We recently connected with Mike McCandless and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Mike, thanks for joining us today. The first dollar your business earns is always special and we’d love to hear how your brand made its first dollar of revenue.
I was at a festival ( Homestead Hollow) in Springville Al. I had built a beautiful dining room table out of 1800s heart pine with old circle saw marks. A lady walked up and was looking at it. She asked if I could build one an inch bigger, So I tried my best to get her to take the one I had already built. But she wanted one an inch bigger. So I had just enough of the wood left to build her one an inch bigger. My first order.
Mike, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I started with metal working and taught myself to weld as a stress reviler from the demanding job of police work. The city I worked in had many beautiful Victorian houses that were being torn down. The wood would just be stacked in the alley. I would take some of this wood home and started building things from the wood. I had watched my grandfather build things in his workshop when I was little. I built enough product that my wife rented a booth at Tannehill State Park’s Trade Days and made me start selling my work.
One my best tables was built for a coworker and his new wife. That build earned me my next table order from an assistant DA who worked in the same city. From there, I started building a web page on Facebook Market place, and I would have clients reaching out to me to purchase some of the projects I posted on Facebook.
I like to use wood from old buildings and live edge slabs cut on my own sawmill. The slabs I cut are from downed trees or locally sourced from tree services. Natural finishes are important for me. I will only poly a piece of furniture. To me staining hides the natural beauty of the wood. Of course sometimes the client has other ideas, and I end painting over a gorgeous piece of spalted pecan with a teal paint to match a client’s kitchen!
Where do you think you get most of your clients from?
The best source of new clients is almost always word of mouth. When clients are happy with your work and price point, they cannot wait to share their satisfaction with others.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
Good products at reasonable prices, and the willingness to work with unique requests have help build my reputation in the woodworking business.
Contact Info: