A week ago today, I was teaching a community workshop on establishing powerful partnerships. The attendees and I shared some really special conversations about our wins, losses, fears, and goals when it comes to successfully working with others and allowing others to represent our brand. I’ve been working in influencer marketing for nearly four years, and I can confidently say that not all partnerships are created equal. Some take relentlessly and businesses owners don’t see a return or adequate compensation for the effort put in. Some give so graciously and fill every party involved with both gratitude and inspiration. I forged one of the latter partnerships with Josh and Lauren. Months before our actual work together took shape, I sat on the phone with them for an hour in my tiny little apartment and described in detail the house I hadn’t yet purchased. Not only did they show interest in finding a product that was perfect for me and the space I envisioned, they took time to listen to my stories and share some of their own. We talked about struggles and successes as small business owners and lined out the goals that make great partnerships work.
As a tangible outcome, Josh and Lauren created a farmhouse dining room table for my home. In it, I received so much more. As the heart of my kitchen, I received the ideal centerpiece to entertain 30+ local bloggers, to share meals with my better half, and to pile high with notebooks and receipts as I sort through business ownership perils. Further, they took the time to answer a few questions for me about what being thriving entrepreneurs means to them, and agreed to to let me share their responses so that they can impart this knowledge to my readers. Read on for their answers and to get to know this powerful duo.
Describe yourselves in 10 words or less.
Josh – honest, driven, ambitious, reliable, task oriented, productive, talented
Lauren – a free bird, thoughtful, compassionate, conscientious, relationship-driven, detail-oriented
How did you get your idea or concept for your business?
When we got married and bought our first house together, we didn’t have the extra money to buy a new table for our home. Lauren’s parents gave us their old, round, wood pedestal table that Lauren used to do her crafts on when she was growing up. Although we were grateful for the house warming gift, it didn’t match anything in our new home… So, Lauren’s mom suggested we paint it. Once we found our “Pinspiration” photo, we gave the DIY thing a shot. It took us what felt like a month to refinish, however, we loved how our new-to-us table turned out. Even more so, we loved how the table brought us closer together in so many ways. We’ve spent the past 3 years making memories around that table with our friends and family, and with each other.
It seemed like every time we had company, we would receive more and more compliments on our project, which led to more projects and eventually to us refinishing pieces for friends. This pattern turned into us doing other pieces for people like hutches, coffee tables, bedroom sets, etc. We started finding solid wood fixer-upper furniture pieces on Facebook Marketplace, OfferUp and Letgo apps, and refinished them to sell.
If you could have dinner with one person – living or dead, who would it be and why?
Chip and Joanna Gaines, hands down. We have so many questions for them about their entire journey. Chip and Jo also began selling furniture and decor pieces from their home before opening their first store. Now, they’ve put their own farmhouse touches on almost everything, everywhere. From flipping homes in their neighborhood on Fixer Upper to filling our homes with the perfect Target finds from Jo’s Magnolia Homes decor, Chip and Jo [seem to] have done it all. We would love to visit Magnolia Market and the Silos and eat with them at their very own Magnolia Table, where they serve breakfast all day long.
Tell me about your best and worst days at work since starting your business.
Our best days are “POST DAY!”. Post day is when a project is complete and we get to stage it and post it to sell online. Our worst days always seem to be delivery day because we always underestimate how long it’ll take us to get situated for delivery. Most of the time, it’s just us two moving these huge pieces of furniture and loading them into the truck. Once we have the finished project loaded, the sun always seems to highlight the fact that we missed a spot or two. So here we are, outside in the truck-bed doing touch ups last minute before we deliver. Although it can be extremely frustrating and time consuming, we’ve now come to expect this as a part of the process.
What do you like to do when you’re not working?
We like watching movies on Netflix or hanging by the fire pit in our backyard with a glass (aka our own personal bottle) of wine. We enjoy spending time with friends and family, and eating Italian food. One of our favorite things to do is travel and explore new places. Next summer, once Lauren is finished with FNP school, we plan on taking a long (and much needed) vacation. We’ve been debating between: Ireland, Iceland, Tahiti, Italy, or just going back to visit beautiful Bali, Indonesia again. We literally still have the #BaliBlues after our vacation there 2 summers ago.
Is Farmhouse Furniture KY a side hustle?
Yes. Lauren is a pediatric nurse and is also going back to school for her MSN degree to become a Family Nurse Practitioner. Josh works full time at Eastern Kentucky University as an Athletic Academic Advisor & Life Skills Coordinator.
How do you advertise your business?
We mostly advertise on our Facebook business page and on Instagram. We also have a website, however, we rarely even have the chance to post new furniture products to our website before they’re sold and long gone. You can order some of our most loved products, such as our farmhouse shelves from our website, though!
Farmhouse, hand-lettered sign by Lexington Lettering
Who/what is your greatest support when facing up hardships in business?
Each other. We always lean on each other when times are tough.
What makes Farmhouse Furniture KY unique?
We give people options we it comes their furniture selection. They don’t necessarily have to go to the big box stores and pay a fortune on furniture. If they have a piece(s) already, we can refinish it to exactly how they want it to look to fit their home and style. We can also build custom furniture pieces for our clients such as dining room tables, buffets, coffee and side tables, beds, etc. All a client has to do is send us a picture and we can build it!
What’s it like to run a business with your spouse?
Josh handles the “organization” part of our little family owned & operated business. When Lauren finds exactly what our clients are looking for, Josh makes the vision for it happen. He is a perfectionist when it comes to furniture refinishing. Lauren connects with our clients and helps them find exactly what they are looking for and Josh makes the vision come to fruition. We are a perfect team and enjoy doing business together.
Your followers know you work intense hours. How do you avoid burnout?
When you have a big goal, like we do, it can be overwhelming and knowing that it can’t be reached in a few years can cause burnout. However, we have set tiny, baby-step goals. When we first started out, we had a goal to pay off our student loans. Once we paid those off in a year, we needed a new goal. Our next goal was to move to a warehouse that we could work from so we could have our garage and home back. We were even able to move into a larger warehouse recently. Josh needed a new truck, so now our goal is to pay that off. Our next goal is to hire our first employee, then we would like to move into a larger warehouse and ramp up on not only our regional sales, but our national sales as well. The key to avoiding burn out, is to set tiny, achievable goals for yourself, so that psychologically you can see progress and enjoy the journey in the process. Seeing progress equals success for us.
To what do you attribute your success so far?
Our customers are literally the reason we’ve had success with our business so far. There is no better feeling than when we are delivering a product and to see the excitement on our client’s faces when they see their custom pieces in their space. You have no idea how many times we’ve been greeted by our customers with a giant hug and hear the phrase “I feel like I know you!” Lauren spends a lot of time getting to know the client and finding out exactly what it is that they are looking for, within their budget, and Josh makes it happen.
If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out as an entrepreneur, what would it be?
Lauren’s advice: “If there’s something you want to try and do, just do it. And if you don’t know what you’re doing, do it scared. For us, it’s been 3 years of trial and error. We’ve experimented a lot and will still continue to make changes and improvements, but the beautiful part of this business is that things don’t have to be perfect. I love how our customers appreciate that a lot of the solid wood pieces that we refinish are antiques. They’re not by any means in perfect condition from the get go, but we do our very best to make them as perfect as possible for their new homes; and that’s what makes them unique.
Josh’s advice: If you are indeed passionate about what you are doing, don’t be afraid to take risks. Set goals; 6 months, 12 months, 2 years, and 5 years out. Write them down and track how you are doing. Grow personally and professionally by reading books, listening to podcasts and YouTube videos, and attending seminars. You never know when one idea will take your business to the next level. Lastly, be consistent in your marketing and don’t give up. For us, we learned a lot through trial and error. It’s not been an easy path for us, but we try not to let the little road blocks stand in our way.
What do you do on a daily basis to grow as a small business owner?
Work. Network. Create relationships & make new friends. Utilize social media on a consistent basis.
Connect with Farmhouse Furniture KY by visiting their website, Facebook, and Instagram.
This post has been sponsored by Farmhouse Furniture KY. All opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting brands that make Space, Place & Southern Grace possible.
Photos in this post by Sarah E Dunn Photo & Design.
