smallbusiness.co.uk: Helping your business think big

Furniture manufacturing is very competitive. There are apparently around 6,000 small companies providing hand-crafted and upholstered furniture and a small number of larger companies supplying large quantities of production furniture to the retail market.

As well as companies producing complete products, there are also large numbers of jobbing workshops offering specialist services, such as woodturning, woodcarving and French polishing.

All in all, before you launch yourself into this industry, you would need to take a long hard detached look to satisfy yourself that you could make a go of it, given that you have no experience in it. Relevant experience is often a prerequisite for eventual success.

There are lots of training courses, including short ones and full-time University degrees. But perhaps the most relevant for you is run at Ryecotewood College in Oxfordshire (01844-212501), which offers a one-year course specifically aimed at candidates who are intending to set up in business in the industry.

The trade association for furniture manufacturers is the BFM and you can get more information from them (020-7724 0851).