Woodworking shop cuts a new business path

Tim Watts remembers the moment quite clearly, standing miserably cold in his unheated garage one January trying to build a bookcase for his wife.

"It was 20 below and I was tired of working out of my garage," Watts said. "I figured there had to be a better way. I figured there had to be a place in the Cities that has heat and tools I can pay to use."

It turns out there wasn't.

As a result, almost 18 months after that January 2010 night, Watts, his son and another partner opened the North Country Woodshop in Burnsville in late June.

The 10,000-square-foot facility, at 1170 E. Cliff Road, has state-of-the-art woodworking equipment in a heated, comfortable setting. Anyone from weekend warriors to contractors can come in and, for a fee, use the equipment to build.

"It is the only shop of its kind anywhere," Watts said. "I know because we looked."

The business model is patterned after health clubs, but instead of paying for time on exercise machines, people can pay for daily, weekly, monthly or annual use of the woodshop and equipment.

The concept has already attracted a lot of attention. Tim Watts has been fielding calls from people all over the country wanting to know more about his business.

Watts and his partners hired 10 workers with 20 or more years of woodworking experience apiece to help customers who need it and to teach some of the do-it-yourself classes that are offered at the shop.

"It's a brand-new business," said Sam Watts, who previously worked with his father when they ran Maui Shower, a company that would take portable showers to concerts, car races and sporting events. "I said, 'Let's do it.'"

The younger Watts said he and his father spent the past two years researching and investigating the potential for such an operation.

They thought they would find another company doing this, which might allow them to buy a franchise.

"It's a brand-new concept that a lot of people don't believe until they see," Sam Watts said. "We've got a lot of tools."

The tools, everything from lathes to table saws and sanders, are set up in a series of workstations.

The business has attracted its share of apartment dwellers or homeowners with limited space, as was intended. But Watts said the business in the first month has been especially good among independent, small contractors. "That was a surprise," he said.

Apparently, the smaller contractors are using North Country Woodshop as an extension of their own businesses. Now, instead of subcontracting out cabinet work or bigger woodworking jobs, some small contractors are doing it themselves at the Watts workshop.

Another surprise, he said, is the number of groups or schools that have contacted him about using his shop for large group projects. He said some high schools in the area are interested in renting out his space as industrial arts classes are reduced in districts.

Memberships at the shop run from $50 for a day's use to $300 for an annual permit.

Tim Watts said he and his partners invested about $200,000 in machinery. They selected the items based on recommendations from woodworking experts they hired.

"You name it, I think we got one of everything," he said.

Apart from the financing, the biggest hurdle was getting the proper insurance to cover a business where complete strangers are allowed to use heavy machinery on site.

Tim Watts said he was able to get the insurance at a reasonable price after explaining the business model. He won't reveal how he did it ("trade secret," he said) but says it was not as difficult as it might seem on the surface.