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Why I'm Not Allowed to Sell What I Make

March 1, 2026 · 3 min · 395 views

I didn't see this one coming: I legally can't be a woodworker. I live in Thailand, and here manual labor is restricted for foreigners to protect local jobs. Woodworking is on that list. If I build a table and sell it, that's technically illegal work, and I could get into serious trouble.

So this is me talking through the question I had to answer. If I love making things and I want to turn all this into a business, what options do I actually have?

The door

Last year we bought our first house. There was one custom door we couldn't buy anywhere, and the contractor offered to build it. I said no, I'll do it. At that point I wasn't a woodworker. I was a software engineer with too many half-finished projects and no DIY experience. I bought the tools, built the door, added LEDs because it had to be special, and that became my first YouTube video ever.

Something clicked. And I know my own pattern: I don't casually try hobbies, I go all in. There are boxes of LEGO in the attic and electronics parts I still don't fully understand. For most of my life that felt like a flaw. With the door, for once, it paid off.

The problem

The moment this stopped looking like a hobby and started looking like something real, it also became risky. Cue a small panic attack. I had two options: keep it as another expensive obsession that fades away, or find a way to do it publicly and legally.

What we changed

I talked to lawyers. We adjusted our company objectives so it's not only about software work anymore, and we made sure content creation is covered under my work permit. The conclusion is simple once you say it out loud: I can't legally sell the table, but I can legally sell the story of building it. So what I sell is the video, not the furniture.

What the channel is for

It also settled what this channel is. Wood is just the material that opened the door (and made it). What I really want is to build things that don't exist yet: mix wood with electronics, mix code with physical objects, learn welding, sculpting, painting. I'm not trying to master one thing. I want to stack skills and film it, mistakes included.

Watch it

Watch the video on YouTube.

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