As a kid, I enjoyed the challenge of making something and getting paid for it. Entrepreneurship was something that came natural to me, and I don’t particularly know why. When I was as young as six years old, I would make hand written greeting cards for relatives to purchase for upcoming occasions. I spent a short time making wooden blocks out of scrap wood in my Dad’s workshop (foreshadowing). As I got older, I would have fun dreaming up ideas for a business, and I always believed I could build a successful one. Somewhere around the age of 12, I started mowing the lawn at my parents’ house. This was one of the many ideas that ran through my head as a potential business, and this one became a reality.
I first started the lawn mowing business with a friend from school. We went door to door with flyers (I think I still have the flyer). We ended up landing about five lawns through canvassing the nearby neighborhoods. We would each wheel our parents’ push mower up the road, and tackle the yard together. This lasted about a month to my recollection. We didn’t have a falling out or anything like that, I think my partner just didn’t have a passion for being an entrepreneur. I continued to maintain the jobs that we had landed, and eventually, convinced my Dad to let me take the ride mower out if I gassed it up after each lawn. I loved getting paid, but there was definitely some deeper satisfaction in building relationships with the customers, landing that next job and going above and beyond for people. Speaking of going above and beyond, working with my partner on these lawns was the first time I realized that not everyone has the same idea of a job well done. I won’t go into detail on this one, but working as a team can be hard, especially if you are putting your reputation on the line via someone else’s work.
I always think back to these times and think.. “Why did I decide against building this into a legitimate business in high school?” I made over $2000 in my most successful season, and had around 10 lawns. I saved nearly every dime of that money, and probably had enough savings to buy a truck at age 16, and spread the business across town. I did not continue the business. A few of my customers moved away over the years, and I chose to pass the remaining lawns on to my younger brother as I got a “real job”. This was early 2010, during my senior year of high school, and I found that I had more free time than I knew what to do with (now I wish for some free time!) I got a job through someone I knew working events on the Central Michigan University Campus. I’ll spare the details from there, but fast forward nine years through six jobs, one degree, a marriage, a dog, and a house – not in that order! There you have it, Cone Furnishings is born!
It’s 2019, Kaylee and I were living life, and life was good! We had what we both thought we wanted; A house, steady, full time jobs and each other. We talked regularly about it, but I just wasn’t happy. Although I found times to be happy, work wasn’t giving me a creative outlet and this idea of starting a business kept coming back up. I had never let go of the dream from when I was a kid and it turns out Kaylee had always dreamed of doing something outside the box as well.
I will take this time to say that this business would likely not exist without Kaylee. I am the one doing it full time, but she is the one that believed in it from the beginning. She is the one that reminds me nicely that my pictures are “okay”, but “why is the side of the truck and the neighbor’s fence in it” and she is the one that works her evenings and weekends alongside me to make it all happen.
Although it was a shared dream, we continued to write it off as a possibility. If you have looked over our “About” page on the website, you may have seen the phrase “a few pennies (literally)”. This is our way of saying, we are paying off our student debt, and starting a business was a risk. At the time our extra income that was being put towards loans was a large amount and starting a business would slow that progress.
One day in January 2019 we decided that maybe we could do this in addition to our jobs. The initial thought was that we could make home décor items, working our way into furniture. We would create the product, then sell to the customer. We created our social media accounts, bought the lumber to make five wine racks, and away we went! The initial response was good. We got about 100 likes on Facebook and Instagram, and people were very supportive. It’s amazing thinking back to where we started, and how much our initial plan changed.
At work one day, I had a conversation with a co-worker about woodworking. She asked me about how I got started (a story for a different time), and what kind of projects I had completed in the past. It was a casual conversation, but one of many examples how a simple conversation can create connections that you wouldn’t expect. A couple weeks later, the same co-worker stopped Kaylee and I as we were walking out of the building together, and said, “I gave your information to someone asking about refurbishing a piano, I hope that’s okay.” We went on to tell her, “Absolutely!” and called the client the following day to discuss what she was looking for. This project took place on nights and weekends in our garage that at the time was a workshop/garage/shed/storage unit. We began to realize that it was hard to put 100% effort into a project of this scope while working a full-time job.
On top of the piano project, we landed a couple additional jobs between January 2019 and May 2019, and worked those into the schedule. We quickly came to realize that this would take either all our waking moments if I wanted to keep my job, or we would need to take a leap of faith. Our original picture was that once the business made up my salary it would be the perfect time to quit. During this time period we were constantly weighing options, questioning what was most important to us. In May 2019 we chose to take the leap of faith. We decided to bet on ourselves being able to pursue passion, make enough money, and build something for the future. Coming up on the warm season was also a bonus as we would be able to rearrange the garage, and work outside if needed. It was as perfect of a time as we were going to find, and we had a couple jobs lined up to get us that first month’s paycheck. We didn’t know where the business was going, and didn’t have any guarantees after that first month, but we went for it.
We have seen the business grow and progress in more ways than one, and are so excited about the possibilities! In the last nine months, we have grown the business in sales, become an LLC, attended our first art fair, completed over 30 custom projects ranging greatly in size and scope, and now published our website! We are blessed to have this opportunity, and are working hard seven days a week to keep improving, growing, and succeeding. We have had the best clients to work with, and are eternally grateful that they decided to work with us. The trust that they had in us to deliver a great product, is what has allowed us to grow, and for me to pursue this full time.