Sawdust Entrepreneur with Jonathan Katz-Moses of Katz Moses Tools
This episode is brought to you by Jobber – getjobber.com/ethan
“Every time that you create a system in your business that allows you to generate revenue, it’s time to pass that off to somebody. If you’re doing things that don’t build your business, then you just own a full-time job.”
- Jonathan Katz-Moses
Hello, and welcome to Building a Furniture Brand with Ethan Abramson, the show that talks about the business behind the furniture business. In this episode, Ethan sits down with Jonathan Katz-Moses, owner of the Santa Barbara, California-based company, Katz-Moses Tools.
Jonathan is a serial entrepreneur, starting his first business at 14. And since then, he’s had a lot of time to think about what it takes to start and correctly operate a business. Along with running his other ventures, Jonathan founded a furniture company that eventually turned into the Tool Company, which he owns today.
But whether we’re talking about the practices he used in his furniture business back then or how he runs his tool company now, the one constant is this, Jonathan knows business. Follow along as we talk about how to get your foot in the door with clients, how you can turn your social media into furniture sales, what it takes to be a great boss, and much more.
Enthralled by the Process
Many furniture makers start from a young age, and Jonathan Katz-Moses is no exception. Although he was not introduced to working with his hands as they were in business positions, Jonathan nevertheless got introduced by an enterprising neighbor.
“I was never really exposed to power tools, But I still remember the first time when I was about 14. One of our neighbors had a shop in his garage, and he invited me in, and he built custom car stereo speakers. I was absolutely just enthralled by the process. So I started getting into building custom speakers. I started a business out of my parent’s garage, installing car stereos. And it was just a serious passion of mine to be able to build things.
I moved down to Santa Barbara, California, right out of high school, and it was just so expensive to live here that I never had a house with a garage. So it was years before I got back into building things. In 2014, I had a roommate who was building something for his girlfriend for Christmas, and he asked me to help him because I had a bunch of tools.
I jumped in to help him, and I remember he was a cab driver, and he had to go to work that night. And I said, “Do you care if I keep working on it?” And he’s like, “No, no, go ahead.” So I ran off to Home Depot and got a bunch of tools, and by the time he got home at three in the morning, I was still in the garage working on it. I realized I was like, “This is what I want to do.”
- Jonathan Katz-Moses
Soon after Jonathan’s revelation, he started acquiring tools and learning about things he wanted to do. After watching a woodworking video involving dovetails, he thought those were the coolest things he had ever seen and started learning the process immediately.
This is the point where Jonathan’s inventive side began to present itself, and he invented the Katz-Moses magnetic dovetail jig. After creating the dovetail jig, he started making different iterations and realized he had created a very useful product and should find a way to market it.
As he didn’t have a lot of capital to pay for marketing, he decided to start a YouTube channel to share videos with his friends and family about what he was doing and show off the product he had created. The instant feedback from YouTube comments and being part of a community appealed immensely to Jonathan, and he found it to be a match made in heaven.
Finding the Right Path
“One of the biggest mistakes I think people who are starting a business make is they compare themselves to others, and they look at other people’s businesses. In our industry, I feel like it’s very visual, and you can see what other people are doing.
You look at these content creators who have big channels and see what they’re doing. And you think, “Okay, I need to take this path to be successful.” And I was like that where I found myself looking at these other content creators and going, “Okay, I need to put out a build, every single week, I need to take sponsorships, I need to work with these companies, and that’s how I become successful.”
As I was building this furniture and trying to put out videos, I realized I was doing commissioned work on the side, and not all of these builds make good videos. So I’m not doing a build video for everything I make. I’m spending time editing, and I’m doing all these things that take so much of my time that’re not really generating revenue. And clearly, people really like when I put out these videos that are more educational and not just a whole build. And so there was an aha moment.”
- Jonathan Katz-Moses
Realizing the potential for education on his channel, especially regarding the intricacies of using tools, Jonathan made major changes to his business. He hired an editor, and he stopped doing commissions, which cut out the majority of his revenue. However, this freed up a lot of time for him.
At that point, he was still selling his dovetail jig, which he hand-made out of wood, but he switched to a two-part urethane which is significantly more durable. Around that same time, he collaborated with another prominent YouTuber who Jonathan credits with partially launching his career in terms of visibility.
“I realized, okay, I’m not making a profit. But I see a runway here, and I see a path to profitability. The only way to do that is to free up my time to do things that generate business revenue. So I need to cut out editing, I need to cut out filming because that takes more than half my time, and I need to cut out manufacturing, which I’d done by creating this new material, and I need to develop ways for people to learn about good tools to get good tools. And this is the business I want to build.”
- Jonathan Katz-Moses
Share your Work
Although the entire episode is really a masterclass on running a business with Jonathan and Ethan, it’s important to separate some advice necessary for first-time entrepreneurs. In that regard, Jonathan believes that the most important thing is to tell people what you’re doing.
“Share your work; it’s really important. You know, what is marketing? Marketing is telling people about your product. That is sharing your work. Showing the people in your area, people who are your potential customers, your work, and getting them emotionally involved in it.
Everybody talks about that artist friend of theirs who is so good. If art comes up and you hear, “Oh, I have this buddy who paints, and he just does this genre that I love.” And you just get people emotionally invested in your work, and you create things that you’re proud of, whatever your style may be, and show people, and then that turns into business.
Then it’s important when you get those opportunities to value yourself and establish credibility. If you can do nothing else, share, share, share. The first thing I always tell people is to stop pointing out your mistakes. Whenever people show me like, “Oh my god, Jonathan, check out this jewelry box I made using your dovetail jig. Ignore the gaps or don’t look at the top.” You know, whatever.
Don’t tell people; just show them and let them appreciate it because 99.9% of people will never see that little gap in your work. They’re never going to see the dent you fix because they don’t know what to look for. But they’re going to value the art piece as a whole. So share it, be proud of it and get people emotionally invested in it. I think that’s the advice I could give to anybody wanting to grow their business. Just be proud of what you do, and show it off, and the business will come.”
- Jonathan Katz-Moses
Website: https://kmtools.com
Instagram: @jkatzmoses