Don't Niche Too Soon: Let Your Customers Build Your Business
episode
The Handcrafted Podcast: The Business of making things
13 min
1 speaker
8 chapters
transcribed 1 month ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is the main premise of the episode and why does Paul challenge the “find your niche” advice?
Welcome to the Handcrafted Podcast, the business of making things. I'm Paul, founder of Philadelphia Table Company and the Handcrafted Network, and I believe great craftsmanship deserves great business strategy. This podcast is for makers who want to build not just great products but a thriving business. Each episode will dive into the mindset, systems, and skills that turn craft into success.
Hi guys, welcome back to the Handcrafted Podcast. Hope everybody's been doing great. I'm actually personally preparing uh for a vacation. Happy Fourth of July. I'm gonna head out of town, go to Maine, and uh really excited to just get away, do a little bit of a mental reset and Come back motivated. I'm a big believer in going on vacation and taking time. to recollect your thoughts, rethink things, and just do like a mental reset. And so On the in the group, we had a group call about like adding employees and like bringing on people that can like help. And I think one of the main reasons for doing so is to give yourself that break. Uh it's really nice to have a team around me so that I can go away. And it's nice also having a team so my fellow team members can also go away and take time off, all of that stuff.
So I often, you know, I've been seeing a ton of ads and content lately where it's like I'm just in this to make stuff. I just want to be a person in a garage. Look, Totally fine, totally groovy. Just remember that That works as long as you are willing to work and have the time to do the work to do so, right? I think a lot of people get scared to bring employees on. A lot of people get scared to, I don't know, grow the business or get nervous about it. And yeah, I think it's just if anything, I hope it motivates you to dream a little bit bigger, to go a little bit bigger and to find somebody or something that really kind of, you know, can grow. And I'm hoping, you know, that's maybe one of the reasons why you listen to this podcast is you're trying to figure out how to grow the business and how to get it further along than where it currently is.
Of course I love making stuff.
How does taking a vacation and mental reset influence Paul’s perspective on business growth?
Of course I would love to just be solo me in A garage or a wood shop or a barn or something just making stuff. But the practical implications of that are not super, super great. So, with that said, that's why I created this podcast to help people learn how to grow, how to scale their businesses. That's also why I created the online community network. I just got off a one-on-one call with somebody, and he was telling me how one of the greatest things that he Gets out of the group is the network of people and connection with other people all unified doing the same thing. There's no trade secrets in there. That's the other thing we kind of talked about too, is the woodworking industry has a bit of like a stigma of trade secret type stuff.
We share all the information. If you want to know who my CNC person is, I'll tell you who my CNC person is. If you want to know how I ship something from Philadelphia to Ohio. So The community is a really great place to plug into pe plug in with people. I just recently heard a quote, uh it was like one of the founders of I think Uber or something was talking about one of the things that really helped them accelerate was being part of a network, being a part of a group of people that Supports you and helps you grow and sort of forces you to level up, holds you accountable, all of that sort of stuff. So, with that said, this podcast is brought to you by the Handcrafted Network. It's an amazing online community where you get to connect with other makers.
We have a few other people, like I've said on the previous podcasts, that are coming in that are that are doing different mediums. So we have some art uh some painters, we have some ceramicists, we have some leather. workers. We have a bunch of other people that are starting to filter in there, which has been really cool. It's been great getting to know everybody's businesses and get to chat and talk with all of them about that sort of stuff.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main premise of the episode and why does Paul challenge the “find your niche” advice?
0:00–2:17
2
How does taking a vacation and mental reset influence Paul’s perspective on business growth?
2:17–4:32
3
Why does Paul say hiring employees is essential for freedom and sustainability in a maker business?
4:32–7:10
4
What problems arise when makers niche down too early and how does Paul illustrate this with his own experience?
7:10–9:12
5
How can saying “yes” to a variety of projects help uncover real customer demand?
9:12–11:18
6
In what ways does geographic location shape the products and niche a furniture maker should pursue?
11:18–12:31
7
How did Philadelphia Table Company naturally evolve from custom work to a focused table collection?
12:31–13:21
8
What final advice does Paul give for makers to avoid early niching and create their own business “recipe”?
13:21–13:23