John Graves: City Hardwoods

John Graves: City Hardwoods

Welcome back to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today’s guest is John Graves from City Hardwoods of Birmingham, Alabama. City Hardwoods started because of the difficulty that many hobbyist woodworkers in Birmingham had with sourcing hardwood lumber.

 

“There used to be a few big distributors that folks would go buy from, but they kind of closed down to the public. And so, a couple of guys came up with this whole idea. We opened up a place where the hobbyist can walk in pick through every stick of lumber that we have here with no minimums or anything like that. 

 

So we’ve been here for about six years, and the building we’re in now we’ve been here for about three years. It’s just been a need around this place. As everybody knows, it’s hard to find good hardwood lumber, live edge slabs, stuff that’s actually been dried properly and essentially ready to ready to make a piece of furniture out of.”

 

  • John Graves

 

Photo Credit: @cityhardwoods

Empowering Woodworkers

 

Unlike many other Woodpreneur Podcast guests, City Hardwoods is primarily a retail operation. However, it is a retail company that focuses on supporting woodworkers by providing them with the top-quality materials they need. John elaborates on the company’s scope by describing the experience that their customers get by visiting their store.

 

“So if somebody has a project that they want to build, and they want to pick out the lumber, we are set up for them to come in here and pick through every stick of wood that we have. Whether it’s lumber by the board foot, a live edge slab that we sell that they like, they can come in here and find the exact board that fits their project or boards. 
Our shop does a number of things. One of the ways we add value to lumber is if somebody comes in here, they can pick up the lumber they want, but they may not have a big planer or clamps in their garage, so part of what we do here is we do a lot of processing for folks.”

 

  • John Graves

 

Not only does City Hardwoods accommodate woodworkers by streamlining the process for them, but they also have a shop set up for more direct customers. Suppose a homeowner comes in looking for an heirloom-quality piece of furniture. In that case, whether it’s a dining room table, coffee table, or anything else they can imagine, John and his team can build the entire project for them and provide it ready-to-use.
Additionally, their shop is also prepped for one-on-one classes primarily geared towards people interested in getting into woodworking as a hobby. Even if they have never used the tools before, they help customers pick a small project that can be completed in a couple of days and then teach them safe woodworking practices.

 

Photo Credit: @cityhardwoods

Knowing your Customers and your Market

 

City Hardwoods’ customer base is very nearly as open-ended as their list of services. John explains that college students come in looking for materials to build things for their dorm rooms. They get seasoned woodworkers looking for a specific high-grade of lumber for their creations, and on the other end of things, they get folks looking for wood to steam bend into Windsor chairs.
Thanks to their services aimed at beginning woodworkers and people who don’t know woodworking, they also get a solid number of customers who come in without really knowing what they are looking for. They trust City Hardwoods to build something cool for them, with or without predefined parameters.

 

“By far and away, we have found that our biggest source of leads, and this has been consistent through the day we started about six years ago, has been Instagram. We would post on Craigslist too, which would bring in a fair amount of people, but Instagram was by far the thing that’s gotten us up and running. 

 

We use Constant Contact for emails, which helps many folks find out what we’ve got in new who don’t do the social media thing. But I mean, far and away. Instagram has been our big thing. It’s a mix of word of mouth, but I would attribute most everything to Instagram. It’s crazy.”

  • John Graves
Photo Credit: @cityhardwoods

Steve’s Advice Corner

“I was thinking about this today. How much is too much with social media, like just being in their face? For me personally, is the junk email and the “Hey, come in and get it before it’s going off the shelf” mixed with the social media? What is your opinion on that? How much is too much? Is every day too much? I don’t want to annoy people.”

  • John Graves

 

Steve explains that if you buy something from most retailers, they will send you a message immediately afterward. This reminder is vital to remind people, both existing customers and new, that you exist. When running your own business, it’s easy to think that you’re important because it’s part of your daily life. But it’s not any more important than other things to most people. This is why reminders are so essential.
“If you feel like it’s too much, you have to push past that because that’s the part where you’re starting to feel uncomfortable, but people don’t still don’t even know you exist.

 

You have to keep posting more. The one thing that you should do is to do more stories and do more reels. If you’re going to get creative on anything, it should be on videos and reels. There’s a guy right now, he put out like a single video, and he got in like, two-three weeks 10,000 followers. So it’s essential for you to put out more reels at this moment. Reels are everything because Instagram wants to compete with Tik Tok.”

  • Steve Larosiliere

 

Website: https://www.cityhardwoods.com
Instagram: @cityhardwoods

 

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