
are for your business especially when
you're first getting started how fast
the money can add up for smalls and
allow you to buy up as well as build up
but sometimes you may not need to build
up think about it okay so for this
example so let's say that instead of
thirty dollars a set which is what we
sold them for we sold these for twenty
dollars a set
and we sold 50 cents how long would it
take me to cut this you know i had the
material i could cut the material for 50
sets sand them down and put polyurethane
on them in a day that's a thousand bucks
at 20
okay so how long would it take you to
make a nice piece of furniture to sell
a thousand dollar piece of furniture how
long would it take you to make it and
the best part is the overhead the
overhead in this was near nothing so
like the coasters people like anything
that is functional so on the theme of
functional
a coat rack
this was just an old piece of barn wood
that i had laying around i had several
of the short pieces because i'd use the
other long pieces for builds and it does
not have to be barnwood just look for a
cool looking piece of wood okay just
anything that is neat
depending on what type of hardware that
you use you could expect to get between
40 50 bucks for something like this
online craft fair wherever that you
would like
this is another example of a wall decor
another coat rack that i made
these were end pieces okay so
bearing strips
that's what this is
that's what i was talking about that is
so cheap you may have to dig through the
pile a bit to find some good straight
ones but but they're great for projects
so i just took furring strips cut them
out of 45 put another piece of scrap
wood and some two inch going in opposite
direction and then you have an arrow
i was just messing around with some
scrap wood because that's what i had at
the time and this is a six inch piece of
scrap so even the tiniest scraps
if you use your mind you can actually
create something that is neat and that
people want to purchase you could easily
get 20 bucks out of this project just by
itself without the hardware on it if you
wanted to throw
you know some decorative hardware on
there you would have to add that into
your cost maybe bring it up to 30 40 but
people love arrows so while we were
talking about arrows also made these
this was there in time that did not have
the extra money to go out and buy the
wood that i wanted bearing strips again
are cheap this is a three inch furring
strip so right now an eight foot furring
strip is three dollars and twenty cents
that's what those arrows are made out of
so that brings the cost down to around
40 cents a linear foot so for one arrow
costs 80 cents to make so basically two
dollars and 40 cents you can make this
wall art people love them so those
little cheap sawtooth picture frame
hangers on the back perfect set but the
point is i took a cheap item something
that i could afford
and made something that i could sell a
set for twenty dollars turning that kind
of profit with such little work that's
what you're looking for you're looking
for that golden egg and you have to
think outside of the box again
constantly you're constantly thinking
outside of the box dreaming up different
things every time that you look at
something you say hey what can i make
what can i use what do i have laying
around what do i have that i have access
to what do i have that i can get for a
decent price and make that always keep
the mind going if you keep the mind
going then the ideas will flow in and
then you will eventually get into that
mindset where everything that you look
at you'll be thinking of ways that you
can make money with it i just wanted to
show you all an example or some examples
of different things that you could do to
make money that was kind of fluid all
these bills take a little bit of time to
accomplish so you can have income coming
in while you're building these larger
items i had a an older man whenever i
was first getting started i was building
my furniture i was taking it to these
different types of shows
it would take me forever to sell a piece
you know i may go i may make two or
three hundred bucks from one of these
shows you know selling my furniture at
the time so this older man was an
antique dealer he said the power in
selling is in smalls
this one piece of furniture that you
made for four hundred dollars
you may sell it but in the meantime you
could have sold fifty of these items
that were twenty dollars thirty dollars
so if you're going to set up at a farm
and garden show flea market affair
anything like that that you will have a
booth people come there prepared to
purchase something if they're taking the
time to drive there they're going to buy
something at the time his theory was
everyone has 20 in their pocket that
they brought with them to this show to
spend made sense i started making smalls
the smalls would sell like crazy make
small especially when you're first
starting out you can also make the
projects that you want to make but make
the things that sell make the things
where the money adds up quickly so the
main thing that i want you to have taken
away from this video is to keep your
mind open always be visualizing what you
can do with what you see what you have
or what you can get you do not have to
purchase everything from a big box store
and you can think outside of the box if
you have to so i hope that you have
enjoyed this video guys thank you so
much for watching make sure to smash
that subscribe button go out there find
some odd things this time find different
small items and go out and build some
small items and make that money until
next time see ya