Mark Dubac: Windwood LLC

 

Welcome to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today, your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with Mark Dubac of Windwood LLC based out of Oak Grove, Oregon. Like many other Woodpreneurs, Mark got his start in woodworking during downtime from his primary career.

 

“I play in the Oregon symphony. That’s my full-time job. During the summertime, we don’t have work, so we only have work for nine months out of the year. In the summertime, generally, my musician colleagues and I would travel around the country and play in different music festivals.

 

A lot of them are really good. And some pay well, too. But I had young children at the time, and it was just kind of a pain to haul screaming children across the country for sometimes good pay and sometimes not. So I got into just doing handyman work for neighbors. I just wanted to be able to stay at home and work, and through that process, I think I just got enamored with woodworking.”

 

• Mark Dubac

 

Mark spent time listening to the Woodpreneur Podcast and another significant inspiration, the Wood Whisperer podcast, which caused him to fall in love with hardwoods. From there, he did a swan dive into woodworking and set up a home shop in his garage.

 

 

 

 

A True Alaskan Mill

 

His transition into milling logs happened due to his enthusiasm for using what was around him. At the time, Mark didn’t know much about sourcing lumber besides the construction lumber available at Home Depot. A neighbor across the street had a big cherry tree removed from their yard, and when he asked what would happen with it, he was told it would be turned into firewood.

 

“I was like, Whoa, I like cherry. Why can’t we just use that? It’s right there!” It’s a big log, and it’s across the street from me. So I proceeded to take like a three or four-foot section of it and shove it into the back of my Prius and drive back to my house. It would have been a lot easier on a hand truck, but I didn’t know anything about material handling at that point.

 

Then I had the log, and I was like, “What am I going to do? How do I deal with this?” I took a Sawzall to it, it was pretty nuts, but I guess I had a will to try. That’s kind of how that started.”

 

• Mark Dubac

 

Armed with the cherry log from his neighbor’s lot, Mark realized he needed to find a way to deal with things, but he had no chainsaw experience. He had worked with power tools before, but a chainsaw was a bit intimidating to him.

 

So Mark asked around and found someone with a few saws where he bought a small mill. Initially, he wanted just to pay to use his, but that started the process of milling things nearby and using this new friend’s trailer and winch to make handling the logs easier.

 

After a few years of developing his skills, knowledge, and expertise, Mark picked up his own chainsaw, then started milling for other people and created an Instagram account which gave him the connections to begin selling his newly created products.

 

 

 

 

Finding His Purpose on the Way

 

When trying to sell his lumber, he didn’t have a lot of success going through Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace, and his newly created Instagram account gave him a lot more traction. A lot of his lumber was still green at the time, and he didn’t want to sell it that way, so he started with air drying initially.

 

“At first, I just wanted to use it because I had been so into woodworking, and I wanted to use some to build my daughter a little bed. I think it was just the headboard, but still, it’s like I want to use some of that stuff too. Another one was that I made some benches that weren’t fully dry, and then one of them twisted. This meant I started learning some of that stuff right then and there.

 

I think a positive of social media would be seeing what a few others are up to and engaging with them and not for the sole purpose of what I can get, but just engaging because it’s interesting. I want to see whatever Nick with Maverick Sawmill is doing, and I want to see what Dave with that blog is doing. I’ve listened to both of their podcasts with you, and I want to see what others are doing.”

 

• Mark Dubac

 

As a result of his level of engagement with other sawyers and woodworkers, Mark has opened up opportunities that he would not have had otherwise. Providing lumber for others and getting help with machinery that he lacks has made Mark’s journey much easier thanks to his networking efforts.

 

 

 

 

Steve’s Advice Corner

 

The biggest challenge facing Mark with his business right now is being organized with his products and his business in general. While managing inventory is the most obvious side of that experience, Steve believes other elements of his company can be automated to be more efficient.

 

“You have like a day job, but whether you have a day job or not, I think there are different ways that you can automate some of the things that you’re doing. One is having a lot of your customers all in one location. You’re communicating on DM, text, email, maybe even Facebook Messenger, right? It’s like, “What conversation where? What did they want? That is something that that you could probably automate. Think of having a system that allows you to have all those in one spot.

 

The other thing is because your time is pretty precious between work, family, and your orchestra stuff. You need to be able to have dedicated time that you can look out one to two weeks in advance. This means having a way for you to set your schedule so that if you need to do a job, you know that your time is allocated.

 

If you need to do a quote for somebody, and somebody wants to talk to you, you’re not going back and forth. You know what time you’re available, and then you just shoot them a link, and it says, “Hey, here’s when I’m available.” Then they book it, and you’re all set.”

 

• Steve Larosiliere

 

Instagram: @windwood_llc