We were lucky to catch up with Tyler Hawkins recently and have shared our conversation below.
Tyler, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s something crazy on unexpected that’s happened to you or your business
From Tyler: We have countless absolutely bat crazy stories, both good and bad! I’ll share one of each to balance the scales. One of the most challenging negative experiences we faced occurred almost two years ago. At the time, it was our largest greenhouse project yet – our supposed “crowning achievement”. I spent months designing the plans and communicating with the clients. I emphasized the need for a level foundation to assemble the structure on, and the photos we received of the laid-out gravel foundation appeared adequate. Wrong – lesson number one we learned; you cannot tell how level ground is from photos alone. When we arrived at the site, over four hours away from our home and shop, my heart sank upon seeing the foundation—a sloping decline of about 2.5 feet, covered in flattened gravel. Despite our concerns about the difficulty and safety of installing the greenhouse on such uneven ground, we promised to do our best and try.
We unloaded the trailer and began framing the greenhouse footprint as best we could. Brittni and I worked tirelessly that day and stayed at a nearby Airbnb that lifted our spirits with its charming pet pond ducks, especially one we named Squirt, due to its tiny size and breed that was bullied by the others. What a metaphor for life. We sat utterly exhausted physically and mentally feeding them on our knees from our hands in the dark. Returning early the next day, we struggled to set up the rafters on the uneven surface. It’s like setting up a heavy puzzle on a floating balloon. Realizing it would take much longer than anticipated due to the major leveling issues, we had to leave the job unfinished and return days later. Unfortunately, when we returned, we were met with upset and frustration, and a demand that we level it.
After attempting various solutions, we sadly and reluctantly admitted defeat. There was no safe way to assemble the greenhouse on such unlevel ground. Grading and leveling ground are very expensive and time-consuming processes that require specialized tools and skills, which we do not own and do not have. Despite offering to disassemble and store the panels until the ground could be professionally leveled, we ended up providing a full refund – leaving us nearly bankrupt. A few thousand dollars can mean just that to a small business.
We nursed our broken hearts and broken bank account at a craft brewery, wallowing in self-pity and anxiety – were we really over? After all of our hard work, were we over now due to one single incident? Early the next morning we dangerously undid a few of the rafters and pushed the building down the slope. It collapsed like a Jenga game. We caught it on video to remind us of all of the hard lessons we learned. We then spent hours reloading the trailer and headed for a long mountainous drive home. It was one of the most stressful encounters we’ve ever had, but it taught us invaluable lessons. We now have strict policies requiring level foundations and clear client responsibilities in our contracts.
On a more positive note, one of the most uplifting experiences we’ve had recently was meeting an old Oxford professor specializing in business marketing and strategy. It was a chance encounter at an old pub in England that smelled of decades of tobacco pipes, where we stopped for directions to JRR Tolkien’s grave and a pint. He was sat by an unlit fireplace, with newspaper and a red glass of wine in hand. He was surrounded by hundreds of cut ends of ties from the university’s professors, including one of his very own. Engaging in conversation, we discovered his expertise aligned perfectly with our journey as small business owners. How serendipitous. He even plans to reach out to us for a quote or two in his 18th upcoming book on small businesses. He offered us great insights and encouragement that revitalized our spirits during what was yet another challenging time. We will never forget shaking his hand and seeing the gleeful glint of a life well spent and the irony in our chance meeting in his eyes as we said our goodbyes.
While setbacks like these have tested us financially and emotionally, we continue to persevere. Life moves forward, and so do we. We have had the most wonderful experiences with so many clients – even getting to make a few good friends along the way! They are a massive reason we keep persevering.
Tyler, 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?
From Brittni: Chickens have always held a special place in our hearts, as magical creatures offering countless possibilities—from companionship, therapy, and entertainment, to providing food, inspiring art, culture, and fostering bonds between people throughout the world. My mom was an elementary school teacher, and I attended that school. We would hatch chicks every year for science lessons, and it sparked a lifelong connection and passion within me early on. When Tyler and I first met 14 years ago we would go to the little pumpkin farms in Virginia Beach and feed the chickens there. We always had the best time and have the sweetest memories.
What many clients or people may not realize, is since the beginning it has just been the two of us (Tyler & Brittni), right here in a small town in North Carolina. Until recently we did absolutely everything ourselves. We are very grateful for the few incredible staff, friends, and neighbors, we have who have supported us and our business. We have some fond memories and crazy stories among us all.
We are a mom & pop-style business. We handle everything ourselves—the marketing, website building and updates, communications, pricing and budgeting, material ordering and selection, and the entire building process from framing and painting to roofing and finishing, and finally delivery. When we bought our first home amidst the pandemic, creating space for our own flock became our priority—not the state of the bathrooms or the square footage. We didn’t even own a drill. Tyler was never a 9-5’er. He always made his own path his own way. He left school early and bypassed college. I took the more traditional route and have the student loans to prove it. He’s always been the smartest person I’ve ever known, and he’s always had a passion for architecture. That and Legos. When he was a kid, he could build absolutely anything out of them. We joke and call it the education from the “University of Legos”. It probably doesn’t hurt that carpentry and resilience is in his blood.
My dad was the reason we ended up building our first coop. When we told everyone we were buying our first home and getting chickens, my dad sent a little surprise gift of hatching eggs and live chicks- which we had no idea of and were totally unprepared for! We scrambled to find suitable shelter. Online coop kits proved inadequate, expensive, small, and flimsy, so we opted to build one ourselves, scavenging pallets and painstakingly assembling them amidst winter’s chill, relying only on the shelter of nearby pine, pear, and dogwood trees in our yard. I remember laughing at Tyler through the kitchen window while he was pulling the boards apart in 30-degree weather. He loved those chickens instantly.
What began as a humble initiative grew into a heartfelt labor of love, underscoring our mutual commitment to crafting durable, aesthetically pleasing homes and structures for backyard homesteading. What we didn’t even realize then, is that when my mom passed from pancreatic cancer, I was waiting on a sign from her that she was okay, and there really was something else out there. She was to send me birds in a “very unique way”. Those eggs and chicks my dad sent? We ended up with 11 of them, and out of those, we successfully hatched 3. 11-03 is the date of my mom’s birthday.
So, with what seemed everything to be leading us in this direction and recognizing a demand for quality coops amid a sea of overpriced, flimsy alternatives, we took up what we felt was our calling. It led us to meet a remarkable woman who had recently relocated to North Carolina; she races carriages with horses. She had a greenhouse at her former residence but struggled to find local builders to replicate it. Eager to help, we both embraced the challenge, navigating the process with each step teaching us valuable lessons. From learning to drive a truck and renting trailers to mastering the art of loading coops and greenhouses, creating new designs, working with new and constantly evolving materials and tools, navigating profit margins, and often facing financial setbacks, we persevered through numerous trials and errors, steadily improving with every endeavor.
In an era dominated by anonymous mass production and dubious sourcing, we’re passionate about encouraging others to embrace sustainability in their own backyard sanctuaries—inspiring and empowering individuals to adopt practices that are both beautiful and practical. This is so important to us, paying homage to an era when dedicated artisans provided high-quality goods and services just around the corner.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
From Brittni: We have so many stories about needing to be resilient to overcome crushing barriers, some that had us teetering on the edge of having to give up on our business—I hardly know where to begin. What we have learned is that no matter what we do, how hard we try to avoid the bumps, there will always be very high times, and there will always be very, very low times. We have lean on each other to get through them.
We started our small business in the backyard of our first home during the pandemic. Tyler had no shelter to work under, just the trees at first. Eventually we upgraded to a pop-up tent from Walmart to a larger pop-up garage port tent from Tractor Supply to a metal building we took out a loan for to build besides the shop – with no electricity, heating or A/C. Now we are blessed to have found a large warehouse space in Erwin, NC – with electricity! Though even that presents extreme risks for us that we are constantly having to overcome together. When we first began, we would have to rush to move all of our tools under the tent the best we could during rainstorms or even snowstorms, getting absolutely covered in mud, and losing a few tools along the way. I remember one Christmas my family helped us to move the large plastic garage port up out of the muddy wooded area we had it in closer to the house in a storm – each of us grabbing a pole and hurrying closer to the house, absolutely freezing and wet. I even tripped over one of car port’s tent ropes face first at night. Challenge after challenge!
We have had some clients get irritated with us for taking so long to get to their product, even though we were clear it was just the two of us, and really just Tyler as I had a full-time research job, at the time. Some people have gotten so used to instantly receiving their purchase from Amazon that they don’t want to wait two to three months for something handcrafted with care and artistry. There was one client we had to return her deposit to, as she did not want to wait an additional two weeks for her greenhouse when we first started. That can kill a small business like ours.
We mentioned earlier about a large project that ended in a fiasco, and complete misunderstanding between the couple, and us. We dangerously disassembled the entire frame of the structure and had to push it to collapse. We thought we would have to close down business after that loss. We now state everywhere, contracts, online, that the ground and foundation for panel installations is required to be level. There have been many nights where we are building into 2 or 3am in the morning to meet delivery deadlines or working 20 days in a row from morning to night.
Last Fall, I was involved in a pedestrian motor accident. I was hit by a truck while in a crosswalk. It put me out of commission for months, leaving Tyler to try to build and run the business almost entirely alone. That on top of medical bills, slowing production, and a few poor choices put us in a hole we are still digging out of now. But we will dig. We always will. We have overcome so much with our business already, I know that there is nothing in this world that we can’t face together, because we love each other deeply. There is a lot at stake when you run a business, your entire life for instance. Of course, there have been many times when I get down and want to give up, but Tyler is always there to lift me. There are also times when he is down and wants to give up. We always have to just keep going, for each other, and for what we believe in.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
From Tyler & Brittni: Words from a wiseman we once met: You can start your business slowly over time, or you can take out a large sum of money and start fast. We chose the slow route. We would gift each other tools, things for the business during holidays or celebrations. I remember the second Dewalt miter saw I got Tyler for Christmas arrived clear as day in the product box on our doorstep, and my heart dropping to my stomach that Tyler noticed it. Nope! Thank God it was dark. He walked right past it. I hollered at him to go and hide in the bedroom while I comically tried to lift and fit this massive and desperately heavy compound miter saw box to the living room. I’ve never wrapped something so fast in my life, and it showed.
We would also save and use any remaining money we had after the bills were paid to invest in our business. We started to take deposits for orders to use for the materials upfront. That model has helped us tremendously to grow to the level we are now, which is still a very small mom and pop-style business, but one with shelter, and a few absolutely incredible and talented local hands to help. We used to have no level surface to work on. So, our wonderful neighbors would see us framing out rafters with Kreg jigs on the concrete pathway up to our house, practically standing on our heads. Eventually we were able to afford a better tool, but we can say we literally started from the bottom, or the roots up. What funny stories we have, and what we would say is also, a life well spent!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.3treesandacoop.com
- Instagram: 3treesandacoop
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/3treesandacoop
