Each year we feel that we need to stop for a moment and recreate the past several months. So it was this time. 2021 was a year of new challenges, complicated projects, debuts, premieres, rush, too short a day, lots of assemblies and countless kilometers traveled 🙂
With the amount of work put in, it could not be otherwise and the balance was positive – both in terms of staff and broadly understood development, but if we wanted to describe the year 2021 with one adjective, we would choose the word ‘difficult’.
Joanna: Recently, we have certainly matured to be bolder in delegating tasks. We accept more and more the fact that we are not able to do everything ourselves 🙂
Michal: It was not easy to come to terms with, but at this point I cannot imagine my life without department heads. I trust them and I know that now we can leave the company for a while and everything will work as it should.
Joanna: In terms of the composition, the company has not grown as much as last year, where we doubled the team at the end of 2020. Certainly, it is a great team in terms of quality, everyone knows what to do, we operate efficiently, great people work with us and we can say that our rotation is practically non-existent.
When it comes to delegating tasks … I basically entrusted customer service to Zuza and Angelika. Of course, I was struggling with my thoughts about whether this was really a good solution, because I like contact with people very much, but life has shown that I cannot keep up with my duties. After a while, I found it was a great decision! I still keep an eye on it, but a bit more behind the scenes.
Michal: This is the domain of family businesses where you start to build something on your own that only when you are out of acute shortness of breath you start to think that you need to divide this work into more people. I choose people carefully, I follow my intuition the most and some common flow that I catch (or not) during a job interview. I want our team to be really well-coordinated and to be able to create a good atmosphere at work. I also trust my people when they recommend someone.
Joanna: Yes, thanks to this, we can say that our company is truly family-run, there is a real nepotism in it! We have several couples working with us, there are siblings, there are also long-term friends, also these dependencies are not limited to professional life, which makes us happy and from our perspective, such ties help build a good atmosphere here. Nepotism in the Wood Republic is OK! 🙂
Michal: I feel I didn’t have as much time as I would like. There were times when I got off. Completely new, difficult design tasks awaited me. I am glad that I coped with the challenges, it was associated with a huge responsibility, because when creating bunk beds, entresols or complicated built-ins, you have to think strongly about the technology and safety of our customers. I have made a record number of custom-made and bespoke furniture designs.
Michal: There were also assemblies, which I personally love, because I appreciate meeting the people for whom we create furniture. I like talking with them, see the effect of our work. I feel great when we unpack a piece of furniture in front of the client and I can see this first, sincere reaction. I like to see a smile when I hear that the client did not expect such a good quality piece of furniture 🙂
Joanna: In every company there comes a moment when this dynamic growth on the wave of cool marketing and communication with the client slows down and it is completely natural. We reached this peak somewhere at the end of 2020, so this year we had to change our thinking a bit, press harder, and fight. However, we prefer to go with the flow, we do not over-calculate and do not create fanciful strategies. I think it works, because we grew by 70% compared to 2020! 🙂
Michal: Despite everything, there is more peace in us. There is still a lot of stress, but paradoxically, peace in us has definitely grown.
Joanna: We have such a specialized team that we practically got rid of delays in the production process.
Michal:… and most are in great order! Everything is going according to plan or even faster. We have settled in a new place, we have invested a lot in adapting the building to our needs, in tools and machines, and this is not the end. It can be said that this is just the beginning.
Joanna: After the carpentry, it’s time for a new office, photo studio, larger showroom and conquer the world!
Joanna: A lot of more or less spectacular things happened, but all of them were very important. Suffice it to mention that we have conquered Dubai this year! A completely different world in terms of culture, architecture and technology – you know. We were surprised by a completely different approach to running a business, but to be honest, the story of our trip to the United Arab Emirates is a story for a separate, long post 🙂
Michal: It was eight intense, busy, surprising and interesting days. You finally have to write it down!
Joanna: We also got an invitation to the Lodz Design Festival. It was there, in the sensational, post-industrial, revitalized loft buildings, where the BADDE.maxi bathroom commode had its premiere. We like places and small events where we have direct contact with every visitor!
Joanna: 2021 was also marked by cooperation with interior designers. First of all, we make them aware that a lot can be done with us.
Michal: We try not to say “It is impossible”. We are always looking for solutions and we will always come up with something 🙂
Joanna: We have completed several large, comprehensive projects covering all home interiors, including kitchens and bathrooms, and we will show the results soon.
We also organized a competition for professionals for interior design. It was a very interesting and inspiring experience for us. We have heard that our furniture has a specific style and does not fit everywhere … The submitted works proved that it is quite the opposite. The work of Pamela Frydrych won. All awarded and honored projects can be seen on our Instagram.
Joanna: This year made me realize that our furniture is not ordinary products. It is a complete premium service, ranging from design, through manual creation of furniture of unusually high quality and durability, its customization, to delivery to the customer, often assembly and – above all – approach to the customer – we are just fair. Why am I talking about it this way? We are currently building a house and we still face situations where suppliers and subcontractors do not keep a predetermined price. It is known that increases in raw materials at this time are drastic, they affect every field and industry. With us, if a customer orders a piece of furniture, and in the meantime, the production costs increase, we keep the price agreed in advance.
Michal: building a house was our huge dream and our whole private life now revolves around it. It is supposed to be not only a private enclave, but also a spectacular work. There will be a lot of plywood inside – walls, our furniture, we are also preparing a few prototypes combining various materials, but for now this is our little secret 😉 There will definitely be a place to work there, I want to do some extra projects there. The plan is to have more time to design and create new things.
Michal: What would we change if we could survive this year again? I would have fixed the elevator sooner! And seriously speaking, we would not want to change anything. Even if we have a momentary feeling that a decision was not the best one, it turns out that it was supposed to be so. This is the layering of life, the nuances. Of course, we would like everything to happen even faster 🙂
Joanna: … yes, but so we don’t work ourselves to death!
Michal: You have to take what is here and now. We have a lot of plans for the near future … Creating a commercial space for rent with Wood Republic furniture, of course! In addition, another enclave, away from people, in the forest… This year has taught us many things, I did not think that we would do that much.
Joanna: We find ourselves at that stage where we supervise a company, a house, a child, but we can certainly stress less about various things, give ourselves a break, and respect our free time. This is important!
