Today we’d like to introduce you to Graham Taglang and Jonathan Snyder.
Graham, Jonathan – please share your story with us.
After transplanting from the East Coast about eight years ago, we began our professional lives in Los Angeles as creatives: Jonathan a touring musician; Graham a screenwriter and voice actor. As is somewhat common with such careers, we eventually became disillusioned with our starving-artist paths. We each spent a span afterward meandering through grinding or passionless jobs, but by the time we met in the fall of 2015, during a chance dinner with a mutual friend at a restaurant on Parkman Avenue in Silverlake, we’d each recently started our own businesses.
Jonathan had been working as the lead builder and designer at another successful furniture company for several years, until one day the firm decided to outsource all of its production. So, with nothing to lose and a naturally entrepreneurial spirit, he bought all their equipment and started building in his buddy’s backyard on Parkman Avenue.
Graham had previously started a couple small businesses, eventually realizing that the aspects he enjoyed most about each venture were the marketing tasks. So, with nothing to lose and naturally entrepreneurial spirit, he took the obvious step and started his own marketing company, right down the street from Parkman Avenue.
During our first real meeting at our friend’s house on — you guessed it — Parkman Avenue, we knew this was going to be a great fit. We had similar ideas about how to promote and grow a business and appreciated each other’s get-shit-done-but-have-a-good-time-doing-it vibe.
Eight months later, we became full company partners and are currently about as proud of our bouncing baby business as two people can be. Even if we did eventually have to move our workshop away from…our namesake thoroughfare.
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?
Honestly — and this is a foolish thing to say out loud — we feel like we’ve had a pretty charmed run of it for quite some time now. It’s crazy how often we’ll discuss a desire for the business to go in a certain direction, and then the thing we just literally mentioned will fall into our laps. We know that it’s good luck mixed with a lot of long hours and difficult work — and we’re always preparing for one of several things that can go wrong at any time — but we feel incredibly grateful for the way things have worked out so far.
The only hiccup we’ve encountered was a very slow period this winter, but we marketed our asses off and ended up learning a ton, while also becoming a stronger and more resilient company as a result. We know that we’re a very new business and that there are going to be plenty of challenges ahead, so we’re doing our best to build a stable foundation based upon reliable systems, slow growth and long-term stability. And some partying. Er– life balance.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Parkman Woodworks – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
We specialize in rustic-modern table and seating designs made from locally sourced, 75+year-old, naturally forested reclaimed lumber and steel. We perform every aspect of fabrication, including all woodwork and metalwork, in house.
We’re best known for, and proud of, the very genuine and personal relationships we have with our customers. Creating and choosing custom furniture with us is basically the opposite of a point-and-click experience. We walk through every detail to make sure the final product is exactly what is envisioned, and we do so with attentive presence, patience and empathy. We deliver nearly every piece in-person and will often end up hanging out with our clients afterward; sometimes even sharing a drink they’ve offered. We just recently had an incredibly well-crafted Old Fashioned with a cool couple down in Redondo Beach, for example.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
Well we’ve got a lot of grand plans, but we hesitate to mention any of those now for fear that they don’t actually happen and we end up looking like jerks. Generally though, we want to have a greater physical presence in the East Side communities. We’re looking forward to a time when we become a real part of the everyday lives of the people we live with and relate to.
There are some sizeable changes happening right now though! Last month we moved into a new space with three times the workshop space and other amenities that are completely streamlining our building operation, as well as providing us the time and space to expand and further perfect our product line.
We’ve also just started tagging and posting real-time progress pictures of our customers’ furniture on social media, mainly so they can get a more detailed sense of the process and how it all comes together. We also want to give them an opportunity to brag to their friends about the fact that they’re buying cool, locally handmade custom furniture. It’s just another way that we can provide an experience and service that the larger furniture retailers simply can’t. We’ve only ever added services as we’ve grown, and that’s the customer-obsessed ethos we’ll always live by.
Pricing:
- Our 60″ x 32″ classic table top with a steel base is $765.
- Our 60″ x 32″ butcher block-style table top with a steel base is $925.
- A matching bench of any length up to 7′ is $265 with the purchase of a table.
Contact Info:
- Address: 3709 Medford St. Los Angeles, CA 90063
- Website: www.ParkmanWoodworks.com
- Phone: 323-313-3142
- Email: info@parkmanwoodworks.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/parkmanwoodworks/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ParkmanWoodworks/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/parkman-woodworks-los-angeles-2
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Image Credit:
John Cizmas (Black and White Photo)
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