Live Edge Table Business

Last December I visited a local wood shop to purchase a slab for my kitchen. It was essentially a one man operation in a leased warehouse. He has a huge amount of large logs all over the property that he slab cuts with their giant saw, dries in their kiln, and then shapes into beautiful furniture which he sells to local businesses and customers for their own homes. He also sells the unfinished slabs for DIY.

I fell in love with the operation and began helping him out in my spare time learning from him. He always has work but since he is alone and retirement age, he can only work limited jobs.

He does zero online marketing and basically keeps his business running on word of mouth. In the 10 months I have been there I have began running Facebook ads and working on his website which has brought in more business than he can handle.

He recently approached me and asked if I would want to take over the business. He wouldn’t charge any up front price and he would stay on for at least a year. I would pay him a percent of sales in exchange for all the raw logs, cut slabs, and use of all his equipment. I would also pay him for his time over the next year.

I would take over the building lease and obviously write up the acquisition in a way that covered myself by ensuring the equipment was always available as long as I am paying and that the deal would remain in place even if he were not around anymore for whatever reason.

I am no expert yet but I am handy and with the amount of business I’ve been able to gain from online marketing, I think I have a shot at making this work.

I currently have a well paying office job and a wife who is cautiously excited about the opportunity. I figure that if I try for a year and it fails I can always return to my industry.

Am I crazy for considering this? What am I not thinking about that I should be?

Thanks for your thoughts!