Cherry Cabinets in a 20x20 Garage

[David Coleman]

Here is a cherry kitchen I completed last year. The customer was in a pinch and needed cabinets quickly. A mutual business associate gave this family my name and a glowing recommendation to get a bid and measure the cabinets. The family told me they were under deadline to order their granite and they need cabinets quickly. I've only done one other kitchen with the program. Most of my stuff is small--Armoires and the like. They had just come from one of the Big Box stores and the only thing they only came away with was a catalog and a 3-D Rendering of their dream kitchen in black and white. E-Cabinets to the rescue. 3-Days later I had their deposit and began building. I met their deadline and had two very happy customers. thank you e-cabs Oh yeah, I'm still in a 20x20 garage

David Coleman
Shaker Works

The kitchen without granite (alas...)

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This is the image that closed the deal

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[Michael Rodgers]

I'm in a 24x24 garage, you would be suprised what you can do in there. We have machinery most wouldn't dare put in a place that small.

[David Coleman]

Yeah, you're right.
I'm currently bidding a job twice this size with over 100 doors on it. There is almost 40 lf of cabs. There's the full compliment of appliance garages, glass doors, tiers, wine racks, display cabs, etc. If I keep getting work like this I'll have to blow some wall out somewhere and expand my business. I only take a job on occasionally b/c my 9-5 is in a production level cabinet shop (which uses another "high-end" design program) and i'm trying to move into becoming my own boss. Lot's of late hours...
The funny thing about e-cabs is that it helps give me the confidence to compete against other companies. Customers see exactly what they get.

[Jean G Voyer]

About 20 years ago I had my business in 22 X 24 garage. After complaints about the noise by a neighbor the city made me move out. I rented a 1500 sq ft shop in an industrial park. That was the best thing that happened to me. I more than double my production and double my profit all on my own. I didn't realize how much time I was spending moving things around in such a confine space. Some time we hesitate to make a move because of the unknown factors but because of that experience right now I am in a 2500 sq ft bay and we will take over the next bay to me next month which will double our space. And I am not afraid to do so because over the years the progress I made will insure my future.
But every body has to start somewhere and good luck to you fellows, go get the future.

[DaleKern]

David,

Great job! eCabs and a garage full of tools will certainly get the job done. Really a great testimony to the power of eCabs. Now, on the next job, I recommend you using production sharing with one of your Missouri neighbors (I think that would be Damon Nabors...). That will blow you away!!! All those parts cut perfectly allowing you to focus on other aspects of the business. Unbelievable power - it's as if you stuffed a router inside the garage next to the table saw. Who knows, as you grow you might end up with one of those routers - but probably not in the garage....

By the way I work by myself and I'm in 1,500 s/f building on my property with an empty building (5,200 s/f) used for storage. Many have asked why don't I move the shop into the bigger building - Using production sharing (Thank you Michael Murray...) I don't feel I would gain anything except a higher heating bill. Of course I'm not overly ambitious.... I don't really want to leave the "craft" and run a business with employees.

Best of luck,

Dale

[David Coleman]

Thanks for your comments and encouragement. I've already considered outsourcing the doors and will probably do so for the case parts. There are at least 20 cabinet shops within a 40-mile radius and they all produce just about the same product. I'm trying to be a better student of my competition and thinking of ways to increase productivity as well as keep the profit margin at a reasonable rate. I don't want to take my customers to the bank. So what i'm thinking is that I can find small incremental ways to increase the quality of my cabinetry--dovetail drawers and the like--that would give me a slight marketing edge. I have heard it said that if you do one thing 10% better than your competition you'll have more work than you will know what to do with.
I love the fact that working with e-cabs makes the process, from start to finish, fully customizable. I wanted to include another image of some of the work I've done--wish I had e-cabs at the time. This is a picture of a Columbarium that I was commissioned to build at a local church. This one took about 300 hours. But it was fun every step of the way.

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I would like to make these types of jobs my niche but I know I need the bread & butter jobs to go along with it.

[Brian Shannon]

Nice Work David! eCab's IS a great tool. I presented a bid last week for some work in the Superior Courtroom. They were very impressed by the proffesional renderings and that I was the only one that "got" what they wanted. They could see that we were on the same page because of eCabinets. Oh, the jury's still out...


Brian