How did we get HERE!?!

If you’ve followed Create With 614 for a while, you’ve probably noticed that we’re growing — and expanding into some areas that might seem a little unexpected.

To understand where we’re going, though, you really have to know where we started.

And the funny thing is, Create With 614 looks very different today than what we originally planned.

The Original Create With 614

When we started Create With 614, the vision was classes and workshops.

We wanted to bring people together, teach them something new and give them the opportunity to actually make something themselves.

Then COVID happened.

Suddenly, a business built around bringing groups of people together wasn’t exactly a great business model.

So we had a choice.

We could give up on the idea, or we could figure out another way to make it work.

We figured it out.

Looking back, that decision probably shaped Create With 614 more than anything else.

From Workshops to Helping People Create at Home

If people couldn’t come to us to create, we needed to find other ways to help them create.

That shift eventually took us further into blanks, materials and supplies for makers and small businesses.

Along the way, we learned a lot about the people we serve.

The maker community isn’t just made up of large businesses placing huge orders.

It’s people creating at kitchen tables, in basements and garages. It’s parents making something for their kids’ teams or schools. Teachers creating for their classrooms. People making gifts for their families. Makers selling at craft shows. And entrepreneurs trying to turn something they love into a small business.

Sometimes they need one sheet of material — not a case of 50.

Sometimes they want to try something new without making a huge investment.

Sometimes they have an idea but don’t have the equipment needed to make it.

And sometimes they don’t want to make it themselves at all.

They just want someone to make it for them.

That helped shape the next evolution of Create With 614.

Today, we can sell you the blank.

We can help you figure out what to do with it.

Or we can make the finished product for you.

Why Being Veteran-Owned and Family-Operated Matters to Us

Create With 614 is a military veteran-owned, family-operated business.

Those aren’t just words we put on our website.

Our family is involved in this business, and my military experience has absolutely influenced the way I approach building it.

One of the lessons I carried with me from the military is pretty simple:

Plans change.

Sometimes dramatically.

You assess what you have, figure out what changed, adjust the plan and keep moving.

In a strange way, that’s basically the story of Create With 614.

Our original business plan didn’t survive 2020.

But the reason we started the business did.

We still wanted to help people create.

We just had to find different ways to do it.

And we’ve continued doing that ever since.

Then Came Something We Never Planned: Home Décor

Home décor definitely wasn’t part of the original Create With 614 plan either.

We had an unexpected opportunity to acquire a very large collection of furniture, lighting, artwork and home décor.

And when I say large, I mean LARGE.

Chandeliers. Lamps. Consoles. Dining chairs. Artwork. Mirrors. Furniture.

Lots of it.

Where We’re Headed Next

We’re expanding Create With 614 beyond the traditional definition of a maker-supply business.

We’ll still have blanks and supplies.

We’ll still create personalized products.

We’ll still work with small businesses on custom items and branded products.

But we’re also bringing in furniture, lighting, artwork, home décor, gifts and other things we think fit naturally with what Create With 614 has always been about.

Creating something that feels like yours.

And being makers ourselves gives us an interesting way to approach that.

We can design and make some of the smaller décor pieces ourselves.

We can personalize gifts.

We can create seasonal products in small batches.

We can experiment with an idea, see if people like it and make more if they do.

We can take something ordinary and make it personal.

And if someone comes to us and says, “I have an idea. Can you make this?”

We still want our first instinct to be:

Let’s figure it out.

We’re Still Figuring It Out, Too

Maybe the most important thing I’ve learned from running Create With 614 is that I don’t need to pretend I know exactly what this business will look like five years from now.

I didn’t predict the first pivot.

I certainly didn’t predict warehouses full of chandeliers and furniture.

And I’m sure there will be things we haven’t predicted yet.

We’re going to try things.

Some will work.

Some won’t.

We’ll listen to our customers.

We’ll pay attention to what people actually want instead of assuming we know.

And when something makes sense, we’ll build on it.

When it doesn’t, we’ll change it.

We’ve gotten pretty good at that part.

What Hasn’t Changed

For all the ways Create With 614 has evolved, the reason behind it really hasn’t.

We want to help people create things — and spaces — that feel like their own.

Sometimes that means giving a maker the supplies to do it themselves.

Sometimes it means making something for them.

Sometimes it means helping a small business create branded products without needing an enormous order.

And now, sometimes it means helping someone find the pieces that make their home feel more like them.

We’re military veteran-owned.

We’re family-operated.

We’re proudly based in Central Ohio.

We started Create With 614 because we wanted to help people create.

COVID changed how we did that.

Our customers helped shape what came next.

And unexpected opportunities continue to change what we’re capable of doing.

So I can’t tell you exactly what Create With 614 will look like several years from now.

If the last few years have taught us anything, trying to predict that might be a little foolish anyway.

But I can tell you what will continue to guide us:

Create. Adapt. Figure it out. Keep going.