YOUR BUSINESS AUTHORITY
Springfield, MO
YOUR BUSINESS AUTHORITY
Springfield, MO
Concepts by Design designs, manufactures and installs custom cabinets and closets for the luxury market. With a team of 45 people, including designers and skilled woodworkers, officials say clients are invited to take a peek at the start-to-finish process in the 42,000-square-foot showroom and facility where they can envision their dream project come true.
SBJ: What inspired you and your husband to join the cabinet industry?
Shelley Wehner: We purchased a small shop with four employees and had zero cabinet-making experience. My husband was wanting to do his own thing, and we were researching companies for sale and he thought, this sounds like me, I like working with my hands. We’re both former college athletes, so we’re competitive. We’ve learned the trade from scratch and grown our business by going to conferences, learning from others and having a can-do attitude.
SBJ: What is one of your most memorable projects?
Wehner: We did a project a few years back that had a ton of secret compartments. We do a lot of hidden bookcases, but this house had hidden compartments everywhere. A bookcase retracted with the push of a button, and it would slide into a pocket. There were a lot of firsts with this job, which created some challenges. We don’t shy away from challenges; we invite them as this is how we learn, grow and refine our craft every day.
SBJ: How do you market your products?
Wehner: The majority of our business is word-of-mouth and referral based. We do more brand marketing than lead generation, but we started this year doing more lead generation on the closet side of our business. There’s a lot of growth opportunity in the closet sector, and we’re just now kicking off a campaign to spotlight closets.
SBJ: What are the key products and growth areas?
Wehner: Cabinets, closets and millwork. The cabinetry side has grown organically through repeat business and is our bread and butter. The closet side has also organically grown through our cabinet clients. Our growth focus this year is the closet market. Closets are less labor intensive to produce, and they don’t distract our production from doing custom cabinet millwork. There is tons of opportunity for growth as closets are not heavily marketed in our region. It is also great because the majority of the public can find an affordable closet system that works for them.
SBJ: How do you recruit talent?
Wehner: Recruiting talent is challenging. We have our professional staff, sales and technical designers who work with clients, and then skilled tradesmen. We reach out to (Missouri State University) for design students, offering internships. We also reach out to people interested in developing a craft and nurturing new students into the industry from the local high schools that have woodworking programs. It is great to get young talent that we can train from the ground up. We are also fortunate to have a great culture and many employees come from our employees referring people to work here.
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