Sawmill Business Podcast

Paul Mencel: Philadelphia Table Company “It started kind of like everybody else does, kind of starts as a hobby or a side hustle. I graduated with a degree in chemistry and physics. And I was like, kind of like substitute teaching, but also, at the same time, I was in a rock band that ended up getting signed to RCA Records. So, between touring and recording, we made some money upfront, but not a ton. So in between touring and recording, I'd build furniture. It started with just one piece for my house. And then friends would come over, and then it was friends and friends of friends. And then I'd be on tour, and I'd get an order or two from Etsy, and I'd be like, “Sweet, I could make rent this month.”  - Paul Mencel Welcome to a brand-new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today, your host Steve Larosiliere is joined by Paul Mencel from Philadelphia Table Company. Like everyone else, Paul began making furniture as a hobby or a side business. He earned a degree in physics and chemistry. He was a mem

Steve Larosiliere: Best Business Models For Woodpreneurs “You need to have the ability to focus on one to two things. You can't focus on five different things, right? Focus on five different things. It's going to be really, really hard. It's learning new processes, doing things over and over again, like starting from scratch.” -         Steve Larosiliere Welcome to a brand-new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today, your host Steve Larosiliere will be talking about the best business models for Woodpreneurs. Whether you work in lumber, construction, sawmill, furniture, or any other industry where you build, produce materials, or sell wood items, then this is for you. Steve will discuss the best business models. This is based on his interviews with guests for the Woodpreneur Podcast and clients he has worked with. Listen now and get the whole story! Read More!

Will Phillips: Sandtown Furniture Co. “My background, I sort of learned everything that I know, through a career at Under Armor. So, I spent a long time working there. And I started Sand Town in 2010. I continued to work at Under Armor. It was my side hustle for eight years until I made that leap that you often talk about and talk to your clients about. So anyway, I found a partner. I found a wood shop. We designed a collection. We started taking it to the farmer's market, the big farmer's market in Baltimore. And we left it really rustic. We wanted it to be this story of Baltimore, and we wanted you to be able to look at the piece and understand that this was salvage material.”  - Will Phillips Welcome to a brand-new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today, your host Steve Larosiliere is joined by Will Phillips from Sandtown Furniture Company. Will acquired all of his knowledge while working with Under Armour. He stayed there for a while until starting Sand Town in 2010. Before making the leap w

Jordan Messick: Coastal Building Supply “I had about 15 years of experience in different corporate jobs in sales, management, and director of sales in various industries, and felt that I had gained the knowledge and business experience to go out on my own.” Jordan Messick In this episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast, host Steve Larosiliere, the founder of Acres of Timber, engages in a fascinating conversation with Jordan Messick from Coastal Building Supply in Wilmington, North Carolina. The episode begins with Jordan sharing the background of Coastal Building Supply, formerly known as Fitzgerald Wood Products.  The company was established in 1994 by Patrick Fitzgerald, a lifelong Woodpreneur specializing in imported tropical hardwoods, particularly teak, for marine and boating applications. Jordan explains how the company's focus gradually shifted toward the residential use of tropical hardwoods over the years. He further reveals that he purchased the company in January 2022 and subsequently rebrande

Matt Lucero: Lucero & Co. “Well, we make tung oil wood finishes and we press our own tung oil here in Vietnam. So, I'm located in Vietnam and we manufacture our products here. And we sell to the market here for furniture production also retail. And we export. We just started selling retail in the US and we have plans to expand, we have a lot of different types of products. They're very easy to use. I think you've even used them. They can't be simpler.”  - Matt Lucero Welcome to a brand-new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today, your host Steve Larosiliere is joined by Matt Lucero from Lucero & Company. Matt's company produces tung oil wood finishes and presses their own tung oil in Vietnam, where he is currently based. They produce their products and sell them to the market for furniture production. They also engage in retail and exporting. They recently began selling retail in the US, and they intend to grow! In this episode, Matt shares his journey to Vietnam, his time spent working

Nathan Porter: Goodview Woodworks “Why is it called “GoodView”? It's super simple. I live on Buena Vista Road, so that's the English translation of, Buena Vista's. “GoodView”. Not as cool as you might think, but business, as to woodworking business. It actually started out as a YouTube channel. Wasn't really a full-on business.”  - Nathan Porter Welcome to a brand-new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today, your host Steve Larosiliere is joined by Nathan Porter, the founder of GoodView Woodworks. Nathan's business name is called "GoodView" for the simple reason that he resides on Buena Vista Road, which is Buena Vista's English translation. The company actually began as a YouTube channel. Nathan wanted to share some videos and he wanted to learn how to do river tables, and this was five years ago, back when hardly anybody knew about river tables. He built a coffee table for a friend, and documented the process, as a result, the videos quickly gained popularity. Each episode of his five-part serie

Clinton & Kerry: CK Wall Designs LLC “One of our favorite past times was going to the model homes and looking at model homes. And look at the core and the accent walls that they have there. And we would, sometimes ask, where could we find someone to do something like this in our house? But we met with the same answer. It's custom. But custom companies are usually expensive. So, we couldn't find anyone to do it. And one day she just asked me, she went on Pinterest and found something. Asked me to do it because I have an artist background, but no woodworking background. So, I just took it on, got it done, and got it looking even better than the one that she showed me with just hand tools. I didn't even have power tools at the time. So, I used the hacksaw actually.”  - Clinton & Kerry Welcome to a brand-new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today, your host Steve Larosiliere is joined by Clinton & Kerry, founders of CK Wall Designs LLC. Going to model homes to check out the accent walls

Rocky Levy: Icon Modern “Icon Modern is the culmination of a concept I had in the early 2000s. So, I was a multi-line sales rep in the commercial industry, so I sold desks and chairs and laid everything for commercial clients. I called on designers, and, at the time, sustainability in the industry was minimal at best. So, a sustainable message was a very difficult thing to achieve.”  - Rocky Levy Welcome to a brand-new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today, your host Steve Larosiliere is joined by Rocky Levy, Owner & Sales/Marketing of Icon Modern. Icon Modern is the culmination of Rocky's concept in the early 2000s. He thus worked as a multi-line sales representative for the commercial sector, selling chairs and desks. He laid everything to commercial clients, and he called on designers, and at the time, there was, at most, a meager amount of sustainability in the industry. Creating a sustainable message requires a lot of effort. Therefore, Icon Modern is a combination of a side hustle, en

Brad Huebner: Hammer & Grind “The people that are going to be good employees, they're not sitting at home unemployed on a couch searching the Indeed job boards, and this happens to find, they're working for someone else. And you have to steal them away. I mean, dude, you really have to steal them away from the company.”  - Brad Huebner Welcome to a brand-new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today's episode will be a bit different from the norm as your host Steve Larosiliere will be interviewing not just a woodworker, but also a contractor coach and a podcaster. We will be joined by Brad Huebner from Hammer & Grind. After graduating high school, Brad worked various jobs while contemplating his plans. And during his junior and senior years of high school, he studied architectural drawing for two years. After realizing in his senior year that being an architect required outstanding marks, Brad decided to join the military instead of pursuing his dream profession. To cut a long story short,

Brad McDonald: McDonald Cabinet & Furniture “I've been in construction since 2006. And then I started working in a couple of local cabinet shops and got the bug to build kitchens, furniture, and stuff. And I just wound up having enough side work that it would make sense to go out on my own. Right now, I've been doing a lot of countertops and bar tops.”  - Brad McDonald Welcome to a brand-new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today, your host Steve Larosiliere is joined by Brad McDonald from McDonald Cabinet & Furniture. Since 2006, Brad has worked in the construction industry. He later began working at a few nearby cabinet shops to gain experience in producing kitchens, furniture, and other items. He eventually had enough side work that going independently made sense. Brad is currently working on numerous countertops and bartops. In this episode, Brad shares the challenges facing his company, the kind of customers who prefer custom kitchens versus store-bought items, and how his busi

Zach Jernigan: Jernigan Woodworking “My dad kind of taught me the way when I got out of high school and then when COVID happened, I just kind of started doing other people's houses and it’s kind of boomed from there. A lot of built-ins, kind of specialty stuff. Trying to get into the custom fish tanks because we just did one.”  - Zach Jernigan Welcome to a brand-new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today, your host Steve Larosiliere is joined by the award-winning Zach Jernigan of Jernigan Woodworking. When Zach graduated from high school, his father taught him the craft of woodworking. After COVID, Zach began working on other people's homes, and business took off from there. His company currently concentrates on specialty items, mainly custom fish tanks. In this episode, Zach shares his experience on how he started a business amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, his preferred woodworking materials, and who are his ideal clientele. Trying to decide whether we should move forward is always challe

Kevin Donner: Treesmith USA “So, we are a small tree company. I'm an arborist. I've been an arborist primarily for 10 years or more now. Always with a passion for, not seeing things go to waste after we bring trees to the ground. So, 90% of our work is pruning and removal, and general tree assessment. Providing people with guidance as far as caring for their trees and their properties.”  - Kevin Donner Welcome to a brand-new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today, your host Steve Larosiliere is joined by Kevin Donner, owner of Treesmith USA. Kevin has worked mainly as an arborist for the past ten years. He is constantly driven by a desire to prevent things from being wasted once they have felled trees. Pruning, removal, and general tree evaluation make up 90% of their job, which involves advising clients on how to take care of their trees and property. In this episode, Kevin talks about the moment he realized he could run his own business, the difficult lesson he learned the hard way when h

Tyler Booth: Temecula Yard Games “I started making custom cornhole works, which was just a kind of a shot in the dark and it really took off, probably did about 20 sets the first year and then, about 50 the second year and about a hundred last year or kind of in between years, not necessarily 12 months. So, I tried to kind of create this experiment in business. And so, I've added since then the Etsy pages, the kind of, content creation side. And make a little money off each one of these streams, which is really helpful in terms of supporting the new tools and the other projects that I want to do.”  - Tyler Booth Welcome to a brand-new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today, your host Steve Larosiliere is joined by Tyler Booth of Temecula Yard Games. Tyler began creating unique cornhole pieces and it quickly gained popularity. He likely produced around 20 sets his first year, followed by 50 sets his second year, and roughly 100 sets his third year. Tyler then added the Etsy pages and content cr

Sebastien Desmarais: Hollywood Woodwork “We're an architectural woodwork company, founded in 1968 by my grandfather at the time we were a small two-person shop and we started doing different things, and we grew up and eventually we focused on commercial architectural woodworking, and by 1999 we've grown to maybe a 20-million a year company. And we started heading down a path of employee ownership. So, we're an ESOP, we're partially employee-owned, and since then, just been growing the business and now we're diversified a little bit. We do woodworking, we do metalwork, and we're also into residential as well.”  - Sebastien Desmarais Welcome to a brand-new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today, your host Steve Larosiliere is joined by Sebastien Desmarais from Hollywood Woodwork. Sebastien's grandfather established Hollywood Woodwork in 1968, specializing in architectural woodwork. At the time, they had a small, two-person staff. By 1999, they had developed into a 20 million-dollar firm as a res

Haeden Secor: Truett & Grace Construction “You're catching us in the very early stages. We probably went into business about seven months ago. So, we're definitely in the growing stage, mostly just making connections, networking, and stuff like that. The long-term goal is we're more of a general contractor. That's what the goal is. So, being in Lake Harwell, we're here on the lake. So, our long-term goal is, we want to start building custom lake homes, kind of designated more towards the higher-end homes is what my end goal is, but for right now, just getting started, I'm not turning down any projects.”  - Haeden Secor Welcome to a brand-new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today, your host Steve Larosiliere is joined by Haeden Secor from Truett & Grace, a professional contracting company, Located in Hartwell, Georgia. Haeden launched his company roughly seven months ago. They were undoubtedly in the growing stage and were mainly networking and forming relationships. Situated in Lake H

Tim Mills: Lakes Region Woodworking “I started off in high school, absolutely fell in love with woodworking, working with my hands, and it's just kind of grown from there. I'd never really gotten into the actual woodworking aspect of it until I moved into the house that I have now. Now, my basement is huge, so I took over part of that as my actual wood shop. I've just been acquiring tools and stuff over the years. And being a trim carpenter, you kind of learn a lot of things about different woods, how to do different things, and I've always just liked creating. I get these ideas in my head and then I just want to bring them to life. So that's what really sparked it all.”  - Tim Mills Welcome to a brand-new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today, your host Steve Larosiliere is joined by Tim Mills from Lakes Region Woodworking. Tim started in high school and immediately fell in love with woodworking and creative work. From there, it just continued to expand. He hadn't actually begun woodworking

Matt Williams: Mr. Toolbelt “I started it when I was working for somebody else doing it at nights and weekends until I made enough to make it on my own or felt like I could. So, it started in 2011. About 2013, I took the plunge to go full on.”   - Matt Williams   Welcome to a brand-new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today, your host Steve Larosiliere is joined by Matt Williams, also known as Mr. Toolbelt. Matt started doing woodworking while he was employed by another person, working nights and weekends until he had enough money to support his own business. In 2011, he began his small side hustle, and in or around 2013, he decided to go full-time. Ten fruitful years after it started as a side gig, his firm is still going strong! In this episode, Matt talks about his company's internal dynamics, his early years in management, and how he advertised their services ten years ago when they first opened for business. For most business owners, reaching a milestone of ten years is difficult. But he

Bridgette & Dillon: Farmhouse Woodworking “We started dating, I think it was like in 2019, and like she kind of said, we just started building things together for our own house and we kind of loved how we were a great team. We worked really well together, and we really liked what we were making. And then some of our friends started reaching out and they're like, “Hey, I love that. Could you build that for us?” And yeah, we started realizing people wanted this stuff that we were making.”  - Dillon Welcome to a brand-new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today, your host Steve Larosiliere is joined by Bridget and Dillon of Farmhouse Woodworking. Since Bridget's father was a contractor, she was constantly exposed to the world of woodworking as a child. She majored in engineering in college, worked as an engineer for a while, and discovered her passion when she and Dillan bought their home and began DIY home improvements. Dillon, on the other hand, was a teacher before starting the business.

John Miller: Busby Cabinets “So, I started talking with Jack Busby, who was the founder of this company and had been running it for almost 40 plus years when I came across it. So, he and his wife started it in his dad's goat barn here in Alachua County in Florida and we've got four locations throughout the state of Florida, which have just under 70 employees. Have 35,000 square foot facility here in Alachua where we produce everything. And he had really built himself a very nice niche in the luxury residential, cabinetry, and millwork world. And, it checked all the boxes when I was looking for a company, one that had been started by somebody, run by someone, and had reached a point where then I could come in and apply the things that I've learned in my career to help grow this business as well.”  - John Miller Welcome to a brand-new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today, your host Steve Larosiliere is joined by John Miller, the present CEO of Busby Cabinets. John founded the corporation with

Joe Keller: RCS Millwork “I realized maybe it wouldn't be so bad to be my own boss. I went and bought into RCS with my dad and now we've got about 86 employees. And so, we do commercial millwork all over the United States. Sort of primarily focused here in the Midwest, in very specific markets but we'll follow our favorite customers just about anywhere that they want to go.”  - Joe Keller Welcome to a brand-new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today, your host Steve Larosiliere is joined by Joe Keller, the president of RCS Millwork. Joe's dad founded RCS Millwork as a family business. As things improved, his father grew the business from 3 employees to 60. After finishing college, Joe worked for a general contractor until he realized that being his own boss wasn't all that horrible. He thus moved in and joined the family business alongside his father, and the two of them managed to grow it from 60 to 85 employees. They currently carry out commercial millwork across the country. It is sort of ma