Building A Furniture Brand With Ethan Abramson
Ethan Abramson does a lot of things. He has owned his eponymous furniture company since 2008, doing everything from brownstone renovations, custom furniture, and his own signature line. His company is built on American made furniture sold in stores throughout the USA. In addition to his company, he hosts a variety of woodworking, maker, and tool based shows. He also provides entertainment and serious conversations across his social media.
The Woodpreneur community has been growing, and as you grow a community you begin to see different needs begin to take shape. To address some of those needs, the Woodpreneur Network is proud to be starting a new podcast with Ethan.
The Value of Stories
The new audio and video podcast Building A Furniture Brand With Ethan Abramson is made by furniture makers, for furniture makers, about the furniture making business. Ethan mentions that it is not going to be shop talk or tips and tricks, but rather it will be about the business of woodworking and how to get into it. Ethan, Steve, and their guests will talk about numbers, how best to work with clients, how best to work with designers and much more. He goes on to say that it’s not only for folks getting into the industry, but it’s also for people who’ve been in the business for a while and may want to see how their ideas stack up against others.
Steve and Ethan observe that furniture making is a pretty solitary activity, and most time is spent working in the shop individually or with a few others, but that doesn’t always mean a lot of dialogue happens. Ethan wants to get a conversation going with other woodworkers about the business as a whole to help everyone grow together.
Steve asks about what viewers can expect from the new podcast.
Ethan doesn’t want to give too much away, but they discuss how furniture making turns into a furniture business, sometimes quickly. Most woodworkers start an artistic endeavor that they enjoy and love because of the craftsmanship and then that endeavor turns a corner into a business. Anyone confronted with this moment needs to support themselves, their employees, and their family which requires that they focus on the business part of the industry which Ethan and his guests discuss regularly throughout this new podcast.
Everyone Has Something To Share
Steve jokingly asks what makes Ethan qualified to have a podcast about building a furniture brand. Ethan laughs and responds that he sometimes has to ask himself that question. However, he has built and run a furniture company out of New York City for over a decade, which is a difficult thing to achieve, and that experience has kept him on his toes for many years now. He recognizes that his own experience is a big part of the value of this show but he notes that he is still learning every day with this stuff, and his experience is not the be-all-end-all. If it was, he’d just talk into the mic and wouldn’t worry about guests!
Ethan mentions that he is learning as much as he is teaching others. There are many different ways to do things in life, and with woodworking, there are many different ways to accomplish a project, but he believes that this extends to the business side of things as well. There are so many different ways to manage a business, and with a podcast like this, viewers can learn tried and true methods that have worked for so many podcast guests and their businesses over the years.
Ethan goes on to explain that business has changed over the last year, and the podcast will discuss this new world as well as the way things have worked in years past. He notes that many businesses shut down or stalled as a result of the pandemic, yet many are coming back as well. This podcast will discuss how to succeed in a post-Covid world as well as more general business topics.
Who Should Watch?
Ethan states that this video podcast is for people who are starting out in the industry, and want to see if furniture making and the furniture business are for them. It’s also for people who have been running a business for a while and want to see how others are running their companies to determine if they can refine theirs. It’s for people who like how their business is running and don’t want to change much about it, but they want to be able to look under the hood of other companies to see how they run things. Ethan explains that this is a chance to get into someone else’s shop and someone else’s head, and ultimately it’s for people who like stories.
Throughout his time talking to people he has realized that running a business is not always about numbers. People’s stories are not only important to learn about woodworking, but also to learn about life.
Steve observes that when you’re running a solitary business, it’s good to know that there are others like you. You may listen to the podcast as background noise in your shop, and whether or not you’re taking notes and crunching numbers, you’re listening to people talk about something you do all day, with passion and knowledge. It gives you the chance to see that you are not alone out there. You might be toiling away in your shop wondering what it’s like to have 15 employees, and now you have an opportunity to observe someone with that experience to see if that environment is right for you. It is, above all, an inside look at what’s going on.
Check out the video podcast Building A Furniture Brand with Ethan Abramson on Wednesdays starting on March 31st, 2021.
Website: http://www.ethanabramson.com/
Instagram: @thebuildwithethan