Matt Ruben: Ruben Custom Sawmill & Woodworking

Welcome back to the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today, we revisit our episode with Matt Ruben from Ruben Custom Sawmilling and Woodworks. Matt started about three years ago when he decided to buy a Woodmizer IT 40 standard. When he began, he watched many YouTube videos learning about the potential profit that he could earn from running an independent sawmill as a one-person operation.

Currently, Matt is focusing primarily on portable sawmill work, selling live edge slabs, and developing the custom projects part of his company. Matt explains that he had almost no woodworking experience outside of high school woodshop, but he didn’t let that stop him as he fell in love with the experience of opening up logs to see the many different types of beauty that they contain.

Transitioning from the Day Job

Noting that he was still working a day job at a steel mill, Matt explains that he was drawn to milling wood by seeing how many people on YouTube were having fun with the process. He adds that he recognized that he was young and capable of the physical side of the job, so even without owning many tools, he believed he could break into the industry.

One of the essential aspects that helped Matt in the initial stages of building his business was taking the time to browse online sales boards like Craigslist and look for people giving away logs or had trees that needed to come down. Matt notes that he spent around five months collecting materials after he bought the mill and then began selling some live-edge items on Facebook.

Matt reminisces that he couldn’t believe how much demand there was for his products. After pushing further to get materials and advertising around the end of 2018, Matt had collected enough to have a large sale. He explains that he would set up events on Facebook inviting others to come to his sawmill for demonstrations.

“Within two months of me kind of being more serious about selling. I was already Exceeding my income at my job, and I was like, okay, there’s really got to be something bigger to this because I’m just winging it right now.”

• Matt Ruben

Developing his Craft

Steve asks Matt how he developed his skills at milling, woodworking, as well as his overall business. Matt recalls how many videos he watched to learn his skills, noting that he watched all of the videos by Nathan of Out of the Woods before he bought his sawmill, and he still watches them today.

Matt explains that beyond those videos, he just continually worked on building on his experience and becoming more proficient and productive with his milling capabilities. He recalls that he charged $75 per hour to mill for people when he started, and that price has doubled in the intervening years because he has become that confident with his skills.

Getting an iDRY

One of Matt’s frustrations early in his business was needing to explain to his clients the difference between greenwood and dried lumber. There was often a long wait time from the moment they felled the tree to when they received their product because of the inherent slowness of air-drying lumber.

After discussing the difficulties of educating customers about the differences between green and dry lumber, Matt explains that he wanted to get his hands on an iDRY kiln. However, he ran into challenges with financing because of the newness of his business.

“I got denied, and I was like, okay, well, I guess let’s keep selling slabs and doing portable service. And so I pretty much did that all the way up through September of 2019. And you know, the same thing happened; it just kept growing and growing. I was still successful just doing the green slab sales and milling. 

Then I applied again for another because I talked to another sawmill in Michigan, actually. And I just knew I had to do it. So in October, I got approved, and once I got approved, it was a month wait time, and then instead of having the iDRY delivered to me, I drove all the way to Vermont to pick it up myself.”

• Matt Ruben

The Value of Partnership

Steve notes that when Matt wants something, he goes and gets it. Matt explains that he’s fortunate to have a very supportive wife who, once he went over the numbers and potential profits that came from owning a kiln, was entirely in favor of the expense.

He then adds that she was also the one who incentivized him to turn this side-hustle into a fully-fledged business. Matt notes that he didn’t necessarily take it seriously at first. It was just providing supplemental income to his day job, and he was having fun running his sawmill.

“I didn’t really think much about the business side of things until she kept pushing me about it. And then, like I said, once the ball starts rolling, it was rolling. So I had to keep thinking of what was going to be next. 

What I like to say to people is you have to slow down to speed up. So I had to stop milling basically and just kind of put together some sort of plan to improve on things of the business. So slow down to speed up; you gotta do that sometimes.”

• Matt Ruben

Steve asks Matt how he manages to balance his full-time business with his family life and other obligations. Matt notes that after the first big month of sales, he recognized that he had a good business, but he didn’t have time for anything else, including his family. That gave him another major push to get the company to the point where he could do it sustainably while having the necessary time for his family.

Steve’s Advice Corner

Steve takes a moment to mention that Matt is a client of his, and they have worked together to develop Matt’s business. Matt then notes that some of Steve’s advice initially has been helping enormously, specifically getting his website and CRM going.

Steve recaps that Matt started with portable sawmilling, selling green slabs, and then recognized the value he could bring to the market through drying slabs. He notes that Matt kept adding more and more value to the end customer, which contributed to the success of his business.

Matt agrees and adds that the response when he opened up his website was overwhelming, and his wife again helped him get organized and ensure that the phone and emails got answered while he was locked down under the heap of work. Steve then reiterates that out of all the Woodpreneurs he has interviewed, spoken with, and worked with, the common theme between all successful ones has been having a good life partner.

Parting advice from Matt

Rather than providing advice at the end of the episode himself, Steve asks Matt what advice he would give to Woodpreneurs listening to the podcast who want to develop their own business.

“Well, like I said, slow down to speed up is one. It’s very fun to mill lumber, and it’s very fun to keep chugging through the mill and popping out slabs or whatever else. But you have to have a plan for it when it comes off. So slow down and think about what you’re going to do. 

On top of that, spend time networking. Get out and meet other people that are doing similar things. Like I said, there are tons of people in my area that I’ve been doing it for a lot longer. They have great businesses. They’ve been super nice to me. They’ve been coaches; they’ve been mentors to me. They’ve been motivating me.

Get online, get on Instagram, and see what people are doing across the US and across the world. There are so many people doing this, but there are not enough people who know that we’re doing it. So work on that aspect of your business. get your name out there, and you’ll be just fine.”

• Matt Ruben

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