We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Steven Sampieri & Daniel Hammac a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Steven Sampieri &, appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
We originally started talking about the idea on a camping trip. The discussion started as just a hobby. It was something to do in the very little bit of spare time that we had. With Steven, already owning his own business and working for himself, and Daniel working for the railroad, the idea of being able to make a few custom gifts for our friends and family seemed liked a fun idea. Maybe we could just sell stuff every now and then…a cutting board, tumbler, or an ornament here and there. Our wives thought we were crazy for getting into an expensive “hobby.”
Then, something crazy happened…we started getting orders! We did, and still do, a few craft shows every year. That’s what really got us going after our first craft show. We got a rather large order for Christmas gifts for people. Then, it just grew from there.
We kept trying different things such as: earrings, small signs, ornaments, etc. That led us to trying hats. We started doing leather patches on hats and it took off even faster! We were getting so many orders, it was getting hard to keep up. We went from ordering 10-15 hats at a time, to ordering 100 hats at a time. Now we have a few presses for hats and we can knock them out in no time now matter how big or small the order is.
From there, we started playing around with shirts, jackets, bags, and shoes! We love being able to come up with our own designs for people, but if someone already has a business logo, we can do that too. It’s just amazing to think about the first piece of wood that Steven burned with the TN TriStar, to now being able to burn anything, along with the ability to provide businesses with full apparel.
Just like any business, you have to grow and have to improve your process. So, we now have a few lasers and multiple presses. We can fully supply businesses, teams, churches with whatever their needs may be.
We’ve also had a lot of support from multiple businesses that are local and beyond. We’ve had supply orders from Pine Branch in Lafollette, Nothing Too Fancy in Knoxville, and Harper Jaymes in Molena, GA. It still blows our minds that we have been so blessed to be placed into these stores, and to have made so many great contacts and friends along the way.
Steven Sampieri &, 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?
WNT Workshop is a business that started in a garage to make a little extra spending money for best friends Daniel Hammac and Steven Sampieri. WNT Workshop began making custom order items for people in the East Tennessee area and quickly started expanding to states surrounding Tennessee and beyond! Custom shirts, jackets, hats, cutting boards, coasters and signs are only a few of the products offered by WNT Workshop. Every item WNT Workshop makes is crafted with the customer in mind, and that helps create a lasting relationship that establishes not just customers…but friends! Even though the business has expanded, we still make every item with the same commitment as we did in the beginning; our products are backed by a lifetime guarantee. If you aren’t satisfied, neither are we!
We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.
Daniel: I’ve known Steven’s sister, Christie, for a long time. My wife, Tasha, and his sister have been best friends and were college roommates. Stevens wife, Jami, and Tasha are really good friends as well. So we were always around each other, but about 8 years ago, we became inseparable. We’re more like brothers than best friends. Our families have become very tight, including our kids. We travel together, camp together, go to church together, and now we work together. We take our business very seriously, but aside from that we just enjoy being around each other and goofing off.
What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?
We started out giving a lot of free items out to multiple businesses and individuals. It was just a way to get our name out there. An ornament, a hat, here and there became very effective way of making positive connections. Yes, we may have lost a little money, but as the saying goes “you have to spend money to make money.”
The thing that probably helped more than anything was the fact we can do so many custom items that make amazing and unique gifts. Some of these items could even turn into heirlooms if you really wanted. When we started doing family tree cutting boards, they started spreading like wildfire. They’re totally customized to however the customer wants. They give us the names and we place them on a digitized tree. It can get a little complicated the more names there are obviously, but once they’re burned and completed, it can turn into a family keepsake.
Another thing that we offer are lasered hand written recipes or signatures. To have a pie recipe from Grandma, dad’s jerky recipe, or your favorite cookie recipe from your aunt handwritten by them…it’s something you could keep forever.
We just love taking the time to make something so special for our customers to enjoy. It’s a big deal to us that people let us into a tiny speck of their lives and make items that can be passed down from generation to generation.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Wntworkshop.com
- Instagram: @woodnthingsworkshop
- Facebook: @wntworkshop
- Yelp: WNT Workshop
