Megan Offner: New York Heartwoods
“Finding the right people. You can find people that are capable and talented, but finding people that are passionate and loyal, especially with woodworking, that’s why we have a cooperative model.”
- Megan Offner
Welcome to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today your host Steve sits down with Megan Offner from New York Heartwoods! Megan was one of the first ten podcast guests ever and the first female Woodpreneur to join the podcast guest list.
When the Woodpreneur Podcast was called the Sawmill Business Podcast, Megan was primarily a milling business. However, in the six years since her first appearance, her business has grown exponentially. She has diversified her company’s focus, and an enormous amount of change has occurred.
Who They are Today
“Today, we are a fabricator of sustainable wood furniture. As you know, we started off milling and selling lumber and slabs, and very early on, people started asking for furniture. So initially, I was subbing that out and then gradually put a team together. Now it’s more of a cooperative or collective business at this point; all women.
We do a lot of furniture made from local wood and our clients’ trees. Because of the milling and drying background, I work with clients who are either doing new construction or have removed trees because they are dying or diseased, or they’re afraid they’re going to fall on their house. Still, they want to have that material incorporated into their home.
So I now just project manage the milling and drying process, work with the client on the designs with my team, and we return the wood from that tree to the client in the form of primarily furniture, but we do all sorts of surfaces.”
- Megan Offner
Although Megan sometimes misses the process of milling as she loves opening up a log to see what’s inside, it’s not the best use of her time, skills, and energy anymore. New York Heartwoods will be moving to a new shop in the next few months, and they have discussed the possibility of milling and drying their own lumber again. Still, Megan believes it may be more beneficial to partner with another Woodpreneur company to make that happen instead.
Changing with the Times
When Steve first spoke with Megan around six years ago, she was heavily focused on the milling aspect of the company and wanted her business to be as close to “tree-to-table” as possible. However, with that having changed so drastically over the last few years, Steve inquired what prompted the switch to become a primarily furniture-based business.
“Well, being in my 40s now. Physically that side of things is exhausting. My dad just completed multiple back surgeries, and I think I’m just aware of my genetics in some capacity. But we still do that; we’re still as close to the cycle as we can be. We go to the site. I draw a cross-section of the tree, send it to a sawyer, and tell them how I want it to be milled.
It’s all happening the same way; it’s just physically not doing that part and having the physical weight and infrastructure to have so much more to maintain and manage. Right now, there are three and a half of us. Three full-time, one part-time, and we’re probably bringing on another part-time or full-time person soon. If we were milling and drying, we’d have to add another couple of people.
The part I love is problem-solving and creating opportunities for clients. It’s such a fulfilling way to work, and it’s meaningful, both for the people we’re making things for and for us. I enjoy the management part of it, but the physical side is just too much. Especially during the pandemic, I think we’ve all tried to figure out how to simplify our lives in a way so we can have the time with the people we love and to have a more balanced lifestyle.”
- Megan Offner
Steve’s Advice Corner
“Business-wise, there is that question of how we might potentially collaborate more specifically with another mill. How might that be structured to set up a partnership with the milling and drying? That’s always kind of in the background. I don’t know how much you’ve looked at the website and the social media. Like what do you see as potential?”
- Megan Offner
New York Heartwood is a strong company, now operating for eleven years, but there is room to grow and places to improve even in that case. Steve’s advice revolves around creating a milling partnership with a sawyer, especially how to make it advantageous to both sides, which is the basis for any successful collaboration.
“I remember I had a friend who owned a sawmill. And he was like, ‘I’m going to start a tree service company. So I can go out and always have access to trees because I’m tired of paying for it. At least I could get paid for taking down the tree, and then I get to mill it.’
With your new property, one way to structure it is like a tree service company with a mill and a kiln. Or you go in on it with somebody if they have a mill, but they don’t have a kiln. In about six months to a year, there’s going to be even more Woodmizer sawmills out on the market. Many sawmill companies sold a lot of mills during the pandemic, and they’re still now fulfilling them.
So I would kind of creep on Craigslist to see what mills are out there if they’re portable mills and they want a stationary place. You can work out something where they get free rent, but they have to mill trees for free, and maybe you pay for saw blades or something like that. Maybe there’s a rent situation, or maybe there’s a partnership situation where you own a piece of their company.”
- Steve Larosiliere
There are innumerable ways to form partnerships with other businesses. However, the most important thing to keep in mind is that there needs to be a significant enough reason to join together where everyone benefits. Whether you own land and they own machinery, or you have one part of the service chain, and they have another. If you can forge that kind of agreement with another business, the sky’s the limit.
Website: https://www.newyorkheartwoods.com
Instagram: @newyorkheartwoods