The Voice of Experience

Paul Downs, owner of Paul Downs Cabinetmakers in Bridgeport, Pa., started as a one-man shop in 1986 making dining tables, chairs and some office furniture. After switching to conference tables, a big change occurred in 2002 when he formed a 50/50 partnership with an acquaintance from another manufacturing business to bring things to the next level.

“At that point, I was 40 and kind of stuck where I was. I was running a five-man shop and doing everything except the building. I hit the ceiling and was tapped out. I also had a young family at that point, and just didn’t have the time or resources to get beyond that point. The partner gave me that opportunity, an injection of capital and expertise, and so we were able to start out an expansion path,” says Downs.

In 2003, the business trajectory changed forever when Google listed the shop’s conference table as a top search result. Orders started flowing in from around the country.

“Before that, we had been growing and trying to expand sales through different marketing channels. We opened a showroom and we did all these 1985 moves to try to grow the business. They were slightly successful, but what happened in 2003 took a while to process. When I look back, I wasn’t ready for what was about to happen.”

The shop grew to 18 employees and about $1.5 million in annual sales by 2005. While the internet kept bringing in more clients, the partners worked on fine tuning other avenues, such as working with 3D design programs.

“With all the imports from Vietnam and China, people were thinking of furniture purchases as disposable versus a once in a lifetime thing, so that really affected the conversations I was having,” says Downs.

"The 3D software showed up and gave us the ability to have credible communication with people and they would give us an enormous about of trust. They could see you were real, thousands of miles away. With the software you can build a model that looks pretty much like something they’re going to get.”

Downs has continued hiring over the years, and prides himself on having a diverse workforce. He says he wants his company to “look like America.”

The partnership dissolved after difficulties during the Great Recession and Downs is once again the sole owner.

“2008 was a difficult year,” he says. “We were growing too fast and failing. It was tough to survive the recession.

“At that point our domestic furniture business was dead, but we still had conference tables going. That’s what kept us going. We had a lot of government orders, military orders, and after the recession, I realized I needed to go all in on conference tables.

“There are lots of advantages to the conference table as a product and the main one is the people that are buying it aren’t spending their own money. Also, when selling residential, you’re selling on nights and weekends, and when you’re selling to businesses, you’reselling during the business day. I wanted to be home with my family on nights and weekends.”

The company’s client list includes architects, interior designers, the U.S. government,Fortune 500 companies, universities and colleges, international organizations, and private clubs. It currently has 26 employees and generates about $5 million in annual sales.

The shop produces hundreds of tables in varied sizes and shapes per year. Last year it made over 600. A custom ERP software package makes it all possible.

“Our software system allows us to run a lot of jobs at once, and that was one of the things that became very important to us as we got calls from more sophisticated clients, like NASA, the military, or the World Bank. You need to have systems that allow you to manage that in a way that looks credible to them, and with the software, we’re capable of managing many very big projects at the same time,” says Downs.

Downs is an advocate of sharing his business experiences, the good and the bad, so that he can help others stay motivated and confident.

“In 2009, we had such a rough year. I thought I was going to go out of business. I started looking on the internet for what happens when a business fails and couldn’t find anything because nobody wants to talk about it. I was looking in the New York Times at a column aimed at small business owners called You’re the Boss. I wrote to the editor that everyone in the column is successful and nobody talks about failure, and that I was about to fail and was willing to talk about it.

“The editor wrote back that he’d never had anyone offer that before. He hired me and I became a blogger for the Times on what it was like to run [a failing] business. It became incredibly popular and I ended up writing for them for four-and-a-half years.”

Downs published a book, “Boss Life: Surviving My Own Small Business”, in 2015. He has given numerous talks for the Cabinet Makers Association and other industry organizations. He also participates in business groups to further refine his own management skills.

Downs practices what he preaches and has found the best strategy for a successful shop is to create a healthy atmosphere for its employees.

“As a business owner, you need to think about how people communicate with each other, how they communicate with you, what kind of culture you’re building, and what kinds of trouble is going to pop up,” he says.

“Learning how to manage a team and get them to understand why they’re doing what they’re doing is important. You need to give people guidance on how to get along and what you’re trying to accomplish.”

Downs is 62 and looking to retire by his 70s, but still has major expansion goals.

“I’m not looking to hire today, but I think we will be continuing to hire for the next couple of years. I’d like to get up to $10 million before I retire.”

Learn more at custom-conference-tables.com.

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Originally published in the August 2024 issue of Woodshop News.