Part 2- The dream is free the hustle is sold separately - George Koufalis
We've never been afraid of hard work. We've always jumped in with both feet and hoped the parachute would open on the way down. Sometimes it did, sometimes we landed and didn't die, but came out a bit bruised with a broken bone or two. Nothing that couldn't be mended or put in a cast to heal...but things that hurt none the less.
Because we aren't magic, we had no idea what was around the corner when we opened that first machine. We had no idea that it would save us in a pandemic, but that we would also need to learn so much in a relatively short period of time.
We didn't know anything, and I mean anything about wood burning or Pyrography. Nothing. Nada. Zero. We also didn't speak Russian and the machine and people that work making these special machines work in Russia and speak, you guessed it, Russian.
I promise I'll spare you many details, but I do think it's important to know the beginning. We started with 0 knowledge and only drive and Grit to maybe make some extra income. Maybe this can be a blueprint for someone else's little side hustle to be birthed because you can see and know what's possible even in your 40's even starting at 0.
Anyways, we opened and assembled the machine, and then Elton left to go on the road, as he was working out of town. The machine was assembled, but not working, keep in mind, there wasn't a help desk per se to talk to a person. The people that sold the machines were 6 hours ahead of us, making it not impossible, but harder to communicate. Eventually though after enough time, I figured out how to communicate with the owner of the company via Skype and Google translate! We got the driver from the machine going and the machine working with his help. Great! Now we need to learn about wood!
We figured out Amazon was expensive and retreated to the local lumber yard here in town. They were able to cut us wood that was much more affordable and we felt good keeping our product here locally. (We try and support local and USA made wherever we can)
After we had wood, we had to learn how to treat it. The machine will burn much darker and rich tones if you are able to lighten it with Hydrogen peroxide 1st. Then
After a few tries and a few pictures coming out well, we started to think about how we grow our business and actually make some money from it.
Stay tuned for Part 3 and how we started to actually grow!