Ox Works - Year Zero

Well alright, it was the year 2016 to be more precise, when Ox Works was established. It’s probably not an epic story, but a story anyway, and now I’m going to tell you it!

I had a rather solid career in completely different occupation for over 20 years. Last 13 of those working in a small, family-run company. But business in that company slowed down, and the job I had considered fairly safe turned unstable. I was partially laid off and all of the sudden had three days per week at my disposal. I had to start thinking about what I wanted to do when I grew up.

To be honest, some of the traits in my previous occupation had already started to annoy me a few years earlier, so the idea of running my own business, being my own boss had been slowly cooking in the background. But what should I start doing then? My first business idea was, actually, a microbrewery. I had no idea how to brew beer, or cider, but I was interested in it, and eager to learn. Plus my mother brews kvass always for Christmas, so I figured how hard it could be.

Turned out, quite. Not the actual product, but getting everything started, that is. The production line alone was an expensive investment, starting from roughly 15.000€ for equipment. After that, you needed an excise permit from the customs office, because everything involving alcohol here in my country is heavily regulated by the oh-so custodial legislation. This process would easily take 6 months. Then there’s a law against microbrewery selling alcohol directly to customers, so I’d have to fight a lot of competition to get my produce on the shelves of the local supermarket. And the competition is fierce, in a small and homogenous market like Finland, back in 2016 there were almost 100 microbreweries operating. Most of them being startups by one or two mechanical engineer students, I presume, which lasted about one test batch of something so bitter it was barely potable (because beer elitists like their stuff super bitter), and then shut down the ‘shop after noticing a meagre 20 cent profit margin per bottle was surprisingly insufficient.

So, moving on to the next idea. Building custom FX sabres had been a dear hobby of mine since 2008, and I had already received custom build requests when sabersmithing was just a hobby. Turning a hobby you love into profession is something I didn’t really want to do (as nowadays it’s not a ‘dear’ hobby for me anymore, nor a source of relaxation or positive energy), but on the other hand, it was something I knew how to do, and my involvement in the community had developed me an insight of how that niche market worked. Hence, I applied for a business loan, acquired a CNC lathe and started churning out small batches of empty, budget-to-mid-range priced sabre hilts. As I knew back in 2016 there was a shortage of that kind, especially here in the European market.

I was hoping my experience with manual lathe work and various other computer-driven machinery might help me learn CNC, but… No. In the end, I had to start browsing the more or less hefty operator’s manual on G code, and learn things by several trials & errors. Emphasis on the latter. But I got better at it by doing, and soon it was quite fun to operate such a machine, and see my creations turn from boring lines of written code into actual sabre hilts. The money wasn’t stellar, as there were the business loan instalments burdening each month, but I was happy my mini batches at least gained a decent popularity. Every batch was usually sold out in less than a week!

Then, as we all know, in 2020 the COVID crisis hit the world. And dropped my workshop time to zero. My wife managed to do remote work, by locking herself into our guest bedroom, but this left me to entertain the hyperactive 5-year-old, as the daycare centre only accepted kids from key worker’s homes. Don’t get me wrong, I do love my family and would do everything again if needed, but from a business point of view, it was devastating. Even if I theoretically had an hour per night to spend in the ‘shop after the kid was in bed, an hour in the ‘shop for me means I barely get the CNC set up and running. There was very little I could have been able to produce with that little time at my disposal. Not to mention, after a day with the kid, I was pretty exhausted at 7p.m. And, customers in general during the worst of the COVID crisis most likely had other things in their minds than buying Star Wars toys, and the postal service didn’t accept international shipments either.

The crisis, however, was an eye-opener to the fact my business was too much tied to one niche market, and quite frankly, every minute and every drop of sweat consumed turned into cash flow far too slowly that way. I had to start developing my business, and find new ways to expand. Some of you may remember me introducing a lot of new stuff, because the best way to find new niche markets is to give it a real try. I have been trying CNC routed wooden items, dye sublimation printing (as this is familiar market for me from my previous career), selling accessories via online store, and during one Autumn (when I started to have more spare time again), I even tried to do Youtube videos more professional way. All of these ideas failed badly, but then again, now I at least know what does not work.

But what still worked, was making the empty sabre hilts. Even though I had put that ‘production line’ into pause during the first COVID year, I still got inquiries about making a custom hilt or two, quite frequently. I had sold my CNC lathe, because the bills needed to be paid, but then I decided to buy a simple manual lathe, for doing an occasional one-off hilt per order every now and then. This revived a lot of my enthusiasm into entrepreneurship and sabersmithing too, and I was able to keep my customers somewhat happy as well. It wasn’t financially very lucrative, though.

The saving grace turned out to be my previous career, as one of the old customers of my old employer was in dire need of help. I was able to offer them my pair of hands and expertise, and by charging them through my business as a consultant, the side hustle helped keep my business alive. I was even able to finish off that annoying business loan, finally! This cost me two, sometimes three days per week, but returned more steady paychecks. Pay was good, and eventually I was asked to help the company for four days per week, but I had to decline. One day per week would have been dramatically insufficient for running my own workshop, and I knew I’d get tired with that job at pace too soon, as I had become at the end of my previous career.

I’m still involved in the large format printing business, by offering my consulting services to other businesses and occasionally repairing the hardware. This way I’m not too much tied up with one company and their products, but I still get to help for example smaller print shops who are struggling with various problems. And I get to do it on my terms, through my own business.

So, you could say at least my past seven years have established that entrepreneurship is my vocation. Now I just finally need to capitalise it. Prop building will most likely be a part of it in the future too, the techniques may change a bit, though, and emphasis will vary.