Woodworking Community | Helping a Competitor?

I recently helped out a fellow woodworker with the final push to finish a large order. He was commissioned to make 67 dining tables for a prominent local restaurant. Holy cow! That’s a lot of tables for a small shop. Or even for a big shop. With a tight deadline and both of his employees away for the week, a few of us stepped up to help out with the time consuming tasks of getting the final couple dozen tables ready to head to the finisher.

Didn’t I sabotage my own business by helping out another, you ask? He’s the competition and we don’t help the competition. Right?

Nope. Not right.

Scott runs Dust & Spark, LLC, out of Boulder, Colorado. When I left medicine and started my own furniture business I noticed a local woodworker started following me on Instagram. It was Scott, and at the time lived in my town of Lafayette (adjacent to Boulder).

I debated whether to reach out, as I figured he wouldn’t want to help out new competition. But boy was I wrong.

To the contrary, he was most gracious and willing to have a drink and talk shop. And the business of shop. And share ideas and learnings.

What I’ve since discovered is that the majority of the professional woodworking community is just as willing to help a fellow craftsman. Whether local, or in far away places (thanks to the interwebs), this community of artisans seems to want to elevate each other, rather than step all over each other on the way up.

Contrast that with another woodworking business owner I met locally whose mission, it seemed, was to put down everyone else but himself. People should hire him, he seemed to suggest, because everyone else did terrible work and he was the best thing around.

When you’re thinking about a shop for your custom furniture needs, listen to how they reference others. If they’re comfortable enough with you evaluating different makers, that’s a telling sign of their character and ability. If they’re telling you that they’re the only one for you then you might want to ask why. And ask if that’s really true.

I’d much prefer to keep company with people like Scott, who are passionate about their craft, confident in their own abilities, and willing to help create a community rather than tear it down. What kind of shop do you want for your custom creations?