Today we’d like to introduce you to Seth Deysach.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Seth. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I started my company 18 years ago with the intent to be a furniture maker and designer. 10 years ago I got involved with 5 other local furniture makers/builders and we started the Dock 6 Collective. The collective shares a lot of the heavy machinery that is necessary for high-end wood and metal working. These added resources, that I could not have afforded alone, have allowed for a very high degree of growth in a relatively short amount of time.
Because of collective resources, my “word of mouth” client base grew from strictly furniture into making custom cabinetry for higher end residential projects. Cabinetry now comprises more than 1/2 of our revenue base and furniture the remainder.
With the recent purchase of a larger standalone manufacturing building and some new tool acquisition, our ability has grown to where we are now looking forward to smaller scale hospitality and commercial furniture production, along with fleshing out our own small furniture line into something more visible to the local market.
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?
Money!
The market for the type of product that we make is limited and there are many commercial players in the game that a person with disposal income can choose from. To survive it has always been imperative that our product are cost competitive or priced below the competition. Yet all our products are custom from scratch so the cost per unit is higher than a design that has been made 5, 50, 500 times. We work on thinner margins vs a company that has a set number of vetted designs. Add to that the other big struggle of manufacturing high-end one-of-a-kind products is finding qualified employees to do the work. As I moved for working in the shop to managing a business that has become the single most difficult obstacle to overcome. That said, and it’s taken many years of investment, we now have a great team in place in the various departments, design, management, fabrication, finishing and installation to service our clients professionally.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
We specialize in high-end furniture and cabinetry for residential and commercial clients. We are most proud of being able to figure out problems that others stay away from and do so in a way that has lasting quality.
I also believe that we’re more responsive and accessible than much of our competition and we absolutely stand behind our work and workmanship. Because of that we have excellent client retention and growth due to client referrals.
What were you like growing up?
Growing up I have always loved working with my hands creatively. Much more interested in mechanical and pretty things vs. abstract ideas. To that end eventually I received degree in sculpture from SAIC. Afterwards unable to live as full-time artist I went to cooking school for a couple years and had a short stint in the restaurant business, not the best idea for my personality type unfortunately. Not finding a place happy in the art world or the cooking world, I decided to make furniture as it represented to me the beauty of art with the functionality of pure craft. And it has keep its appeal, I’m still burdened with many more ideas than time or money to see them to life. Not a bad problem, hopefully I have it the rest of my life. 😉
Contact Info:
- Website: www.lagomorphdesign.com
- Phone: 7732187956
- Email: sethdeysach@mac.com
- Instagram: lagomorph design
- Facebook: lagomorph design
Quarter sawn walnut, tooled leather, gold leaf.
Image Credit:
Photography by Tyler Mallory and Lagomorph Design
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