Meet David Hitchings | Jack of All Trades-Master of None

We had the good fortune of connecting with David Hitchings and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi David, every day, we about how much execution matters, but we think ideas matter as well. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
I had a friend of mine that knows I work with wood and have for years. He is always conjuring up something in his head and came up with an idea that involved wanting a community shop that guys could go to and use the tools to build furniture or whatever regarding to wood. We got to talking about cutting boards one day and how he wanted to build one. I was at home during the beginning of covid as most people were. I was pretty much stir crazy at that point and decided I would go out into my garage and use of some of the scrap hardwood I had on hand to build my friend a cutting board, and a fairly large one at that. The board was multi colored woods and measured 24x18x1.5″ and had a juice groove with rubber feet. So my wife decided to post it on Facebook to all her friends after I finished it. Kinda like hey look what my husband built. Well what happened next kinda surprised all of us, as many of her friends wanted to purchase one themselves. Now these boards were not cheap, many of them were $200 plus. I started taking orders and from May of 2020 to Dec of 2020 I sold about $4,500 dollars in cutting boards. So as the production went on, I decided to start ordering packaging and marketing materials, reinvesting the profit back into purchasing better tools to accomplish what I wanted to do. I started an Etsy account about midways through this venture and tried to stock up around December of last year but buyers cleaned me out completely. We sold $1,000 dollars worth of boards on one Saturday in November at McKinneys 3rd Monday trade days. Needless to say, I did not plan this side business as I have a full time job, but as long as people show interest and keep purchasing them, I will continue to grow the business.What should our readers know about your business?
I have sold new homes for years, as well as residential real estate, asset management etc… I started selling new homes almost 30 years ago for Ryland Homes who has since then merged with another builder. I then moved 2 years later over to Centex Homes at the request of a friend I had known for years. That same friend is my boss today coincidentally. I worked for Centex Homes for 6 years and had been in the industry for 8 years. When I left Centex I decided to try my hand at residential real estate for Keller Williams Dallas Preston Rd, at that time was the 2nd largest agency for Keller Williams at that time, they had 450 agents signed on at that time. That was 2004, I earned the rookie of the year for our office that year. I spent 5 years working for KW until 2008 when the market crashed. I had another friend that had gone to work for a vendor that serviced Freddie Mac files as an asset manager reselling foreclosures for Freddie Mac. My friend asked me if I would be interested in becoming an asset manager for them and I interviewed for the job. I spent 2.5 years working with this vendor before leaving. Once I left I spent a year servicing Bank of America short sale files. Ironically when I left the company I was working for servicing BOA files. The same friend that got me into new home sales asked me if I would come to work for him as he was now the VP of Sales at a well known semi custom builder in the Dallas area. I agreed and have now been with the company going on 8 years.Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Well, aside from the times we are in fighting covid. My best friend and I have been friends since we were about 18 years old. If I was in jail in South America, he is one of the few besides my wife that I could call to come bail me out. He and I have much in common, we both love shooting photography and take trips for days a time to do nothing but shoot photos. I would say that we would line up several locations in and around to go and shoot pictures that depict Texas. Along the way site seeing and taking in places and things we had not seen or done before. Checking out some of the local fare along the way.The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My father who has taught me most everything I know about wood working and my wife Cary who promotes me all the time to her friends. My dad was always in the shop when I was young and I spent a lot of time in the shop helping him with menial tasks but what I didn’t realize until I was older is that I learned a lot from him over all those years. My wife as she can be my biggest critic and my biggest cheerleader. Would also credit my mom for her drive and ambition and always being supportive and determined for me to strive for whatever I wanted in life.

Other: https://www.etsy.com/shop/ButcherBlox1?ref=search_shop_redirect