Page 30 - CMA PROfiles Winter 2018

20
Anniversar 20 YEARS 20 YEARS 20TH ANNIVERSARY NOW AND THEN
GOING
GOING
th
Anniversar
STRONG
STRONG
Celebrating
Celebrating
1998 2018
1998 2018

Now and then

20 -Anniversary interviews with CMA members
th
profiled in the magazine in years past

We were just starting to look at the idea
In each issue of 2018, we’ll mark our 20th anniversary of introducing our own line of closet sys-
by checking back in with members whose shops have tems and storage solutions, and in 2015,
we officially launched our new endeavor
been featured (or you might say, PROfiled?) in the as Pawling Closet Company. The objective
magazine. was to increase our cash flow with quick-
er, smaller jobs to fill in the idle time for

First up is Leland Thomasset – Thomasset and his both our CNC machine and our installers.
shop Taghkanic Woodworking in upstate New York This move turned out to be very
were featured in the Summer issue of 2014. profitable for the company. Not too
far down the road, we needed to add
a person to help with sales, drafting
and project management, and we hired
lined up. We were doing mostly luxury Nicollete McGinley.
residential work with a small amount of
commercial work mixed in. We also started doing a couple of spring
home shows, which turned out to be
We were also providing CNC machining very successful, and began promoting
services to other companies, and this Pawling Closet Company on Houzz. These
was proving to be our most profitable marketing efforts helped us produce
work. Our custom cabinetry arm of more than $100k in revenue the first year,
the business provided a significant and we remained very busy through the
contribution to the bottom line, but rest of 2015.
was not the large net profit percentage
winner. In 2014, a full 50 percent of our From late 2015 through most of 2016, we
work came from my business partner’s had several nice-size cabinet jobs, which
In 2014, we were just getting back in the construction company; I was grateful, included several closets systems, laundry
groove after the Great Recession of 2008. but I was trying to increase what we had rooms and garage systems to help round
We were hiring and had plenty of work coming in beyond that work. things out.

28 PROFILES WINTER 2018