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Looking for something?
TPT On the Money: with Chris Farrell.
Purrrniture, St. Paul, Minn.
Chris: Once upon a time, there was a very lucky cat. His owner, Darryl Michaelson, liked to make hideouts and scratching posts for his
feline friend out of recycled materials.
Now Darryl has made a business out of thinking like a cat.
Darryl Michaelson, Owner, Purrrniture: As a lot of people already know, there isn't very much good cat furniture out there, so I
thought I could make something like that. After I had made my first one and brought it into the living room, the cats actually liked it.
Chris: Darryl is the owner of Purrrniture, a custom feline furniture store. His creations are hand-crafted right on site, using a work-flow
system he devised through trial and error.
Darryl: My early years of making cat furniture as a business were strictly experimental learning years. I was not expecting to make
take-home money, I should say. I was trying to set up kind of your Henry Ford assembly line.
Chris: Thanks to his wife Laurie's income, Darryl was able to devote the lion's share of his time to Purrrniture.
Darryl: It wasn't that I wasn't bringing home any money at all, but I certainly wasn't bringing any on a regular basis.
Chris: The jump to a regular income took about seven years. In the meantime, Darryl took advantage of free business consulting
offered at a local university.
Darryl: They have a small business program where I can simply make an appointment with a professor to sit down and have some
questions answered. One thing I did learn was the manufacturer's formula, where you have a 30 percent overhead that goes into the
actual materials that it takes to make the furniture.
Chris: This helped Darryl nail down a retail price. From the lessons, came success, and from success, came more lessons. Soon,
Purrrniture moved from a basement workshop to this store front. Darryl increased his hours, and the new sign brought a lot more foot
traffic. Now, Darryl is adapting to a new set of demands.
Darryl: In past years, I was strictly a manufacturer. I needed to learn more of the retail end of things. Display products, expand my
merchandise and start to really focus on the retail aspect of business more so than the manufacturing.
Chris: Purrrniture seems to be catching on in his local retail setting, so Darryl's contemplating his next leap -- to national distribution.
Darryl: I can see going nationwide being such a huge thing that I better take it slowly and do it right because once it clicks, I'm going to
have a whole mess of issues to deal with. All good stuff, but nonetheless, things I don't have to deal with today.
Chris: Darryl Michaelson didn't have a lot of money to put into his pet project. What he did have, thanks to his wife's paycheck, was
time. And he spent it wisely. Slow, steady growth from basement workshop to solid retail establishment. And now, Purrrniture is going
national.
Purrrniture, St. Paul, Minn.
Chris: Once upon a time, there was a very lucky cat. His owner, Darryl Michaelson, liked to make hideouts and scratching posts for his
feline friend out of recycled materials.
Now Darryl has made a business out of thinking like a cat.
Darryl Michaelson, Owner, Purrrniture: As a lot of people already know, there isn't very much good cat furniture out there, so I
thought I could make something like that. After I had made my first one and brought it into the living room, the cats actually liked it.
Chris: Darryl is the owner of Purrrniture, a custom feline furniture store. His creations are hand-crafted right on site, using a work-flow
system he devised through trial and error.
Darryl: My early years of making cat furniture as a business were strictly experimental learning years. I was not expecting to make
take-home money, I should say. I was trying to set up kind of your Henry Ford assembly line.
Chris: Thanks to his wife Laurie's income, Darryl was able to devote the lion's share of his time to Purrrniture.
Darryl: It wasn't that I wasn't bringing home any money at all, but I certainly wasn't bringing any on a regular basis.
Chris: The jump to a regular income took about seven years. In the meantime, Darryl took advantage of free business consulting
offered at a local university.
Darryl: They have a small business program where I can simply make an appointment with a professor to sit down and have some
questions answered. One thing I did learn was the manufacturer's formula, where you have a 30 percent overhead that goes into the
actual materials that it takes to make the furniture.
Chris: This helped Darryl nail down a retail price. From the lessons, came success, and from success, came more lessons. Soon,
Purrrniture moved from a basement workshop to this store front. Darryl increased his hours, and the new sign brought a lot more foot
traffic. Now, Darryl is adapting to a new set of demands.
Darryl: In past years, I was strictly a manufacturer. I needed to learn more of the retail end of things. Display products, expand my
merchandise and start to really focus on the retail aspect of business more so than the manufacturing.
Chris: Purrrniture seems to be catching on in his local retail setting, so Darryl's contemplating his next leap -- to national distribution.
Darryl: I can see going nationwide being such a huge thing that I better take it slowly and do it right because once it clicks, I'm going to
have a whole mess of issues to deal with. All good stuff, but nonetheless, things I don't have to deal with today.
Chris: Darryl Michaelson didn't have a lot of money to put into his pet project. What he did have, thanks to his wife's paycheck, was
time. And he spent it wisely. Slow, steady growth from basement workshop to solid retail establishment. And now, Purrrniture is going
national.
| 2242 University Avenue West St. Paul, MN 55114 (651) 642-1946 or (800) 828-7189 |
| 2242 University Avenue West St. Paul, MN 55114 (651) 642-1946 or (800) 828-7189 |
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| We Repair any & all cat furniture. Give us a call for pricing & options. (651) 642-1946 or (800) 828-7189 |
| Tuesday-Friday 11am-5pm Saturdays 10am-4pm |
