Justin Bailey: Campfire Woodworks

June 2, 2022

Justin Bailey: Campfire Woodworks

Welcome back to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today, your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with Justin Bailey from Campfire Woodworks. Justin had the idea to start Campfire Woodworks many years ago based on his love of building and creating. However, at the time, he had no outlet for that creative energy. Follow along as Steve and Justin discuss growing up, finding your path, and the inspiration behind his company’s brand.

“I’ve always been a crafty person, high school shop class and all that, but I sort of got away from it. I went to college in New York City, and I’ve lived in New York City for about 14-15 years. Then five years ago, my wife and I decided to move out to the suburbs, so we bought a house in Rahway, New Jersey.

That house came with a garage and one of the agreements that we had when we first moved here was that anything that needed to be made or fixed or done around the house, we would try to do it ourselves before we paid someone else to try and do it. So out of necessity, I ended up building a kitchen island for our kitchen with a couple of tools in the yard, on a folding table from Costco. Then I kind of caught the bug again, I remembered how much I enjoyed doing crafty stuff.

One project turned into two, then three, until eventually I built a cutting board and I moved all my tools into the garage. We had never parked a car in there and had been empty for the first year we had the house. So I cleaned up the garage, put a little Workbench and a couple of tools in there, did some projects, and a bunch of my friends reached out to me asking, ‘Hey, can you make me this? Can you make me that?’”

Justin Bailey

The Snowball Effect

Justin began building these projects for friends and family and it started to snowball from there. He made an Etsy shop, started an Instagram page, and things really began to take off at the beginning of 2020 right when the pandemic started. At that time, Justin’s day job office closed in New York City, and he ended up working from home which gave him a ton of free time.

With an hour and a half cut off from the end of each day, Justin spent a lot of time in his shop, making projects while he worked on his website and Instagram. Since then, his business has really taken off over the last few years. While the pandemic has been a burden for many people, it ended up being a bit of a blessing for Justin and his wife to be able to start Campfire Woodworks.

“I think having that time out in the shop, and getting into the flow of things, and really concentrating on the work that I was doing in there helped a lot. It got me away from watching the 24/7 news about COVID numbers and all the things that deal with work and stuff.

That became my escape and actually worked out. I never had an intention of building this up as far as it’s gone. But I’m really happy it has, and what I thought would be kind of a fun little side hobby has become a pretty big part of my life.”

Justin Bailey

Steve’s Advice Corner

“I think one of the things I struggle with is developing a cohesive product line. I look at a lot of these other woodworkers, Etsy shops, and folks that are out there. All of their products have a certain look to them, a certain style to them, and it’s immediately recognizable. I don’t think I quite have that yet. I think I struggle with that. I haven’t found that key element that I want to add to everything to develop a signature look.

Justin Bailey

Creating a visual signature for your company is one of the factors that turns a business into a proper brand. While there is nothing wrong with building things custom and having a unique appearance with each product, creating a signature look can be a way to elevate your brand to a point where you develop a following. It can be a very powerful tool to aid the growth of your wood business.

“I just had somebody from Woodward Throwbacks on the podcast not too long ago, they have a line. I actually did this myself, and I also recommend this to people. If you want a standard line, you’re gonna have to use the same type of products all the time to ensure it’s the same thing all the time.

What I like is to approach things from a ‘seasons’ perspective. A TV show has different seasons, and each of those seasons has different themes. The most consistent thing that you can have is your logo, your brand, and your personality. So let’s just say spring is coming around, and within this season, what you’re feeling right now is, ash, oak, or walnut or whatever. Then come up with two or three key elements that are consistent and then make everything just like that