With quick online ordering and bargain prices, big box retailers are always making it easier for customers to make a purchase, but their focus on people typically stops there. Unlike large companies whose operations mostly benefit shareholders, locally owned businesses create a strong multiplier effect that ripples out positive impact into their communities. They’re more likely to hire a local workforce, do business with local financial institutions, and make business purchases from others in the community. After 16 years, it’s this powerful feedback loop that continues to inspire Glenn Nystrup of New Paltz-based Glenn’s Sheds, and reinforces the impact of investing in the local economy as a small business owner.
What began in 2008 for the retired math teacher as a passion for designing and constructing firewood sheds for friends and family has since grown into a robust business that offers everything from firewood and utility sheds to custom project designs and DIY shed plans in over 50 designs–plus a strong network of former and current customers, vendors, and contractors throughout the Hudson Valley. “Glenn’s Sheds cannot deliver a top-notch product on its own,” he says. “It needs help from every part of our community.”
The journey starts with a customer who “recognizes the value of storing firewood that can properly breathe, dry, and season, or utility sheds that keep bicycles, mowers, and hand tools dry,” says Nystrup.
The next step in the journey is the planning and design of a shed project with the customer. “Many customers love our products, yet wish to tweak a size or shape, or step farther outside the basic designs and get creative to address specific needs,” says Nystrup. While customization is cumbersome if entirely impossible for large companies, the ability to be flexible and work directly with customers is a benefit Glenn’s Sheds is always game to offer. “One customer wants to add a bicycle storage unit to his firewood shed. Another wants a garden shed that can be used as a stable for her goats,” he says. “Our foreman, Evan Bishop, collaborates on the designs for custom applications and is an integral part of our process.”
To construct a shed for their customer that will last for years in the elements, the Glenn’s Sheds team begins with quality materials that they purchase from Williams Lumber and Home Centers. As a local family-owned business, their commitment to the community is also evident to Nystrup. On one visit to the lumberyard, he had begun to pull some weeds growing around their display shed when he heard someone tell him they would take care of that for him.
“I recognized the voice of Anthony, the lumberyard manager, and I knew that he meant what he had said. He would see to it personally that the weeds around our display shed were cleared,” says Nystrup. “Anthony and I have had many discussions about delivering products of the highest quality–a value for each of us–and the importance of a professional presentation. It once again verified to me the value of doing business locally–of the symbiosis of inter-community support, taking care of one another and delivering the best to the folks in our community.”
The positive impact in the community only goes on from there. “There are other branches to this community tree, like those who provide safe stoves and chimneys and the firewood to go with them. There are many individuals and businesses touched through the local economy,” says Nystrup. “It all fits together like a large Venn diagram with circles of influence overlapping each other, contributing to one another, and helping to keep one another afloat.”
To learn more about Glenn’s Sheds, tips for mastering the art of the woodburning lifestyle, or to purchase a shed or shed plan, visit Glennssheds.com.
