Roy Miller fits the description --- the straw hat… the hand-stitched shirt…the meticulously groomed chin beard. He’s grown-up in an Amish community that prides itself in being self-sufficient and off the electrical grid. But, his plain and simple look belies a sophisticated knowledge of why his Asian competitors aren’t doing so well, these days.
MILLER: “Right now, I think one of the things is their shipping cost probably tripled in the last 9-12 months. From what I see is they just cannot operate as cheap as they could before.”
SOUND: Cars and occasional clip-clops of buggies
Miller owns Country View Woodworking in Millersburg --- one of dozens of furniture companies here along Ohio route 241 in Holmes County --- halfway between Cleveland and Columbus. The local chamber of commerce has listings for about 450 such shops, ranging in size from 5 – to – 25 employees. Holmes County is said to have the largest concentration of Amish in the world, and the area furniture business brings in close to $280 million each year.
Miller was one of thirty small business owners who came to Cleveland, this week, to attend a Furniture and Millwork Fair, sponsored by Cleveland State University and the Cleveland Institute of Art. The event was designed to help hook-up these small-town entrepreneurs with a bigger marketplace
SOUND: din of the furniture display area
Although the fair was open to all small furniture companies, the Amish were clearly in the majority, displaying their products and attending seminars on best business practices.
For example, interior designer Jane Frankel had some advice on attitude.
JANE FRANKEL: “They have got to be aggressive. I get sent lots of cds, I get lots of emails, I get lots of pictures. The person that follows up and maybe calls me every 2 to 3 months, they are the ones that are going to land the job.“
One of most popular seminars featured speakers from American Campus Communities --- one of the nation’s biggest developers of student housing. ACC builds the dorms and buys the furniture --- millions of dollars-worth. Carin Sistare was impressed by the ability of these small companies to handle big orders through collaborative work.
SISTARE: “This was eye opening. The workmanship is unbelievable. They are very, very genuine; they’ve been great to get to know, they have awesome questions.”
Organizers report ACC has pledged to include the Amish furniture makers in their bidding process.
SOUND: Wood saws in the Millersburg workshop.
Back in Holmes County, Roy Miller admitted that he’s had a hard time getting some of his colleagues to buy into this outreach to bigger markets. A number of Amish woodworkers from the region refused to make the trek to Cleveland, preferring to keep contact with the outside world to a minimum. But, the recession of the past couple years has changed Miller’s perspective on the traditional Amish way.
MILLER: “We have to compete, we have to get better. It used to be when we started a business here in Holmes County, everybody would come knock on your door and try to get you to build furniture for them. Today is different; I like to say my business used to run me, now I have to run my business.“
He’s even got a website.
SOUND: Horse and buggy clopping off into the distance.
