Introduction

Hi there! This is Romy and welcome back to another episode of the Bonfires of Social Enterprise. I want to give a shout-out to our friends in Haiti, France, and Canada. Please reach out to us on the website. We would love to hear what is happening in your communities, and, maybe even tell your story on our show.

So, on this episode, we catch back up with Andy Magel in Denver, Colorado and the Mile High Workshop. Many of you may remember that Denver is known as the Mile High city as it is one mile above sea level. There is a vibrant community of social enterprise in Denver, and Andy is leading the way with his amazing maker space and job creation. Stay tuned at the end for a song from a Detroit artist.

Let’s, first, see what Luke has for our Fun Fuel...

Fun Fuel

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Transition

Thanks, Luke, wooden domes – you just don’t think things like that are possible without steel and like materials. Let’s jump into the update with Andy on his Mile High Workshop in Colorado.

Main Interview

Andy : Glad to be back. I was looking; it's been over a year since we last talked and man a lot has happened. We've moved. We've expanded. We've grown and so yeah happy to kind of pick up, and if you have anything, in particular, you want to know let me know, and I'll just come give you a quick rundown but when we last talked we were in about 8,000 square feet, and we've recently moved to a new building that we're occupying about 12,000 square feet of. A much more industrial space with back doors and these types of things, higher ceilings for vertical storage, and it's a much better space for us, and that's been a good move that's allowed us to kind of take on some new projects and grow with some projects. The last time we talked I think we were doing woodworking and sewing and I can't remember if down with the grid quick started up our packaging and fulfillment side of things yet?

Romy: No, it was more like etching. I think there was a little bit of glass etching starting or just you were dabbling with it I think sort of that.

Andy : Yeah, I was still doing that laser etching and cutting still kind of a nice accessory to a lot of the other stuff that we're doing. But we were doing the fastest growing thing that we started even since we've talked last was packaging and fulfillment, and so we do all the fulfillment and shipping for a company called the Coors. They're a subscription tampon business actually based in San Francisco. A really great company and really doing a lot of growth and so we do all their packing and shipping, and we also do the same type of services with them with some local businesses here, a glass company and a pillow company.

And that's been a really good area for us to provide job opportunities and training and we're really excited about what's coming with that, and we got some stuff come down the pipe too. We're actually just about to launch a new partnership Coors Tech which is the ceramics side of kind of the Coors family in Colorado. Obviously, a big family name and Coors Beer is probably pretty well known across the country.

But they have a manufacturing side of the business. Technically it's a separate business, but a ceramics and they are placing equipment in our shop that we will be trained to operate and manufacture for them. And then we'll use that training as an opportunity to prepare people for jobs at Coors Tech, and so they'll graduate our training model into kind of above entry level positions at Coors Tech, and that's something that we're very excited about.

Romy: Hey, Andy as you moved into this topic... I think so many entrepreneurs want to know how did you land on starting to move into this packing and fulfillment and how are you getting your customers for this? Is this somewhat a happy accident or was it intentional? We have so many questions that come in about expanding. Would you mind talking to us about that a little bit?

Andy : No, that's good. I think everyone probably has a different approach there. For us, I think happy accident is a really excellent way to describe it. It's all been very organic for us and pretty relationship based. And so in the last two, two and a half years we've worked at well over 100 customers and those have almost entirely all been kind of inbound referral and just kind of natural partnerships that have come along. And we're just getting to the point where we are big enough to where we're going to become intentional about going on finding those relationships. But our growth has come just from "Hey, here is a friend. They're starting this thing. They're looking for a partner. Do you guys want to try it?" And we've just said yes a lot, and it certainly hasn't all worked. I can tell you that. But what was worked has stuck, and it's been a really good fit for us.

Romy: Part of it I just know even from our own company here. It's like part of it is how do you price yourself for expansion? I think I was wondering if you could talk to us a little bit about that. And I am the numero uno guilty party of this. I will price services or products just over across a certain profit margin, but I don't have my eye on expansion, and so I can default to "Oh, I just want to give him a good deal." How are you handling that kind of stuff specific to expansion?

Andy : Now, that's very true. I think there is a level of confidence that comes as you exist and do a good job. Because we've been guilty of the same thing for sure. The first time you take on a job, you're just happy that somebody said yes and that you've been given this opportunity to earn that and to prove yourself. And when you establish a little bit of a track record, and you do a good job then I think your confidence grows, and your willingness to say like, "Okay, now we don't just want to survive and have the opportunity to do something but we want to grow, and we want to create more opportunity."

Yeah, I mean pricing is a critical part of that, and it feels like a little bit of a moving target in terms of kind of what that pricing is and how that looks, and it definitely adds and flows what kind of the project because they're also unique. But I think we have established ourselves to the point now where we know we can execute. We know we can do a good job. We're going to be a good partner for somebody and that allows us to have the confidence to price things in a way that will allow us to continue growing and to fuel that growth.

Romy: It's such a good word. Building up your confidence by delivering good services.

Andy : Yeah, because if anyone charges a premium on day one and you can't deliver. That's just not going to be a good recipe.

Romy: Right [inaudible 00:06:47 ] false.

Andy : Right right.

Romy: It sounds like you're still offering services to perhaps a startup entrepreneur but all the way up to now to a potential client like Coors. That's extraordinary and so great. Are you still going to offer some of those services to that startup entrepreneur?

Andy : Yeah, we really like having a nice mix. Be