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From peddling duct tape wallets in middle school to creating a multi-million-dollar woodworking business, Ryan Drapela’s entrepreneurial journey began at a young age. Growing up on a Texas farm, he picked up essential skills like welding and operating heavy machinery. By the time he was 15, he was already selling woodworking projects out of his parents’ horse barn, crafting custom pieces to help fund his college education.
The real wake-up call came one morning at 4:30 AM, when an exhausted Ryan realized he needed to move from one-off custom work to scalable products. His breakthrough came with a wooden docking station that brought in $46,000 in just six weeks.
Starting with just a $75 miter saw and reclaimed pallet wood, Ryan built what would become Drapela Works—a thriving woodworking business boasting 25 employees and cutting-edge CNC machinery. Today, his woodworking projects reach customers worldwide, with more than $5 million in Etsy sales alone.
In this episode, Ryan dives into how he scaled his woodworking business from a simple barn setup to a full-fledged production facility, why he believes personalized customer experiences trump paid advertising, and how his passion for quality craftsmanship fuels organic, word-of-mouth growth.
Resources:
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Timestamps:
00:00 – Start
00:49 – $120K worth of wood
01:02 – Commercial woodshop… in a garage?!
01:42 – Not your regular saw
02:13 – The most “country” dude you can think of
02:47 – Monthly overhead
03:25 – Inspired by 3 simple questions
04:40 – The “I told you so” product
05:47 – Feeling of early success
06:26 – Clumping wood together
07:07 – The “Lambo” machine
07:51 – Yearly revenue breakdown
08:18 – Most profitable products
08:34 – The product that made millions
11:16 – Fan blitz
12:38 – Picking the best product
13:33 – Branding DOES matter
14:37 – Best machine in the shop
15:14 – Income streams
16:08 – The burning question
16:46 – It’s all about the photos
17:22 – Dipping process (100% food safe!)
18:04 – Pricing and margins
19:07 – Starting with FREE materials
19:46 – Laser engraver
21:19 – Finding and maintaining good suppliers
22:32 – Garage, tears, and pure grind
23:27 – From Home Depot to $5M
24:19 – 3 steps to $100K
25:04 – A family business
25:38 – Always the final call
26:17 – Business sucks, it happens!
27:18 – Only one person in the angry boat
28:44 – Not a fan of social media
30:10 – What would 80-year-old you do?
31:04 – Handling seasonality
31:53 – Only leap when you’re ready
32:40 – Outro
#woodworking #woodworkingprojects #woodworkingbusiness
