Jake Latvala: Ol Loggin Epoxy

 

Welcome to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today, your host Steve sits down with the first three-peat guest Jake Latvala from Ol Loggin Sawmill and Ol Loggin Epoxy.

 

Jake’s Woodpreneur journey has been chronicled through the podcast. During his first appearance, he was just beginning his business; he hadn’t even quit his day job at the time. By his second appearance at the podcast, he was well into full-time working on his own business.

 

At this point, Jake has been working at his business for years now. He has been creating content and building furniture and has already dug deep into branding and developing his epoxy brand, which was only an idea at the recording of the previous podcasts.

 

“I didn’t realize I had an addictive personality when it came to the business. When I started, I just wanted to make a little bit here and there and then go and drink beer with my buddies. That was my thought process. I just wanted to make 60 grand a year, and I would have been fine, and I was happy.

 

But then, when I got into the business, I started getting a lot of customers, and I started getting a lot of followers. And then, the more I learned about business, the more I got addicted to the business. Then it started becoming like a game to me. I learned the whole tax game. I learned the entire thing like becoming an actual business.”

 

• Jake Latvala

 

 

 

 

Changing Direction

 

Becoming addicted to developing his business has given Jake tremendous growth. When he started, he wanted to be a woodworker that did mortise and tenon joinery, he didn’t want any screws in his tables, and he wanted the work to be intricate. But then, as time went on, he realized that it takes a long time to make any money doing that type of woodworking, so he began to branch out.

 

“You’ve got to know if you want to make money or be a woodworker; It’s one or the other. Either you’re going to do this as a business, or you’re going to be a woodworker. You don’t want to take on too many projects; you just want to find that niche and then learn how to make a business off of it. As for me, I fell in at the right time with epoxy. I started epoxy three years ago, right when it all started.”

 

• Jake Latvala

 

During an earlier conversation, Jake told Steve that he wanted to be the biggest sawmill in Arkansas. Many entrepreneurs in the wood industry and outside of it aren’t always clear about what they want for their businesses, and Steve believes that you will not get what you want without defining it ahead of time.

 

 

 

 

The Epoxy Business Podcast

 

In the summer of 2021, Steve and Jake partnered to launch Ol Loggin Epoxy, which has grown to become an incredible epoxy brand. Throughout his time working within that industry and selling his product, Jake had learned an enormous amount about the epoxy industry, which is when he realized that he needed to share his expertise.

 

“When I was a distributor for an epoxy company, I realized that epoxy companies out there relied on content creators like me to boost their brand to make their name well known. So now that we have our own epoxy company, I want to hand that back to the distributors.

 

We want to build your brand, so our goal as content creators is to build each other up and to build up not only our epoxy brand but your brand in general. By doing that, we all put each other in a big group. And whenever one of us posts something, we all get in, we like, and we comment and share that post, and it changes the algorithm and everything.

 

When I came in, I didn’t have a website, I didn’t have a shipping rep, I didn’t know how to do my social media very well, and then that’s where you come into play. For the people, they’re going to start just like me that come out to distributors, if they need a website, bam, we’ll hook them up with a website, hook them up with their shipping rep all over the country. It’s going to be great, this little involvement with the community that we’ve got going on.”

 

• Jake Latvala

 

This year, Jake and Steve will be launching The Epoxy Business Podcast, which will document the path in building Ol Loggin Epoxy and discuss the stories and strategies they use to build the brand. Not only is epoxy a significant value addition for woodworkers, but it will also help to develop and foster that sense of community that helps out every business and every customer involved along the way.

 

Website: https://www.ollogginepoxy.com

 

Instagram: @ollogginepoxy