Today on the show we have Nolan Thomson from Nolan Built! Talking through Nolan’s story was an awesome time and we have to give a shoutout to the IG algorithms for making it happen! The power of social media marketing at work. Today we talk about everything from submarines to taking leaps of faith. It’s a great ride!
The Foundations of Nolan Built
The story starts fifteen years ago when Nolan was building nuclear aircraft carriers and submarines in a job he got right out of High-School. While it wasn’t his passion, Nolan attributes this job to giving him his tool background and knowledge. Finally, when he bought his first home the love of woodworking started to emerge.
Nolan ended up buying a 10 inch Hitachi miter saw while he was doing some work upgrading his house. From there, the love of tools and building his inventory struck. Every holiday, Nolan’s then-girlfriend, and now wife would give him a gift card to a Home Hardware Store or buy him one of the tools on his list of wants.
Then in 2015, everything started to come together. Nolan had been woodworking as a hobby and making things for his friends, family, and church, but he also loved road biking. When he had $750 leftover from a tax return the question came down to, a new road bike or an LLC? 
Getting Out Of Your Own Way
Unsurprisingly, he decided to invest in his woodworking and turn it into a true business. It took off from there. While in 2015 Nolan started the business originally to lock in the name, he didn’t start promoting or trying to get jobs until about 2 years ago. As his previous job required him to be gone about 9 months of the year, he knew it wasn’t the right time to start the business, but he started setting up as many things as he could in the interim.
For Nolan, it was a progressive transition into running his business full-time. He did a lot of research and preparation and finally, it came to a point where Nolan realized that he was the one standing in his way. His wife was telling him to go for it, his friends, his clients, but ultimately Nolan was the one unsure.
Fortunately, the moment he made the jump into working on creating his own legacy full time, he has not stopped getting phone calls. He has a four-month backlog at the moment which is what he was hoping for before he took the step. A clear sign that sometimes you can wait forever for something that would easily come if you just stopped waiting.
The ability to trust yourself, or trust the highest power, or trust the people who have bought from you and have faith in you is something Steve notes as crucial for growing a business. Nolan agrees entirely and takes a moment to thank his beautiful wife for being so supportive. He doesn’t think he would be able to do what he does without her love and support.
Betting On Yourself and Your Business
For Nolan, his biggest success has actually been taking that leap into full-time that he had been so wary of. Ideally, Nolan would have had a few more things come to fruition before he decided to go all-in on his business, but he believes some of those things will actually be a reality by the time this podcast episode is released. Nolan has now expunged his 401K to bet on himself. He has increased his capability, his capacity, his equipment and is investing in the business model he wants for his company.
As a true Woodpreneur, Nolan knows that being a one-man show leaves him in a precarious position and he has focused on creating passive income so that if he does experience an injury or something unexpected his family, customers and business will be taken care of.
The biggest challenge in the first year for Nolan was getting his profit margins to where he wanted them to be. He has monthly and weekly goals for himself and what he wants to bring in, and he knows he has to work for those leads. He also recalls the early struggle figuring out the logistics of how to move and deliver something like a 12ft table, but now he has that all sorted out.
The Focus and The Future
The main focus for Nolan Built is beautiful, high-quality tables. In the future, Nolan Built would like to specialize in making conference room tables with the current goal being one per quarter. While tables are the focus, Nolan also does cabinetry and other custom jobs. If it’s something he can do and feels comfortable doing he is likely to take the job, but he wants to be able to specialize in table builds.
If Nolan had to restart his business he would have started somewhere he had more place to grow. When he started, a two-car garage seemed fine but as the goals have grown, so have his space needs. Nolan chuckles as he recalls building a 12ft table in a 14ft garage. He was up and down and under and around, but as he says.
“When you’re determined to do something, you’re going to find a way.”
Looking to the near future, Nolan is excited about his new shop. He plans to put his own money up on a conference room table so that he can start promoting the build and process. For cabinetry, Nolan would also like to do an entire kitchen as he currently usually does smaller projects. Nolan is also pushing his YouTube channel, his business mind is focusing on diversifying revenue streams, he hopes to monetize YouTube and get his work out to multiple communities and increase his profit options.
Steves Marketing Corner
Nolan has been hesitant on pushing money into marketing because his capacity right now is lower than he’d like it to be. When he gets his bigger space, he hopes to be able to do multiple jobs at once, and then he wants to get into streamlining the back end of his company and promoting his business. He has been trying to keep the word of mouth going through t-shirts and bring it in locally.
Steve suggests that Nolan use his personal Facebook account to push some more engagement. While Nolan builds his business it’s important to build an email list and to make a small ticket item for people to be able to support him even if they can’t afford the ten thousand dollar tables.
As a final send-off to the wood community, Nolan talks about the mindset shift he adopted that drove him to the woodpreneur he is today. It was when he decided the currency he needed to operate on was happiness instead of money. Being in the shop working on his projects, being happy and passionate about what he was creating has been life-changing for this wood business owner. Even though it might sound cheesy, Nolan and other woodpreneurs know that money will come if you put your whole heart into it. Nolan can attest, when he took his business full-time, things just started flowing. It was different.
To see more from Nolan Built, check out his socials below!
@NolanBuilt
Nolan Built
NolanBuilt.com