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

Tuval, appreciate you joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

Woodworking was always a hobby, and when we moved into our new home I had built some of our furniture. It was fun, and we always got compliments on the stuff that I had built, but I just figured that people were being polite. After a few years of trial and error, and seeing others succeed, I decided to give it a shot since I had just quit my job in the oil and gas industry. It took off and the rest was history.
I didn’t do anything special, I didn’t put too much thought into it. I just did it, and I made sure to put customer service as my top priority, along with high quality products.

Tuval, 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?

I am very straight forward and honest, which is important because what we do is so specialized to the customers needs that it is easier for me to design around their budget rather than just shoot them over ideas.

I like to get straight to the point, so messing around with the back and forth of trying to figure out what fits into your budget is very costly, so when I ask a new customer what their budget is, it’s because I’m trying to help them and save everybody time.

We do custom to the extreme, so we usually build the stuff that you can’t find anywhere else, but you really want them. If it’s a custom cabinet, table, desk, or bed, we make it all, and we do a lot of epoxy work as well, so our inlays are really cool, even on cutting boards, we add colors to things people never imagined.

And the main thing I can ask of anyone is to follow us and share our posts, it costs you nothing, but it helps us get in front of more people who eventually buy something from us.

Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?

Oh god, this is the worst thing, and it has happened three times and will probably happen again. It’s the worst thing ever because as a business owner when that happens you feel, well, I feel like I have failed everyone.

Right now, post COVID, I would say this is the worst time I have ever had. Money is leaving faster than it’s coming in, and we are having a hard time finding employees with the necessary skills to do what we need them to do, so as a result everyone suffers. But when I explain this to my customers they seem to be very understanding and they know that we are on top of things, even if it does take us longer.

We have also suffered loss of employees family members throughout COVID, and it’s always hard not knowing how to be there for them, so you do what you can and you ask them if they need anything, knowing that no matter what you do this is one thing that you will never be able to truly help them with.

Any advice for managing a team?

This is so important, and other than having a conversation with your employees regularly and actually listening to them, I don’t know what else to do. I can tell you what happens when you fail at this like I did during my first year:
Production will drop, people will stop showing up to work and will only show up to collect a paycheck, and nobody will care to help anyone.
So I would advise anyone reading this to please learn from my mistakes and make sure you are always talking to your employees and always always always listen to what they have to say, because they might have the best idea that you didn’t even know you needed.

Contact Info:

• Website: Tuvyswood.com
• Instagram: @tuvyswood
• Facebook: Tuvy’s Woodworking
• Twitter: @tuvyswood
• Youtube: @tuvyswoodworking3723

Image Credits
Tuval Baruch