Anybody prepared to take on what you have to say will bring their skill and business way up. You guys are so capable and honest. I hope you benefit from the goodwill that you are putting out there as much as we are benefitting from the content. Wishing you and yours a restful break over the upcoming holiday period.
What sound advice you give. Many newcomers miss that they, on average, can only sell their hours once. Everything from design, planning and installation costs money. I would recommend any start up to list every cost imaginable. With the help of an accountant you will soon identify what your true costs are. What I love about Freebird is the continuous improvement and always learning element embedded within their business model. As Alistair states: these aren’t necessarily cost savings you pass on, you should increase your margin. Plenty of handyman can fit skirtings, not many create and install the value add products Freebird offer. Keep an eye on your costs and cash flow, it’s too easy to get a little foot loose and fancy free and all those additional little costs soon add up. My wife is the financial director, no receipt and she doesn’t pay me. Most of all love what you do. Great vid 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Another great video. I've recently left the telecoms industry after 24 years to start up my own business. Your videos provide both inspiration and much needed insight. Thanks Alastair!
Great tips & pointers as per usual. Unfortunately I’m not on either FB or Instagram so I might be missing out on some of your informative videos..so if possible please keep uploading on here.
Keith B most of the more detailed tutorial type stuff goes on here, I just post on Instagram more photos of work in progress and some finished projects that might not feature on RU-vid
Hi Alastair , them shelves look brilliant mate , I’ve done a few in oak . But ex 2 inch thick , sitting on bearers . You way is better for sure . Have you come across a metal adjustable jig that opens up tight in the alcove And then transfer lines over to your shelf ? There used for overcladding stair treads and risers . You can get a very tight fit using it . You could get one fabricated really . Yours is by far the best channel on here .
terry davies thanks for these nice comments!!!yes a few people have suggested that stair tread template. It’s a great idea, I must get around to making one.
Thank s for this video, very informative , i am only a keen woodworker who makes things for family and friend 's ( wardrobe 's at the moment ) but you come up with some great videos, love them, very helpful the way you tell us the professional ways. thanks again
Hi Alistair. I would just like to say I appreciate the content of your videos, when I subscribed on 7th June you had 1811 subscribers and I've noticed that your numbers have risen to over 3K. Congratulations and a 👍 to the future of your channel. Best wishes Pete.
Great video Alastair, everything you said is spot on and we’re all always trying to achieve those points but as you know in certain circumstances it’s much harder to get to that point
Good points as always Alastair. As a relative newcomer to this industry l keep comong accross what I call the 'Ikea effect' which seems to drive people's perception of price and I estimate that about 1/3 of quotes go nowhere as a result of this. Luckily the other 2 thirds are enough to keep me busy at the moment. I assume that the development of a reputation over time helps to reduce this? Richard @ Lichfield WoodWorks.
I've had a lot of "I want it to look IKEA but made properly". I think people leaving more towards well built rather than throw away furniture now and are starting to understand what's involved (thankfully!)
Richard things definitely improve as reputation develops. It’s easy to be discourage at first when everyone approaching you seems to expect Ikea prices but there are lots of customers out there who understand they need to pay more for quality, but they don’t seem to reveal themselves until your established reputation draws them to you.
I was having exactly the same problem at first. In most trades the majority of your work will come from word of mouth. So if you price correctly then as the word of your work gets around there will be an expectation of what your cost will be. Make sure you get a reputation for being good rather than cheap.👍🏻
Really good video you go into great detail how to improve which is usefull for myself as looking to go into the industry done a couple of fitted watdrobes in my house and would already do differently now. The Scribes look quality by the way
Thank you for a great video. I am only a DIYer but as engineer I appreciate the efficiency of your work and it's great to see top quality craftsmen at work. A question Ihad not directly related to your topic but what do you use to pin the battens to the wall before screwing? Where these brick walls? I didn't know you could use say 18g nails on brick even for a temporary hold. thanks
Great advice, as always Alastair; your work is always quality, but you really seem to have gone up a level in theast 6 months or so 👌🏻 But, why on earth have 3 people disliked this vid 🤷🏼♂️
Hi. First of all thanks for the reply I know you are very busy. Yes it is the downloading version exactly as you described and use it as you described,perfect. No it’s my account I log in , when saved it to documents it looks as if the file is there but when I open it nothing there . It’s the 2017version I downloaded exactly followed your video. Thanks for your time and thoughts , Stuart
Have you written down your processes and procedures? I definitely agree with get the best tools you can. I think similar to your point on specialise is just focus on anything you do as it's easy to get distracted. Previously you spoke about the e myth another good book is traction. Regards Sam
Sam Rix I’ve just added Traction to my Audible wish list, I hadn’t heard of that thanks. Yes I modelled by business from the early days on the principles of systemisation taught by Michael E Gerber in ‘The E-Myth’ but I actually now think I was wrong to spend so much time trying to systemise everything so early in the business. Yes I have written down a lot of systems - only to find in many cases that those systems changed or became obsolete and I had wasted time. I think my business would be in a financially healthier place right now if I had trusted my intuition and skills more and focused on production more in the earlier days, leaving systemisation to later. I have watched smaller leaner businesses avoid taking on staff, simply work very hard and focused, and overtake me in earnings while I smugly say ‘yes but what if you fall ill etc... you don’t have a business you only have a very demanding job etc...’. What I now realise is that a lot of my choices were influenced by fear - because I had already had some health events and family issues which drove home the risk of relying entirely on my personal skill and health. I wasn’t wrong, but I went too far too soon on the systemisation. Lately I am reversing the overstaffing mistake and enjoying having more responsibility back in my shoulders because I actually find it less stressful - less burden of communication, misunderstanding and costs. I want to talk more about all this in a video but it is one of many many things I simply haven’t found the time to film!!
hi, I bought some of your sketchup bits - plug sockets and books - you put a lot of thought into the sockets ,,worth every penny :), will buy the other bits soon, ps I noticed something i have never seen before - in this video it shows and you say also you put raw plugs through the batten , so how big is the hole in the batten compared to the raw plug? thanks and have a good night
Christopher Claudio Skierka hi I’m glad you found them useful! 6mm hole through batten, countersunk, so you can put the red uno plugs straight through. Use a 5.0 gauge x 60mm screw and the head is still big enough to grab well
Jake Sale see my current price list here: www.dotgo.uk/shared/images/content/bus_53023/pdf/Alcove_Pricelist_updated_Feb_2020.pdf. (If this link doesn’t work in future then it may have moved onto a new website at www.freebirdinteriors.co.uk)
Hi, it is the EHL65 planer that I use now (might have still been using a cheap and heavier Titan one at the time of this video I don’t remember). Are you on Instagram? I have a good close up video of using it for the final shaping of scribes on there but I’d have to dig it out of the archive and share it with you
would you be able to help me , i watched your video on learning about sketchup { great } i have a problem with it when i make a model and save it to documents i can not retrieve it ,and if i turn my machine off i have got to download it all again, i have a MacBook pro you might have guessed i am not very computer savvy but following your two videos really helps .it would help with my woodworking if i could learn sketchup thanks in anticipation stuart
stuart williams is it the downloaded version as shown in the video, not the online one that runs in a web browser? If the first one, you should be able to choose a location on your hard drive to save a file and it should stay there... unless! Perhaps you are using the Mac with a ‘guest’ login? Have you set up a named user login for the Mac itself, with a password etc? If using the guest login nothing is saved
Thanks for a wonderful channel Alastair. Regarding the planer - what did you use before? My dewalt cordless planer has just given up the ghost and I'm trying to decide whether to just buy another or whether it's worth upgrading to the festool. (I'd be using it for all the exact same things you do). I find the dewalt capable but pretty heavy...
Hi, I was using a cheap Titan planer from screwfix. It did the job ok ish but was much bulkier and heavier. If I didn’t already have the FESTOOL now I would seriously consider the Bosch 12v planer. Derek Barrett has been recommending to me the whole Bosch 12v system - light and portable but powerful enough. However the Bosch planer does not allow attachment of the FESTOOL extractor, having only a small rectangular port made for use with it’s own dust collection bag. Also be aware that many people complain about the FESTOOL EHL planer having a bit of twist on the base - the front base plate is often at a slog he slant vs the rear from the factory and it can’t be adjusted. I had never noticed but when I took a good look I saw that mine was a bit like this. It has never bothered me because I am always just planing scribes which I am quite happy to back-cut slightly and I still find it highly accurate in terms of the fine thicknesses I can remove down to a line, if not in terms of the angle of the cut. If you wanted to plane a hardwood edge and keep it perpendicular to the face you may have issues. Quit a big flaw with the FESTOOL really! Sorry for some reason my phone always autocorrects FESTOOL to capitals and I have no idea why, I am not shouting at you 😂
@@Alastair_Freebird I had noticed the same thing! 'Ala-' Alastairs are a rare breed :) Really genuine thanks for your channel. My wife and I have both been rendered pretty much 'income-less' by Covid, and that with a baby on the way! What money I've earned in the last 6 months has been as a carpenter. Your (and a few others) generosity with your expertise and time has been a huge part of that. You've literally enabled me to keep my head above water and I'm hugely grateful. Hmm, as for planers I'm even more torn now! Like you all I'd really be doing is using it to plane scribes, and the small size of that Bosch is really appealing, but the dust collection element is pretty important to me... (What's really annoying is that the dewalt is within its 3yr warranty but at apparently its the one tool I forgot to register!)
Oh no, hard times I’m sorry to hear that! Drop me an email via my website www.freebirdinteriors.co.uk and I’ll send you a link to something that you might find a small help.
Joe Flanagan I am very interested in this and have done a little bit of reading on Kaizen, Kanban (?) etc and want to learn more . I have been directed to FastCap’s methods with this sort of systemisation and they are informative (RU-vid videos available)
