This Couple's Humble Craft Market Origins for their Woodworking Business

Becky and Mike of Bear Naked Wood LLC say they started by doing 40 craft shows a year, but now they've outgrown them with their lucrative custom woodworking projects

Five years ago when Mike quit his job to pursue a career as a woodworker, he and his wife Becky never thought it would grow to the size it has now. 

"I never thought we'd be doing $10,000 tables," says Becky, explaining they got their start at Holiday and craft fairs, selling little birch decorations like reindeers.

Now they have a handful of employees and multiple barns they work out of, and their custom woodworking business continues to grow, partly due to their Woodland Mills HM130MAX Portable Sawmill.

"I didn't think it would get this big, this quick," says Becky, explaining she now too has quit her job to join her husband at Bear Naked Wood LLC.

Humble Origins

Mike says the pair started their business small. They had a large property in Fenton, Michigan with lots of white birch.

Seeing opportunity the two began to harvest their trees and do handmade items like spruce Reindeer and Christmas decorations. They'd go to craft fairs, farmers markets, Holiday markets and more as they grew their customer base.

The money was good at first, as a side hustle, but they began to realize they might be able to do this as a day job if they made some changes.

"We did about 40 arts and crafts shows the first year, the first summer," says Mike. "Each year we did about ten less, but we went higher quality and less volume."

They started doing more custom charcuterie boards and live-edge tables, things that brought in the big money.

"Now we have eliminated the summertime outside shows because our products have grown to a much, much higher quality and we don't really want to be exposed to the elements."

A Homegrown Business

Becky says she's grateful so many customers have supported them and helped the growth of their small local business.

She never imagined they'd no longer be doing Reindeers or any of the small things they did to get started, because now it's such a small part of their business. As they scaled up, they've been spending more of their time doing big projects worth tens of thousands of dollars, so the little stuff just isn't as profitable anymore.

Now they're recognized as the local sawyers in their area. Customers come to them with logs and request specific cuts for their own building or woodworking projects.

They've also started doing epoxy resin pour classes to teach others how to make awesome charcuterie boards on their own.

It's all so different from when they first started, but it's also allowed them to follow their passion and turn their side hustle into a full grown sawmill and woodworking business.

"Sometimes we look at the stack of jobs coming up and it's overwhelming but we're very blessed that business is still coming in and people are supporting us and they're supporting a small, local business," says Becky.