Today we’d like to introduce you to Melissa Miller.
Hi Melissa, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
Our business got started when we started dating! Bucky had worked most of his life in tree work and wanted to be closer to home. He inquired with his lifelong boss about the opportunity to purchase a sawmill that was not in use. He began producing turning blanks for Woodcraft USA and showed me these beautiful wood pieces. I knew there could be a better plan to use the woods that were being considered “waste products” from the sawmill. With my experience in marketing and event planning and his knowledge of trees, logging, and wood, we decided to take a chance at starting something unique. We hoped to bring this “niche market” to our small, rural business operating out of a 40 x 60 at the time with no heating, cooling, or restroom! We brainstormed and began the business part of the sawmill for over a year before we finally made it public. During that time, Bucky researched and built a kiln as we learned the process and importance of drying the wood we produced. In 2016, we went all in with the use of Facebook for marketing and something we called “Slab Sale Saturday” to draw people to our area to shop for live edge slabs! Our business has grown leaps and bounds in the past seven years. We have added many different aspects to our small business. We operate a large woodmizer bandsaw mill and kiln on our farm to produce beautiful, properly dried live edge slabs. We have a brick-and-mortar store on the main street of King City where customers can shop for raw, live-edge wood material. We offer custom-build services for projects large and small. We offer mantels, tables, rustic furniture pieces, bar and countertops, shelves, accent walls, and other rustic designs using the wood we produce.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Owning our own business has taken a lot of courage, commitment, knowledge, willingness to learn, passion, and grit. We will get what we are willing to put out of it. We have long days and long weekends, and we work hard. Early on in our business, we struggled to find employees who wanted to do the manual labor of working at a sawmill. We have also struggled with the ever-changing and unpredictable economy. The live edge slabs we specialize in are typically more of a “want” versus a “need,” and we see the effects of that in our small business occasionally. The issue of relying on walk-in customers in our small town was also a challenge we met early on. We turned to social media to market our live edge wood and began to build our following. The years spent growing our social media have allowed us to get creative with our online presence to reach more customers and sell more. As with anything online, there is a learning curve, added expenses of technology, and, of course, the challenge of learning to ship your products. The online space has become a large part of our business, which is fantastic, but then we are met with a new supply and demand challenge. Every challenge a business owner faces leads them to some form of growth, whether for better or worse. In our almost eight years of business, we have consistently worked in multiple directions and tried new things. Many of the things we have attempted to have remained a constant part of our business, or we have left them behind for something better fit.
I appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Millers Rustic Sawmill?
Our sawmill is a small family business that operates from our family farm to our brick-and-mortar shop in King City, MO. We specialize in the production of kiln-dried, live-edge Missouri hardwoods. We build custom projects using the woods we produce. Customers can come into our shop with an idea of what they would like, and we will help them find the right wood selection, or we can complete the entire project for them. We also offer heirloom family timber projects where we work with a family to bring in their family farm logs, custom cut, dry and then build heirloom furniture. We make sure to personalize each piece by woodburning something into the furniture for the family. The family timber projects take a lot of planning and time but are so special to us and the families we do this with. Our target market began as mostly diy’ers and other small business owners who were makers using wood. Our market has expanded to include interior designers, contractors, business owners, homeowners, online shoppers, and many other makers. We take pride in our work, from the log form to the slab in our shop, which becomes the finished project. We enjoy working with customers to help them get what they want/need. We love getting to know our customers and have become great friends with so many over the years. We hope that when someone visits our business or allows us to work with them, they end up feeling more like family than a customer.
Over the last two years, we have grown our brand to be known for all things, hopefully, live edge wood and sawdust. In 2022, we added an event to celebrate the love of all things wood called Sawdust Fest. We are the sole host of this event! We have consistently brought in over five hundred people for this event in the last two years! Sawdust Fest happens on June 15th, 2024, the Saturday of Father’s Day weekend. We will be doing a sawmill demonstration on our farm this year! Our guest demonstrators share their woodworking skills for the day with onlookers. One of our featured makers is local chainsaw artist TJ Jenkins from Weston, MO. We will also have a luthier, woodturner, knife maker, scroll saw artist, raku demonstration, and more. The event lasts into the evening with live music, belt sander races, local shopping, whiskey tasting, and more. We are adding to this event and would love anyone reading it to make it their Father’s Day weekend tradition. Details will be on our social media and website soon, and we promise it will be a blast. This is a family-friendly event! Let us know if any readers are interested in racing a belt sander in our race! We are always excited to have new racers; yes, it’s something to see!
We want the readers to know we are a small, family sawmill business specializing in kiln-dried, live-edge wood slabs. Most of our customers drive over an hour to come to our shop in King City, MO. The wood species in our shop are native to Northwest Missouri and include walnut, cherry, sycamore, hackberry, tulip, maple, ash, and more. All slabs of wood have been properly dried to a finish-grade moisture content of 8% or below and then sanded to forty grit so that customers can see the grain in the wood they are purchasing. We always love new customers and new followers on our social media. If anyone reading this is wondering what “live edge wood” means, you can find photos of our work and projects on our social media channels. Please contact us if you have a project you have been hoping to complete or would like to talk to us about.
We are proud of our passion for small businesses. We have been integral to bringing several new shops to our town. That is what we love. We have had the opportunity to help renovate, build, and construct each space. Over the next few years, we aim to increase our social media following. We plan to book another renovation project similar to the new bar building we recently renovated, Rusty Horse Watering Hole, King City, MO. Over the next 5 years, we would like to streamline our offerings and possibly expand to introduce a line of rustic furniture. We have plans to produce a pilot for a television show in hopes of changing the face of our town and opportunities for the brick-and-mortar along our Main Street. We have big ideas and dreams to keep our small town alive, hoping to become a tourist destination someday. “You’ll never do a lot unless you’re brave enough to try,” said Dolly Parton.
Alright, before we go, can you talk to us about how people can work, collaborate, or support you?
Follow our social media pages at Millers Rustic Sawmill on Facebook and Instagram and interact! We recommend our business for one-of-a-kind, rustic, unique wood projects and builds. Attend Sawdust Fest on June 15th this year! See our shop and the small businesses we have renovated on our small town’s main street.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.millersrusticsawmill.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/millersrusticsawmill
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/millersrusticsawmill/
- Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/@millersrusticsawmilllife
Image Credits
Chelsea Kollitz, Steve Liggett
