lystn

Today’s guest is a great example of a Woodpreneur with a dream that he’s made a reality. Ryan Penner of the Veteran owned, RST Timberworks!  Ryan discusses going full time after balancing his love of urban wood and woodworking with a full-time job. Ryan comes by his passion honestly, he’d always been interested in wood and woodworking and started a side business as a tree removal specialist while in the military. His interest in urban wood piqued when he realized some of the trees he was cutting down were too beautiful to end up as firewood or in a landfill. Ryan eventually decided to trust his entrepreneurial mindset and take a chance focusing solely on milling and woodworking. His current set up is pretty great, he has a small sawmill and mills customer logs that they bring or have brought out at a competitive rate. Thanks to his history doing tree removal, he also still has some friends in the industry who tip him off to good logs, he mills those and sells the lumber as well! He is currently air drying so all his prices are for green lumber, but he’s in the process of taking the business to the next level with a solar kiln. On top of the lumber side, he also does custom live edge woodworking, custom bartops, river tables, and desks.  On the decision to go full-time Ryan says it really came down to not just enough hours in the day, passion, and self-employment being the right path for him. While he essentially is a one-man operation, he talks about getting help from his dad and his young sons making the family aspect another reason this was the best route. With the support of his wife and family, he’s been able to focus full time now on the business, and Ryan is growing it and expanding it one piece at a time. He discusses his marketing costs, hurdles, and how the business has been over the last few years, in terms of advice he says; “My advice is to not give up.” Ryan stresses that you have to have a passion for this, owning a small business means often hearing a lot of “no’s” and putting in a lot of work, but if you have the passion it’s worth it. Even more so in the Urban Wood Business because of how niche it can be. Ultimately though he says to just not give up and have patience, even in terms of equipment you’ll never have everything you want starting out so patience is key. Ryan remembers rolling 1500lb logs uphill before they had a tractor, but the love of the craft made it worth it. To see more about Ryan and RST Timberworks check out  https://www.rsttimberworks.com/ https://www.instagram.com/rsttimberworks https://www.facebook.com/rsttimberworks