We were lucky to catch up with Allen Lostetter recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Allen thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?
Our Mission is bring local Artisans in 1 store to sell their handmade items, We want to help people achieve their dreams and passions of their talent. It is so expensive to open a store on your own and operate the store full time. So our store allows them to work on their items and we operate the store full time. With our store we hope to bring back the buying local and supporting small businesses. A lot of our Artisans are retirees, single or stay at home moms, couples doing this as a side thing to bring in a secondary income. The difference of what the store does is give the Artisans a secure place to display and sell instead of doing 3-4 shows a month and spending their time hopefully selling. Shows require travel, setup, tear down and time. Time is the most expensive thing to cost. With over 60 Artisans and room for 100 Artisans the store also gives them a chance to collaborate with one another and maybe buy better or bounce ideas off one another. With having all the Artisans here it also helps with promoting the store and their business. This mission is mainly helping and watching these Artisans grow and becoming successful and when they are successful we all become successful!
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I started at a young age my first business and always had the passion of being an entrepreneur! I have started several businesses over the course of my life and have learned so many different things. I have learned from my mistakes and successes. 4 years ago I started my business making folding picnic tables and when summer was over wanted to expand into non seasonal items. So, bought my first CNC router and started making signs, which sold ok but soon after I started making wood flags and then gun concealment boxes is when things really took off. Now the problem was how to sell and where. So I started traveling to shows and fairs, next thing I knew I was on the road 9 months out of the year and when I was not on the road I was in the shop building inventory 7 days a week 12-18 hours a day then back on the road. Not complaining because I love what I do, but there had to be a better way. In 2023 decided to open the store, which opened Nov 1st and it has been another wonderful learning experience. We also are franchising this store concept and have been working on that for a year now and we are finally getting to the finish line. My son ask who would buy a franchise instead of just doing this on their own? After a brief explanation he understood why a franchise is better than trying this on your own. Short answer is the franchise will get you there better and faster, because we already know how to do it and as more stores open brand awareness grows. Our store here in Portage Lakes, Ohio will have a different flavor than a store say in Nashville, TN or Las Vegas, NV etc.
The products that Lostetter Designs produce are awesome. We make wood flags that showcase Military, First Responders, and what I call promoting America. We also personalize these flags with Names, Service years etc. and when someone gets one of these flags and they become emotionally about it, I can’t help get emotionally with them and that feeling is worth more than any money in the world. The memories we create are priceless. Which is why we have another big item we do. We can take any photo from your phone or the actual picture and laser engrave it on wood. We do families, friends, pets etc. we also starting doing photo flags and those are great for service personnel that are with us or have passed. These have so much meaning behind them.
Quality is key to any business and we take that to heart. When we sell a product we want it to be of the highest quality. That becomes a challenge sometimes because we are getting overwhelmed with so many products coming from overseas and produce in such poor quality that customers have a hard time paying a higher price for our items. But that is what we want to do is bring back Made in America, we try to source all of our products from the USA and of course we still can only get some things from China. Think about the quality of things our grandparents bought 50-60 years ago some of us may still have and use those items. The stuff we buy today it breaks we throw it away and go buy it again.
Our store is again made up of 60+ Artisans that put the heart and soul into the items they make and the quality is there and when someone buys those items from our store you are supporting local friends, family, neighbors or even some stranger you don’t know yet. You are supporting their dreams and hard work
Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?
Started this business in 2020 with nothing but a Lowes credit card. This was pre-covid and bought our wood and supplies to start building folding picnic tables to earn bill money. I had just moved back from Las Vegas, NV to help family. Came back with no job but still had bills. So started this as a hobby to just survive. Well by the end of summer built almost 200 tables, now what?? Love being self-employed but how to continue? Kept pushing forward and pivoting all the time. Bought a CNC Router on a store 0% for 12 month credit card and started learning and making products. Things took off well even through covid. Fast forward 4 years. We have been self funding because banks would not look at us because we were new, no history etc. Well in 4 years we acquired a 2nd CNC Router, 3 Trailers, Camper (for traveling at shows), a Laser CNC engraver and built an inventory level to at least 6 months worth of sales. Still not help from the banks. We had quite a bit of Credit Card debt but that was not going to stop us moving forward. Still after history and profitability banks would not do anything. Finally found a Lending intuition that would see the business for what it is. We finally got funding and paid off the credit cards and was able to move forward with the store and went from paying over $10,000 in debt service to now having that under $2,500. Sounds great but the path to get there was very rough. We are not free and clear yet but with the cost of shows going up the economic times, gas, overnight camping etc. being on the road is very expensive and not just for our company but everyone. So again now with opening the store I will not travel as much and have a better way to sell and help others sell or even have a chance to start their dreams. The key to all of this know what you want, do whatever it takes to get there and NEVER give up!
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Having resilience? Yeah when you own a business if you can’t handle stress, long hours, no pay, etc. Stay at your 9-5 job. Our business did better during covid than we are doing now. We grew at a good rate but with the economy its has made things really hard, especially when banks won’t help. 2023 has been very difficult as a family medical issue almost put us out of business. BUT NEVER GIVE UP! Do what you have to do to get through life and the daily business. There were days I wanted to give up and quit, throw in the towel. But you have to remember the WHY, those customers you have cried with because you put Grandpa, Dad, Husband or Son (and the females) on a Photo flag and they cried because they were no longer with us on this earth and we helped them remember and honor them! Don’t ever take the easy road and give up continue the fight!
Contact Info:
- Website: lostetterdesigns.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lostetterdesignsinc/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LostetterDesigns
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allen-lostetter-98a21125/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@lostetterdesigns
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lostetter_designs