How's business?

[carpet56238]

One thing that might help is to take a closer look at your business processes. Streamlining operations, improving customer outreach, and perhaps even tweaking your marketing strategy can often lead to a boost in business. It might be a good time to review your workflow and see if there are any inefficiencies that could be improved.

I recently read an article titled "The Unseen Threat Stifling SME Growth: Operational Inefficiencies" that talked about how many small and medium-sized businesses face hidden hurdles due to inefficient processes. These inefficiencies can slow down operations, waste resources, and ultimately hinder growth. The article suggested that businesses often overlook these small, incremental issues, but addressing them can lead to significant improvements. By optimizing business processes , you might find new opportunities for growth and better manage the quieter periods.

[ktm250rider]

2 mills closing
Colby in NH at the end of the month
Mill River in Southern Vermont

Just saw there was a fire at Colby this morning.

[Bruno of NH]

Yes it was a total loss 

[just_sawing]

We have been here over thirty years. We are a Bandsaw operation with side operations that include Siding shingles and Split Rail Fencing. 
 We are solid but we are seeing a difference in who comes and what they need. One of the main things that keep us solid is that we work with people in there design and dreams and that has made a difference.

[PAmizerman]

@Percy you've peaked my interest. Let's see some pics

[busenitzcww]

The first 2-3 months of this year were extremely busy/profitable, but it's definitely slowed down. May and June are typically a little slower for me, but I've managed to stay busy. I do everything from custom milling, to slab/lumber sales, to custom furniture, so pretty diversified which is both good and bad. We've had a lot of custom milling and kiln drying this year due to another sawmill operation closing up shop last fall. They've sent a lot of business my way. I've been very cautious about loading up the log yard with anything except walnut as that always sells it seems like. I think it's a good time to work on our advertisement/promotion skills and find those people who still have some change in there pocket. 
All that being said I'm ready to tighten my belt if need be.  

[Percy]

@Percy you've peaked my interest. Let's see some pics

I'm about half done building it. I'll get pics and stuff in the next few days. 😀

[longtime lurker]

I've probably told this story here before but last year I'm taking a long road trip and one of the joys of that is that after 5 or 6 hours I get past thinking about the short term headaches and get to thinking about the big picture stuff. Therapy drives, I love them.

Anyhow I come to the realisation that yanno, in 15 years of this there's been 2 periods of about 6 months where it was all going smoothly. The rest of the time there's always too much work or not enough work. I'm always short staffed or have guys on make work tasks. There's not enough logs in the yard, or there's a mountain of wood and the sound of borers munching their way through my money is keeping me awake at night, or I've got the wrong species logs for the orders I've got.  Something is always broken down. Someone always owes me money. And I came to the conclusion that this is normal, and expecting that it would ever smooth out was a pipe dream, and I either had to embrace the chaos or get the hell out of the business.  I guess I'd always thought I'd grow out of those issues but the reality is that getting bigger is just the same with a few more zeros attached.

It's always been a boom and bust industry and it's driven by market forces beyond anyone's control: Economic cycles, consumer sentiment, the housing market, wages growth, unemployment numbers, interest rates, exchange rates, microeconomic anomalies, international sanctions... all that big picture stuff trickles down to the local level. Mill capacity is still increasing due to the lag time in getting projects spurred on by the covid boom off the ground, meanwhile demand has dropped. The financial climate is looking pretty ordinary, and people did a decades worth of renovations while they were stuck at home due covid restrictions.

There's about to be a weaning is all... the biggest lumber boom in history has ended and guess what comes next? Embrace the chaos.

[Percy]

Embrace the chaos.

This would be a great song title

Or a band name🤪

[barbender]

An eponymous debut😁

[PAmizerman]

Longtime 
That is a good way to look at it.
I've been stocking the shelves so it will be there when things pick back up.

[Peter Drouin]

Have wood to sell and no way to move it.   Lull is down.  Have my JD 5410 down too Putting in a new joystick for the loader.
Fun times at a sawmill.  

[cutterboy]

That seems to be the way it goes. One piece of equipment goes down and then the backup equipment goes down too.

[Resonator]

Slow. Definitely down from previous years.
Locally here the weather could be partly to blame. We've had a terribly wet summer (opposite of near drought we had last year), and that could be hurting building projects.

[TimW]

Oh yeah, it's tough.  Last fall the Lull went down with the tractor split getting a new clutch.  No moving anything.  Except with the snail slow excavator.
My orders slowed to a trickle when the feds started raising interest rates.

[Bruno of NH]

Peter hope you get you Lull and tractor back at it .

[customsawyer]

I've been in the wood business in one form or another since 1990. It has always had "mood" swings. Sometimes it will swing up and sometimes it is swinging down. Every time it starts to get good we get an influx of new folks in the business, which I think is a good thing. When it turns bad, then we weed out the ones that shouldn't have gotten in it, and a few of the older ones that over extended during the good times. I'm not trying to put anyone down, it's just the nature of the beast, and how it works. The wood business is not much different than any other type of business. The ones that are extremely successful at it, are the ones that tend to work the hardest at it, and make it look easy. The best advice I can give in this business, keep it to where you can turn the key off and walk away for a while if you need to.

[Peter Drouin]

Lull is back up and running. One small wire broke in the cab.
I was going to weld the fork on the John Deere. But I was thinking the outher might brake too later. So I went and got an all new set at thr John Deere store. 

[jpassardi]

If you got the forks at the JD dealer you let the wallet breathe...I find JD tends to be one of the most proud of their parts $ - at least the Ag ones.

[Bruno of NH]

Growing up in the building business and doing my own thing since 1984 . Anything to do with building and lumber has ups and downs. I out lasted lots of others in the building business, lm going to try the same with sawmilling.
I scaled back the number of helpers this spring and I'm happier and ready for what ever is next .

[barbender]

 Just thinking about having helpers would make me mothball the mill😊

[Southside]

Don't get me started. 

[Magicman]

My sawing business is crazy.  I am passing off jobs that are over ~35 miles but the phone is still ringing.  There are some drought and beetle killed trees but that is mostly because customers are harvesting them instead of the normal trees.  Building activity is still happening because it is cheaper to build with my sawn lumber rather than lumber yard stuff.

The heat and lack of available help are the only obstacles.

[Bruno of NH]

The heat and humidity is on this year in NH
We have already topped the average days of 95 + for the year
As of last night 11 straight days over that.
For us that doesn't help business 

[Peter Drouin]

I'm getting a good suntan and nice weather to run the HOT ROD!
Lumber is  drying fast too.