Today we’d like to introduce you to Kris & Ashley Strother.
Hi Kris & Ashley, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My husband Kris and I started Southern Charm from the Farm during the 2020 pandemic. Kris was working in hospitality and I was running my romance party business, both of which were heavily impacted due to quarantine. We decided to use our laser engraver to generate additional income by making custom cutting boards. Thinking just a few friends would purchase them, we shared them on Facebook. Thanks to a local Facebook group, Cherokee Connect, we were blown away with 60+ orders within 24 hours. We quickly realized that this could be a business opportunity and Southern Charm from the Farm was born! We began an Etsy store offering the personalized boards with an option to have handwritten recipes engraved on them. While we had only had a few sales through the Fall of 2020, November absolutely blew up for us bringing in hundreds of orders before Christmas!
My husband, Kris, had the idea to learn to build things that we could incorporate engraving into to sell on the Etsy store. Having literally never used a saw before, he started watching YouTube videos on woodworking. While building his first workbench for the garage, he quickly realized that he had found his passion. Starting small and working from plans he found online, he built a simple freestanding hall tree that we listed and sold immediately on Facebook. Soon after, a friend of ours asked him to build her a farmhouse bed and he hasn’t looked back since. Each project has led to another more challenging one. Within the first six months he was able to quit his job to do our business full time. Dedicated to continually improving his skills, he still watches hours of woodworking videos each week. It’s amazing how much you can learn watching YouTube! Over the past two years, we’ve been able to consistently grow, moving from stand-alone farmhouse furniture to building out custom pantries, laundry rooms and more. We love taking a homeowner’s vision and bringing it to life!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
As with all new adventures, there are always challenges. Wood prices skyrocketed as we were getting started. Woodworking tools are expensive. Learning to bid projects that you have never done before can definitely be difficult. We learned a few very valuable lessons the hard way. One of the first custom hall trees that Kris built ended up costing more in the material than we made on the build, which took over a week. One of the first tables he made ended up warping badly because he didn’t understand how only adding finish to one side of the top can lead to cupping of the wood. It is hard to throw a table away that you spent 3 days and a few hundred dollars to build when you realize it can’t be saved! As difficult as it was, we looked at every mistake as an opportunity to learn and improve.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Southern Charm from the Farm?
With a degree in engineering and a background in sales and hospitality, woodworking gave Kris an opportunity to use both. Woodworking is basically adult legos where you make the pieces. Taking an idea, designing the plans, and bringing it to life really stimulates the engineering part of his brain, which is really what drew him to woodworking in the first place. His sales background has given him the ability to listen to and understand our customers, building relationships, not just furniture. Communication is something we have quickly realized is lacking in this industry, so we have made it a focus to separate ourselves from the competition. Throw in a great work ethic, a little OCD and attention to detail, and our recipe seems to be working. When you have a passion for what you do, people can tell.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
While many define success by financial gain, which is obviously important, our success has been defined by turning a newfound passion into a growing business. Anyone that has worked a job they hate because the money was too good to leave, will understand that sometimes money isn’t enough to make you feel successful. With Covid having such a huge negative impact on so many families and businesses, ours included, we feel so incredibly fortunate to have created a business that would have never happened if not for the pandemic.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: instagram.com/southerncharmfromthefarm
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/southerncharmfromthefarm
- Other: www.etsy.com/shop/sthncharmfromthefarm
