consultingwoodworker.com Blog

As I indicated in my last blog, the economy seems to be on the road to recovery. But I am convinced that this road does NOT lead back to the way things were. The business environment I see emerging from the market crash is a whole new, social, world.

I have written here before about Social Media strategies, but as time goes by, a broader picture is emerging, Social Media is no longer enough. The “Media” is NOT the message. I am looking to define a whole new “Social Persona” where your entire business is focused around your customers being participants in the “face” you present online. It is no longer enough to simply maintain a Twitter account and FaceBook page.

Rockler is an excellent example of a company developing a Social Persona. They have an active FaceBook Page, and their Twitter managment is a model that others should be emulating. But Rockler understands that they need to be integrating that those efforts deeper into their business. Rockler has recently unveiled a new gallery where customers can show off their projects and comment on others member’s projects. Rockler’s blog continues to evolve, and they are now beginning to link outside reviews and video demos into their own online product pages! The customers are helping to shape the “face” that other customers see when they connect with Rockler.

MicroJig regularly asks permission and posts user reviews directly on their site. They reaalize that their customers will use the products in ways they may not have envisioned. The accumulated knowledge base blows way beyond any reasonable FAQ page and adds an element of trust because Microjig’s advertising claims are backed up by customer experience. Another fine example of what I am discussing is a company called Indonique.

Indonique is a retailer of fine Indian tea and chai. The owner, George, is also a woodworker, and we began discussing how he could attract more woodworkers to his site. He has added a “Tea and Woodworking “page to his website where he is sharing information and plans for tea related woodworking. This in itself is excellent, but rather than simply filling the page himself, George is inviting anyone who wishes to contribute content. I have contributed plans for a tray, and will likely be “guest blogging” at some point.

None of us are yet sure exactly where all this may lead. What we do know is that consumers are wary of traditional advertising. They trust the people in their social networks, and are constantly seeking and sharing information; “I am car shopping, anyone have experience with the 2009….” “Rockler’s Bench Cookies look cool, but how do they work when they get dusty?” “ What chai should I try for my dinner party next week?” Your customers are asking a million questions a day. Let your OTHER customers help you answer them.

Built properly, your “Social Persona” (Website, Facebook, Twitter, Forums, Galleries, etc)becomes the portal that they will go to for answers, and they will in turn answer others. Got a fence to whitewash Tom Sawyer?

I know what you small business owners out there are saying: “ I do not have time with all the other stuff I am doing!” and you are right. My next post will be discussing strategies for dealing with this issue.

Homebuilders Merging? Banks reporting quarterly profits? These and other signs have me convinced that the economy has hit bottom and on the rebound. The road back is going to be long and hard, and many more companies are likely to fall by the wayside. So while we should be encouraged, we cannot yet relax. I am convinced that American consumers will be a changed group after this recession. The freewheeling spending will not recover with the economy. People are already increasing their personal savings rates. This is, long term, good for all of us. But it will slow the recovery somewhat.

The economy that emerges will be very different from the recent past. Will you be positioned to thrive? What steps can you take to read the tea leaves and be properly positioned? I don’t have the answers and neither do you. But I know who does; Your customers and potential customers. They are the ones who will be buying new homes, remodeling their kitchens, and thinking long and hard before committing their savings. So, how can you forcast the new rules and be positioned to be their “go to” company? ASK THEM.

The future can be very bright for those shops that begin now having a dialog with their client and customer base. By working with some of the techniques I have discussed in past posts on this blog, you can keep up with the wants and needs of the buying public and the contractors that will be serving them. An effective Social Media presence on Facebook, Twitter, and other sites will give you a feel for what folks are talking about, asking for, and asking questions about. You can use these sites, or your own newsletter or blog to answer questions, explain trends and introduce new styles, hardware and features. As I have written about before, being a trusted source of information for your customers will keep you “top of mind” when they are ready to hire a cabinet shop.

This is NOT a fast and simple method, but it is really effective. As I have indicated before, Social Media is just that: Social! You cannot, and must not, treat the new media as another billboard. This is relationship marketing. You need to be friendly, helpful and informative. Don’t worry about spelling out everything you do. If you are seen as a reliable and trusted source of the information they need, they will be talking to you when they are ready to pull the trigger.

A really good source of information on this marketing technique can be found in Seth Godin’s book, “Permission Marketing”. (you can find a link to it at http://www.consultingwoodworker.com/recommended_reading) Seth has written the seminal work on using social media, even before social media was big.

I also want you to take a look at a pair of your peers, and what they are doing. Thomas Clayton, at Georgia Casework Inc., is writing a very good newsletter aimed at informing his customers about the market, his business, and the market. It is well written, very professional, and my only criticism is that there are no links to his website on the mailing. It would be worth your while to sign up for Thomas’s newsletter and see how he does it.

Paul Lesieur of Minneapolis Kitchen Remodeling writes a very entertaining blog at: http://www.minneapoliskitchenremodeling.com/ His style is breezy and a bit irreverent, but he absolutely comes across as an experienced professional. It should prove to be an effective resource for him.

Both of these communications have potential, but how do their customers find them? That is where the social media work comes in. If a Facebook “friend” asks a question that Paul has written about in his blog, he can provide a link. Not only will his “friend” check out the blog, but that person’s friends will see the interaction and may well check it out as well. Anyone who reads his blog can set up an RSS feed to have that blog sent to them automatically when a new post is made. They have given “permission” to Paul, to communicate with them, so as long as he provides useful information, his communications are not considered “spam”.

Thomas does the same thing, but through a mailing list. Everyone who subscribes to his newsletter has given him a valuable resource, their attention.

Both of these guys need to be very aware that the permission they gained is valuable and fragile. They must continue to be helpful and informative, and avoid being seen as a pushy saleman. The permission is very easy for the customer to revoke.

I hope that this gives you some ideas and inspiration. I also invite any of you who are producing content like Thomas and Paul to send me links, I’d love to see. I invite you to look me up in the Social Media realm. I can be found on Facebook and Linkedin as Ralph Bagnall, and on Twitter as Consultingwood. Come say hello and I will be happy to show you around.

I was going to write some more on using Social Media to connect with clients, but have decided to put it off a bit in order to share with you a unique experience I am having this week:

I write this from Kingston, Jamaica. I am down here working with Jamaica Fibreglass Products, my first and still favorite clients. This time, I am staying at a beautiful new facility in New Kingston. What makes this all notable is that I helped JFP create this room 18 months ago.

Back then, I was down here helping JFP figure out how to improve their CNC output and streamline much of their assembly. We began working toward a single unit production schedule, looking at new tooling and processes, and implementing the Lean Manufacturing techniques that I have been discussing in this blog of late.

The owners at JFP were also preparing for a meeting with clients about providing furniture for an upcoming hotel opening. While JFP is highly experienced at restaurant style seating, this was a pretty big departure from their normal business. Also, the client really wanted solid wood, and JFP is not really set up for large scale production in solids.

That is when the owners of JFP really started to impress me. They knew that getting the hotel project was a long shot. They could not offer the solid wood, and had no prior hotel work to show. They took a bold step and began prototyping the hotel room in full scale. When I arrived, they already had several pieces pretty well done, and were walling off a section of their lobby to replicate the room dimensions. I was able to contribute to the project by showing them how to use their CNC to miterfold the furniture parts, and adapting some of the designs to maximize the benefits of miter folding.

The clients, where ushered into the hotel room they had envisioned, sat on the bed, tried out the chairs, and really got the feel of the room. JFP did not have to convince the buyers that miterfolded furniture would look like solid wood, the clients could not ignore the parts they were touching.

Eighteen months later, I sit in the hotel and type this blog. I hope that you take the proper lessons from this unique company:

They decided to get the sale first, then figure out how to build the job. They could take this risk because they have structured their entire business to remain flexible. They know they can find a way, either in house or outside. That’s the second lesson:

JFP certainly does not suffer from “Not Invented Here” syndrome. They are willing to pay for outside expertise, and quick to respond to the fresh ideas presented to them.

And the last lesson is that they were ready to run with their plan. Completely on spec, they designed the furniture and began prototyping it. Since I was already there, they enlisted my help in detailing the construction to best utilize their capabilities. The client was presented with the exact design JFP was prepared to build. By the time the clients had finished moving the pieces around in the “room”, the deal was pretty well set, and here I sit.

This incident was not a fluke. JFP has gotten several large jobs since I have been working with them in the same manner. Does your company have the corporate mindset and will to go for the brass ring this way?

Isn’t it time?

JFP: www.jfpmfg.com
See the room here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/furnituremaker/sets/72157615520823654/

Ralph Bagnall
www.consultingwoodworker.com
On Linkedin
Follow me on Twitter as Consultingwood

Let’s face it. As woodworkers, and cabinet makers, we are something of an old fashioned bunch. If you have taken my suggestion from the previous blog post and delved into the world of Social Media, you may well be confused and concerned. At first it all seems sort of pointless and out of touch with our business. I’m here to show you that you are wrong. If you primarily work with designers, architects and contractors, it is highly likely that your current clients, and others that you want to work with are already on Social Media sites. Linkedin has any number of groups devoted to cabinet making, furniture manufacturing and other wood related fields. If your client base is professional, I highly recommend Linkedin. Linkedin is one of the most structured and formal sites. You have to ask people to join your network, and while there is a good search function, much of people’s profile information is hidden to you until they are a part of your network. A good way to get introduced to people and ask them to join your network is to ask and answer questions. Linkedin has a really big board of open questions being asked and answered by members. You can view questions by category, and by participating, you can build your network. Most folks are very polite on Linkedin, and will send you e-mail (through Linkedin) thanking you for answering or discussing your answer. This gives you an opening to then ask them to join your network. Since Linkedin is all about networking, this process is pretty painless. Like most Social Media, being helpful is the key to building a quality network.

If you work with homeowners, then you need to be working more with Facebook in my opinion. Facebook is much more of the social in Social Media. You can search people in many ways, and finding people in your geographic area is possible with most sites. A surprising number of middle and upper income adults are on Facebook. Facebook is a bit more open and freewheeling than Linkedin. Yes, your first impression is correct. There is a LOT on Facebook that is useless to you, but again, the point here is to be helpful and friendly and drive traffic to your website. Answering people’s questions about cabinets, remodeling, and hardware gets you a lot of exposure really fast. On Facebook, most interaction is VERY public. Every member has a “Wall” where things are posted publicly. People you have “friended” can write comments on your wall, and you can write on theirs. The really effective part is that you can read all comments on their wall, and your posts on their wall can be read by all their friends even if you don’t know their friends. See where this is leading? A polite, knowledgable person, being helpful to their friends online, can really help you build a reputation online as a go-to company.

Twitter is another site altogether. At first glance, Twitter seems totally useless as a business tool. I know, I thought that too. Twitter seems to be nothing more than people posting what their dog did on the carpet this morning. But it really can work for you. I have been surprised at how fast Twitter has been able to drive traffic to my website. Again, the point is to be helpful and knowledgable, and gain “Followers”, who in turn follow you. Twitter is fast moving and brief. All comments, known as “Tweets”, are limited to 144 characters. I use Twitter to broadcast new information on my blog or website, new articles as they come out, and anything that might reasonably be of interest or amusing to my followers. I also respond to others if I have useful information for them. Now as your number of followers grows, you will find that some post a lot of totally useless information and you can get hundreds of tweets per day. I, like you, really don’t have the time or desire to wade through all that flotsam. The good news is that you can simply not follow those people that fill your box with drivel. I follow anyone who follows me, but if they spend all day posting silly stuff, then you can unfollow them. 99 percent of the time, they will not even notice.
I have been able to winnow down my follows to those people that I want to hear from, people who are marketers that I respect, other woodworkers, NASA, the USS Constitution, and just some interesting people. By being helpful and knowledgeable, I have again been able to drive traffic to my site by assisting others and announcing new stuff that may be of interest to them. Just this past week, ShopBot posted a tweet praising last week’s blog. I noticed an instant spike in visits to my blog.

By now, you must have noticed a pattern to my advice here: Be helpful and knowledgable. Be polite and informative. Provide expertise and people will become comfortable thinking of you as an expert. They will visit your site, where they can learn of your services and how to contact you for more information. One more point: Social Media is SOCIAL. There are a number of companies out there that simply post several times a day with product reviews and announcements. They do not converse, they do not respond to others posting, they use their Social Media presence as just another advertisement. This is more harmful than helpful to them. People use Social Media to connect. Sometimes for personal reasons, sometimes for business reasons, but a connection is key. These sites should NOT be viewed as another ad space. I don’t sell on these sites. I build relationships, and when my connections ask, I will sell to them then. Seth Godin calls this “Permission Marketing” and it is very effective. It is not instantaneous, it does take some time and care, but it is free marketing, and over time is highly effective. You can find a link to Seth Godin’s book, “Permission Marketing” on my website, on the “Recommended Reading” page. It is a bit dated by now, but the pricipals are well worth knowing and studying.

Again I invite you to look me up in the Social Media realm. I can be found on Facebook and Linkedin as Ralph Bagnall, and on Twitter as Consultingwood. Come say hello and I will be happy to show you around.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been involved in a couple of discussions about foreign imports and getting customers to “Buy American”. Some folks believe that it is time to raise trade barriers or otherwise limit imports, but look where that idea has gotten GM. Decades of protection and insulation enabled the Big Three to defer innovation and avoid maximizing efficiency to the point that they have struggled for several years to regain market leadership, and are being pummeled by the current economy.

What the woodworking industry needs to do is begin educating their customers. What YOU want to do is to teach your customers to look beyond just the price tag and recognize the value of your products. They want to buy American. They want to buy locally. You need to show them why it is a better value to buy from you.

Your first informational contact with your customers is likely to be your website. They may look at site after site with beautiful photos of other people’s kitchens. Some will gain inspiration and ideas from that, but you need to offer more. A quick Yahoo search for “Kitchen Cabinets” resulted in nearly Ninety one MILLION hits. Even if a couple visits a few dozen pages of sites, can your site will make them remember it and return? This is not a tutorial of improving your search placement, many folks are better qualified than I to teach you that. No, what I’m getting at is giving your customer something for visiting your site.

They are searching the web to find ideas, figure out options, decide on hardware and features. There is some really innovative and cool stuff out there. You know about it. They don’t have a clue. So educate them. Do you offer undermount self closing slides? A fifteen second video clip on your website can show your customers how they work. You can add a similar clip showing a blind corner trolley unit being pulled out. With an inexpensive digital video camera and editing software you can quickly add informative clips to your site.

You website should feature links to materials providers, hardware companies, design websites, along with books and videos on kitchen design. These will provide your customers with much useful information. Set up affiliate links with Amazon and some of the other websites, and you might even make enough to pay for your site. Remember that lots of free information on your site will drive repeat traffic, create buzz and get you some attention.

Your site needs to be more than just nice photographs. You need to explain why the materials you use are superior, how your construction lasts longer, why your design skills are more innovative, whatever makes you the better VALUE than other options.
Next post, I’ll discuss some intriguing (and cheap) ideas for getting attention for your business.

As always, I invite you to comment here or by e-mail on this or any of my posts. rbagnall@consultingwoodworker.com
I can be reached through Linkedin as well: http://www.linkedin.com/in/ralphbagnall

Back when I used to sell woodworking equipment, I worked with customers to cost justify the machinery they were considering. The baseline was to ask how much it currently cost them to make a unit, or a particular part. What stunned me was how very few business owners could even guess at the cost, let alone give an actual figure. But cost justification of new equipment is only one reason to track your costs.
If you don’t very accurately know how much your products cost you to manufacture, you don’t really know if you are even making money on the job. If your costing assumptions are off, your bid on the next job might cost you plenty rather than making you money. You’ll have no idea which areas of your shop to look to improving, since you don’t know which operations are profit centers and which are money pits.
Tracking your time and cost gives you control over your business. If you know how much a cabinet costs to assemble, you’ll know which of your team are productive and which might need extra motivation. When an employee comes to you with a “money saving” idea, you’ll be able to properly evaluate it and make a decision to implement or not. Information is power, and this is the most basic information your company has. The good news is that the Lean techniques we have been implementing can help you gain control of this information.
To begin with, you have cleaned, organized and standardized your work stations. You have organized your hardware and fasteners and such, and may or may not have begun working in a unit flow. In either case, you can now begin to accurately figure out the time it should take to gather materials, fetch fasteners, drawer slides and such, as well as what all those items are costing you per job.
As you can see, breaking the entire process down allows for more accurate cost studies. Keeping track of these items from job to job leaves a paper trail that can be applied to future estimating, giving you an edge over your competition. You’ll know how to trim your estimate to the edge of your profit margin. You will also know which jobs to walk away from if the profit is not there.
The next part of this tracking is to begin recording the time spent in the initial milling of the parts, in edging and end boring, in assembly and in finishing. Each cellular step of the process should be tracked and quantified. This again makes bidding more accurate, and allows for more efficient application of resources. If you find that assembly takes twice as long as milling, then you obviously need to insure that there are two assemblers for each mill person. You will now know with more certainty how the shop time breaks down by procedure, which will give you much better insight into where to most effectively apply your capital budget. So, as you gain cost control over your materials and hardware, begin to create a time study history and use that information to best guide your business.
Next post, I’m going to discuss the debate between people and process, and why I am convinced that both is the proper answer.
As always, I invite you to comment here or by e-mail on this or any of my posts. I can be reached through Linkedin as well: http://www.linkedin.com/in/ralphbagnall

As the economy tightens, and businesses look to cut costs, maintenance is often one of the early casualties. As with layoffs, I am convinced that this is a huge mistake. Maintenance for most of us is one of those nagging things like dental appointments. We know we should be doing it, but always seem too busy to properly keep up with it.
The truth of the matter is that maintenance is a really good return on investment. A small amount of scheduled time, and your production keeps running. A few tools and a bit of lubrication and you avoid replacing expensive parts. A few hours of scheduled downtime a year, and you can prevent thousands of dollars in service calls.
The damage caused by unscheduled repairs goes way beyond the cost of parts and technicians. It can be very difficult to truly calculate what is lost when your production is interrupted by breakdowns. There are the clearly visible costs discussed above, but the damage goes deeper. At best, you’ll need to pay out overtime to catch up to the schedule. At worst, you miss deadlines, and possibly lose customers. Lost customers are a blow at any time, but during a slow economy, it is a business killer.
Knowing that a proper maintenance protocol can save money, it is not hard to see how it can be a source of increased profit. While reviewing a client’s operation, I noted that 4 people were tasked to cleaning up edgebanded parts. I spent a few hours with their edgebander operators, showing them how to measure the stock and set the glue line properly, lube and adjust the trimmers, and keep the cutting tools clean. Without having to upgrade their old bander, one person is now tasked to checking and cleaning the parts as they come off the bander, opening up three others for assembling the cabinets.
Good maintenance also pays dividends in quality. A table saw that is clean and aligned accurately cuts cleanly, leaving crisp edges and fewer tool marks. And tools that work properly are safer for your workers, reducing lost time accidents, OSHA fines and lawsuits.
So how do you begin squeezing the advantages from maintenance? Every tool in your shop has, in it’s manual, a maintenance schedule. Compile that data for all your equipment. There will typically be daily, monthly, quarterly, and yearly intervals. Sorting through this information, you should be able to set up a schedule.
Maintenance needs to become part of your company’s culture, and that can only come down from the top. Workers need to know that you expect them to do their maintenance chores and do them right. That any time they find problems like loose bolts, they must take the time to get the proper tool and fix it, or find the person who can. Ultimately, they need to know that their job is not at risk for taking proper care of their machines, but at risk if they don’t.
So begin gathering your data, create a schedule, and devote specified time to keeping your equipment running safely, accurately and predictably. You will find that although counter-intuitive, you will likely realize savings rather than expenses.

Please feel free to comment here or by email. I’m presenting these ideas in the hopes of spurring discussion.
Email: rbagnall@consultingwoodworker.com
Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/ralphbagnall