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After just one year in business, Anthony and Elizabeth Becker have learned a ton about how to build an online store – from why it pays to invest in using a professional photographer to the importance of tracking their time on each project.
We asked Anthony to dish on how he developed their pricing formula and what he's hoping to learn from all of *you* when it comes to finding the right retail platform to reach their target audience.
Name: Anthony Becker
Business: Wake the Tree Furniture Co.
Founded: 2014
How did you create your awesome job?
I had a stable job working with reclaimed wood for a long time, but I wasn’t able to create the kind of furniture I felt passionate about. It was so frustrating to be around so much raw material and to have so many ideas for what I could do with it, but no freedom. That job gave me the confidence, experience and drive I needed to start my own business.
I started Wake the Tree with my wife Liz just a few years ago. We create handcrafted furniture and wood accessories made from materials we find within a few miles of our workspace in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. We love owning a business. It gives us the chance to bring my designs to life, and allows us both the flexibility to spend more time together.
How did you get your very first customer?
Our first sale was a dining table on Etsy. Liz and I both had previous experience selling on Etsy, and have always found it to be an inspiring community that allows us to get in touch with people from all around the world. We're now exploring how to sell on other online marketplaces as well, such as CustomMade and Houzz.
Because the bulk of our sales are online, we rarely meet our customers face-to-face. When we do, however, it’s always fulfilling to see how our furniture is going to fit into their home and lifestyle.
What has been the biggest surprise so far after starting your own business?
It's more difficult than we expected to keep our eyes on the big picture. In the beginning, we had a lot of free time to discuss our vision and ideas for the future. Now it’s way too easy to get caught up in the day to day, without finding time to plan, organize and set new goals for our business.
When did you know your business was going to work?
There was no exact moment when it all came together. It was a slow process.
We both started working at it part-time and took things day by day. As sales picked up, I quit my other job and focused on Wake the Tree full-time. Liz still has another full-time job, so she handles marketing and customer service for Wake the Tree part-time on her breaks, in the evenings and on the weekends.
When we first started out, we said we would give the business five years to grow and become a steady source of income. We're only one year in, but we have felt so blessed by the incredible outpouring of support we have received so far — it only gives us hope and excitement about what’s to come in the future.
How do you price your products?
Pricing is a challenge, especially for handcrafted products. We’re selling more than a finished product — we’re also selling our ideas and originality, which certainly have value. Not everyone takes this into consideration, but we know never to undervalue our time, skills or life experience.
The biggest lesson we’ve learned is to have a pricing formula to follow for each product and to create spreadsheets that track these formulas. Our spreadsheets show us exactly the profit in each piece after our expenses and hourly rate is worked out. This helps us make important decisions, such as whether we are able to wholesale our products or not.
We decide on an hourly rate, which varies depending on the task, and write down and account for all the time we spend on each throughout the process. That includes time spent brainstorming, sketching, designing, actually producing the furniture, conversations with customers, packaging and even printing shipping labels.
I enjoy making furniture and running my own business, which in the past made it easy to forget about tracking my time. Now I see this as essential to our growth.
What does a typical day look like for you?
I wake up around 5am and press a few cups of coffee before checking my schedule. Usually I'll respond to emails until about 8am, then swap out my desk for the shop. One to two days a week, I’ll skip the hours in the office and go for a trail run with our dog Newman and a friend. Whatever I missed, I’ll make up for in the evening.
When I get to the shop in the morning, I start working on various projects. I also take a few email breaks throughout the day. If I manage to get through everything, I’ll be home by 5pm.
Once I'm home, I spend 20-30 minutes reprioritizing my schedule for the week based on what I accomplished during the day. Then, Liz and I will cook dinner together.
If you could go back in time, what’s one thing you would do differently?
In the beginning, we thought we could photograph all of our products on our own. After many hours of painting a room white, setting up all of our furniture, photographing, editing the photos and sending the pictures to our graphic designer for the website, we took a step back and realized that these photographs weren’t doing our furniture justice.
We’ve learned that it’s so important to maintain a critical and objective point of view. It takes a lot of willpower to be able to throw things out the window and start from scratch, but sometimes it’s necessary.
As an online business, our imagery and branding are all that our customers have to judge us by. The way we present ourselves is incredibly important, so we now use a professional photographer.
What would you like to learn from a network of other small business owners and self-employed professionals?
Currently, we're interested in learning about how to better market our products to our target audience. Being that there are so many different online marketplaces and retail platforms, we would love to learn how to quickly make informed decisions regarding where our audience is and how to be more visible to them.
Additionally, keeping up with all the social media outlets can be overwhelming, so it would be great to get some tips on how to manage these efficiently, effectively and professionally.
Can you help Anthony by sharing *your* experience with getting customers on retail platforms like Etsy?
Have you tried Etsy, Custom Made, Houzz or other retail platforms? What was your experience?
Share your stories in the comments below!
