We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Melissa Miller a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Melissa, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Covid has brought about so many changes – has your business model changed?

Covid definitely changed our business model from relying on walk in traffic to seeking online traffic as well. While our business seemed to explode during covid because people were staying home seemingly doing projects we quickly realized we needed to lean into being able to sell our products online. I decided to build out our website with shippable products we could curate just for our online audience. Learning shipping and handling for wood products took a lot of research, trial and error. The online component of our business became a new revenue focus for me which in turn created more work on my plate as well. Small business owners tend to wear many hats. The online part of our business has now grown to include our own app and live selling. I have had to learn more online platforms to be able to have the online sales be a dependable revenue stream. It seems to be working for us so we will continue to offer our wood online.

Melissa, 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?

Millers Rustic Sawmill is a family owned and operated sawmill business located in King City, Missouri. Our small business has been in operation since 2016. We specialize in the production of quality kiln dried, wood slabs. Our work ethic, experience and expertise assure the production of excellent, quality kiln dried woods.

In 2020 we expanded our business to include a brick and mortar shop in King City, MO where customers are able to shop for wood and get ideas for their projects. Kiln dried wood slabs are able to be used for finished projects of all kinds. As our business has grown so have the services we offer to involve the kiln dried wood we produce. We offer custom design work, custom built projects such as tables, bars, countertops, consoles, cabinets, accent wood walls and any ideas our customer may have in mind. We have beautiful pieces of wood that can become mantel pieces, floating shelves, wall art, benches, and more.

Our newest expansion of services includes offering rustic renovation projects in larger scale spaces. We have successfully completed renovation projects in four old buildings including our own brick and mortar. We truly enjoy being able to renovate a space and incorporate natural woods in creative ways for a unique, one of a kind look.

In the last two years we have held an event we call Sawdust Fest! We host this event in King City, MO on the Saturday before Fathers Day. It is a celebration of “all things wood”. The day kicks off with seven to ten invitation-only makers who set up and demonstrate their talents and skills related to woodworking. Attendees are able to watch makers such as a chainsaw artist, woodturner, knife maker, luthier, scroll saw artist, etc. Local talented musicians perform in the historic Lucille Theater, food is provided by the local Senior Center, belt sander races entertain all ages in the afternoon, and the day provides simple, family fun.

As small business owners we look forward to new opportunities and new customers as we continue to operate a unique, one of a kind rustic sawmill business.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

When the world shut down in 2020 our foot traffic in our brick and mortar shop actually became very busy. Many people were now home and looking for projects to accomplish. Surprisingly that year would sell out our kiln dried lumber supply and bring in many new customers who finally had time to do wood projects. We even had a young high school boy come shop our wood supply with his family for the first time as he started his charcuterie board business during 2020. Our brick and mortar walk in traffic started slowing down in the middle of 2023. We knew we had to do something to supplement the revenue so we tried our hand at selling our “craft” style wood and slabs online during live sales on social media. We found great success in the live sales so we decided to pursue a way to make them more efficient with another selling system built for online. We are currently hosting at least one live edge/sawmill wood live sale each week and shipping our wood all across the country. The internet has allowed our small business to grow to people who will never make it to shop with us in person.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Our small business is in a small, rural community. We used to operated outside of town as the sawmill sat north of the city limits and off of a gravel road. When we started to pursue the use of actual live edge slabs as a potential seller in our business we knew we would have to either take the slabs elsewhere or do our best to draw people to the country. I have a marketing background but knew nothing about wood really as I was learning along side my husband. We built a kiln that will dry the live edge wood we produce to make it ready for finishing. When we decided we had a decent supply we started hosting what we called “Slab Sale Saturdays” randomly out in the country at our building. I took to facebook to create a business page. I turned on the camera and started showing what we had and invited people to come. I wasn’t sure what they would want to do with the wood at the time but hoped there would be diy’ers who would come and then use our wood to create their products. That is what started to happen. Facebook has been our number one tool to help us grow our business outside of our community. More than eighty five percent of our customers are from outside of the local area. We have now used social media to help us grow our online live sale community as we sell all across the country and ship boxes of wood out weekly. The best advice I can give anyone who is just starting to build their presence on social media is to “just start” and be consistent. Show up as yourself and share what you have to offer. You will start to find your audience and your shoppers if you are doing those few things. Don’t get caught up in the rabbit holes of trying to entertain all of the types of social media. Choose at least one platform you are somewhat comfortable with and that can find your age demographic to market to.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.millersrusticsawmill.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/millersrusticsawmill/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/millersrusticsawmill/
• Other: Download our app by searching Millers Rustic Sawmill in your app store

Image Credits

Image credit: Melissa Miller, Chelsea Kollitz