HATTIE: For 16 years, you really had to struggle because no bank would have anything to do with you. And you had to self-finance.

MIKE: That's right. Yeah. The banks didn't want to talk to you until you were successful, when it was extremely difficult to be successful when you had no money to do it. So everything we did was out of pocket and there were some real lean years there.

HATTIE: Why didn't you quit?

MIKE: I just couldn't imagine doing anything else.

HATTIE: (Voiceover) Mike and his team are not building houses. They are helping people make their dreams come true. Do you ever have people come to you with a little cocktail napkin and say, `Oh, can you build this house?' Does that ever happen?

JEFF: Oh, yeah. In fact, today, here we got a paper plate house. This is somebody's heart right here. This is their dream home.

HATTIE: And they wrote, `How much?' JEFF: `How much?'

HATTIE: So you've got to do a bid?

JEFF: Oh, sure. And we will respond to this, absolutely. It's great. We love it when people do this. It's wonderful. This makes life fun for us, when we can take somebody's paper plate and we end up with a beautiful artistic creation for them.

In the Studio

HATTIE: Every serious business today has a web presence. At OregonLogHomes.com you can read about the history of the company and the staff. You can see examples of past work and my favorite part is the time Mike takes on the website to teach. From the navigation bar on the bottom of every page you can choose Walling Styles, for example. On this page, Mike gives you a close up sketch and describes the difference between handcrafted saddle notched techniques and the machine-milled styles.

You can also see how logs can be used as accents as some people don't want an entire home made out of logs. You can have log staircases, log fireplace mantles, log stair rails, log trusses and maybe anything you can imagine made out of logs. I also like the section on the web that teaches the visitor how to get started designing a log home.

Small business owners like Mike are using the web in ways that save the shopper and the company's staff time. Anything we can do to save time and reduce hassle for customers is worth doing. Add pages to your site that will allow the customer to learn on their own schedule. They'll then be more informed and easier to sell when they pick up the phone to call you.

To build your business, when you are approached with a problem, you must be confident, not only just in yourself, but in your people and their ability to deliver on a promise. I'll see you next time.