April 30, 2010

Alison Heath on Woodworking & Marketing

April 30, 2010/ Todd Clippinger

Guys - Meet Alison Heath

If you are interested in woodworking as a business, it is important that you get to know Alison Heath.

I became aware of Alison Heath through Twitter. I noticed that she was always sharing these great, nutritious bits of information on business and marketing strategies, so I started following her at Twitter and through her blog "Workbench Marketing."

Alison Heath - Marketing Super GeniusOne of the things that I found to be a great connector for me to Alison is that she loves furniture and she worked as marketing director for a high-end custom furniture business in the D.C. area. She understands small business and has a special penchant for the craftsman of any medium.

This is important, because what she shares seems more relevant to me and my business. The variety of business books I have read offer great business advice and principles, but there seemed to be a disconnect as to how it helps me, with my business, in my situation. Alison's information seems to be spot-on for me and so other woodworkers may find her information particularly applicable as well.

Another pro woodworker and business owner that follows Alison is Troy Bouffard. Troy puts together the best interviews I have seen anywhere and he has just posted an interview with Alison at his site Birch Hill Woodcrafts. So be sure to check out Troy's interview with Alison to find out about her background and what she is all about.

What I love about Alison is that she "Shares the Love & Shares the Knowledge." Today, Alison is appearing as a guest writer for the ACW and her submission covers woodworking and marketing.

Woodworking + Marketing = Success

by Alison Heath

There’s more to owning a woodworking business than the woodworking.

Even if you are the best craftsman in the country, with unique designs, speed and efficiency in the shop and the full complement of professional equipment, you still need one crucial thing: CUSTOMERS.

Some folks seem to think that by opening up their doors and saying that they’re a professional woodworker, they will immediately have a backlog six months to three years long like Sam Maloof did. The reality is often different. Sometimes much different. I know woodworkers who haven’t seen a sale in six months, much less a backlog of six months.

That’s not intended to discourage anyone in their dream of becoming a professional furniture-maker. However, in order to be a professional, you need to be a professional businessman and not just a woodworker. And while you’re dreaming of your own woodworking business with the safety net of a nine to five is the time to start thinking about the basics of marketing. It’s not as scary as you may think.

1. Your Name, Professional Woodworker

You need to name your business. The above may have a nice ring to your ears, but what does it say to your customers? First, when a potential customer wants a piece of furniture, I can guarantee you that they won’t be Googling your name. Second, what is a woodworker? Is it a framer? A carpenter? A remodeler? There is nothing magical about the term “woodworker” that tells someone outside the hobby that you sell furniture. Instead, pick a name that says something about what you’d like potential customers to know about your business. Even better if you can come up with a business name that includes common search terms for what you’d like to sell. A business name isn’t there to soothe your vanity. It’s there to promote your business.

2. Start Promoting Now

Here’s the bare minimum you need before you can start a woodworking business in the 21^st century:

A website
Business cards
Relationships with other craftsmen in your community (not just woodworkers)

Your road will be easier if you start this now. What this will give you is a website that the search engines will actually see when you’re eventually ready to take the plunge, a bunch of contact information from potential customers that you’ve exchanged information with and a network of like-minded folks who are not necessarily in competition with you to share business tips and tricks with.

3. Don't Freak Out

You can do this. If you’re here reading Todd’s blog, you’re putting yourself in a terrific position for success in the future. But along with building your woodworking skills, work on building your business skills. Learn how to design a website. Learn how to build and maintain long-lasting relationships. Learn how to get your products in front of the right people. Learn how to ask for help.

Best of luck!

Alison Heath is a marketer focused on bringing marketing basics to small business owners. She blogs daily at Workbench Marketing and can be found on Twitter @furnituregirl.

Alison, thanks for sharing, we really appreciate it.

Well Guys - That is all for now. If you are interested in business, be sure to check out Alison's blog regularly.

Your friend in the shop, Todd A. Clippinger

Share the Love ~ Share the Knowledge

April 10, 2010

Some Great Things Happening!

April 10, 2010/ Todd Clippinger

Workin’ My Butt Off!

Guys – I kid you not, I have a full plate and I am getting up early and working late everyday. But it is very exciting as there are a lot of things going on behind the scenes.

Clamp Storage SytemThe economy must be getting better because I am getting calls and jobs like I normally should. It actually started early this year which was a mystery to me but a welcome one.

I have added 9 more detail photos and information to the Shop page. I know it is all about the details so you will have to be sure and check it out. In the future I will assemble a nice shop tour but that won’t happen for a while because of my work load at this time.

Going to the Artwalk…

I was asked to participate in the Billings Artwalk in May, that was very exciting. I already had a pretty full work load so I am not sure that I will be able to make anything new, I will just take what I currently have and put together a nice presentation. Only a handful of people in Billings have seen the pieces that I have in my house, that Rita and I live with everyday.

The Billings Artwalk is a great social event and Rita and I love to attend. Many towns have them and they are either referred to as artwalks, gallery hops, or gallery crawls. All the galleries and the art museum stay open late and have free wine and snacks (that brings the people for sure) to get the public exposed to the local art scene.

It is not a juried show, but I thought it was neat that someone invited me to show because they viewed me as an artist. It will be some good exposure locally to change people’s mind of what furniture can be or what woodworking can produce. Woodworking suffers an image problem as a handy hobby instead of being another form of artistic expression, or being able to marry an artistic form with the function of an everyday item.

Shhh… Business Secrets

I should make a point here about the importance of this as a business or creative person. Attending your local artwalk, even as a viewer, is a great thing to do. It is a good social mixer, you will make lots of connections to other creative people, and you have the potential to make business connections. It makes a great date night with the wife and is just an all-around fun time.

Got Something Big Here!

In the shop with Scott MorrisonI will leave you with this today as I need to head back out to the shop.

I was able to get with Scott Morrison and do a video interview. Scott is a great craftsman that actually makes a living from building Sam Maloof inspired furniture. Be sure to check out his site to see all of the projects that he creates daily.

When we started out, I told Scott “Oh I suppose it will only be a 20 minute chat I don’t plan on getting into an hour long interview.”

Well, Scott and I talked for an hour and ten minutes and he shares some great information. He talks about his background, his business, shop, and his wife’s role in supporting the business. He also shares what his relationship to Sam Maloof was like.

One thing just led to another. I didn’t have a specific list of questions, but I had outlined some topics to be sure and cover so it was a spontaneous Q & A session.

I have a lot of footage to go through and I am sure that I will be releasing it in segments every week or so. Scott was very generous with time and information. It is just a pretty normal conversation in the shop and I wanted to bring you along.

Scott’s a truly great guy. He is another craftsman that lives the motto “Share the Love~Share the Knowledge.”

That’s all for now so I will leave you with this teaser and a shop tour video that Scott just released this morning.

Share the Love ~ Share the Knowledge

Don't Hold It All In ~ Click Here To Leave A Comment!

March 31, 2010

Surviving With Woodworking In The Real World

March 31, 2010/ Todd Clippinger

You're probably wondering...

At this point you are probably wondering about progress on the rustic office. Does it seem like it's taking forever? I can tell you that it is, I am literally drying the wood in my shop.

To catch everyone up to speed, I have a rustic office project in my shop. It has been quite a challenge. The clients had the idea of using 10"x10" doug fir beams as the material to build their home office. The beams were left over from the construction of their timber frame home and they are 10 years old.

Romantic Notions

Beams for constructing office.Everybody has heard the stories of using old lumber or timbers that has air dried for years and it is a very romantic notion. Romantic - yes. Challenging - incredibly. There is a false notion that old timbers are dry, stable, and ready-to-use, and they just need to be milled for use.

These timbers have sat outside unprotected for 10 years absorbing and releasing the environmental moisture. Being that they are 10"x10" instead of 1"- 3" thick, they hold quite a bit of moisture. I had the beams rough milled into quarter sections and I got moisture readings of 15%-18% on the interior with exterior readings at 8%-10%.

This unequal balance of moisture content can cause serious problems with cabinet construction. It is a factor in causing twisted and warped pieces. The way to deter these issues is to take the material down in stages. It has to be continually peeled open, re-sawn close to rough over size dimensions, re-sawn again, then milled to final thickness, and it has to be stickered in between each step to properly air dry and stabilize.

When a client says that they want rustic furniture or cabinets, it really means that they want it to look rustic but that they want doors and drawers to lay flat and operate smoothly. This can present quite a challenge and right now I am neck deep in that alligator.

How Do You Survive?

With the logistical challenges that this situation creates, it can wreck your construction schedule and your income. Progress payments are agreed upon in the contract and made according to benchmarks in the construction. If you can't progress then you don't get paid. That can really cripple your ability to make the house payment.

You have to become good at juggling the schedule. There is always more than one job lined up at a time, but as a small shop, discretion and sound judgement must be used to not get in over your head with too much work at once.

The way that I like to handle it is to have no more than one big job at once with small "filler" jobs that I can plug in here and there as the schedule opens up. It does depend on what opportunities come your way, but after 12 years in the business, I can say that there has always been a good mix of large and small jobs. This is just really the ideal situation to insure cash flow.

The amount of work you have on your plate all at once will vary depending on if you work alone or have any number of employees, but for the most part I am speaking to small shops and individuals. The big job will dominate your time. The small filler jobs may be a quick repair of some type to a full day or two, but the key is that they are flexible and can be held at the ready position until needed.

What I have noticed over the years is that the schedule is very fluid, there are always changes occurring. It is like a river that continually flows the same basic direction but it occasionally changes it's course, sometimes a little and sometimes a lot.

So today's lesson is that flexibility is key to staying busy and to financial survival.