Starting and growing a business like this is not always easy. It does take a certain amount of courage and a lot of hard work. It has been a very steep learning curve and has been incredibly frustrating at times. There are so many things you don’t know and worst of all, you don’t know that you don’t know about them. But through perseverance and being open to learning new things, I have managed to make it happen. There have definitely been certain game changers along the way, and each time I stumble upon one I am grateful.
As I have said before, woodworking had never been on my radar. It was never a passion of mine or something that I dreamed of doing one day. So when I fell into this craft, I had no idea about types of wood or tools or hardware stores. Now I not only regularly go into hardware stores to buy things like paint, I now know the difference between different brands and get excited when I find my favourites.
One of my big game changers was finding the most wonderful wood supplier who advised me on the best wood to use, gave me free samples to try out and treated me like their best customer even though I was just buying my first little piece of wood and they supply huge amounts to very large companies. It made me feel relevant and it gave me the confidence to experiment with other types of wood because I have knowledgeable people to ask advice from and they treated me like I mattered. This was when I decided that this will be a large part of the ethos of my business plan. It doesn’t matter how big or small a sale is, the customer is equally important and I want them to walk away happy.
Another game changer was discovering the right materials and equipment for the job, mainly through reading other people’s questions, following blogs and watching YouTube tutorials. Finding out the best paint to use, how to clean off burn marks, what gadgets will help make the job easier and many more tips and tricks help so much in making things flow more smoothly. And the best part is that there is always more to learn, there are always ways to improve and that is a very exciting prospect. Here’s to continued growth and never ending learning.