Join us at the SBWI for an exclusive one-day Lumber Grading course led by industry veteran Bob Vogel, former CEO of Hardwoods of Michigan. In 2010, Bob was named as one of North America’s 50 most influential people in the hardwood lumber Industry.

Learn how to build your portfolio as a woodworker and how to market to your target audience. As part of this course, SBWI student Joshua Lutz will be doing a demonstration on building a woodworker website using SquareSpace. Learn how to set up a domain name. Bring your laptop and build along with him. Be sure to have a few images of your work, and some wording like your bio or artist statement.

Figuring out your pricing can be overwhelming and emotionally charged. Before you set prices on your products, ask yourself what you want to earn from your artistic business. Regardless of your income target, it’s important to your business planning to know how much you’re spending. Knowing what it costs to produce your work can give you a foundation for setting prices. Learn how to calculate your costs using indirect and direct costs to determine overhead. Make your own equation to meet your goals taking into account consistency, competitiveness and profitability. Learn about the psychological aspects of pricing, and how that affects perceived value.

Obtain general information about your intellectual property, contract basics, and structuring your artistic business. Learn the the difference between a copyright, trademark, trade secret, and moral rights, and how they affect your work. Learn the elements and importance of contracts, and what to include in a contract depending on the purpose. Learn how to structure your business when considering different liabilities, tax responsibilities, levels of control, and legal protections.

Learn how to think creatively about diversifying your funding streams by exploring different models for generating value, resources, and revenue. On the most basic level, capital can be anything that has value and helps in the production of other goods. Explore traditional, new, and hybrid funding models.

Craft persuasive messaging and create a strategy for how you will get the word out about your work, events, and news. Learn how to prepare a simple business plan, in arts-friendly language, to help you organize all the various aspects of your artistic practice and make informed business decisions.

Learn tools and techniques to communicate the value of your work to potential customers.