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What started out as a father and son hobby has turned into a full-time job for Texan, Wayne Fiorenza, who started his own business, Fiorenza Custom Woodworking, in 1996.
"My father, my brothers and I built a boat in the '70s, and that really began my love for woodworking," says Fiorenza, whose company has struggled to grow over the past decade.
Unfortunately, for hobby-turned-career Fiorenza, there are approximately 15 different companies, most of them larger, with whom Fiorenza is engaged in daily head-to-head competition.
"Competition keeps profit margins low," explaines Fiorenza about the effects of big business on his modest custom woodworking shop. "There is always someone out there who can do it cheaper than you."
Fiorenza's struggle to keep up with big businesses is common in today's market. His biggest challenge, says Fiorenza, has been marketing through limited resources. For example, it costs $1,000 to get into a home trade show and, "you have to do them constantly and consistently before they'll ever pay off," he explains. "To be able to put out thousands of dollars two or three times a year, it's tough for a small shop to do that."
Fiorenza has decided to hold off on doing trades shows and focus on where his business is coming from right now: references and repeat customers, who look for quality over quantity, and his website, which generates about 70 percent of Fiorenza's business.
VALUE OF A DOLLAR
When you can't be the fastest and you can't be the cheapest, let the quality of your work do all the talking. That's what Fiorenza has decided. "The bigger companies just have more people available to them and more machinery," says Fiorenza, whose company currently has three employees. "They put 15 or 20 people on a project and have it done in a matter of a few days or a couple of weeks. We can't really compete with them on that."
Client involvement, customization and quality craftsmanship are what Fiorenza focuses on when competing with the large companies. His design process reflects his philosophy of designer quality creations.
"I meet with the clients and discuss their need for each piece, choice of materials and finishes," says Fiorenza, who is involved in each phase of the design process and encourages his clients to be 100 percent involved as well. "Meeting with the customers several times is to give them a comfort level."
He also invites his clients out to his shop to see the product as it's being built and finds that most customers are more than willing to watch their designs come to life. Fiorenza prefers custom projects.
"There is more challenge and craftsmanship in custom work," he says. "It bores me to build the same old box with a door every time."
Fiorenza gains a few clients from the larger companies with that sense of vision and creativity.
The big companies will usually have specific sizes of cabinets and entertainment centers and will call them custom, according to Fiorenza. If a client wants something else, the big companies will increase their prices to make any changes.
"If it doesn't fit your needs, that's when they start looking for somebody like me who can do it to whatever size and whatever specifications it needs to be," says Fiorenza, who orders all materials specific to each job.
"Craftsmanship, training and experience is all it is," he adds. The company does not use a CNC machine or design software, so Fiorenza will draw all of his own designs by hand. Smaller companies have to have the knowledge to do a good job, he stresses. While the company is limited in machinery right now, eventually Fiorenza would like to upgrade and update, "but it's a matter of resources before we can do something like that."
DOT-COM
Right now, the resources for Fiorenza's Custom Woodworking are stemming from the company's interactive website, www.fiorenzacustomwoodworking.com, which has given Fiorenza the ability to reach customers on the national level.
While he has had several requests on the national level because of his website, Fiorenza only builds locally.
"By the time the customer would pay for shipping and find someone to install it, it usually is not convenient for them to want to do something out of state," says Fiorenza, though those are services that he would eventually like to expand to offer.
Fiorenza's experience is similar to that of other small businesses that have turned to websites as a key marketing initiative. According to gregoryhodges.com, "48 percent of small businesses with a website believe their customers come from outside a 50-mile radius. Only 20 percent of small businesses without a website believe the same."
"The Web has changed the way that small companies conduct themselves because it demands instantaneous, context-based information," says Jeff Ellsworth, vice president of sales marketing for Siteworx, on a smartbiz.com discussion board about small businesses and technology. "Anything short of that results in an unsatisfied customer or a lost prospect."
Fiorenza makes sure that his website is clear, simple and easy to navigate. Customers "typically look through the whole (website) in general to see the level and quality of work that we do," he says.
Fiorenza has his phone number posted on his website as well as a contact page, where customers can send an e-mail directly from the site to request a quote from the company.
"Typically, someone that's considering a project will see that website and want to get an idea of what it'll take to do a kitchen."
As easy as that, Fiorenza has been able to generate 70 percent of his business. "My website shows my work and lets potential clients know the level and quality to expect," Fiorenza says.
Agreeing with Fiorenza's emphasis on his Webpage, the best way for small companies to get the ball rolling is to recognize, enhance and take care of the company website, stated "SMEs ignore website importance," an article posted on finsco.com. According to the research, "a fifth of small businesses do not recognize the importance consumers place on company websites."
What's even more important for small businesses to remember is that customers care about what they find on someone's Web page. "It is clear that consumers nowadays expect every business to have a professional Web presence and are turned-off by second-rate websites," says Andreas Gauger, chief executive of 1&1 Internet.
CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
If you're putting out the kind of product people want to see and talk about, the marketing will work out itself, with a few little shoves in the right direction. Whether competing with one or 15 other companies, Fiorenza just keeps in mind that size isn't everything. Quality of work and customer satisfaction should always come first.
When asked what his favorite part of the design process was, Fiorenza's says, "seeing the finished product and a happy customer."
author: By Marci Presser