We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nate Sprankle a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Nate thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?
I have. From the beginning, I approached the process with a business mindset as it needed to be financially viable to be worthwhile. I focus on producing the highest quality pieces in the most efficient manner possible. This includes everything from marketing to milling to assembly to tracking revenue. Operations run smoothly now overall but it hasn’t always been that way. It took a long time with thousands of hours of work through never-ending trial and error and research to get to this point. All that work has paid off however and processes are highly-efficient to create pieces that satisfy client needs. I wouldn’t say there is any one thing that was a huge step or milestone. The reality is that the knowledge and lessons learned are cumulative. However, big decisions that made a difference include only offering two wood species, focusing on offering tables as much as possible, renting a large enough space and, most importantly, realizing that time is our most valuable asset and it should always be prioritized.
Nate, 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?
After graduating from North Carolina State University in 2014 with a degree in supply chain and operations, I quickly realized that sitting at a desk wasn’t for me. I worked at a few companies before deciding to take the plunge into woodworking. I’ve always loved design, being creative and working with my hands. I began as a trim carpenter in Charlotte and immediately began investing in tools and building furniture on the side. Fortunately, I quickly couldn’t keep up with orders and decided to take the operation full-time. I worked for a year before moving to Colorado to build a tiny home of my own design on my grandfather’s land facing the beautiful Rocky Mountains. I sold the home in January 2020, moved to Cary and picked up where I left off. I now operate a full-time custom furniture shop.
I build a wide variety of furniture, cabinetry and home decor out of wood, steel and more. However, my specialty is solid, hardwood tables. I also weld and often fabricate bases out of steel. Tables are really my sweet spot and are what I’m most proud of and push to market the most. I offer a handful of original designs as well as fully custom pieces per client specifications. I set myself apart through high-efficiency builds resulting in a more reasonable price point for custom work. I’m also a fanatic when it comes to quality and constant improvement and never cease to learn from my mistakes and improve on existing techniques. I’m able to provide a fully custom service to meet client needs while providing valuable insight through my experience. I create a relationship with each client and no detail is left untouched. I value consistent communication and attention to detail to ensure their needs are met.
Most of my work involves collaborating with clients to create custom pieces to bring their visions to reality. I figure out proportions, layouts and the most effective and structurally sound ways to design each piece. I also have quite a few original designs that I’ve created that have become popular sellers. These are the pieces that I’m most proud of and take the most enjoyment in selling.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
Given that I started part-time while working as a trim carpenter, I was able to slowly collect tools by selling pieces. Each sale would allow me to buy additional equipment. I started with only a couple hundred dollars and invested in tools that made sense over time. I’ve continued that process and invest in tools when it appears to be necessary. While there is seemingly always something that would make processes smoother and more efficient, I’m confident in my current setup and don’t have anything terribly out of the ordinary.
Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
As with any endeavor, my main resource for improvement has been trial and error. Beyond that, I have to give massive amounts of credit to individuals who have helped both with knowledge and resources along the way, YouTube, countless forums and articles. To that end, I actually offer a digital content package with virtual support to assist those who would like to pursue running their own custom furniture business. The guides provide users with step-by-step instructions to finely-tuned processes I’ve developed over the years to save them thousands of dollars worth of potential mistakes and frustration. The bundle includes over 100 step-by-step digital playbooks in PDF form containing over 2,600 slides with pictures and text to walk users through highly-efficient processes to ensure desired income goals are met through a repeatable, systems-based approach that almost anyone can learn and run on their own. Standard, core competency designs offer a variety of styles to meet a large range of requests from local markets and provide the basis for fully custom requests. I call this product Business-in-a-Box Playbooks.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://spranklecustomworks.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spranklecustomworks/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/spranklecustomworks
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nate-sprankle-33610758/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6cG5r5AkUI3qKuxiug3_wQ
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/sprankle-custom-works-cary-3
- Other: https://furnitureplaybooks.com/
Image Credits
Sara Coffin