Some Thank You's & I'm Sorry's to ALL

[John Harrison]

I'd like to apologize to everyone for my absence.  It's been a good 6 months since I was active on here.  I had a battle with A typical Pneumonia for a couple of months, but it wasn't as bad as it sounds.  Looking for jobs and or work has been hard the last 18 months or so.  Getting on the internet really hasn't been a thought.

I'd like you to know that I appreciate the kind words and Holiday greetings from you all (especially you Jay.  I can always count on seeing a greeting from you - Thanks buddy!)

This may be the year I close my doors and seek employment elsewhere.  6 yrs searching for a "new business grant" without success, has, well... I'm outta gas.  But, the towel has yet to be thrown.  Holding my head up and truck'n forward just the same. 

So, I'd like to wish you...scratch that... I'd like to wish us ALL a Blessed and Joyous New Year.  I hope and pray your Holidays were filled with Peace, Love and Joy. 

Now lets bust out some tools and make something!  LMAO... Just realized Kreg Jig Jr. is in my pocket as I write this :)  It poked me inappropriately.

 

God Bless.

-John

[Jay Boutwell]

Hi John, Sorry to hear of your circumstances.  I for one have missed your posts on this community site however I do fully understand.  You have no reason to apologize to me for your absence. 

Looking back 23 years ago to the early years when I first started working wood and depending on it for a living I recall many problems that I had to overcome.  First I had left a interesting career in law enforcement and stepped into a new world where competition was stiff.  Getting a cabinet building project was slim picking as the competition was stiff between other cabinet shops and home centers turning out massed produced cabinets that caught the attention of many potential customers needing cabinets.

I started by taking most of my retirement money to purchase some equiptment and set up shop in my oversized garage here at home.  The first couple years were tough and I looked high and low for work.  I was offered jobs in other cabinet shops but refused to bow to competition as I wanted my own business.  I landed a few jobs by word of mouth and these kept me going.  I had the knowledge of construction of  the old traditional method of building cabinets using the  jointery that took hours to build a set of cabinets.

This is where KreG Tools became important to my Business.  I was fortunate enough to meet a young man who was selling the Kreg  pocket hole jig for Kreg Tools at a woodworking show in Portland Oregon.  The pocket hole jig was a new tool and it was a new technology to the industry.  This gentleman showed me a whole new method of building cabinets.  He had been a Industrial Art Teacher and had opened and operated his own cabinet shop and had a hugh amount of knowledge in building cabinetry.  He was a willing to teach his knowledge to others and was probably the best teacher I have ever known.  Seeing all this was exciting to me and made sense to me so I bought the Kreg Tool that same day. The jig was the K-2 model.  I took it home and studied its use and practiced making jointery of all the types the salesman told me that was possible.  I found it easy and its ability to build strong and quick jointery changed my whole method of building a cabinet.

This same salesman introduced me to  building raised panel doors both square and arched doors using three router bits and a router table.  I continued to be educated by this salesman and soon found  my self building everything for a cabinet myself instead of using some of the custom door builders that my competition was using.

At this time most of my now competition was building melemine cabinets with hardwood face frames and doors.  I began using cabinet grade plywood and quality hardwoods for the frames and doors.  I found that many customers out there like the all wood cabinet and I slowly began to pick up more work.  With the new Kreg pocket technology I was able to build a full set of cabinets in about half of the time I had been spending building them the old way.

It was still tough competition but at least now I saw some light towards being able to build a business.  It was tough going the next few years but was somewhat better that it had been

Then came the age of the computers and digital technology.  I obtained an old broken computer figured it out fixed it and using it opened a new tool for my business.  I had been depending on business cards and work of mouth to spread my  business and found that reguardless of the amount of business cards that I handed out it produced few jobs.  Then I got to thinking about business cards and what I usually found myself doing with business cards that I received from salesmen.  I normally glanced at them and tossed them into the trash can.  The business card told me nothing other than a name and a phone number.  One weekend I sat down in front of a computer and put together several photos and scanned them into digital computer language and used some software and made a slide show of some of my work and methods of how I make jointery.  I ended up with a new idea of  making a digital business card.   I made a few CD's and within about 6 months doubled my amount of calls and contacts from potential customers interested in cabinet work and other custom wood work.

The reason is simple as the business card shows nothing but a name and a phone number and it is small and usually finds itself in the trash can, a CD is different is is harder to misplace and harder to toss away because of human nature, the desire to see what is on the CD.  Once they do  you have given them an invite into your business and usually they become interested in your process.  Thus a thousand times more information than that business card did.  It is not uncommon for your CD to get handed to several people whom all of which can be a potential customer.

I will send you a copy of my old business card.  It has been upgraded a couple times but still contains basically the same information that I first put on the CD.  Check you e-mail page if interested and the link will be there.

It may or may not be something that you might like to try.  I can only tell you it worked for me.  Since making my own I have even made custom business card CD's for other business like contractors  have sold home builds to a customer whom become interested in the contractor from the CD. 

Wishing you the best of luck with your business.  I would be willing to help you with making a CD should you need it, but I think you can get the idea from mine.  Take care and please continue being active in the community as you have a lot of knowlege and talent that many can use.

 

[Jens Jensen]

Hey John take the opportunity that Jay is willing to give you.Im sure in fact I no you will not be disappointed in the returns it will give you.No I did not get PAID for this  haah