The full quote is 'The customer is always right in matters of taste'. This means if you love the color yellow and you only make your dodads in yellow, but the bulk of the market loves purple, you won't sell much. If you switch to the color purple, you'll make a ton of money. It DOES NOT mean the customer should always get their way. Just because they said you had ran an ad for your product 50% off doesn't make them right. You know you've never discounted 50%, don't devalue your product to make them feel right.
0:57 A coworker frequently uses the quote "The customer is not always right, but they do need to be listened to." In other words, the solution they may be proposing may not be the right course but it's addressing an underlying problem they have. 9:40 The increasing goals of the business plan sounds like a "profit snowball". Kind of the inverse of Dave Ramsey's debt snowball.
I just wanted to say thank you for your channel and for what you two are doing. I took my part time woodworking business of several years full time this time last year in no small part to the advice I received on this channel. My first year was a great success and I am looking forward to growing more in my second year. Keep it up!
Jennie is correct and the adage should be written: "The customer is never wrong." You don't want to tell the customer he/she is wrong; you just use your sales acumen to convince/show them the better way.
Customer is always right... its always situational, my day job is selling insurance... my customers are wrong... often... in woodworking I feel that we are the experts in safety, and in safety situations we must be right, the customer should always have input, but like in your example with the cutting board, "ooohhh you are right, a dark color would work well with your kitchen, let's use (insert a darker foodsafe wood) instead, this will give you the look you are looking at for years to come" or something similar
you can also call it direct vs indirect cost. to outsource the finishing of my woodwork cost about the same as me finishing it myself. one is cash and the other is time.
This was excellent, thank you - I now basically agree with all you have said but wish I had thought this through before I started!! Colour requests particularly annoyed me until I showed a number of different woods rather than stained wood. Appreciate you sharing your experiences.
Jennie and Davis, I have enjoyed watching your videos for years. Can I make one observation on this video? It looks like your camera may be on auto white balance. I noticed that when you hold up the cash or trash signs the video goes warmer and then when the cards comedown it goes cooler.
Another great video. You guys are awesome. Your energy and enthusiasm make for entertaining viewing. I see a lot of your videos are aimed at helping out beginning / aspiring business owners. What about some content towards people that want to dabble in woodworking but don't want another full time job? I have ideas and wouldn't mind putting some effort into a hobby but I don't want to start a business as I'm closing in on retirement (retired USAF & I'm about 10 years away from full retirement). Keep up the great work.
In my experience the customer doesn't know what they want but they know what they don't want. I always give them three designs to choose from or else they will nit -pick.
You looked at the outsourcing part the wrong way. Say there's a product you want to make that your customers are always asking for, but it takes a rather expensive piece of equipment to make (eg. large CNC, ...). You're not sure if you should make that investment if it turns out that only a handful of people are going to buy it. Outsource that product, or at least the main part, and do the finish part yourself. Once you have an idea of how well it will sell you'll know if it's worth buying that equipment or just continue to outsource it. I follow a guy in the printing industry, he's found that it's faster, cheaper and easier to outsource a particular product than buy the equipment needed (cost apx $50k) for the volume it would bring in. There's more to it than that but that's the simplified version.
Business advice. I just ran a campaign for local District Judge in my community. Everyone wanted to tell me what I "oughtaa do". If I had unlimited funds and time, about half of it would have been good. As it was, almost all of it was trash advice.
2:24 not a good example of this situation about the customer. All you were doing was answering a question the customer had. That's just a yes or no answer. Not a matter of whos right or who's wrong
![4 Things you MUST GET RIGHT to Make Money in Woodworking [The Business Bus]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/-n9-3mMtv9I/mqdefault.jpg)
We limit options, but... for a substantial upcharge, we will bend the rule. Great video you guys. Thanks!
HAHAHA! This was great! Garrett agreed with Davis every time and Kim agreed with Jennie every time! Thanks Guys!
The full quote is 'The customer is always right in matters of taste'. This means if you love the color yellow and you only make your dodads in yellow, but the bulk of the market loves purple, you won't sell much. If you switch to the color purple, you'll make a ton of money. It DOES NOT mean the customer should always get their way. Just because they said you had ran an ad for your product 50% off doesn't make them right. You know you've never discounted 50%, don't devalue your product to make them feel right.
Great video! You really gave great advices for start-up businesses. ❤
The customer is always right in matters of taste.
That is the actual saying
0:57 A coworker frequently uses the quote "The customer is not always right, but they do need to be listened to." In other words, the solution they may be proposing may not be the right course but it's addressing an underlying problem they have.
9:40 The increasing goals of the business plan sounds like a "profit snowball". Kind of the inverse of Dave Ramsey's debt snowball.
I just wanted to say thank you for your channel and for what you two are doing. I took my part time woodworking business of several years full time this time last year in no small part to the advice I received on this channel. My first year was a great success and I am looking forward to growing more in my second year. Keep it up!
Jennie is correct and the adage should be written: "The customer is never wrong." You don't want to tell the customer he/she is wrong; you just use your sales acumen to convince/show them the better way.
Customer is always right... its always situational, my day job is selling insurance... my customers are wrong... often... in woodworking I feel that we are the experts in safety, and in safety situations we must be right, the customer should always have input, but like in your example with the cutting board, "ooohhh you are right, a dark color would work well with your kitchen, let's use (insert a darker foodsafe wood) instead, this will give you the look you are looking at for years to come" or something similar
When will we see some more shop videos building stuff?
you can also call it direct vs indirect cost. to outsource the finishing of my woodwork cost about the same as me finishing it myself. one is cash and the other is time.
This was excellent, thank you - I now basically agree with all you have said but wish I had thought this through before I started!! Colour requests particularly annoyed me until I showed a number of different woods rather than stained wood. Appreciate you sharing your experiences.
Jennie and Davis, I have enjoyed watching your videos for years. Can I make one observation on this video? It looks like your camera may be on auto white balance. I noticed that when you hold up the cash or trash signs the video goes warmer and then when the cards comedown it goes cooler.
Another great video. You guys are awesome. Your energy and enthusiasm make for entertaining viewing.
I see a lot of your videos are aimed at helping out beginning / aspiring business owners. What about some content towards people that want to dabble in woodworking but don't want another full time job? I have ideas and wouldn't mind putting some effort into a hobby but I don't want to start a business as I'm closing in on retirement (retired USAF & I'm about 10 years away from full retirement).
Keep up the great work.
In my experience the customer doesn't know what they want but they know what they don't want. I always give them three designs to choose from or else they will nit -pick.
You looked at the outsourcing part the wrong way. Say there's a product you want to make that your customers are always asking for, but it takes a rather expensive piece of equipment to make (eg. large CNC, ...). You're not sure if you should make that investment if it turns out that only a handful of people are going to buy it. Outsource that product, or at least the main part, and do the finish part yourself. Once you have an idea of how well it will sell you'll know if it's worth buying that equipment or just continue to outsource it. I follow a guy in the printing industry, he's found that it's faster, cheaper and easier to outsource a particular product than buy the equipment needed (cost apx $50k) for the volume it would bring in. There's more to it than that but that's the simplified version.
Occasionally ( not very often) the customer is wrong. Rarely are they VERY wrong but it does happen and it's just best they leave.
Business advice. I just ran a campaign for local District Judge in my community. Everyone wanted to tell me what I "oughtaa do". If I had unlimited funds and time, about half of it would have been good. As it was, almost all of it was trash advice.
i love you guys and big respects for your service (Australia), Davis shave the head for 2024 mate, you'll love it
The customer may “always be right”, but they might not always be correct.
You can take feedback, but you can ignore it.
Great show. Great advice. Maybe you can spend more time looking at us, the audience, instead of each other. Thank you.
Shoukd i let the vendor shop owner tell me how to run my booth?
1. you could tea stain a board
2:24 not a good example of this situation about the customer. All you were doing was answering a question the customer had. That's just a yes or no answer. Not a matter of whos right or who's wrong
?$ 425,000 To $500,000....in a lagitimat buzines..you probably made $75 k to maybe $85 k...pending price points.......Hmm,