Our First Company...

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!