How to Develop a Partnership Ft. New York Heartwoods

March 8, 2022

How to Develop a Partnership Ft. New York Heartwoods

“Business-wise, there is that question of how we might potentially collaborate more specifically with another mill. How might that be structured to set up a partnership with the milling and drying? That’s always kind of in the background. I don’t know how much you’ve looked at the website and the social media. Like what do you see as potential?”

Megan Offner

New York Heartwood is a strong company, now operating for eleven years, but there is room to grow and places to improve even in that case. Steve’s advice revolves around creating a milling partnership with a sawyer, especially how to make it advantageous to both sides, which is the basis for any successful collaboration.

“I remember I had a friend who owned a sawmill. And he was like, ‘I’m going to start a tree service company. So I can go out and always have access to trees because I’m tired of paying for it. At least I could get paid for taking down the tree, and then I get to mill it.’

With your new property, one way to structure it is like a tree service company with a mill and a kiln. Or you go in on it with somebody if they have a mill, but they don’t have a kiln. In about six months to a year, there’s going to be even more Woodmizer sawmills out on the market. Many sawmill companies sold a lot of mills during the pandemic, and they’re still now fulfilling them.

So I would kind of creep on Craigslist to see what mills are out there if they’re portable mills and they want a stationary place. You can work out something where they get free rent, but they have to mill trees for free, and maybe you pay for saw blades or something like that. Maybe there’s a rent situation, or maybe there’s a partnership situation where you own a piece of their company.”

Steve Larosiliere

There are innumerable ways to form partnerships with other businesses. However, the most important thing to keep in mind is that there needs to be a significant enough reason to join together where everyone benefits. Whether you own land and they own machinery, or you have one part of the service chain, and they have another. If you can forge that kind of agreement with another business, the sky’s the limit.

Leveraging your Local Resources

Over the years, Steve has had many clients who have received grants for their wood businesses. Although the departments that provide these grants differ from state to state and country to country, the overall idea is the same.

“In New York State, they don’t call it the Department of Natural Resources, they call it the Department of Environmental Conservation. I would look up to see if they have an urban lumber sort of program because you may be able to get a grant to buy the whole thing. From there, if you want to remain a woman owned cooperative, find a woman and then train them.

So option one is to find somebody and have them rent space at your location and then you split profits from there. Option two is to form a co-venture with somebody, and three is to start one. I wouldn’t take out loans or do anything like that, I would see if I could craft a story around the mission that you all have.”

Steve Larosiliere

Creating Social Proof

Every capable business owner knows the importance of getting quality testimonials, and Megan is no exception. A vital part of having an online presence is taking advantage of the good reviews from your clients and showcasing them to new and existing customers to build your business on a trusted basis.

“On your website, I’d love to see you getting reactions and testimonials as you are doing the installs. Say you’re doing like the final reveal to your clients, then you pull out your phone, and you’re like, ‘Hey, we just delivered. What do you think?’ Then you literally get a testimonial. You have some pretty big name clients. So what if you can add a video to that experience? I think that would make a really big difference in terms of getting an added layer of social proof there.

Then there’s a way that people can get a sense of quotes from you, and have it be almost like instantaneous gratification. It will be like, ‘Oh, I can get you something like this. But customized. Here’s the price range.’ I would also add a Facebook pixel to your website. If you ever decide to advertise on Instagram, you can collect all of that data, and then target those people that have visited your website.”