A Business Comes Out of the Woods

Measuring the growth of JO Johnson's business - "Wood You Tell Me" - is like counting the rings of a tree. Each ring represents a challenge met and turned into a small victory. As the tree grows, so grows the company - and its success.

The seed for "Wood You Tell Me" was actually planted when JO was still dating her husband-to-be, Jeff, and they encountered a marquetry exhibit at a Minneapolis-area mall. It was JO's first encounter with marquetry, and as she says, "it was love at first sight."

Like many an infatuation, JO went into it with everything: She bought books. She purchased a saw. She stocked up on beautiful woods. She took a class. Laughingly, she says, "I failed miserably."

A year later and now married, JO discovered she still had a fair amount of wood left over. She wanted to make a special gift for her husband. She woodburned a poem she had written, and decided to turn it into a card. She put some tiny brass hinges on it, which didn't work out quite as she had hoped, but was good enough for the short-term.

The growth of an idea...

The card may not have lasted, but the idea that she was "onto something"spurred JO to mention it to a friend in the local Chamber of Commerce. He agreed, and thought she should pursue the idea. "I went crazy,"says JO"I bought every species of veneer I could find."

The first challenge was to find a way to impose artwork and poems onto the wood. She eventually found a local printer who was able to handle that piece of it. She got a "nice, clean image," but was limited to just one or two colors. She still had the problem of how to bind the two pieces of wood. Having found out that hinges were less than successful, she started the search for a better method.

"It's funny, but when you have a challenge, you're always looking for answers. Your antennae are up. One day, I stumbled onto a brochure and found that they used padding compound to hold it together. Anyway, I called the place and they actually showed me how they did it."

Now that she had conquered some of her technical problems, she could start experimenting with the kind of art she wanted and decided on Western and wildlife motifs.

Growing pains...

JO was ready to take her show on the road. Her product was unique, and there was no competition - but she soon found out that the purchasing public, though they loved the product, was wary of it. Could you mail it? Would it break?
Making the cards was both labor-intensive and costly. In short, too much so for the price the cards could fetch. In the meantime, she had landed her first real client who bought both note cards and business cards - meaning that JO was now doing both wholesale and custom orders simultaneously.

She was also experimenting with other ideas (such as bookmarks, of which she "sold a ton") and the use of different species of woods. She finally settled on maple because of its light color, which made it more conducive to accepting the colors that were being printed. In the meantime, the perceived problems with her products continued to plague her. It hit home when, at a show in 1995, dozens of people stopped by to admire her wares - but she didn't make a single sale.

Of course, even as Jo and her husband tried to "grow" the business, life marched on. The Johnson's had children (now 2 and 4 years old) and were putting in 12-hour days. And as she said in an interview with the Minneapolis Star Tribune, "Do not have children at the same time you're trying to build a business. It's really hard to breast-feed and run a scroll saw at the same time."
The search was on to find "the product" that would be cost-effective to produce, profitable, unique, and desirable. In 1997, she met another exhibitor at a show in Montana. "He said I should forget cards and think gifts." His wife got Jo hooked up with a sales rep, and the path became clear. Or, at least, more clear.

Back to the drawing board, Jo started experimenting with jewelry, ornaments, and a variety of souvenir-type items. Working with the scroll saw became increasingly frustrating, insofar as it was time-consuming and ungainly. Laser cutting was clearly the answer, so she started farming out the laser work. Unfortunately, their first contractor "stole the company secrets" in the form of their software and made and sold his own products. They found another source, and though they were honest, they were also expensive and couldn't always keep up with the demand for inventory.

The decision was made to purchase their own laser-cutting system at the cost of $50,000. Getting a loan from for a total for $30,000 (plus a $20,000 low-interest loan from an economic-development group) may have seemed a leap of faith on the part of the bank - especially considering that the business hadn't even earned that much in the previous year. But this is where Jo's background (plus a lot of determination) came into play.

While she had no woodworking mentor, she had entrepreneurship in her blood. Jo's father had his own publishing business, so she grew up thinking that risk-taking was normal. She also says that she had a business mentor "who was like a grandfather" to her. Jo also has a background in new product development and a degree in marketing communications She likes the outdoors, she likes wood, and she has an artistic bent. It all added up to starting a business that would involve all of her talents and skills.

All of the above, plus walking in with a sheaf of orders in hand, convinced the bank that "Wood You Tell Me" was worth the investment.

Now the business is a full-time, home-based family affair. Husband Jeff left his full-time job to devote his energy to the business. Not only has Jo found the "perfect"product line in votive candle holders (her best seller), along with picture and clock frames, to name a few, she has found the perfect species of wood. "Aromatic cedar is it. It smells good, looks good, and is easy to work with."(She uses other species primarily for her custom orders.)

But, as any business owner knows, even success has its price. "We're in such a growth pattern right now that we'll need to add an employee soon, and it makes me a little uncomfortable."

She also adds that this is a real business - "not a hobby". It's also a lot of work, with days that frequently start at 5 a.m. and don't end until midnight.

Now that they've achieved success, Jo looks back on the early days and says it was all worth it, but is glad she doesn't have to go through the early struggles again - adding, with a laugh, "I'd rather go through labor."

But for Jo Johnson, this whole business has obviously been a labor of love.

If you'd like to contact Jo, her phone is (218) 846-0100 and her fax is (218)846-9384.