Meet Co Down man who found his calling after abandoning ‘mental trap' of old career

Belfast Telegraph

4 days ago

Mark Justin established Justin Wood NI in 2016, making handcrafted furniture and providing woodworking classes.
His love of the craft began in the workshop of his late grandfather, also a woodworker, where he spent long hours as a child playing and developing an interest in woodwork.
But he worked in IT for must of his adult life, leading to the 'mental trap' of finding success, if not happiness.
He said: 'I had a moment of clarity in my 30s - I was doing well professionally, but I was completely unfulfilled.
'There's a saying, 'You have two lives. One life, and then the life you start living when you realise you only have one.' That really hit home for me.'
He began woodworking again as a hobby, initially working out of a small shed and taking part in craft fairs.
When redundancy loomed in 2018 and a job move to England was on the cards, he instead made the bold decision on January 1, 2019 to go full-time with his craft.
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But he said he ultimately needed help from government business advice service Go Succeed to get his business off the ground.
He said: 'I love everything about the craft – from the hard work and the tools to the design – but I was winging it when it came to running a business,' he said.
'I started to realise that you could be the best craftsperson in the world and not be able to pay your mortgage. Or you could be a terrible craftsperson but a great salesman and become a millionaire.
"That's when it hit that I needed to become as much of a businessman as a craftsman if I was going to make this into a sustainable career which is when I decided to reach out to Go Succeed.'
He received 15 hours of mentoring through Go Succeed, which he said enabled him to choose areas of business he wanted to focus on.
'The biggest thing was the mindset shift. It helped me stop treating it like a hobby and start running it like a real business,' he said.
'I have an IT background, but the mentoring helped me apply that knowledge practically – especially with SEO and Google My Business. I owe a lot of my clients to that visibility.'
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Go Succeed also provided grant funding, which allowed Mark to invest in CNC machinery – automating the engraving process that had previously been done by hand.
'It's like having a colleague that works away peacefully in the background and does everything you tell them to do. It's freed me up to focus more on design, quality, and teaching.'
His woodworking classes have drawn students from across the island of Ireland. Recently, someone even flew in from Canada to learn from him.
Mark said he hopes to devote even more time to creating beautiful pieces and developing the business further.
'Go Succeed helped me realise that doing what you love isn't enough – you have to structure it, promote it, and be smart with it. That support made a huge difference.'
The free Go Succeed services are delivered via each of Northern Ireland's 11 councils and offer support for entrepreneurs just starting out, as well as established businesses looking to grow.