Derrick Radford: Radford Woodworks

May 26, 2022

Derrick Radford: Radford Woodworks

“I sold a table for $2,300. I’m turning this raw material into this. It took me maybe a week to produce, and I was happy every moment of doing that.”

Derrick Radford

Welcome back to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with Derrick Radford from Radford Woodworks. Like many other Woodpreneurs, Derrick started his woodworking journey when he bought his first house and was looking for furniture.

Early on, Derrick wanted to acquire a lot of items for himself and his fiance, but they were not necessarily affordable options. So Derrick felt inspired by the idea that he could probably create the kind of furniture his fiance wanted himself.

“I went ahead and undertook the task of trying to create something that I saw on the internet, and I was pretty successful. When I posted it online and got positive feedback, I knew I had something.

My background is sales; I’m a salesperson. I’ve been a logistics broker, outside salesperson, and mostly face-to-face sales for the most part. And yes, I just decided to switch lanes a little bit.”

Derrick Radford

Woodworking Taking Over

“Everybody experienced the pandemic in different ways. One of mine was, being outside of sales, we’d have a little bit more time being at home. I’m a great salesperson. I can sell things, and I was able to get them their metrics without taking a lot of steps in between. But the company ended up buying some CRM that required us to show that step-by-step path.

My sales cycle was a little bit shorter, and I didn’t have a lot of prospects in that. But I was able to turn them into customers, just not through doing their process. They decided to part ways with me, and my knee-jerk reaction was, ‘Thank you.’ Honestly, because I was spending most of the time at home, working and building things, then running inside to hop on a meeting, and then go back out in the garage to what was really feeding my heart.”

Derrick Radford

Once that moment happened for Derrick, he was already thinking about making that leap, and since his company made that decision for him, there was no better time. Since then, he really couldn’t be happier. Things have been working out well for Derrick, he has a plan, and he has the support of his family and his wife, which is a significant part of running a business.

Steve’s Advice Corner

“My problem is that there are too many options. I probably need to get with the CRM you offer, as far as being more organized and keeping customers inside that sales cycle and figuring out where they are. Then a website, I have my website, but again there are too many options. So how should I narrow down my options for people because I’m trying to catch everyone.”

Derrick Radford

A common challenge facing many Woodpreneurs and business owners, in general, is how to appeal to as large a market as possible and yet narrow down the focus of your business.

“I look at things like a little Venn diagram. So ask yourself, what do you sell the most of, and what do you like to do? In the middle is what gives you the most profit, then just zero in on that. I think you’re at a point now where you can probably put out some tables based on other designs you’ve done in the past and say, ‘This is my signature style.’ Because that’s how you’re going to start to get a little bit more efficient.”