Corné and Aaron: Makers Reusable Mold

 

“It’s not just for resin. I didn’t want resin in the actual name because you can use it for concrete, you can use anything on it, and it doesn’t bond. So I didn’t want to restrict it to only resin or epoxy as it has multiple purposes.”

 

• Corné

 

Welcome back to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast; today, your host Steve sits down with Corné and Aaron, owners of Makers Reusable Mold (MRM). Recently the Woodpreneur community has been taken by storm by the incredible quality and usability of Corné and Aaron’s ingenious molds.

 

Part of what makes MRM so capable of delivering quality products is that Corné and Aaron have their own maker business, Arisan Wood, as well. Corné has a long career as an artist, and Aaron has around 15 years of experience making wood products, primarily furniture.

 

When epoxy began to take the wood industry by storm, Corné and Aaron joined in the excitement and began using epoxy almost five years ago. However, they quickly grew tired of making poor quality molds to pour the resin into their pieces, so they decided to take matters into their own hands.

 

 

 

 

By Makers, For Makers

 

“When we put Arisan Woods together, we wanted to be a sustainable business. Within our business, a portion of every sale went back into areas of the world that have seen devastation through a forest fire or other disasters. So we were planting trees.

 

It was killing me that every time I built a mold to make a table. It was good for about one or two uses. And then it went into the dump because none of the materials were recyclable like you don’t recycle MDF, you don’t recycle the tuck tape and all the other stuff. It was kind of like Ikea furniture; good for one or two moves, that was about it, and then it was done.

 

So I started looking at other products that we could have something a little bit more reusable, more friendly, and environmentally friendly. And I happen to come across the plastic we use now in our molds, which is HDPE because it’s non-bondable plastic, so the resin won’t stick to it. I made myself a mold, and it kept lasting and lasting. So we had other woodworkers asking us if we could make them one, we did, and thus Makers Reusable Mold was born.”

 

• Aaron

 

The MRM was so popular with other woodworkers that they wanted to post about using the product on Instagram and credit Corné and Aaron, something they were unprepared for. While they had spent plenty of time building their wood business, they needed to do the same with their upcoming mold business.

 

So Corné and Aaron sat down and came up with their branding and logo, then moved to get things trademarked and locked in for their new business. They officially launched MRM in early 2020 during the early stages of the pandemic to enormous success.

 

 

 

 

Growing Organically

 

“It was insane. We wanted to grow organically, so we figured one of the best ways to do that would be to work with a couple of people we knew, just through woodworking and that kind of thing. They were into resin pouring. And we reached out to a couple of influencers to see if they like to try out the mold. They put it out online, and it just kind of took off.

 

What I think I did that was successful, and we actually want to get back to that, was we kept featuring artists or woodworkers who were using the molds. We haven’t done that in a while, and I really want to start doing that again.”

 

• Aaron

 

Their organic marketing strategy worked out well for the pair as more and more people had their eyes on Corné and Aaron’s products. When they began making their molds, only one other guy was making molds in the US at the time, but the MRM was visually distinct thanks to a clear front plate that lets users see how deep they are pouring.

 

As time went on, they had customers requesting different shapes, so Corné and Aaron came up with a round mold and later developed an ovular one as well. They also intentionally design all of their molds to be entirely modular, so they can fit inside one another, which helps define their incredible packaging and design.

 

 

 

 

Steve’s Advice Corner

 

“I think we definitely need to grow on Instagram. And like I said, we really like to do it organically. I probably need to make more instructional videos, which I tried to do, but I don’t have time to do it.

 

We’re on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok now. We didn’t pay much attention to our TikTok in the beginning, but now Corné is paying a lot more attention to it. Instagram has always been more the focus because you can cross-post right over onto Facebook. But I think we need to look into more sales and advertising platforms.”

 

• Corné and Aaron

 

Especially when Instagram and Facebook had the outage last year, makers, creators, and marketers realized that the need for online diversification is enormous. Corné and Aaron are right to prioritize looking at other avenues, and Steve has the exact advice they need to scale up that side of their business.

 

“I have some feedback. We have this thing called the Woodpreneur method, and it’s like mindset, branding, community, and sales. So for you, I think building more of a community around your brand is really important.

 

You have Roni, and you have other people posting. Continue doing that, and if you want to make instructional videos but you don’t have time to do it, outsource it to one of your customers to do it.”

 

• Steve Larosiliere

 

On top of organic marketing, Steve advises Corné and Aaron to leverage paid advertising through the Facebook Pixel to target their advertisements to the right audience. He adds that because their product is a very visual item, it would be worth creating some YouTube commercials. Since Corné and Aaron are very positive in cash flow, they can reinvest some of that money into advertising to effectively grow their business.

 

Website: https://www.makersmold.com

 

Instagram: @makersreusablemold