I will start with a very strange sentence: “I love Polish people”. I would like you to know that whatever I write, every criticized features is important to understand how we, Polish people are different from you. Don’t worry, I am not going to make sociology study here, I will refer to my experience in wood industry, subjective opinions and thoughts I worked out during my 18 years in this very traditional manufacturing business.

I have not had a chance to work with upholstery furniture business long enough to give you their perspective and way of thinking. I will concentrate on: furniture where wood plays a core role and which require the highest level of manufacturing experience, high and middle quality garden furniture and accessories and simple wooden products used indoor and outdoor. What is the factor that binds this kind of producers? Garage…. When Poland fight back freedom in 1989 and become part of capitalist Europe business exploded. People had no money, so they started firms in their garages, that is we call this kind of business “garage company”. That basically means that the owner started from micro company basing on his own capital. That feature will take you to the first point of my thoughts.

I am the boss and I take it personally.

Small and medium enterprises in wood industry have no management skills and what is more owners think they don’t really need these kind of skills. Why would they need them since they know the best. When you start negotiationwithsmall and even medium enterprises your ideas will be put on hold by simple “NO it is not possible”. Itdoes not actually mean it really is impossible. That only means “we have been doing it differently for 20 years and not going to change that”. This first obstacle is very difficult to overcomewithout basic production knowledge and the feeling of producer/owner motivations.

We don’t like middlemen and retailers.

Since most of the wooden producers evolved from small “garage” companies where production costs were the most important and anything beyond that was just a “necessary evil”, Polish producers treat middlemen as loafers. So be aware - they will do everything what is possible to shorten the distribution channels. Of course shortening of distribution is a good idea if only it is done with ethic in the background. In my opinion if producer take his own design products and finds retailer it is just a skilled sales team of that producer which now has a great job to do keep the retailer. However there are plenty of producers who will try to find out were you ship your products and then they will go with the same product to you customer (retailer or not). You need to have enough skills to recognize this kind of  behaviors before it is too late. The desperate need to shorten distribution channels without basic management knowledge leads to the next huge mistake: lack of price policy. So they sell on the internet auctions with 5% higher prices then they middlemen or retailers get even if they take much bigger quantities. Before you start secure yourself as much as possible.

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