The Mettle of Metal with Chelsea Gaddy of Force/Collide

The Mettle of Metal with Chelsea Gaddy of Force/Collide

 

“Everything is on you, but you’re not an island. This happens collectively, and no one has gotten anywhere completely by themselves.”

 

  • Chelsea Gaddy

 

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 Chelsea Gaddy, owner of the Seattle, Washington-based furniture company Force/Collide.

 

Mixing the soul of an artist and the practicality of a business owner isn’t always easy, but Chelsea has been doing just that since 2013. She has been building and growing her business while keeping its heart in the creative world.

 

Chelsea has also brought the idea of community to the forefront of her business model through classes and other community outreach. She provides women and girls the opportunity to embrace metalworking as a viable professional path.

 

Follow along as they talk about where to get the best business advice, how to juggle multiple revenue streams inside one company, the importance of originality, and much more.

 

 

Photo Credit: @forcecollide

 

 

The Spark of Artistry

 

“I’m someone who didn’t have exposure to building things growing up, for better or worse. Though I always knew from a young age that I wanted to be an artist, that’s always kind of how I identified myself. So I did school at the University of Washington and got a BFA in fine art for photography, which is how I started my formal education.

 

I guess you could say I had the intention at that time of becoming a full-time working artist, curating other people’s artwork, and just being involved in the community. Like many people, what I wanted and the reality were two different things. You just have to learn that going through your college education sometimes.

 

So I worked in the field of fine art for a while. I tried a couple of different things, and in the end, it just didn’t feel like it was for me. At some point, I decided not to pursue that, but looking back now, I can more easily connect the dots in terms of how that influenced me to get into furniture.”

 

  • Chelsea Gaddy

 

Though fine art and furniture may seem unrelated in many ways, Chelsea found the connection between the two. While working in the service industry for a long time, she began taking welding, blacksmithing, and metal fabrication classes at a fine art center in Seattle.

 

During her time there, Chelsea met many great people who influenced her, but her teacher for most courses over the three years became a mentor about this burgeoning interest.

 

 

Photo Credit: @forcecollide

 

 

Taking her Art Further

 

“Every time I expressed that I might want to take it further, he was a huge encouragement to me. Previously, it had been somewhat of a hobby that I appreciated, particularly mid-century modern furniture and design. I’d always wanted to build things in 3d, and I always wanted to try working with my hands.

 

What completed the circuit was the first time I ever tried welding; it just felt like it clicked for me. I can combine all those things I’m interested in, and I genuinely enjoyed welding more than anything at the time that I had tried. That led me to go as far as I could, even though it wasn’t a formal institutional level of education at that point. But in that way, I think it gave me a lot of freedom to do what I wanted to do because it was a mix of art and technical training.

 

During that time at the fine art center, I just had this feeling that I wanted to try something, and I pursued it as much as I could. I ended up meeting another artist looking for someone to share her studio with, so all of the stars aligned. So I got my first custom furniture commission right around that time, I started renting my own space within someone else’s shop, and that’s when I began tooling up and learning what it would be like to run a business.”

 

  • Chelsea Gaddy

 

Chelsea started Force/Collide from the ground up. She kept her part-time job until she was confident the business would take off. When she began, she had no formal business training, which she sometimes regrets not having, but she notes that learning business is about trial and error and learning from your mistakes.

 

Since the growth of her business was slow and steady to start, Chelsea felt that she could learn as she went. Initially, the business side of things intimidated her, but the longer she did the work, the more it appealed to her, and she describes herself now as more of a ‘numbers and business’ person than ever before.

 

 

Photo Credit: @forcecollide

 

 

Organizing from the Start

 

“It’s not the first thing you want to do, but try to approach business with organization in mind from the beginning, if you can. Sometimes it’s tough to go back and rework your systems. Once things are going, you may feel like you just don’t have time for that. But giving some thought to the organization of the business side, keeping track of things well, leaning into the stuff that isn’t fun, you’ll realize how much it helps you in the end.

 

Practice writing budgets, practice learning how to make spreadsheets and excel; you’re going to have to eventually. It’s never something I wanted to do, but I love it now. Learn about your specific industry as much as you can. For instance, what are the typical profit margins, how do you assess overhead? All the stuff that’s not super fun. Whether that means maybe doing some online classes, there are so many free courses online these days, and hopefully in person again.

 

Track your time. That’s been so enlightening to me. It’s like, you wonder where your time goes? Well, you can figure it out pretty easily if you track it. That has led to some pretty key analyses of how my business breaks out on a weekly basis. Like what’s billable and what’s not billable? How much time gets spent on design and in meetings?

 

If that’s hard for you if that type of thing doesn’t appeal to you, start practicing it even on a small level. You don’t have to go in with a five-year plan. But I will say that embracing that stuff is probably why I’m still in business. I feel like, at any given moment, I could probably tell you with a pretty confident sense how things are going for the company. That means knowing how to look at the numbers, keeping up on my books. It’s always a learning process, and I have a long way to go as this grows to understand all that.”

 

  • Chelsea Gaddy

 

Website: https://www.forcecollide.com

 

Instagram: @forcecollide

 

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