You may be wondering…”What the heck ever happened to those poor 3 serving boards you put in the dishwasher a while back?! Are they okay? Have you forgotten about them? Will they ever be loved again?!” (And if you missed the post about the boards and the dishwasher, check it out here!)
Okay…maybe you guys don’t worry about the status of our serving boards THAT much…but the answer is…
I know this hurts to look at. Thankfully this is the first and last time we will put our own serving boards through the dishwasher!
YES! They will be loved again…in fact…in the video above and in this post, we’ll tell you all about how we refinished those boards and developed a plan to SCALE board refinishing for our customer base!!
If you want to be viewed as a business that delivers luxury custom products, then you have to give clients tiny details that make them feel like you’ve thought of everything. For us, that was giving clients the ability to get their serving boards refinished once they’ve been used for a long time or have been slightly mistreated (like being put in a dishwasher…)
We decided that we really needed to have two options for board refinishing services based on two types of used boards:
A board mail-in service: For boards that need to be sanded AND need more finish
Finishing kits sent to clients: For boards that only need another coat of finish
To utilize the board mail-in service, clients will go to our website, and purchase the full refinishing service (about $40 or $50 with all shipping costs included). We will then mail the client a box or envelope to place their board into so that they can mail it back to our shop. We will do some light sanding and will put an entire new coat of finish on it. We will then send it back in a safe, customized box.
But what’s beautiful about this box is that it’s going to be free marketing for us!!! It will have our logo, website, and social media links on it and will contain a pamphlet showcasing all of the furniture we build!
We want to take advantage of the opportunity to get more sales from just refinishing a serving board.
Now, if the customer’s board is still in good shape, but just needs more finish, they can go to our website and purchase a DIY refinishing kit that contains a tin of our 3:1 ratio of mineral and beeswax, a special application pad, a pamphlet, and a tag that tells them how to get to our website and watch a how-to video to refinish the board! There will also be directions enclosed in the kit as well. We’ll probably end up pricing these at around $20.
So why don’t we just have everyone send their boards to us instead of creating our own refinishing kits?? Well, the whole purpose of this entire serving board series has been to practice SCALING. We won’t have the time to answer 100 emails about refinishing peoples’ boards….and we sure won’t have enough time to actually refinish them all ourselves on top of building other furniture for clients. So how do we get a client to “do the work for us” while not making it actually seem like work?!
We make the entire process an EXPERIENCE!
We make the refinishing kits look sleek and professional…we use interactive packaging….we provide ample instructions and online resources…
We make them feel like they are now involved in the story of their custom board.
It also helps that within our business model, most people will be receiving these boards as gifts…and have no money tied up in them…so spending a bit on repair shouldn’t seem outlandish to them.
So what does that experience look like? Well, for us it looks like sleek, matte black metal tins of our all-natural mineral oil and beeswax Board Butter along with a special finishing sponge. It’ll all be wrapped in its own bag, tied shut with twine and a tag outlining where to find our instructional finishing video. It’ll also come with clear, detailed, written instructions and a pamphlet detailing what other services we can provide to the client. All of this will be enclosed in a matching sleek, matte black shipping envelope with our logo on the outside.
When I say it like that it sure sounds like an un-boxing experience doesn’t it?!? Exactly…
After we made a batch of our 3:1 mineral oil and beeswax finish, we poured it into our finishing tins.
After all was said and done, this is what an unpackaged serving board kit looks like (minus the instructions…those are being made as we speak…or type…or read…whatever…they’re in progress!!) If you’re interested in the products used to create these kits, check out these links: finishing tins, application sponges, plastic bags, shipping envelopes.
This is what our refinishing kit is comprised of (with the instruction sheet coming shortly).
All in all, this serving board series has really taught us A LOT about what small details are necessary to successfully scale our products. Had we not taken the time to break everything down, I truly believe we would have missed some critical problem solving steps. So what’s next in the Serving Board Series, you ask??
Well, now we need to figure out what type of cardboard box we want to use when we ship our serving boards! Especially for when people simply purchase a board off of our website!
#servingboards #scale #woodworkingbusiness #scalingbusiness #woodworking #hustle #sidehustle #smallbusiness #charcuterieboard
This post may contain affiliate links for products we used to create this project! If you’d like to check them out, we do get a small percentage of the sale and they are of no extra cost to you! It all goes towards supporting the content creation of Jennie and Davis. BUT – we do not take tool sponsorships and there were no tool endorsements. Just our honest opinions!