Gieschen’s work recognized

Jake Gieschen has a natural humility about his success, matched only by a natural talent for woodworking.

The 25-year-old owner of Jake’s Creative Woodworks, in Smithton, has parlayed a hobby picked up in his high school shop class into a business with five employees and gross sales approaching $700,000 a year. Gieschen’s success, built largely on word-of-mouth referrals, hasn’t gone unnoticed. The shop earned 42nd on the Woodworking 100 list

published in Wood and Wood Products magazine in July. The magazine, a major trade publication, is distributed to about 44,000 shops nationally.

“When I started this, it was for fun, just this little hobby where I would make furniture in my garage. I never thought it would turn into a real business this fast,” Gieschen said. “This year has already surpassed last year’s sales, so I think we’re going to be even higher on the list next year.”

The 9,000-square-foot shop at 32750 Ringen School Rd. specializes in kitchen and home remodeling, cabinetry, and other residential and commercial wood projects. Gieschen said he hopes to launch a cabinet door arm for the business in the next four to six weeks.

“Most cabinet makers don’t fabricate their own doors. You usually contract that out, but I want to be able to control the quality from start to finish. It also cuts down some of our lag time, because I’m not waiting two weeks on doors to finish a job,” Gieschen said.

Jake’s brother, 23-year-old Luke, of Sedalia, works as the shop’s foreman. He said the business’ success is due to Jake’s dedication to quality.

“He’s a good boss, easy to work with, and he hardly ever gets on to anybody. If he does it is for a reason, and we all know that he expects the quality of the work to be 100 percent. If it’s not, he’s going to have you remake it anyway. He’s good at what he does, and he loves it, and that’s why it’s successful,” Luke said.

The business gets about half its work from homeowners and half from contractors, Jake said.

“I’m really grateful to the people that have supported us, the contractors and the individuals,” Jake said. “I usually handle the installs myself, and that’s the best part for me, seeing these boards laying around the shop take shape and go up in a kitchen and having the customer come away satisfied. When somebody recommends us to somebody else, that’s the highest compliment you can get.”

For more information, see the company Web site at www.jakescreativewoodworks.com, or call 343-5848. The shop is open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.