Colton Rosman: Bearded Moose Woodworking

May 19, 2022

Colton Rosman: Bearded Moose Woodworking

Welcome back to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with Colton Rosman from Bearded Moose Woodworking. Colton and his company operate just outside of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and he is very at home out in the country.

“I grew up in Michigan out in the country, and my parents had about 100 acres. So I grew up doing a lot of outdoor stuff. After graduating from college to be an engineer, I moved to Portland, Oregon, where I worked for a very large company in the city for about six years.

My now wife and I moved out and did apartment living for a while, but I got really stir crazy. So we decided to buy a house in Oregon and get a little bit of space. As soon as we moved into the house, I was back into hands-on stuff and DIY upgrades.

Then when COVID hit, my wife also had our daughter at the same time, so we were locked in our house. I spent a ton of time on YouTube and went down the rabbit hole of furniture. I had a decent amount of tools from the DIY stuff, and I told my wife, ‘Hey, I’m gonna start building some furniture.’”

Colton Rosman

Starting Out Small

Colton started out small with projects like cutting boards before diving into the bigger pieces like furniture for his home, which he immensely enjoyed building. After a year or so, Colton and his wife and daughter moved back to Michigan to be closer to family, but with the stipulation, they would move into the country to a place with a few acres and a barn or shop.

“We moved back in April of 2021, and we were lucky enough to find a house with a small shop. At the time, I thought it would be big enough because I was doing those smaller projects. However, I have a five-by-five dining table sitting on my bench, taking up most of my shop. So starting last fall around Thanksgiving, I transitioned into big furniture-type projects, and that’s where I’m at right now.

When we moved back, I accepted a job with an automotive manufacturing company, and I do that full time, but I do this full time as well. I’m probably putting in close to 40 hours a week in the wood business too. Now, I have a bit of a unique situation where I plan to take this full time, but when I relocated, I signed a contract with the company I’m currently with where I have to finish that contract out or else it’s a breach of contract.”

Colton Rosman

Colton is talented at his work, and his engineering skills nicely translate to woodworking, but he can have a more creative approach to his own projects. When he worked at Nike in Portland, he moved into more of a leadership role which meant that he wasn’t getting to be hands-on, which is really important to him. Since starting woodworking, Colton describes it as having exploded and taken over his life.

Steve’s Advice Corner

“The big thing I need help figuring out is shop space. I live out in the country, I have five acres, and the previous owners put up a barn, but it’s only about 380 square feet. So as you can imagine doing big tables fills that up.

Do you know of any resources, especially if we’re a newer business, that can help us have building-type or shop loans? I’ve looked a little bit at commercial real estate, but there’s not much to offer because of where I’m at, and I like being on-site because I tend to work until midnight, one in the morning.”

Colton Rosman

Finding enough shop space to work with is a challenge that plagues most, if not all, Woodpreneurs, especially those who are expanding their business. However, simply building a shop can be very expensive if you don’t have access to funding or other financial workarounds. Fortunately, Steve has plenty of experience solving this problem, and he jumps right in with a solution for Colton.

“My father-in-law did this, so he built a lean-to and an add-on to his current shop. That’s one thing you could do is start adding to the space. But to take that one step further, I would work with somebody like Vinnie, or I’ll make an introduction to my father-in-law, and you should get some local dimensional lumber.

You don’t need commercial-grade things. You can add to what you’re currently doing. Knock down a wall and then just frame it out. You could get it up by summer, and it wouldn’t even cost you that much. If you have some investment right now, just take it, and it’ll probably be up in a month.

I like the idea of like working with a local sawmill. Cutting the timbers yourself doesn’t make sense for you to spend your time doing. Then work with a framer and say, ‘Hey, this is what I want.’ Don’t do it yourself because you don’t have that kind of time.”