Can a woodworking business scale without visibility into their own processes? That’s the question Brian Taber, owner of Taber Company, asked back in 2002, when the company was generating just $3 million in revenue. Fast forward to today, and Taber Company has grown into a powerhouse with over 300 employees and $44 million in annual revenue. So, what changed? How did they overcome the challenges of scaling?
Passion Over Process
Brian Taber’s love for woodworking began in high school. Starting out by sanding doors, he worked his way up through every role and process in the industry. Eventually, his passion for woodworking led him to launch his own company in 2002.
But like many business owners, Brian faced a significant challenge: how to eliminate the roadblocks that were stunting the company’s growth. The biggest problem? They had no clear visibility into their own processes. Relying on Word documents and Excel spreadsheets, it became clear that manual operations were preventing the company from scaling.
Key Issues & Financial Blind Spots
If you find yourself in a similar situation, you’re not alone. Many businesses, especially those built on tradition and word-of-mouth, continue running on manual processes for years. It’s hard to see the benefits of modern tools when you’ve been doing things the same way for so long. Let’s break down some of the key issues Brian faced—and see if any of these sound familiar!
1. Manual Job Costing
Tracking profitability on individual projects was a time-consuming, manual process. With limited visibility into job costs, understanding where money was being made or lost was a constant challenge.
2. Poor Inventory Management
Materials were often hard to locate, and inventory levels were inconsistent. This inefficiency not only slowed production but also made it harder to maintain control over costs and resources.
3. No Forecasting Capabilities
Without the ability to track costs and inventory, the team had no way to predict workload or capacity. As a result, scheduling conflicts and production bottlenecks became frequent issues.
4. Limited Financial Reporting
Banks and other stakeholders required detailed financial reports, but Taber Company struggled to provide accurate and timely data. The lack of reliable reporting put the business at a disadvantage when it came to securing loans, negotiating with vendors, or making strategic decisions.
How Did Taber Company Grow from $3 Million to $44 Million?
The real question is, how did they finally scale to $44 million in revenue? The answer is INNERGY’s robust ERP solution coupled with our executive education programs.
INNERGY is unique in the fact that it’s designed by woodworkers for woodworkers. We pride ourselves on offering businesses ERP software as custom as their cabinets. But that’s not all! We’re also a leader in industry education and offer one-of-a-kind in-person and online events for everyone from drafters to CEO’s. That means enabling businesses with not only the tools they need to succeed but the knowledge as well.
“Before INNERGY, if someone asked where a sheet of material was, we didn’t know,” Brian explains. “We didn’t know how busy we were going to be or even why we made or lost money on a job.”
By transitioning from spreadsheets to a data-driven enterprise, Taber Company streamlined its processes, improved visibility into operations, and ultimately, unlocked the growth potential that took them from $3 million to $44 million in revenue. Read the full case study on Taber here.
Want our next blog post to be about your success?
If you’re interested in seeing what INNERGY can do for your company, don’t hesitate to reach out!
In today’s day and age, steady revenue growth doesn’t always equate to high profit margins. This is especially true in the woodworking industry.
Maybe you’re like Joe Keller, with RCS (formerly Ray’s Cabinet Shop), who found themselves stuck in a cycle of overworking and under-providing.
How Did They Do It?
Like many millworkers, Joe Keller grew up in a cabinet shop owned and operated by his father. Founded in 1997 in Ankeny, Iowa, RCS’s beginnings were humble. Joe’s father bought the business in hopes of creating a legacy for his family and installed a “hard work above all” ethos.
Joe quickly began to notice that their growth had slowed to a crawl. In fact, the culprits were the same tools that had originally helped them scale. Operating with no system to manage costs, having limited ability to track production, and inefficient workflows were the key roadblocks.
So, how did they finally automate their tedious manual processes and become a high-profit leader in custom architectural millwork? The answer was a modern and comprehensive ERP solution dedicated to the woodworking industry: INNERGY.
Key Results
Joe first heard about INNERGY through an industry event and he was honestly skeptical that a software could solve their problems. It wasn’t until attending a demonstration and seeing the software in action that he truly grasped how transformative it could be for RCS.
With INNERGY’s help, RCS made substantial operational improvements which included a 900% jump in profitability, improved production planning, and more. Instead of spreadsheets, Joe began working with streamlined workflows and started to foster a culture of continuous improvement.
INNERGY’s software not only provided a solution to track, manage, and optimize operations but there was a unique education component he couldn’t find anywhere else. That’s because INNERGY prides themselves on their continuous learning opportunities and offers everything from mentorship programs to how-to webinars.
But that wasn’t all, INNERGY’s events also allowed Joe to gain connections with other peers navigating similar challenges in the industry.
Embracing a New Standard
Today, Joe Keller looks back on his journey fondly, knowing he was lucky enough to be mentored by INNERGY’s own CEO, Marc Sanderson. Joe recalled a key insight that brought about the increase in profitability:
“You’re making plenty of sawdust, but you’re missing the data. Data is what’s going to pay the bills in the end.” – Marc Sanderson
Joe describes the impact: “Before INNERGY, we had all these siloed metrics. Now, with INNERGY’s support, we know where we’re making or losing money on each job, and everyone from the shop floor to the executive team understands their role in that.”