I frequently get comments to the effect that I “work fast”. Many of my clients are pleasantly surprised with my productivity as I generally work for an hourly fee. My clients feel that they are getting there money’s worth even though I charge the high end of the scale.

Quality workmanship and doing right the first time always comes first, then comes “not cutting off yours or anyone else’s body parts”. Still pretty high on the list of priorities is efficiency or speed. I’ve always taken pride in my efficiency and I like to get my assigned task done as quickly as possible as long as the first priorities have been satisfied.

Today’s developments were interesting and got me thinking about “speed woodworking:” as a niche market. I was puttering around in my shop, in-between jobs and waiting for some wrought iron to be done so I could finish up a deck and stairs. Then I remembered a staircase that was  incomplete in a house I had worked on recently. The stairs were open on one side and needed a railing and balustrade. When I had discussed it with the homeowner previously, she was indecisive.

I decided to take a chance and call the homeowner and it turned out that my timing was perfect. She was in a panic and had to meet a deadline and had to have the stair rail done to pass a critical inspection. I quickly thought through the materials I had on hand, designed  a railing system around those material, formulated a price, gave her a quote and then asked her if having it completed by sometime this evening would be soon enough. “Done deal” she said. Designing, bidding, presentation and closing the deal took about 90 seconds. Our entire phone conversation took less than two minutes.

At 9:00 am  I gathered all the materials together. I had to mill the wall cap and casing, the shoe rail and fillets and all the ballusters. The ballusters were just 1-1/4″ square fortunately. I had some nice molding in stock and needed to make just the top cap for a nice three piece railing. Everything sanded, wrapped and loaded in the truck along my tools by 2:00 pm. When I arrived at the jobsite twenty minutes later, the homeowner was pleased to see me but still stressed out.

By 4:00 pm some of the ballusters were in place and the railing was starting to take shape. I could see some of the stress leave the owner’s face. I received some nice comments on my work from other subcontractors working there.

By 7:00 pm I was loading my tools back in the truck. The railing needed finish but was complete and would pass her scheduled inspection. It was solid and well fitted an looked quite handsome if I do say. Best of all was the look of satisfaction on my client’s face, her stress seemed to have gone away and she was thrilled.

As I was leaving the site, my lovely bride called to tell me dinner was ready and I said I’d be a little late. I enjoyed one of the best cold dinners ever. I had just made a client very happy and made more money in one day than I usually make in three or  four. It was a good day all due to “speed woodworking”.

The fabricator called and said the wrought iron was done, so now I have something to do tomorrow too.

Have a great week, Bret