Events

Breakout Session 2: The Forest as Business - Strengthening Local Forest Enterprises

Panelists:

• Annie Cheatham, Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture
• Lloyd Crawford, Stump Sprouts Cross Country Ski Area and Conference Center
• Michael Humphries, Michael Humphries Woodworking, Inc.
• John Payne, Foxbard Farm (Grassfed Beef and Firewood)

The goal of this discussion is to hear from owners of established forest-based businesses. What advice can they offer to participants who are much less farther along in the process?

How Do You Find Customers, Satisfy Them, and Keep Them Coming Back?

• Crawford: Word of mouth is primary. The website is very important. I don’t print brochures any more. It takes time to build up a clientele. Nurture return business. Lloyd deals with small groups of 15-20 people and accommodates special needs, including planning menus according to taste and diet preferences.
• Humphries: My woodworking business is competitive because it caters to esoteric tastes. Care, attention, and time are given to potential clients. The more time you have, the better, because you are selling yourself. Use a website, answer e-mails. Be honest and say no when you can’t give customers what they want. Brochures are a customized folder with 10 pictures of completed work that corresponds to the customer’s interest. Try different things. When you first start out, you’re groping.
• Payne: Each person on the panel is in a specialty business. Specialty businesses require three things:
  • Product differentiation: Black Angus has a good reputation of better taste.
  • Customer focus: If a customer cannot take 100 lbs. of meat in the freezer, but has 6 friends who would like to share, make a spreadsheet to show how many lbs of each type of cut comes with the 100 lb order, and the price per pound to enable her and her friends to divide the order easily.
  • Good value: each time customers order something, they are given a little extra. Deliver a little more than a cord of wood; throw in a couple of extra lbs of ground beef.
  • It is critical to massage the customer, stay close, ask what worked and what didn’t work. If a customer doesn’t come back, call them and ask them what’s wrong. Your most important product is your reputation: hard to build, easy to lose.
  • 80% of marketing happens directly through me. Also, demand for my product is greater than the supply.

Charitable Donations

• Humphries: As a business owner, you’re always asked to give donations. Go with it. It feels good and is a great form of advertising, and a great community builder. I prefer to donate products rather than money: cutting boards.
• Crawford: I buy little ads in fundraiser brochures or send out free passes for skiing. I also sponsor the Food Bank benefit, which is a great marketing event. The Food Bank does the marketing. Stump Sprouts gives away an afternoon of skiing and a spaghetti supper.
• Cheatham: Pairing with non-profits is great. Gift Certificates work too, as well as bring people to your business that may not come on their own.

Developing New Products/Diversifying

• Crawford: Keep an ear to the ground. Go to conferences and network. See what other people are doing that’s new.
• Richard Tracy (participant): I noticed that sunflowers on decorative items were everywhere, so I told my son to grow sunflowers for his [farmers] market business.
• Payne: I looked at where we were spending most of our time. The spring was spent collecting maple sap, which brought in a couple of thousand dollars. Using the sawmill during that spring mud season would bring in much more money. With the sawmill, the whole log is used: lumber, slabs, and sawdust. I also encourage the growth of higher value trees by limbing them up and leaving them to encourage growth.
• Richard Tracy: With your own mill, you could use more of the tree, as well as smaller diameter ones. That is where the Mass Woodlands Coop. comes in: value added.

Stories: How Important Is How You Talk About Your Place?

• Crawford: Always give a little orientation to new groups. Make sure people know when the lettuce they are eating is grown right here: image and story are very important.
• Participant: Local lumber is not graded, but building codes require its use.
• Payne: Since this is still a very local market, I try not to get the building inspector involved.
• Humphries: It may be better not to use the local lumber for framing. Focus on decorative uses such as barn board, wainscoting, etc.
• Payne: Another part of the answer is that we’re described as specialty businesses. Graded lumber is part of a commodity market.

How Do Landowners Find Reliable Foresters and Operators?

• Steve Anderson (MA Forest Stewardship Program): The Stewardship program helps connect landowners with responsible foresters. It also sponsors occasional workshops. It operates statewide, and helps owners who are developing new plans. There is a cost-share program. The Feds pay up to half the price of the plan, while the state pays up to 100%. There is no waiting list right now.
• Perhaps the MWI or UMass Extension could compile information about what rules loggers must follow so that landowners will not get taken. There is a significant need to educate landowners so they may protect themselves.

Summation/Next Steps

• The MWI or UMass Extension should organize an info sheet with operators, including a description of their work (horse loggers, skidders, portable sawmill operators, etc.) and contact information. A website could be created that contains all of those connections.
• Investigate biomass energy production from wood that is traditionally discarded.
• Workshop to discuss health threats to forests (Wooly Adelgid, Ash die-back, etc) and ways to prevent and minimize.