Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Rob Schneider. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Rob , appreciate you joining us today. Looking back, what’s an important lesson you learned at a prior job
Is to take care of the people who take care of you, in addition to treating everyone from the lowest person on the totem pole with the same respect you would give to the CEO.
Rob , 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 have always been into the outdoors and re-sparked that love around 2015. In 2019 my wife signed me up for a Blacksmithing class in Stafford, VA with Black Horse Forge. They are a non-profit organization that loves to help First Responders, Veterans and Active Military. The rest they say is history, as the experience of creating my own projects from steel at the forge grew into my business Heavy Crown Forge and Crafts.
I do everything from knives, leather, wood projects, to custom work. Most recently I had a nice lady named Linda from New York, reach out to me to replace three hooks for a chandelier she got in Sweden. Suffice to say, the hooks she previously had were irreplaceable (somehow they went missing during a remodel.) The joy in helping her out with getting them perfect remakes, was not only fulfilling in being able to help, but being able to create and learn and work on it made her happiness even more worthwhile to me.
I strive for quality and care. I would only want to make items for people, that I would want to own or use and be proud of. I’m not looking to make a huge financial gain business, I like the small one to one type of client relationship, where both the client and myself know it is me doing quality work for them, and there is no one else to blame when it is not good. Total and complete ownership, accountability and transparency from myself to the client in my opinion is what makes great projects.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
So this was a deliberate and slow process. I believe that capital to start is a huge concern for many people. I slowly started building up my tools and equipment over about a 6 year period for forging specifically. Obviously I was working full time and this was more of a side business for me. Maybe not even a business but more of a hobby. I gave away more than I sold! So long story short, take your time. All the successful people we see were not successful overnight, it took them many hours, sleepless nights, blood sweat and tears and all the myriad of obstacles to overcome. To us it appears they just had success right off the bat. Not true. Rome was not built in a day, and neither is any business. People often wait until they have everything and then never have it all to even start. Nike has had it right all of these years. Just Do It.
How do you keep your team’s morale high?
Take care of your people. If your people need time off, don’t make them choose between work and family. The return on investment with people is two fold, because you have a happier team mate as well as loyalty from that team member and others as long as you take care of them all equally.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.heavycrownforgeandcrafts.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heavycrownforgeandcrafts/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hcforgeandcrafts
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertschneider79/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@HeavyCrownForgeandCrafts
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/heavy-crown-forge-and-crafts-havelock
Image Credits
Heavy Crown Forge and Crafts