Colby Howard wants to revolutionize the woodworking industry

"I always think, 'I wonder if there's a better way to do this.' And then, I think about if there are others who experience this problem, too."

Colby Howard came to the Entrepreneurship Program with a business up and running.

Over three years, the program helped him refine his ideas and develop new ones as he seeks to bring data and efficiency to the carpentry industry.

“It pushed me to look at things from an innovative perspective,” Howard said. “It also pushed me to develop the business I already had.”

Howard started taking woodworking classes as a freshman in high school, and he caught on quickly. Pretty soon he was making items by request and figured out he could build this into a business.

He made trinkets, carving boards, and smaller items that didn’t take much time but could make him a little bit of money. He started to run into a problem.

“I would have a tool that broke down, and so now I need a new part, which meant having to wait several weeks before I could finish a job,” Howard said.

So he wondered: is it possible to see the real-time performance of electric carpentry and woodworking tools? And could this data be used to anticipate repairs and replacements?

Operational Edge was born. Howard’s concept involves an attachment to tools that records their performance data. When a tool starts to break down, the user can see that, take the necessary action, and avoid unexpected down time either between or during jobs.

“I always think, ‘I wonder if there’s a better way to do this,’” Howard said. “That’s just the way I work. And then, I think about if there are others who experience this problem, too.”

This led him to another business idea called Interbox. The use of modular tool boxes that fit together is common in the industry, but sometimes these tool boxes don’t fit if they are not the same brand.

Howard has started to work on a plate that could be used to fit these tool boxes together regardless of brand. It’s another way of making the industry more efficient.

Howard found the Entrepreneurship Program both motivating and inspiring. It also challenged him to advocate for his business ideas.

“That was the hardest part, to get over that hill and have confidence in talking about my business in front of a big group of people,” he said.

Howard will graduate in May 2024 and plans to attend Missouri State University where he will study Mechanical Engineering Technology.