Fife furniture maker has the Chippendale skills
Crail-based Fraser Reid founded FAR Cabinet Makers and makes bespoke furniture and surfboards.
by Jim MillarQ. How and why did you start in business?
I started FAR Cabinet Makers after finishing a course at the Chippendale International School of Furniture.
I knew once finishing the course that making furniture and surfboards was what I wanted to do.
I started small with just the basic machinery I needed to get going and slowly built up and upgraded equipment over time.
Q. How did you get to where you are today?
It has been a lot of hard work to get to where I am today, to build the business and my name up.
I am slowly getting to where I want to be but there is still lots of work to be done.
Q. Who has helped you along the way?
I had a lot of help from my parents when setting up.
I also got a start-up loan through the Prince’s Trust which allowed me to buy the basic machinery I needed to get started. Marissa Yassen has been a great help and mentor over the years.
Q. What was your biggest mistake?
My biggest mistake came not long after I had set up my business.
Someone had ordered a fire surround, I went and bought all the materials and made it.
It was lovely, but I hadn’t taken a deposit and when I emailed to tell them the piece was finished they said they had changed their mind and didn’t want it.
I now take a 50% deposit up front on all orders.
Q. What is your greatest achievement to date?
My greatest achievement is setting up and running my own business.
Running your own business is not easy and every sale is a great achievement.
Q. How has coronavirus impacted your business?
Coronavirus has affected the business quite a lot already.
The next four months are usually the busiest of the year for me but all markets and exhibitions I had planned have been cancelled up to September.
These are where I get a lot of my sales and orders for the year and meet potential clients.
Q. What do you hope to achieve in the future?
I hope to keep growing the business steadily and I want to keep making new exciting products.
I would like to build a new workshop one day with a showroom in it.
Q. Do you want to recruit in the future?
I may look to take someone on in the future but that may be a few years away.
Q. What is the hardest thing about running your own business?
There are a few challenges running your own business.
I think the biggest challenge is marketing and finding my target audience.
Marketing is a constant process, constantly trying to find new clients and gain a larger audience is difficult.
Q. Advice to wannabe entrepreneurs?
My advice would be to look for help.
If you really want something enough, you have to work hard to make it happen, no one is going to give it to you.
Help support quality local journalism … become a digital subscriber to The Courier
For as little as £5.99 a month you can access all of our content, including Premium articles.