Developing your Company’s Story Ft. Indy Urban Hardwood Co.

 

“We’re a regional company; we’re not shipping a lot out. I can build crates and ship everything, but how do we do a better job of reaching out to our designers? There are some people here in the city still doing good work who don’t know about us or haven’t been over here yet. And I’m ready to show what we can do. And then we can start adding the story that this is all recycled and reclaimed; this is the upside. Maybe some of that?”

 

• Brain Presnell

 

Regarding advice for his business, Steve points out to Brian that his experience working in museums and galleries is perfect for the kind of promotion his company needs. Steve says that Brian should make an event out of the things that make his business special.

 

“What I would do is pick some times, say once a quarter. Then literally make an event out of opening your kiln. Make an event out of finishing your milling around your process. Then you curate your space as though it’s a gallery and show the process from start to finish.

 

Then you have art, you have cheese, you have music, you have wine, and you make it an event. After that, you can make some kind of obscene gesture like, maybe everybody gets a charcuterie board.

 

Then you invite them all. It’ll be like the Indianapolis Urban Designer Collective, and it’ll be like a club. You’ll have all these designers that are either square or they’re hip, and they want to be around cool people. You just said your friends are graffiti artists, and then you get your restaurant friends to cater it so like they’re in it too. Then you make it a marketplace for your brand, your culture.”

 

• Steve Larosiliere

 

 

 

 

Understanding your Niche

 

When developing and expanding your business, it is vital to take into account the parts that are high priority and the things that are lower on the list. In the case of Brian’s company, he doesn’t make a lot of internet sales, so he has not placed a lot of focus on the e-commerce part of his website. Steve notes that Indy Urban Hardwood Co. has some great designs and their products are cool, but he really believes that Brian’s greatest strength is him and his personality, so he should leverage that.

 

“I’ve got it. So listen, you do those events quarterly. But then I think you should also host your own podcasts series. Use it to host conversations with Indianapolis designers, creatives, artists, and whoever else you think should be a part of it.”

 

• Steve Larosiliere

 

This strategy will work exceedingly well for Indy Urban Hardwood Co. because of the community that Brian already has in his city. He explains that some weekends he has four or five of the best artists in the city come to his place and they all work on giant canvases together. Nobody knows about the work they’re doing at these times, and having a platform like a podcast and his own quarterly events would do wonders for promotion and awareness of his brand.

 

The key takeaway for Woodpreneurs paying attention to Brian’s story is that you can build your brand on yourself, but you have to be able to know your strengths, your community, and your place within that community. Once you have that, you can focus on leveling up the elements of your company that will give you the most return on investment. As soon as you are armed with that knowledge, you’ll be unstoppable.