It's been a little while since my last update... Sorry about that!

As I mentioned in my last post, time has become quite the commodity... But I'm still dedicated to the project and am making process. 

The last two weeks have been busy. Not only have I sold my third table to another very happy customer, almost completed a bench, and sold some leftover auction items (concrete bears, bought for $2 and sold for $50!), but I've taken some pretty significant steps to taking the furniture building effort to the next level. Introducing our first micro-business, "With the Grain Furniture, LLC":

It was a great experience starting a business on paper. I have filed formal articles of organization with the state of Ohio and formed an LLC. I have a vendor's license, an employer identification number, and a business name protected by the state. It was actually pretty simple, all available online, and cost a grand total of $124. While it doesn't really change anything that I'm doing day-to-day, it's pretty neat to officially "own a business"! Picking a name was a daunting task at first, but searching through the Ohio business database and available web domains took a lot of the choice out of my hands, and I think it's simple and catchy enough to work. Plus, WiththeGrainFurniture.com was available, and a .com with my company name is a great find.

I've been working on the new website off and on, trying to get the framework right to inform prospective customers about our capabilities and initiate the conversation/order for custom made pieces. In addition, I'm designing another page to allow for the direct order for other products that I find/make.

I'll publish the initial site so that you all can check it out, and I'll polish it up and start advertising it on local pages via facebook, Twitter, etc... Targeting to launch within the next week! Hopefully it will serve as a good funnel for new customers, and if I can generate a steady and consistent flow of customers, it will be awesome progress for the project.

I'm out of time for now, but I'm pleased with the project progress so far. We've accomplished more than a 6x return on our initial investment, have formed a company, and learned a LOT. It's been a great experience and i'm excited to keep it going!

Thanks for reading, and good luck with your own project!

I’m starting to notice a bit of a problem…

Ok, “problem” might be a bit of an exaggeration. I guess it’s more of an “observation”, a point of data that I’ll need to use to help shape my efforts. I would also venture to guess that this particular observation is pretty typical for many of us with the entrepreneurial mindset:

I don’t have a whole lot of extra time laying around!

Given my family and work situation, this would be totally obvious to any outsider. I’m a younger guy, married, own a home, identical twins under the age of 1 (but getting ready for a big 1-year birthday party!), full time professional job, pets, nearby family, and two completely below-average fantasy football teams to manage. We’ve “got a lot going on”, and while I completely love every minute, extra minutes are hard to come by.
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That’s a huge part of the game, and I think one that limits a lot of aspiring entrepreneurs (and has certainly limited me!). That’s one of the key reasons why I think “The 100K Project” concept is working for me, it forces me to carve out time to invest in my “business” ventures, ensuring that I pay some attention to it. It’s still certainly a “side project” for me, but it is growing and I’m learning a lot, and I’m still hopeful that it can grow into successful businesses in the future!  In addition, I think a critical part of evaluating the potential of business ventures that I try will be the time that each requires, and what that means for profitability, scalability, and overall quality of life. 

​Our second table is scheduled to be picked-up tonight, and if that sale successfully goes through we will get an additional $500 in revenue. It took many hours and a couple weeks of no-or-low revenue to get here, but we have the potential to make more than $1000 in revenue in one week, a HUGE leap for the project! 

​I haven’t advertised my tables in a couple weeks, I wanted to make sure I could complete and deliver these two before I took on more orders. I still have an outstanding order for a bench, and in addition I purchased a used table/chairs set on craigslist for $40, and I think I can re-finish the chairs and put a new farmhouse style top on the table, and potentially sell the new table/chairs for a nice profit (and having the bottom of the table built already could save some time on the building side!). Once the table tonight is picked up and I get the bench finished, I will re-group and evaluate this business venture. It’s certainly profitable and enjoyable, but it is fairly time consuming and I’m not sure how scale-able it would be. If nothing else, my inclination now is that it’s a great way to really boost my budget with a few wins in the $200-500 range. 

​I’m also still looking at products to source externally and sell, and I’m making some progress on that front. I think I have a few decent ideas, but the barrier to entry for products that have low competition still seems to be in the $2000-5000 range.  I am excited to get to that point, but I think some smaller steps are still needed to get the necessary cash.  

Thanks for reading, be sure to join the email list to stay up-to-date on the project!