Dirty Old Town is a bespoke Furniture Business based in Eureka. Using reclaimed Australian timbers, Dirty Old Town infuses everything they do with an environmental ethos and a fair dose of good old fashioned love. Run by husband and wife team Johnny and Helene Thompson, these guys are the ultimate in authentic. Our interview was an epic one because these guys are so genuine and generous with their business story and so much fun to talk with! Here is part 1 which is full of great social media advice and insights into their art of infusing integrity into the Dirty Old Town product and brand.
C – You’re great at that marketing end-of stuff and rocking your social media as well.
H – Thanks! I did invest a lot of time in it, and you need to if you want to grow numbers and network with people. It’s not as easy as it used to be. You used to be able to plug into Facebook easily and get heaps of hits but now it can be a struggle. I find that if you have something specific that you want to get out there, it’s definitely worth paying for an ad. It might cost you 5 or 10 dollars, which is nothing when you know you’re reaching a whole lot of people. Sales can be slow through social media but for us it’s more about brand awareness and building it up and making it look a lot more busier and effective than it really is. There’s lots of different pages that run ‘Like Ladders’ so you can interact with these different pages that will then get you likes. I was introduced to these pages when we first started out and they are affective to build numbers.
C – But are they quality likes?
H – I don’t think they’re exactly quality likes, but are usually like minded small business page owners all aiming to grow their presence. Having a lot of Facebook likes can give your business credibility and also means those people have access to what’s happening with your business. It’s all part of the psychology of building your brand and helping it to look like it’s really doing well. I would search for hours, through the newsfeed and looking at other people’s pages to see what they were into. Finding pages of interest or other business pages, community pages with a similar theme to ours, sharing their posts, liking and commenting and building networks. That’s what I did in the beginning with our business, but now I don’t really invest that much time it just looks after itself.
C – On what level do you do that? How do you do it in a genuine way?
H – Dirty Old Town Furniture only comments on things that we genuinely like and products that we genuinely go for. We follow quite a few pages that are overseas. There’s Glasgow Flea, they have a massive following and they’re into promoting business and individuals who are into recycling and upcycling, so they’re all related businesses that are interested in similar things to us. I don’t like to look at businesses in our local area who are doing similar work to us. I know in the name of bench marking and research it’s advisable, but we’ve never been into checking up on direct competitors.
Whenever I do share another person’s work on Facebook I’m careful to always credit the person or business in the post. I’m really into interiors, and design. One of my favorite pages is Readdress. I like to share their posts, but am always mindful to include something like “look at this amazing image from Readdress, I love the way they’ve done blah, blah, blah”. Give full credit to that page because it’s their work and at the end of the day, you’re sharing their photo or their creativity to gain more interest in your page. If you don’t give them credit for what they’ve created it’s just a total rip-off.
C – So there’s having a bit of integrity about what you’re doing
H – Definitely. It’s got be genuine and it has to have integrity.
C – How many likes did you need to have before it just started rolling by itself
H – About 700 I reckon. It was easier then though. Businesses were pretty much treated the same way as private people were treated. Posts were put up really frequently whereas now they’re not
C – Is it worth investing your time into?
H – If you’ve got a few late hours at night, yes, but don’t spend hours during the day. What I try to do is schedule10 posts a week. I scheduled them for different times, different days and just let them rollout. Sometimes I work on a specific campaign for a new product or an event that we’re involved in and I’ll schedule all the posts around this. Other times it’s just about keeping a presence on Facebook, reminding people who we are, what we do and what we’re about. It’s good to spend the time doing this so it just looks after itself and you’re not investing all that time. I’m still careful to check on the progress of the posts, so I don’t miss a comment someone may make. It’s good to acknowledge your fans and interact with them. This also improves the visibility of your posts.
C – It can be a bit of a black hole that you go down and spend hours so if you had to give 3 tips to people using social media what would they be
H
- Have quality, substantial posts. Present the real life side to your product or service, tell a story.
- Social Media is about building networks, so connect with like minded businesses, like their pages and share their posts, it shows support, widens networks and makes your page more engaging for your fans.
- And schedule. Have a strategy and schedule.
C – How much do you reckon your sales and business success is down to social media, cause you are really good at it?
H – Thanks, I think it’s been exceptionally good for building Dirty Old Town Furniture without a massive marketing budget, because we just don’t have one! We’ve been lucky to have meet some really wonderful people who have helped us along. We have a strong network of people we can call on and social media has had a big part in building and sustaining those networks.
I also think everything you put out has to be of a high quality. If I put a photo up and it looks like crap I’ll take it down. I think what’s really important with social media is presenting your business in a professional way but with a human side.
C How do you balance how much is sales and how much is giving things to people?
H – l see a lot of holistic businesses who will share some kind of spiritual meme or a beautiful photo of the ocean, a nice thought for the day, etc. Sue Daly a local Naturopath posts nice thoughts for the day and the like. So it’s related to her business but not actually directly related to the core business. For Dirty Old Town it’s environmental matters, info on community events, upcycling, new technologies. So I’ll look at ways other businesses recycle and create products and encourage that, like glasses made out of wine bottles. There’s a business in Tasmania called Bottelo and we have this Facebook business friendship. We love that they makes glasses out of wine bottles and they like what we do and stand for.
C -The cushions are new. Where do they come from?
H – In 2012 we were part of Arts Northern Rivers Popup Shops and we met a great group of makers and artists. One of those was Joanna Kambourian of Ms Browns Lounge. Our work was teamed together in the Byron and Sydney Shops and we just clicked on all levels. Jo designs and hand screens her fabrics then makes the cushion covers herself. Her work is unique and beautiful, and she holds a similar business ethos as us. So after the Popups wrapped up we continued to market our work together. Soft furnishings go hand in hand with our furniture, even more so now with our new range of Daybeds. We have plans to introduce a range of cushions exclusive to our brand, it’s on the list! We also have worked with Tanya Bradley of Figjam Design Studio, who also hand makes an amazing range of cushions, covers and bunting from hessian. She is one of the original designers and her work is of such a high standard.
I love to work with and support local makers. There is such a wealth of talent in our region, we don’t have to look far to find each other.
C.– Have you always been in this area and were you established as artists elsewhere?
H – We moved to Bangalow in 2000 and then we moved to Eureka in 2008. We came from Sydney. Johnny’s always made furniture ever since we first moved in together in Sydney. We’ve been together forever so there really is no life before each other. We got together after we’d both finished school and when we moved into our first house we didn’t have much, and what we did have, we didn’t really like! So he used to make our furniture. I went to Thailand for a month with a girlfriend and when I came home he had made a bed for us, because we had never had a real bed. He has always made furniture out of pure necessity and always out of recycled materials. He’d drag home old brick pallets and whatever he could find thrown out in the street. Back in the day in the city people would just throw things out and, I guess they still do. But he’d drag stuff home and make beautiful things out of it. So he’s been doing it since he was in his 20s.
C – Did he ever sell it back then?
H- He traded it. He didn’t actually get money for his pieces, but he would trade, he would barter for things and we still barter now up here. We’ve done a few different deals with other businesses, we’ve traded jewellery for a mirror, we’re really into that. It doesn’t always have to be a monetary thing, it’s nice to trade. We traded food for furniture with Doma in Federal when they first started opened.
C – So you’re open to anyone who might approach you with some quality trade ideas?!
H – We are open to people that approach us with quality trade ideas. We’re not into just making a whole stack of money which is a little bit unfortunate! I’d say that the real business side of things didn’t really kick off until 2009/2010.
C – What was the catalyst?
H – Johnny was sick of bricklaying, it was hard and it was horrible and it wasn’t something he was going to do forever and he had this interest in making things so he started doing it at home whilst still bricklaying. Then we had John Joseph (our number 4 child). We were both at a crossroads, I didn’t want to have to go back to work for anyone else, I wanted to put my energy into creating a business for both of us to work at. And the furniture was perfect as it could be home based so we just went for it. Johnny was encouraged to take his work to the market so he started at Bangalow Market with a few dining tables and benches. The response was overwhelming. I was so proud of him, and so happy for him, it was pretty emotional.
C – Were you working full time when you first started
J – We never wanted to be full time at anything. Especially doing something we didn’t love. For me Bricklaying was to pay the mortgage, and have a few shekels, that was it. I never wanted to get a big crew together and make a lot of money. I’ve never really been a money hungry person, probably never will. I want to be comfortable and happy in my life. Money, I’m sure when I’ve got it I’m happy I spend it with wild abandon, but I had to move up to the north coast to get away from the 6-days-a-week. I found laying bricks boring, 1 on top of 2, that’s it, that’s the pattern the whole way.
I wanted a job where I could do what I wanted to do, work my way and still spend time with my family. Make a good coin and do it well. I know that’s not what’s going to sell or what people want to hear. I can walk down the street any time of the day or night. I can work 16 hours a day, I can work 20 hours one day and no hours the next. I wanted to go do something that I really like but the catch-22 with that was I took my favourite hobby and made it my job and its hard to find another hobby.
C – Have you found another hobby?
J – I’ve got an active mind, so I’ve always got something on the go, always learning something new. I get quite engrossed in things. I like taking the boys fishing and four wheel driving. And I try and make time to make something I’m interested in. I’ve just finished a pendant light which I’m fond of.
C – Has it killed the love of it for you?
J – Familiarity breeds contempt. If you’re doing something for any length of time, yeah I suppose sometimes it gets a bit … I’d rather be excited every day. But look at the end of the day if I’ve made some money and paid the bills, I’m happy in life.
C – So how do you stop that favorite hobby that you turned into a business turning into bricklaying all over again
J – Bricklaying was just something to get me out of where I was and that was suitable, I enjoyed all the looseness of bricklaying. You could go in and you could make quick money. Where I wanted to be when I was laying bricks for someone else was to make enough money during the day and then go home. Once I’d made what I thought was enough I didn’t want to work any longer. I didn’t feel the desire to make another $200, $300 in a day, I had no desire whatsoever. Probably a bad husband in that regard!
C – You’ve lasted pretty long for bad husband material! You’ve done alright, 4 kids, beautiful house!
J – Just lucky and well trained!
C – I’m working with people who want to turn their passion into a full time job, how do you stop that becoming the new shackle.
J – All you’ve got to do first is start off with a shitty career! In all honesty, I don’t think you can. It becomes the beast that swallows you whole
You go through stages where you get custom orders to make something which is pretty stock standard and then you’ll get a break and will make something which is completely out of your own head and then that refreshes your creativity.
My goal is that what I make, is what people want. Rather than people coming in and going ‘can we get it about an inch shorter?’ or ‘a different shade of blue?’ ‘or this or that?’ I want people who come in going ‘that’s exactly what I want. Pardon me, thank you, I’ll buy it.’ And for the right price! In the last five and a half years, we’ve only had one customer that wanted changes made to a custom made piece, so that’s fairly good. But I want to be able to avoid all that.
C – So how do you? What can you do to avoid that?
H – You can’t. You can’t please everybody. I suppose you don’t want to. It’s hard when you’re doing something that’s heartfelt, because you’re creating it and taking it personally if somebody doesn’t really love something that you’ve put that love in.
C – So how do you do a commission piece that stays consistent to your brand and your own integrity as a creator?
J – It’s easy because I don’t think of myself as a bit of an artist. I think of myself as someone who does something that I love, who’s able to get a little bit of artistic!
H – The process with the majority of custom orders that we do is to get the Clients in to see the range of work that Johnny does, and then they fall in love with it, and I normally talk them through the design process. And my starting point is ‘if you like everything that you see here, then are you happy for us to have artistic rights and create it in our style?’ And ninety-nine percent of our customers say “Yes”.
It is our original design. And we only make one off pieces. So we can make five different kitchen benches, but each one will be different. Nothing’s ever stock standard. Even the small stools that we make – they’re all different.
C – How do you sure yourself up when you’re doing a custom piece that you’re going to get paid?
J – We take an upfront deposit. Thirty percent right away. Sometimes we take fifty, depending on the size of the job. We’ve had to wait on a few payments, so we’ve learnt to take deposits, and ask for progress payments if it’s a big job. And it’s really cynical to say – but people with the most money, make you wait the longest. It’s funny because they don’t really understand what it’s like to wait on money. Working class people save and pay on time. They’re the people that I love working for the most because they really appreciate it. They really want the pieces and have worked hard for them. The Clients I really appreciate are the ones who really can’t afford it. But mostly all our Clients are so appreciative of the pieces, the work involved and what we do. They want a handmade bed for their kids, or something special to share with their partner and they’re probably still sitting on the same lounge they’ve had for about fifteen years, but they love the aesthetic and they get what we’re trying to do. And there the things that I want to make. And you get one in five who come along like that and you’re like “hey, I’m going to go the extra mile for you. I’m going to make this the best piece I could possibly make.” And they’re the ones who come back, and you get that appreciation. And you’re on high for a while. They’re the ones I love. Cause that’s where this all started. Necessity was the mother of this invention. Everything we made was because we couldn’t afford to buy it.
C- Are there things you do within the business that you’re doing for love and some things you do just because that’s the business?
J – I fucking hate sanding! You know you can do days on the sanding tools.
C – Do you do anything about that? Do you have someone who comes in and does sanding with you?
J – No. Besides Helene.
H – I’m the sanding monkey.
J – When I’m sanding for days Podcasts get me by. Recently I’ve done it to a bunch of old Clive James stuff and I can just listen to that all day. Anyway, I hate sanding. So no matter what the job is, especially the last couple of days it’s sanding. It’s loud and it’s just ugly. And no mask in the world saves you. Not with the rudimentary tools we’ve got.
H – That’s where the love comes into each piece. Because instead of just going and buying a piece of dressed timber, Johnny has to restore and create a piece of dressed timber from something that’s really old. So no piece that he makes is easy, because there’s always work involved in getting the timber to look beautiful again. Even though he hates doing all that sanding the end result’s amazing.
J – I love the end result. But I’m working on it. Clearly I’ll need to paint from time to time. But you know the real highlight? Things like this, coming and doing this and talking about it. When it interests someone else. When people are interested in what we’re doing.
Photos by http://www.narrativepost.com.au
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