The Power of Connections

Yesterday afternoon, Glenn Watt and I hauled about 700 board feet of 150-year-old wooden planks from an old hat factory into Gitty HQ. When I got to work yesterday morning, a reclaimed wood run was not even on the radar.

Here is the story of how it came about, and proof of why making connections with people can be so powerful.

Those of you who have been following our progress will know that I have been working on using more and more reclaimed materials, wood in particular, in the products we manufacture here at C. B. Gitty. 

Finding good sources of reclaimed wood, especially 100+ year-old wood, is very important to this - especially when the story behind the wood is known (what sort of building it came out of, what that building was used for, how old it is, etc).

Recently we had a booth at a local music festival, and had some of our canjos on display, all of which feature reclaimed wood necks - many of which feature wood reclaimed from the 160-year-old woolen mill C. B. Gitty calls home. So talking about the wood is part of the sales pitch - and after one pitch the guy said "I am working on a mill renovation project in Massachusetts, and they have a pile of beams in the yard they are going to throw away."

As you can imagine, I was immediately interested. 

He didn't know much about the details, but I gave him my card and asked him to let me know if he could find out more. Honestly, I didn't expect much - he had no direct motivation to follow-up on the matter, and it's awfully easy to just throw away random cards handed to you by vendors at festivals.

So I was very pleasantly surprised yesterday morning when I got to work and there was a message from my contact. I immediately called him and got the lowdown - if I wanted that wood, I'd better get their quick because they needed it out of there and otherwise it was going in the dumpster..

Twenty minutes later, the Gitty van was on the road. An hour later, we were in the work yard talking to the General Contractor and his right hand man. A half hour later, the van was weighed down by a nice haul of 2-inch thick x 8-foot long planks, and a couple of 8-inch square x 11-foot mortised beams. An hour later, we were back at Gitty HQ and the wood was being sticked and stacked in a corner of the workshop. All told, a tidy little adventure.

The third-best part of the whole thing? The wood is beautiful, and it was all free.

The second-best part of the whole thing? There is more there that we have to go get next week.

The number one best part of the whole thing? I made connections with good people. The guys in charge of this job specialize in mill restorations, and now they know me as the person they can call any time they have a pile of old wood that needs to go away.

I took a cigar box guitar down with me to give to the guy who originally brought me in, and on the next trip you can bet I'll be taking something for the guys in charge. That is how connections get made, and good things flow from that. Business should never be about stuff, be it piles of old wood, racks full of instruments, or bins full of parts. 

When you make your business about people, it all becomes a lot more worthwhile.

Now I know, this sort of thing is not the norm. For every home run like this, you gotta have a lot of at-bats. Just remember that it CAN happen, and sometimes DOES, and that it is worth making the effort.