SMALL-BUSINESS WORK VAN FUNDRAISER!

Thank you for being here! I’m Christopher Dean, owner & maker at The Timbered Wolf, furniture & design. Ive started this GoFundMe for the sole aim to raise enough funding for a down payment on a newer, reliable work van that allows me to reach sustainable monthly payments as I recover from recent years small business financial struggles. I ended 2022 & began 2023 with no vehicle, and am putting all of my energy into getting one, so business can go back to smooth operation! (I’m renting A LOT of U-Hauls ) For the success of this campaign, I’ve taken a 3 tier approach to raising funding, so that there are multiple ways to get involved! :

• Crowdfunding (this GoFundMe) 100% of supportive funds will be spent on a van down payment.

• General Sales Fundraising on my website, with 100% of proceeds going toward a new van. This fundraiser sale is limited to 20 pieces of my most popular furniture & finishes, at a discounted rate of 25% (I’ve made my labor nearly free to pass that discount onto supporters). You can find that fundraising sale here: https://thetimberedwolf.com/products/work-van-fundraiser-sale

• Pre-Sale on a limited edition design, an 18” round bent-wood, wall hanging mirror & shelf: still in prototype.

The van that I aim to purchase is a 2018-2022 Mercedes Metris Cargo; it has the most economical/affordable base cost, for the cargo room that my business needs + newer models will allow me the ability for lower loan interest rates & length of loan terms:

My story — Small Business is hard, and recent years have especially proven so. Accessible, Equitable pricing + Custom Handcrafted Quality & attention to detail are the cornerstone principles that we’ve attempted to build this brand atop of. As a business owner, my ideal client has been you — the human taking the time to read this. I want to develop connections with a new home owner, the first time home owner, the young family just getting into the world, & the human who’s sacrificed and saved their pennies to purchase something heirloom. Just the same, I strive to work with the well established, who value the practice of caring for things, making them last, and purchasing furniture with long-term, slow-design in mind. With the weight that I place on these values, naturally slimmer profit margins follow — lower profits equate to increased accessibility and budget forgiveness, true accessibility to custom designed or built furnitures at not additional cost. During pandemic times these principles, that I’ve been unwilling to move from, have proven themselves a risk, that occasionally bring a sting along with it.

Beginning in 2021, we began to feel the effects of the pandemic’s effects on our business; increased sales, attention, and inquiry as human’s spent more time within their homes and began to refine their personal styles and designs. By 2022’s beginning, though, our business felt the opposite end of the pandemic’s effects — primarily supply delays (lumber & hardware shortages) + losing employee reliability, which lead to extended wait times as we navigated trying adapt our sources & continue to handcraft, with less hands.

By 2022’s end, the negative side of retail & sales mentalities had fully materialized, in that extended delays lead to loss of patience — refunds that we couldn’t sustain (but fulfilled as we could—we don’t want anyone to feel trapped, if we can help it), and had been left with nonreturnable materials & hardwares. 2022’s reality was nearly spending/refunding more money than we were able to make, though we managed to make it work, as we always do.

As a small business owner, during the pandemic, I leaned into our brand integrity, hoping other small businesses that were less fortunate would be given the help. No PPP loans, no grants, but instead took pay cuts wherever possible to keep employees afloat, sold minimally used tools and “trimmed the excess” assets we had to get by. The resourcefulness that I learned from this period that we all experienced, whether driven by pride or by desperation, were valuable — I learned many lessons from “nonrefundable deposits” (bleh, don’t make me say that again), to the importance of asking for help. The struggles of recent years has had a resounding, reverberating financial effect.

2023’s going to be the year of the shift, having began with the sale of our beloved shop truck. Slim margins, on the rebound of refunds & financial hardship, has meant that

“surprise” breakdowns or repair bills would end up unable to be paid. Our most sustainable, responsible decision has been to switch some of our outdated (the shop truck was a 1972) to newer equipment, primarily the work vehicle that will allow us to tackle multiple cost-cutting avenues; we can return to multi-state hand delivery and saving on shipping costs, 2x improved fuel mileage, and reduced repair costs by purchasing a van of the 2020’s. Most importantly, we can get back to spending more time creating, and less time worrying.