In The Field with Michael Wiebe of Beaver Creek Customs

January 5, 2022

In The Field with Michael Wiebe of Beaver Creek Customs

“I hear it often said that there’s never going to be a perfect time. Eventually, you just got to go for it, take the leap, and make it happen on your own.”

Michael Wiebe

Welcome to Building a Furniture Brand with Ethan Abramson, the show that talks about the business behind the furniture business. In this episode, Ethan sits down with Mike Wiebe, owner of the MacGregor, Manitoba-based furniture company, Beaver Creek Customs.

There are many different types of companies that fall under the umbrella term of ‘furniture business.’ As well as being a furniture builder, Mike is also a furniture installer. Starting his job where most furniture makers leave off, Mike takes pieces built in the shop and makes them work in the real world.

Dealing with all the unfriendly truths of working in the field, Mike has found a way to not only navigate the complex realities of install work but to be successful at it. Working on perfecting his trade with a mix of woodshop knowledge and on-site magic, he’s made a career out of installing.

Follow along as Ethan and Michael talk about where to learn your trade, how to deal with clients on job sites, building relationships, verse contracts, and much more.

Inspiration from Both Sides

“Both of my grandpas were woodworkers in their own right. One was a professional carpenter, and he was a framer and skilled at many other aspects of carpentry throughout his entire career and a hobbyist woodworker. He was always building.

My other grandpa was a farmer his entire professional career but always a woodworker on the side. I grew up just down the road from him. He had a basement shop for most of his life, and then at some point, he moved his shop out to a separate garage out in the backyard.

So I was kind of always around it. But I never did any of it. When I was a kid, I was never that interested. Looking back, I always think, ‘Man, I wish I would have walked in the shop with my grandpa a lot more often.’ From there. We needed a coffee table for our house, and I’m around tools all day long. So I built a coffee table, and it just kind of all spiraled from there to the point where I was taking on a fair amount of side work and building whatever I could.”

Michael Wiebe

Many people who get into the furniture business started by building things for themselves. However, just because it is a common origin for many woodworkers, it is not a common path for most people. The vast majority of the population goes through their entire life not building things for themselves, and certainly not for other people.

For Michael in particular, he may not have spent much time in his grandpa’s shop as a child, but as he grew into a teenager, he started making things like wooden go-karts, bike ramps, and other projects. Although he believes that they were poorly made and never worked properly, he notes that they signify his latent desire to build things.

Learning Every Single Role

“I’m pretty grateful for the cabinet shop experience I do have because I think I’ve been fortunate to have worked in just about every role that someone would need to round out their skill set within cabinet shops employed by others.

When I started into it, I worked at a small shop. It was just my boss, me, and another guy. At that shop, I learned to build kitchens from start to finish. Then we also took our kitchens and did our own installing. So it was an extremely well-rounded working experience.

Later, I worked at a large commercial shop, and I was a full-time finisher. I didn’t necessarily like being in a spray booth eight hours a day, every day for three years. But looking back now, having the ability to provide high-quality finishes on anything that I build and becoming pretty well versed with spray equipment and different finishes takes people years to learn. I just got to do that learning under someone else’s roof, getting paid to do all that learning. And now I can provide that for my projects.”

Michael Wiebe

All of these skills are building blocks to a successful career. For people learning the trades, it is a lucky thing to learn the business while being paid for it. Michael worked both on his own and for others throughout his handful of cabinetry jobs, so he got a breadth of experience in both an employee position and as an owner.

However, between those positions, Michael knew he wanted to get back to working for himself. So he gained knowledge, tools, and other equipment that he would need to get back to his own business in a new province where he could make connections with others and build the company that he knew he could create.

Surrounding Yourself with Knowledgeable People

“For people trying to get into it, and we’ve been talking a lot about installation, and site work, especially for people trying to get into that, I would say there’s a lot of opportunities where there are aging craftsmen who could use help. It could be a situation where they may be on a big job and need a hand for a few days doing some menial tasks.

Opportunities like that are out there if you know someone or could find someone to get around people who know a lot. I’ve been fortunate to work with some great installers over the years that I’ve just learned a ton from. So that’s positioning yourself with people who know things is a great way to just get into it.

Then as your confidence builds, you can take steps and decisions to either go out on your own or take your career in a direction that you want it to go. I’ve seen plenty of people talk about this, but I owe a lot to social media and YouTube as far as learning stuff. Some really talented people post a lot of great information on those places, and there’s a ton to learn.”

Michael Wiebe

It’s amazing how even when a person does something for so long, they can still come across someone who does it differently. It can be eye-opening, and awareness of other methods immediately improves your capabilities. Micheal encourages woodworkers old and new to look at people who are doing high-end stuff, whether online or in person.

As someone in the process of trying to take his business to another level, Michael is trying to stay in the higher-end market of cabinetry and furniture. His biggest advice for people is to just go for it. There will never be a perfect time, and opportunities won’t always just fall into your lap. He uses that as motivation for himself, and he hopes that it will work for other people listening.

Instagram: @beavercreekcustoms