Working Hard and Smart with Luke Frisch of Hazel Burr Design Company

 

“We looked at each other, and we’re like, ‘We’re not doing that, I can make that.’ And she’s like, ‘Well, give her a shot.’”

• Luke Frisch

 

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 Luke Frisch, owner of the La Crosse, Wisconsin furniture business, Hazel Burr Design Company.

 

After years of working on oil rigs, the railroad, and playing football, it’s pretty clear that Luke has never shied away from a day of hard work. But when he started his own furniture company, he knew that working hard wasn’t the only way to succeed. He had to work smart as well and rely on the business lessons that he learned over the years, as well as his work ethic, to make his company run the way he wanted it to.

 

Follow along as they talk about balancing the building and the artistic side of the furniture business, what you need to know when you work with live edge lumber, how to understand your clients better, and much more.

 

 

Art and Shop Being Equal

 

“My dad started his career as a home builder. He quit doing that before I was little, but he was always building stuff, making stuff, you know, adding on stuff. I was just so interested in how things are built. You can take a stack of wood and make a building out of it, and I thought that was mind-blowing as a little kid. 

 

Then in high school, I took shop class and art class, and they were equally important to me. I like the whole design perspective, the building, and the element of being creative. So then I went off to college and put that on pause to play college football. After college, I got out into the real world, and I spent a year on the oil rig in North Dakota, and I worked for the railroad for ten years. 

 

We built a house in 2013, and I did a lot of stuff myself because I knew how to do basic things. I had a miter saw and other very basic tools. But each project I would do to finish the house, I would buy more tools. That was my excuse; I told my wife that if we want this project to be done, I’ve got to get these tools, wink wink.”

• Luke Frisch

 

Luke and his wife went to a furniture store to furnish their home. Since they came from an apartment, they needed to acquire many things to fill it up. But as he was looking at all the cheaply built veneer-over-chipboard furniture, Luke found that he was very unimpressed with the offerings and decided he could make better options himself.

 

Soon after, Luke began making furniture and even cabinetry, which is a bit more complicated at the level he was starting. Eventually, people began to ask him if he would produce pieces for them, and he used his railroad off-days to dig into projects for other people. That time off allowed Luke to become more productive during his off weeks and launched the beginning of his business.

 

 

 

Always Take Advice

“The best advice is always to take advice, and I always like to seek advice from people and get perspective from people that are further along in their journey than I am. So I’ve got a couple of friends that are local business owners here. They run multimillion-dollar companies, they have dozens of employees or more, and I say, ‘Hey, here’s my issue. What do you think?’ 

 

Then actually listen to them. Seek advice objectively, don’t expect a certain answer subjectively. Be open-minded. Getting perspective from people with more knowledge in that field is helpful. In the realm of running a business, even if it doesn’t equate to your industry, I like to ask those with more experience and more time in their field. Then actually take it into practice, even if you disagree with their methods. It must work because they are where they are for a reason. 

 

So use other people as a resource. I love bouncing ideas off of people that are way further down the road in their journey of being business owners. Many people don’t have that resource because you might not even know anybody who runs their own business. But, you know, there’s always the interwebs. A lot of the stuff I’ve learned it’s off of YouTube, and it’s really weird; you can find almost anything on there. It’s such a great resource. But tapping into all the resources available is the key.”

• Luke Frisch

 

Website: https://hazelburrdesign.com

Instagram: @hazel.burr_design