Brendan Vande Kamp: Log to Lumber

 

“I never intended to go down this path. If you’d have told me five years ago that I’d quit a six-figure government job and a desk and work for myself, I’d have said you were crazy.”

 

• Brendan Vande Kamp

 

Hello and welcome to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with Brendan Vande Kamp from Log to Lumber. Steve and Brian met initially on Facebook about three years ago while Brendan was still working for the government and he had just purchased his sawmill.

 

Brendan never meant to go down the woodworking path. Five years ago, he never would have believed that he would leave his six-figure government job to pursue a career in woodworking, where he owned his own business. At this point, Brendan has just recently ordered his fourth sawmill and has purchased a debarker and edger, and he loves what he does every day.

 

 

 

 

The Start of a New Life

 

“So I had been deployed as a government contractor in Afghanistan. I had a lot of money and about 50 acres in Shenandoah County, Virginia, just north of Woodstock, Virginia, on the I81 corridor. It goes to the National Forest, and we were cleared for a road and a pole barn.

 

I wanted to build a timber frame house, but I asked the timber frame company what it would cost, and it scared me. So my estimating buddy had said, ‘Hey, you got all these really nice oak trees. It would be a shame to cut them all into firewood. I know this old guy that’s got a portable sawmill. I was like, ‘Portable sawmill; What the heck?’”

 

• Brendan Vande Kamp

 

One day this sawmill owner Doug was set up down the road and invited Brendan to see the operation. Brendan tried to get Doug to come mill logs for him, but Doug was always busy or broke down and unable to assist. So Brendan immediately began researching sawmills and the industry as a whole to find out what would suit his needs.

 

Initially, Brendan looked into Alaska sawmills and decided they were too slow, and after exhausting a few other options, he settled on Woodmizer. He purchased a 35 manual to start, but after milling one log, he realized what was involved with that kind of machine, so he immediately upgraded to the LT35 hydraulic.

 

Not long after his investment, someone at his day job asked Brendan if he could come to mill some logs that had recently been taken down on his property. Brendan obliged and joined the Woodmizer Facebook page to ask questions about what kind of rates he should be charging. Early on, Brendan found that he was essentially being paid to learn about milling.

 

 

 

 

Finding the Fun and the Profit

 

“I thought, this is kind of fun. People pay me to learn how to mill, and I like people generally. So I started advertising on the Facebook marketplace and started getting some jobs. I did three to five jobs a month, just on the weekends, charging strictly by the hour.

 

I came up with what I call bumper to bumper time. For instance, you pay me to come to you, and I pay me to go home. It doesn’t matter how far it is. I went all the way to South Carolina; it was eight hours. So it kept going along, and I had a great time learning a lot.”

 

• Brendan Vande Kamp

 

Brendan did a wide variety of jobs in his first year, and he eventually did a job for a customer north of Harrisonburg, Virginia, who had 100 acres with a lot of ash trees. So Brendan milled a ton of ash logs for the customer, but some of the live edge slabs were a bit too large for his sawmill to handle. This challenge meant that Brendan had to make a decision.

 

He decided that he really enjoys the work, and any mill he purchases will pay for itself with the amount of work he is doing. After some substantial research, Brendan picked out the equipment he would need, and with the assistance of some financing and a loan, he was able to purchase the bulk of the equipment necessary to take his business to the next level.

 

 

 

 

Steve’s Advice Corner

 

“My biggest weakness is administrative stuff. I’m great at calling people back. I always hear, ‘Hey, thank you so much for calling me back.’ I’m like, ‘Why wouldn’t I?’ You probably know there are so many service industry people that don’t call people back. So I get a lot of jobs that way. But I can do better at capturing customers. I was talking to Matt Rubin about a CRM and capturing customer data. That would be interesting.”

 

• Brendan Vande Kamp

 

One of the most common challenges facing Woodpreneurs is the administrative side of their businesses. Most woodworkers and sawmill operators get into the industry because they enjoy the hands-on part of the job. Still, the whole business can fall apart without the administrative side being set up correctly. Steve’s advice for Brendan revolves around the simplest ways to get over that hurdle.

 

“One option is to get admin help potentially. There are many things that you don’t necessarily have to do, but you know how to do. Whatever your hourly rate is, I have a process where whatever your hourly rate is or what you’d like to be if there’s a task that costs less than that. Outsource it.

 

There are many things like doing research, maybe getting a list of all the contractors in the Virginia area that would buy from you. You can pay somebody 50 bucks, and they’ll get 300 names and websites and emails. Bookkeeping is another outsourcing option.

 

You should know how it works, but you shouldn’t be doing it yourself. Whether it’s paying bills, preparing reports, or whatever, you can hire and outsource because your time is valuable, and it should be spent on the highest priority actions.”

 

• Steve Larosiliere

 

Website: http://www.logtolumber-va.com

 

Instagram: @logtolumber