It always pays to have a solid plan in the shed business.
Without a plan for building, selling, and delivering structures, there would be chaos.
But, as we all know, sometimes things don’t go as planned.
Whenever shed builders face a challenge, they may have to shift gears. The following are situations in which the pros tried a different product, tool, process, or system to achieve needed results—sometimes better results.
And many adjustments led to valuable lessons.
FINDING THE SOURCE
Phil Graybill, manager/owner for Coastal Shed Company in Plymouth, North Carolina, recalls a time right around COVID or soon after when he had a hard time sourcing SmartSide Trim.
“We could get siding, but not trim,” he shares. “We had bought a warehouse full of wood. We had a lot of 1 by 4 spruce; we had quite a few bundles, so it was like, ‘Why don’t we use this and give it a try?’ It looked like nice and smooth trim versus SmartSide that has a wood grain finish.
“It didn’t look bad, especially after it was painted, but it didn’t hold up long-term. When it got out in the sun and the weather, it maybe shrunk a little bit and had sap coming out of it. The paint was coming off, and there were gaps that did not look very good. That was an experiment I wish I wouldn’t have tried if we had to do it over again.”
In the end, a number of those buildings, especially those that were sitting on the lot, had to have the trim replaced with SmartSide Trim when it became available.
“Taking all the trim off was not worth it,” says Graybill. “Some lasted long-term, but don’t seem to perform as well as SmartSide Trim.”
Another adjustment they made early on turned out much better.
“We started out seven years ago, just before the pandemic,” he says. “Things were going crazy, and we weren’t able to get sheds on the lot, so we decided to build them ourselves. We learned a lot just getting up and running, and growing a little every year.”
As Graybill explains, they also started out with a spreadsheet system to keep track of inventory, but very quickly outgrew that.
“We felt it wasn’t working for us,” he says. “Our RTO company provided a better system that works really well.”
Graybill enjoys software development, which has helped them progress.
“With the help of AI, we implemented a whole business software manager that is tailored to what we do here,” he explains.
No matter what plans builders may have in place, flexibility can become a necessity.
“Back when we started out, there were not a lot of shed manufacturers in East North Carolina. It seemed like a pretty good option,” he recalls. “Now a lot more sheds came in last year as companies from the west have been going east. We’ve seen a change since we were not able to get enough sheds when the lead time was very long. We had a very good location to start a shop and go slow and take off.”
LEARNING CURVE
For Justin Mast, owner of Sturdy Built Structures in Alturas, California, a shortage when 7/16 OSB was only available at unaffordable prices (i.e., $65 plus for a sheet) led to a switch that sounded like a good solution at the time.
“We were offered a deal on a truckload of 5/8 OSB at a much better price,” he recalls. “To buy a whole truckload was a difficult decision for us because we prefer lean manufacturing; we try to keep inventory as low as possible, ordering (usually) locally and only one or two bundles at a time.
“We did not have designated storage spots for a truckload of OSB. It did not come with a wrap, so we had to cover it with a tarp since it was wintertime and not under a roof.”
Still, they received the truckload because they had no choice.
“We had enough jobs in the pipeline where the price was already locked in that we had to economize or close our doors,” he says.
The lesson came later.
“Even after prices came back down, we continued buying truckloads of often substandard material to save money, until it became clear that it wasn’t actually saving money,” shares Mast. “On paper, it should have, but the time spent sorting through a bad bundle to find the good lumber in it usually more than offset the savings.”
Even if the savings had been real, he says, it wasn’t that much money. In most cases it was better to just raise prices and carry on as usual.
“If OSB prices double, how much does it actually affect the total cost of the shed? Not as much as we would have thought—maybe 5 percent,” he says.
Another situation Mast explains had a better outcome.
“In California, with our wildfires, power outages are not unusual in the summer,” he shares. “I know there is nothing new or unusual about having a generator on hand, but one thing that is different in our shop is that our most critical lights, instead of being wired directly into the breaker panel, are routed through a regular outlet.
“This originally was supposed to be temporary, but we liked the setup because they are so easy to plug into a generator, so we decided to keep it as a permanent arrangement.”
Other lessons come along after a considerable period of time.
“In 2015, we had a situation where we agreed to move out of the shop we were renting in a specific timeframe,” Mast says. “We thought we would be able to find a replacement in time, but one after another, the options we explored fell through.
“There was a piece of land available, properly zoned, with an office building, but no shop. We built six open-sided sheds—run-in type sheds we market to customers as horse shelters—and arranged them in a horseshoe about 100 or 125 feet across. The tools, materials, and small work areas (building trusses, doors, etc.) were in the horse sheds, and the main building area was in the ‘courtyard’ formed by the horseshoe of horse sheds.”
The lesson they took from this was in the shape of their work area.
“Our old shop had been 50 by 100 with an assembly line-style work area running the 100-foot length of the shop, and smaller work areas and storage along the side,” he says.
Their experimentation would lead to better decisions in the end.
“We worked in this horseshoe of horse sheds for about a year and a half, and when we bought a piece of land and built our own shop the way we wanted it, it was quite different than if we had never had the outdoor experience,” Mast explains.
“It is a 60-foot by 80-foot (more square) with two assembly lines running down the side of the shop, the 60-foot way, with storage and smaller work areas down the middle of the shop. We like this arrangement much better than the old 50 by 100 shop, since critical tools and materials (panel saws and framing lumber) almost never block each other, or are blocked by sheds.”
TRIAL AND ERROR
Looking back, Glendon Yoder, production manager at Mid-America Structures in Table Rock, Nebraska, does not remember a time when there was a material shortage, other than going to a local lumber yard to pick up some lumber due to delayed deliveries or not ordering products far enough in advance.
But delayed deliveries have become a recent challenge.
“If we see a problem arising with a product, we won’t build inventory or display buildings that use that product until the product arrives,” he explains. “Delayed product deliveries are out of our control. They can be caused by issues with freight or a problem at a warehouse. For example, an LP plant flooded, causing them to get behind on orders, resulting in us getting our siding shipment delayed by a few weeks.”
As they have learned, one problem can have a domino effect.
“We have really started to order larger quantities at a time and order farther out ahead to combat this,” says Yoder. “Having enough storage space is the new challenge.”
Other adjustments they have made eventually led them to find the right fit.
“We have switched tool brands for different reasons,” he shares. “For example, one brand of router stopped making their big router, so we did some research and went with a different router. We tried several different brands of siding guns and found one that we like, mainly because how it shoots nails at a consistent depth.”
Lastly, Yoder says they also try to be prepared for certain scenarios.
“We do keep a gas-powered air compressor that has been used when the main air compressor is broken down, or there’s a power outage,” he says.
CHANGE AGENT
As Neil Bryan, who co-owns Backyard Living Co. with Frank Trucano in Richmond and Metamora, Michigan, knows some lessons come the hard way.
“We got hammered back in the COVID era,” he says regarding supply and demand. “We crashed and burned when we sold a bunch of sheds based on the current material cost with an eight-week lead time. Then the price almost doubled. Now we have enough inventory, and we can order more in case of another spike.”
Since then, other processes that were in place, from initial orders to deliveries, have evolved over time, like pen and paper to more efficient methods for customer satisfaction.
“I owned a different business before this one, and I learned a lot of lessons,” says Bryan. “Even with this one, we were working for our business. As we started growing, the pain started happening when we had increased sales and revenue.”
Running a business often comes with some trial and error.
“The goal, as an owner, is to minimize customer unhappiness, or if you make a mistake, not to repeat that,” he shares. “The nice part is that you can produce so many processes, like leads. We pay a lot of money for leads, and we improved how we follow up with them.”
For instance, says Bryan, “If you don’t call a lead back immediately, the odds of closing that sale go way down. We’ve integrated new systems, so we can text, call or email from our business phone number and put notes in our CRM.”
Back in the day, he adds, they simply had a pen-and-paper process to generate leads and follow up on them.
“Now we can monitor calls to see how people are speaking to our customers and offer training to draw them to our store. We track the communications with the customer as effectively as possible from POS through fulfillment,” says Bryan.
In the past, customers would simply receive a call when their shed was ready.
“Now there is much more communication from start to finish to handle issues like site preparation and permit waivers,” he explains. “You always want to under promise and over deliver.”
These processes include questions about the condition of the property, such as “Is it too wet?”
“In many instances, the trailer gets stuck,” says Bryan. “We’ve learned from a previous experience or a costly situation or a bad experience with customers. Now we have all these processes in place, from POS to fulfillment and after, with follow-up to ensure the customers are happy.”
Growth often provides a fresh perspective.
“Just starting a business and scaling and getting larger can be a challenge,” he says. “People want to make more money, but they get stuck. A lot of owners work for their companies forever. The key is to develop the best processes.”
Another important lesson they learned was to focus on what you can control and improve upon as they did with their customer base.
“We have cast a wider net to reach more people,” says Bryan. “Even if they purchase less, we can have about the same business gain.”
It helps to be proactive whenever possible.
“Our goal is to develop a process for every situation, so that our staff has an answer. We want to minimize issues and maximize customer satisfaction and employee productivity,” Bryan explains.
“Every entrepreneur should have a business that can run without the owner being involved in every situation, especially if they want to sell it in the future. The only way to do that is with good people and good processes.”
