Plywood

[jteneyck]

I've been calling around my own area and even 90 miles away in the Minneapolis/St. Paul market. Prices are really all over the place and that's not considering the quality. I can't necessarily assume an independent place isn't selling the same crap as big box stores. It doesn't sound like there's an issue getting what you want, but it's all spendy. I was really surprised to find paint-grade maple from a reputable distributor for right around $100/sheet. The bummer for me is there is no place in town to buy it. I have to order it through a local store and then pay their upcharge. No knock on the upcharge, we all need to make some money where we can, but I'm just so thrifty I want to get it at the distributor's price. I know someone will say that you just pass the extra cost onto the customer, but all the extra material costs and up, and I've already lost a job over it.

You will always be at a disadvantage on raw materials costs because of your small size.  Larger shops order in larger quantity and get better pricing.  Nothing new there.  If you are trying to compete head to head with those guys you are going to consistently lose.  My advise is to find jobs that the large shops don't want to bother with because it involves custom design, color matching, whatever it is that makes the profit margin too low to take the job or the price too high for the customer to accept.  Those jobs came to me by word of mouth through customers I had done work for.  I never had to advertise, but I didn't have to make a living at it either.  Until you build a client base that will provide referrals you likely will need to advertise in some form or another.  You may also find specialty work through contractors who don't want to take those type of jobs.  In any case, once you can find jobs that others don't want you will be able to charge more than enough to cover the higher material costs, much more.  

If you don't want to do specialty work you are in for a tough road.  

John