Today we’d like to introduce you to Matthew Smith.
Hi Matthew, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
This year I’m putting a lot of energy into building Smith Farms Custom Furniture. It’s a newer business and a small brand, but I’ve been able to make smooth and consistent progress because it’s not my first business venture. My other company, Modmacro, is focused on digital marketing and it’s much more established with a more than 14-year history now.
With Smith Farms, I’ve been able to skip past the fears, second guessing, and other concerns that most new business owners feel initially. I’m not immune to the challenges of business ownership, but I do benefit from having already learned some of the hard lessons that everybody must endure.
I really enjoy building furniture and working with homeowners and business owners to deliver truly custom pieces that elevate their spaces and meet their functional goals. The custom furniture that people choose can be an expression of their style and says something about what matters to them.
Being furniture builders, we also tend to be wood nerds. We like to say that the wood also has a story to share. The type of tree it came from, the people who milled it, and the travels it went through to become what it is now are all a part of that story.
Some of the wood we use comes from urban loggers—from trees that were in cities, parks, or backyards and grew too large, or had to be removed due to disease. Sometimes the boards we acquire were milled over 100 years ago, from trees that were over 100 years old at that time. And for all those years, those boards have been bought and sold over and over again, and eventually make it into our shop, and ultimately into our clients home or office as a piece of custom furniture. I just think that’s cool.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Because Smith Farms is my second venture, I had an advantage this time around. We haven’t encountered much in the way of the challenges that new businesses commonly face, like those related to branding, marketing, customer relations, project management, cashflow management, etc. In fact, my approach to serving custom furniture clients is about the same as custom digital marketing clients. However, because my previous experience is mostly in providing digital and virtual services, I’ve had to work on managing hard costs and the fact that everything in this business is physical and tangible. That means we must think about how we store and organize raw materials, tools, and supplies. We must manage the limited space in the shop and bring materials into the building at the same rate that finished projects leave. I imagine this all seems obvious to people who’ve run businesses with physical good, but for me, this is a completely new aspect.
Likewise, because the cost of raw materials (mostly domestic and exotic wood slabs) accounts for a significant percentage of the project total, we must manage those hard costs intelligently. We’ve developed a software solution that allows us to easily manage vendors and track costs and associate them with projects. This gives us real-time tracking of the costs and projected profit for each project. Again, managing hard costs in this way certainly isn’t new in the business world, just new to me.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
At Smith Farms Custom Furniture, we design and build furniture for discerning homeowners who are either looking for special, truly custom pieces to fit their space, or who simply can’t find what they want at retail. In either case, our approach to custom furniture is a great solution for them. We take the time to understand our client’s style and functional needs, and craft furniture that delights them. Plus, we employ a combination of traditional and modern techniques that results in furniture that lasts for a very long time.
Some furniture designers make the process too complex, which frustrates clients. Our design process is pretty straightforward. When we’re building a commissioned piece, we first make sure that we understand the client’s functional needs. This is usually quite easy. After that, we discuss the stylistic goals that they have. Some clients give us complete artistic freedom while others already have specific ideas of how the piece should look. When we’re working with an interior designer, they usually have some specifics for size and style, how organic they want the piece to be, how rustic, or how refined, etc. In most cases, their ideas are solid, and we can execute their vision.
I’m constantly looking to learn and improve our furniture design processes, bringing more and more creativity to the process. And we invest a lot of time into working with clients, ensuring that we’re on the same page regarding the final furniture piece that they will soon own, but also communicating timelines and progress to make sure they are informed and comfortable with the process.
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
I speak with new business owners quite often. Some are confident and some are timid, and I tell them all the same things. First, you must be tenacious. Whether you’re truly confident in your business or not, you must proceed tirelessly. You must push, grind, and adapt. This is how you grow and compete. You must doggedly pursue business success based on your instincts, while also recognizing areas where your business needs to change with consumer desires, economic changes, cultural shifts, and insights that improve your business instincts themselves. You must be willing to work 80-hour weeks for months at a time when that’s what’s required. If you’re not willing to dedicate this kind of time and mental energy to your business, I’d suggest doing something else.
I don’t want these thoughts to come off as negative. I hope that my words are encouraging to those who are starting a small business. Because I’ve seen so many business owners succeed by putting in the work, me included, I know it can be a path to success. Persistence coupled with intelligence is a combination that’s hard to beat.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://smthfrms.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/smthfrms/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SmthFrms/
