We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tim & Heather Kostka a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Tim & Heather, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What do you think it takes to be successful?
The biggest factors in success – tenacity and heart.
We have found in our entrepreneurial journey that there are always folks better than you, more skilled or talented, more creative or innovative, but what can set you apart is your heart – your intentions, your mission, your aim, your beliefs, and your willingness to keep pushing regardless of the noise, competition, circumstances surrounding you.
Tim & Heather, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
We are Tim and Heather Kostka, a husband & wife team, who builds custom cabinetry and furniture in the DFW area. We believe in quality products devoted customer service.
After seven years of moving all over the country, we finally decided to settle here in the Dallas area, and after seven years, we decided to plant roots and build a home in the burbs just north of Dallas. To celebrate, Tim was building me the farmhouse table of my dreams in the driveway. A sweet neighbor took notice and started inquiring if he sold these tables.
At the time, Tim was working in retail operations and jokingly shrugged it off, quietly thinking to himself that no one would want to buy tables from us, and to top it off, his travel and work schedule didn’t really permit him the time he needed to build for a paying customer. BUT that conversation lit something afire that today… the hope and dream of one day working for ourselves – doing what we loved.
If you rewind our story just by 60-90 days from that conversation, it would be riddled with broken dreams and loss. 45 days before the scheduled closing on our home, Tim unexpectedly lost his job. He had been with his company for almost ten years, and it was company where he had climbed the ladder at an exciting rate, the company where his career took us to three different states, four different cities in just seven short years, the company where he envisioned the rest of his career.
He had been committed to this organization and was devastated and shocked when he was let go. We both were. I had the honor of becoming a stay-at-home mom. My day was filled with play dates, museum visits, and quality time with our daughter. It was everything my heart wanted, and I was so thankful for this life that my husband worked so hard to provide for us.
But when he lost his job, something shifted for the both of us- it was the realization that to provide long-lasting stability for our family, stability not subject to down-sizing or corporate politics, we would have to find a way to work for ourselves. So when this neighbor inquired about our table, we started to ask ourselves, “could this be our opportunity??” After weeks of deliberation, we decided to take the leap of faith.
We opened a shop on Facebook, and the rest is history! In March of 2019, I left my full-time job, and in October 2019, Tim left him to pursue Kasa de Kostka full time. It has been a blessing!
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
Like most small business owners, we had to pivot during the pandemic. We shut down our shop for 6 weeks, and we eventually closed it permanently, bringing all our operations back to our very suburban sized garage. We had no idea what the economy or what the world was going to look like the months following. So, we did everything to conserve our resources, be good stewards with what we had, and get creative in order to serve our clients.
We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.
We are married to each other! Tim and I got married at a relatively young age – we were 22 and 23 years old respectively! From the onset of our marriage, we KNEW that we were destined to work with each other and own a business together, but we had no idea what in the world that was supposed to look like! Because I’m the planner in the relationship, I had us brainstorm ideas for business names, and together, we came up with Kostka Enterprises, which is the name of the LLC under which our business operates! We didn’t actually start working together until 10 years later!
It’s been a long, hard journey working and growing together as husband and wife AND co-owners, but we have grown to respect and appreciate each other in ways we didn’t know possible. We are truly partners in everything we do, and I’m thankful that being in business together brought us closer.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.kdkfurniture.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/kasadekostka
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/kasadekostka
Image Credits
Family photo: Ashleigh Coelho Photography