March 14, 2017

Meet Michael Sink of Woodology in Tucker

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Sink.

Michael, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
We started the company out of the garage of the home we were living in at the time in Grant Park. I had come from a job in the special events industry and wanted to make a change to spend more time with my family. I had experience in construction and had learned a lot about different types of building with the events company before leaving. At the very least I knew I could do odd jobs around the neighborhood and that was a starting point. Mostly it was handyman work at first but after some time I was asked if I could build more detailed custom projects. Some projects I had never done before but couldn’t say no to. I realized quickly I loved the process, challenge, and detail of custom work and really felt drawn to pursue it. We used what completed projects we had photographed to communicate best we could what we could offer as a company. A couple years in I met my current business partner Collin who has really helped so much to build a website and build a presence in the market place through social media. Equally there have been so many friends and family that have supported us from the start in so many different ways to get us where we are today.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
No this has not been a smooth road. We started the company one project at a time and with no loans and not much working capital to draw from. Our story as far as growth has been slow and steady. That time and process calls for a lot of patience which I have not always had so at times the natural questions of doubt can creep in. There have been very lean times and times of plenty. In the lean times you are forced to draw back and get creative with what you have. In the times of plenty the question is how do I get this done and balance time with my family. We still go through this process but I feel there is always something to learn from it. Also having a business partner presents its own set of challenges. It’s much like a marriage where you have to learn each other and figure out a way to communicate well and really develop a shared vision for where you want to go.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Woodology – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
We have always endeavored to build our business through relationships. And what that means is we do our best to spend time with people and hear what their vision is for a particular project rather than trying to sell them something that don’t need. We try to think of and approach the work more as art. We are at our best when we can take what information we have from our clients and translate that in the design of the piece we are building.

As far as the actual work we have been doing lately it has been custom built-in pieces. Pieces that are built-in to special nooks in a home. We do not have standard size units we pull off a shelf, everything we do is from scratch and built for the space it’s going in.

We also love doing wood counter tops as well as custom furniture and currently have a couple projects going with both.

Collin and I have always loved working with reclaimed materials so we also have small products that we have developed and then sell online and in some in-town retail stores. There is something about saving beautiful material that would be in a landfill and creating something from it.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
We are in an industry that is steadily pushing toward automation. As a company we would like to move more toward hiring people. So one of our big goals and dreams is to be able to create sustainable jobs for folks that want to work with their hands. We are discussing right now how we can continue to grow towards that goal.

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