I was just looking through my new Fine Woodworking mag and saw a nice little letter from Kelvin. Good letter, Kelvin. Congratulations on getting your letter in the magazine, but most importantly sneaking your website in there. Now thats the kind of advertising I like. Thousands of readers looking you up on the web and you didn't pay a dime for it. Thats like a load of veneer grade cherry showing up at your door for free! Great job
I do not take that mag, but I will have to ditto what Sparty said about that kind of exposure $. I think Dad gets it, I will have to thumb through to read the "article", (press release?) ;).
Kelvin,
Thanks for standing up for the small sawyer.
I posted a like thread on the General Board after reading your letter in "Fine Woodworking", but I see that Sparty beat me to it, so I deleted it. You point in the letter was well taken (by me ;D).
Kelvin, why don't you post a copy here for all of us to see? :)
Howdy all,
Awwww, it was just a letter to the editor. I didn't notice my website, i'll have to look again. They took the best part out when they "edited" my crotchity letter. The gist is there but i liked my comparison. Their story said "go to the small mill to find lumber available nowhere else (quality, type and size) and expect to pay 1/2 as much" I understand what they are saying, but i retorted that the same reasoning could be used for pricing their custom furniture. Would their customers expect to pay less for their furniture, that you can't find anywhere else, because they have lower overhead as well? I was just pointing out that taking rare and valuable lumber from unsuspecting small time operators might cause some people to question their morality. We all love deals, but that means both parties understand. If i buy a real diamond from an old lady who thought it was fake, well... we all get the picture.
I also have been arguing with Garret Hack on his article encouraging people not to end seal their lumber in the same issue. He said its a waste of time and actually he likes to see where the stress is in the lumber anyway. I informed him that what he was most likely seeing was lumber checking due to poor lumber handling and that he was giving out dissinformation. If he took his 8' long green board and cut it into 24" pieces all the ends would check some more. Does this mean it had that much more stress? Why encourage the public to possibly throw out over 10% of their hard won lumber after going through all the trouble of getting it sawn. I try hard to educate my customers to make sure they don't waste what they paid me to saw for them. He wouldn't recant of his misdeeds however and said in his opinion it didn't matter. Oh, well.
Thanks for noticing. I don't know how to get the article in here short of simply typing it, and i'm not that good a typist.
KP
Let us know if anyone contacts you and mentions seeing your name and website in the magazine. I believe it was Daren that mentioned doing things like this to get your name in front of people and free advertising.
I got one call so far that mentioned they found me from the article. He was looking for cheap cherry, however he has failed to materialize to buy any. I've got to send some articles to local papers. I've writen some and had no response. Guess they are busy.
KP
Kelvin, what you have started with the article is what is called "Good will". It has to do with how you treat customers and how visible you become. It's a viable product when you sell your business. Whether it brings a sale or not is just gravy. What the article does is give you credence, legitimacy. How do you use it? You make it a part of your sales talk. You post the picture at home where people can see it. You use the notoriety to become visible to wood workers who you might want for customers. Give talks, give away samples, knock on doors as the guy who had the article written about him. Do something special before the match goes out.
Hey Kelvin.........I could use some cheep high grade cherry as well, and can you pay the shipping as well ;D
Kelvin your 15 minutes of fame is still working! I was in Boyne today to show my building to a furniture restore who wants to rent it. I mentioned I had a Woodmizer and he wanted to know if I had any curly cherry. He was planning to go to your place last weekend but the weather got bad. His name is Garry and he said he called you after seeing your article.
Just a comment on Kelvins' "moral compass". 8)
I've seen some of Kelvins posts on various topics and would like to tip my hat to his stand-up character.
He's the type of guy I'd be proud to do buisness with and recomend to others !!!
Too bad he's not in my "neck of the woods"(we don't have anyone here supplying quality product like kelvin is offering).
I have no doubt the quality of his product is absolutely second to none , with fair pricing .
I saw his post earlier today about down-sizing and am disappointed that a hard working guy like him is struggling when he should be flourishing (must be the economy, what else could it be ???).
Any how I hope his 15 min. of fame takes off and he can keep his equipment working for him.
Steve
Howdy all,
Hey thanks for all the comments, especially steve's. I think i'm not a good businessman is all. I'm learning the hard way though. I've recently sent articles, or lets see... what do they call them oh, press releases to some local papers. Nothing so far. I thought it was pretty good. They must have higher standards. We'll see. It does seem like word of mouth is finally getting out somewhat. more and more calls from people who heard about me from someone else. Starting to get busier, but i'm not sure if i'm making money yet. But i can see better how it works. For me, its taken about 5 years to start seeing some action from previous work. I wouldn't have thought it would take so long, but building stuff or making lumber is something people can forget about for a year or two. Takes awhile.
thanks all,
kelvin
Kelvin,
Keep smiling. When you aren't sawing, go visiting. Go to the coffee shop with old blades in the back of your truck. Stay in front of people and do anything to interest them in asking questions. Don't go watch TV, go to an old customer's house and ask to see what he made with his wood.