Visiting us on the show today is Dylan Thomas from Black Forest Wood Company. Black Forest Wood Co. is based in Calgary, Alberta and is going on their 26th year in business. Founded by Dylan’s father, Brad Thomas, the company has used hard work, ingenuity, and social media to explode their business and stay on top. (Even through hard economic times!)
In the early days of the business, Brad started to notice and grow tired of the waste he was seeing leftover from the wooden door projects. Being a passionate lover of everything wood-related, he thought of a simple way to address this problem- by opening a retail store where he sold these leftover off-cuts. Shortly after the store opened, customers who purchased these off-cuts started asking where they could find the tools that they needed for their wood projects. This led the company to expand once more and start selling tools out of the store.
In addition to the retail store, Brad Thomas always knew that he wanted to start a woodworking school for hobby woodworkers. He started the school with a courses on wood-turning and woodworking and now offers 12-15 courses covering various aspects of the woodworking world.
After the recession of 2008 hit, the Black Forest crew went from 6 employees to 1, and things looked bleak. However, with a retail store and the woodworking school bringing in alternate streams of revenue, they were able to stay afloat. The wisdom of Dylan’s father to not put all of his eggs in one basket paid off in dividends!
Black Forest’s Philosophy:
- “Through these courses, you’re giving your customer value and offering them a skill, all while developing relationships. These mentoring relationships lead to a loyal customer for life.”
How they ended up with over 600,000 followers on IG:
- In 2014, the company took another hit when the price of oil went up. The company went from an order list of about 100 doors a year to only 15 doors. It was at this point that Dylan suggested to his dad the idea of starting an Instagram account. With hesitation, Brad said yes. However, he added in the stipulation that Dylan would agree to stop spending his time on the account if it wasn’t generating leads within a few months.
- Dylan started posting with the focus of entertaining people, making them happy, and handing out woodworking tips. Within a year, Dylan had 10,000 followers. However, his dad remained unconvinced as it still wasn’t bringing in a large amount of business.
- Fast forward to 2017. Dylan started building a resin, river, wall-art piece specifically for his Instagram following. Because he thought it would look interesting to his viewers, Dylan used EcoPoxy (the FIRST to ever do so) and recorded himself pouring it into the table design.
- After he posted the video, it received 3 million views and garnered enough attention that a media company reached out and asked if they could tag Black Forest and share the video to their page. After this company put the video up on their page, it reached over 120 million views.
Closing Thoughts:
- “We’re constantly learning by trial and error. If you’re afraid to make mistakes and try new things, you’re never going to get ahead in the same way that you would if you take a chance and learn from these mistakes. “
Follow Black Forest on YouTube and their other social channels!
- Instagram @blackforestwoodco
- Facebook @blackforestwoodco
- YouTube @blackforestwoodco
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