Meet Frailey Woodworks: A Family Business Selling Nationwide with Online Tools
While living with roommates after college and serving as a campus minister, Asher Frailey began crafting custom furniture for his Fort Worth, Texas home. When a record console he posted on Facebook Marketplace sold immediately — and more requests for custom pieces came in — Asher, an architect by training, knew he had the beginnings of a business.
Partnering with his aeronautical engineer father, James, and his artist mother, Paige, Asher began locally selling their signature custom record consoles. As demand for items grew, the family expanded their business to customers nationwide with the Frailey Woodworks Squarespace website and Etsy. Asher calls Etsy the “easiest on-ramp,” noting that now 60% of their sales come from the marketplace. To fulfill all of their orders, the Frailey’s use uShip, a digital service that integrates with Etsy and Squarespace. uShip matches them with drivers, and offers insurance, price estimates, and blanket wrapping, so customers receive their intentionally-designed, modern heirlooms in perfect condition.
In addition to caring for their customers, the Frailey’s look after their staff of artisans with a uniquely entrepreneurial design program. Employees are encouraged to create new furniture designs and rewarded when they prove successful. “Our employees are true craftsmen,” James says. “We want to give them the freedom to propose new ideas and the resources they need to refine them.” When a new piece sells, the designer gets the majority of the proceeds, can add the new piece to the Frailey Woodworks product catalog, and receives royalties on subsequent orders.
The family is quick to point out that their Christian faith and values are what really power their business — by strengthening their bond, guiding them to treat customers and employees with kindness and respect, and inspiring them to create beautiful, enduring pieces for other families. “Our first vocation is to serve Jesus,” Asher says, “and I’m really fortunate to be able to do that with my family and through our business.”
