Our new member Mark made me think of this story I came across about internet marketing of wood.
A few years ago I was looking for some wood for a build project in Klamath Falls, Oregon. Klamath Falls is an area you might call under privileged when it comes to trees. Oh they've got some Fir, Pine, and some Juniper and of course urban wood but no really good hard woods at all. Climate wise the area is considered High Desert. I think they're down to one or two sawmills in a very large county.
Anyway was sent to a place called Cooks Wood. Had trouble finding them even with the street address in hand. Might have had something do with the sign on the front door being hand written on typing paper hung with scotch tape.
This business was started by a guy with two college degrees and a commercial pilots license that was looking for what he wanted to do in life.
He started making fishing tackle boxes out of figured Big Leaf maple some of which he bought from a small hardwood mill just down the road from where I now live. People started asking him where he got the wood?
Started a wood business with a small manual Woodmizer and a Dewalt tabletop planer.
He now grosses over $250,000 per year 90%+ done over the internet. He built a "real" saw mill a couple years to get his production up. Imports most of his wood and takes thousands of pictures a year. He and his wife are both very active in the business and have few employees to worry about. The only one I saw when I visited was a part time college student that kind of knew where the different wood was stored.
Take a look:
http://www.cookwoods.com/
