We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Brett & Heather Johnson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Brett & Heather, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with what makes profitability in your industry a challenge – what would you say is the biggest challenge?

In the industry of home decor, custom gifts and woodworking, it takes a lot of time to handcraft each piece. That is the most challenging part is actually including your time in the price of each item. Unfortunately, many folks do not think about the time it takes you to create the item, so they look at the price and decide to find it cheaper somewhere else. What they don’t realize is they will be giving up some quality finding a cheaper version of the item that is most likely mass produced or not made here in the U.S. This has definitely been a struggle, as we have had to lower our prices to be more competitive, so all the time spent creating items is not really accounted for. You truly have to have a passion for it, as it is not something that tends to be highly profitable. It mostly just pays for itself.

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?

We are a husband-and-wife team, with now our “woodworker in training” 8-month-old son, Liam. We are based out of Centerville, TN and offer custom woodworking and laser engraving. We make a variety of wall art and other home decor that make for great gifts. We have also done wood signs for weddings, custom serving boards, guitar racks, and many housewarming gifts. You name it, we can probably make it for you! We can also engrave a variety of materials if you are looking for a special gift for an anniversary, wedding, or whatever the occasion may be. We create all of our own designs and love creating custom designs!

So how did we get started? Well, Brett Johnson, owner and maker of B. Johnson Designs has been handcrafting items mostly of wood for over a decade now. Growing up, he was always in the wood shop, auto shop or working on a project alongside his dad, Tom. He has always had a passion for learning new skills and working with his hands any way he could. He is also very visual and can put together designs by visualizing them in his head, and then translating them to a work of art. His passion truly shows in his work with every detail that goes into each piece. Heather, on the other hand, has been within the hospitality industry for many years and wore many hats throughout her career which developed her many passions that she has now. Her true passion is customer service and making each customer’s experience special, down to every last detail.

We take great pride in our work and are especially happy when folks within our community reach out to us for help with a special gift for their significant other, family or friend. We love seeing their reaction when they see the finished product. Their excitement makes us feel good! It is what keeps us going, along with a lot of passion for what we do!

We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.

We have our own website, which we don’t yet see a whole lot of traffic on since that entails directing your own traffic completely. It has been a challenge managing everything from finances, keeping the website updated, making sure we stay relevant on social media, and coming up with new products. It is a lot of work to manage it all! A majority of our sales are currently done on Etsy, which we are thankful for, as they help direct traffic to your shop, and it has helped us learn things and grow as a business. The fees are a bit high on Etsy, which in turn makes your prices higher, so we are hoping to one day in the not-so-distant future, sell completely off of our own website.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

Word-of-mouth is huge! Especially living in a small town, word spreads quickly. We try to stay involved in the community and have found that participating in local craft shows and other events helps immensely with exposure.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://bit.ly/bjohnsondesigns
• Instagram: b.johnsondesigns
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/b.johnsondesign
• Other: https://www.etsy.com/shop/BJohnsonDesign