Erika Horigan: Horigan Urban Forest Products

 

“It’s this product that does everything that you sort of want it to. It’s beautiful, sustainable, at this point, it’s plentiful. We can keep on producing it; there’s so many good things in it.”

• Erika Horigan

 

Welcome back to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast! Today your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with Erika Horigan of Horigan Urban Forest Products. Erika is a rare Woodpreneur interview for Steve because she is also located in Chicago, not an area with an abundance of urban lumber involvement.

 

“Horigan Urban Forest Products got started in 2003, so it’s been a while. Prior to that we had a tree business. It was my husband, Bruce, who had seen these trees going into the landfill at first, and then into firewood or mulch and he thought that there’s got to be a better way.

 

Taking them to a higher use was the beginning thought and we started to look into milling and kiln drying, it took quite a while. Then in 2003, we sold Horigan Tree Industries, we started the wood business, and the rest is history. Since then, we have gotten back into tree care. After our non-compete came up, we just decided to jump back in; it was sort of a natural combination between the mill and the trees.”

• Erika Horigan

 

 

 

 

Steve’s Advice Corner

 

“Social media is always a challenge for a small business to keep that going. So where do you get your biggest return on that? The other thing I was wondering is what you suggest or recommend for focusing on reaching customers?”

• Erika Horigan

 

No matter what industry you operate within, reaching customers is a vital part of any business. In this day and age, that process is almost always accomplished thanks at least in part to social media. However, although it’s easy to state how important social media is, it’s a lot trickier to put that into practice.

 

“Everybody needs to be on social media. But the way you use social media needs to work for you. I’m big into building the right alignment for who you are, your core values, your personality and your business. I coach and I mentor a lot of a lot of wood businesses and what works for one person doesn’t always work for another.

 

So when I think about outreach and marketing, from what I know about you, you’re a very relationship driven person. Social media is great for storytelling and amplifying relationships that you already have and it’s a great way for you to capture authentic stories.”

• Steve Larosiliere

 

Website: https://horiganufp.com

 

Instagram: @horiganufp