Building a future with furniture
Exactly what is an accidental entrepreneur? It may be your neighbor as he starts his own landscaping business resulting from mowing the yards of those on his block. This could be a stay-at-home mother who decides to explore her side gig of baking brownies in the evenings when the children are asleep. Any number of factors can combine to create an accidental entrepreneur who establishes a business based on a passion, talent or special project. Alex and Lindsay Remley are prime examples of this type of person, proudly owning this descriptor while sharing the story behind the unintentional start of Edgework Creative.
How it all Started
“I’ve always been very sensitive and careful about making Edgework too much about Alex and me because we have 20 plus employees here, and it’s a team effort. Everybody is responsible for the growth and the quality of the company. So, it’s not about us necessarily,” shares Lindsay. With humble admiration for their work family, Alex and Lindsay do claim the title of “accidental entrepreneurs” as their business obviously had to start somewhere.
“It came from a need for ourselves. We had moved into our current house and had double the square footage and didn’t have any furniture. We had a pile of barnwood that had traveled with us from a couple of driveways, and ultimately, we needed a dining room table. Lindsay asked if I would try to build one. I had never built one before, but I had always enjoyed figuring out how things are made and what goes into it,” said Alex.
Alex was a very handy person, and Lindsay had the creative edge. With capable and curious minds, they tackled home projects in the past and now embarked on this needed furniture build. Employing borrowed tools and a residential garage workspace, Alex built this first table with Lindsay’s design input. Friends and family loved the final product, encouraging them to explore selling their creations to others.
“Even when we started taking one order at a time, this was nice extra income for a young family with not really any thought or intent on ‘let’s build a business doing this,’” added Lindsay. “It organically grew and as the networking spiderweb works, one person orders a table and has friends over, then your mom or your sister or your friend asks where you got that piece, then the spiderweb just grows. Then, we had a handful of orders on the books, and so it started consuming more hours on the evenings and weekends.”
They would soon reach a point where they needed to scale back or decide to go for it.
Making the Transition
With a kick-starter campaign to raise funds, they now had the confidence to look for a commercial space, upgrade tools and hire help. They slowly gave up their previous careers and took the plunge of moving into a 2000 square-foot commercial space in 2015.
They developed their culture and focused on foundational relationships with staff. Through their network of acquaintances, they began working with architects, construction companies and design teams, landing their first commercial project with Watershed Distillery.
Pause for a Pandemic
As the world took a pause to adjust and pivot during the pandemic of 2020, Edgework struggled to find help with applying for a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan. Lindsay remembered meeting Michele Haslinger of Heartland Bank at an event, and Michele had even visited their business, so Lindsay decided to reach out for help. Heartland Bank assisted them with both rounds of PPP funding. “It was the first time we felt like we really understood the value and the type of relationship that we could have with a bank,” said Lindsay.
They leaned on that relationship again when they decided to start looking for a larger building to accommodate their increasing workload. The space near the historic Crew Stadium would include a small storefront, offices, creative space and shop area. “We found this place and just started exploring what it would look like and that was when we picked back up with Michele and got it done,” added Lindsay.
Now and Later
With Heartland’s assistance and in cooperation with Ohio Statewide Development Corporation (OSDC), Edgework took advantage of the Small Business Administration’s 504 Loan Program and bought the building they had been looking at and updated the property with a proper shop, office space and warehouse.
The team of over 20 associates designs, builds and installs furniture in offices, restaurants, residential homes, museums and commercial locations of all kinds. The design work is flexible to allow for specific details and an eclectic style. Wood and metal are their materials of choice and out-of-the-box concepts are encouraged.
Edgework Creative was built with trust in the work ethic. For their future, they plan to expand on their development division while entrusting that the work ethic of the past will carry them into a productive future. For now, their accidental entrepreneurship appears to be an intentional success!