It’s less than two months to the shed-building industry’s premier trade show—The Big Shed Show. This year, the show heads to the Cincinnati area and the Northern Kentucky Convention Center in Covington, Kentucky, October 3. The one-day event, co-hosted by Capital Forest Products in Annapolis, Maryland, and Union Grove Lumber in[Read More…]
Operations
Invest in Your Dealers Online, Watch Business Grow
If you rely on a local or regional network of dealers to sell sheds directly to consumers, your goal should be to set your dealers up for success. When your dealers improve their online marketing efforts, their online visibility will grow, in-store traffic will increase, and you’ll sell more sheds. [Read More…]
Increasing Capacity
When Mike Doherty first investigated frame building equipment, he knew that this type of equipment could improve operations for his Maine-based company, Shed Happens. That was almost 10 years ago, and this past winter he took a huge step and capital expenditure by adding a Diamond Quad framing table (Triad),[Read More…]
The Backyard Greenhouse
Raymond Anderson retired from the military with disabilities and in October 2018 started Big Red Shed in Hayesville, North Carolina. Anderson doesn’t manufacture sheds; he’s a retailer for others like Old Hickory, Eagle Carports, and Clarks Woodwork. As we’ve seen in the business of superstores (think WalMart, Target, and even[Read More…]
Expanding Beyond the Shed
If a 2017 report in Report Buyer is to be believed, the residential outdoor storage product industry is enjoying a nearly 4 percent uptick through at least 2021. Such an increase is welcome news to Jon Bartolotta, manager of New England Outdoor Sheds & Gazebos, a third-generation construction company whose[Read More…]
Home Show Design
Not a lot of people buy sheds during the winter months in Utah. That makes it important for Wright’s Shed Co. in Kaysville to make the most of every sales opportunity they can. One opportunity they take advantage of? Home shows. Wright’s usually attends three shows a year, and in[Read More…]
Building a Better Roof Truss
A roof truss, simply put, is a wooden frame that supports the roof of a built structure, like a shed. There are many ways to design and connect trusses, and shed builders often have their own techniques and styles. “A lot of it is, ‘This is how I’ve always done[Read More…]
Making Sheds More Durable in Your Region
Regional trends in shed building are mainly shaped by climate, geography and demographics. You won’t see a surf hub shed in Minneapolis or an ice-fishing shed in Miami. But, there’s one shed-building requirement that doesn’t change regardless of the location: durability. I recently spoke with Lenny Stahl, co-owner and president[Read More…]
Q&A: Shed Transportation and Delivery
Remember the famous line from the 1989 Kevin Costner movie Field of Dreams? “If you build it, he will come.” You could say in the shed industry, if you build it, customers will come. Of course, there’s more to selling a shed than that. There’s also more to the process[Read More…]
Aging Inventory
It’s going to happen. You can’t avoid it. One morning, you’ll pull up to your sales lot, look around at the sheds and other structures you have displayed, recently built and ready to sell. Then, you’ll notice a shed or two that look familiar. Really familiar. Why? Because the buildings[Read More…]
