Mike Smith

Mike Smith owns and operates MTS Woodworking, a custom furniture studio in Salem, New Hampshire. He builds tables, cabinets, desks, and outdoor pieces, handling every step from selecting lumber to delivering the finished work to homeowners, businesses, and designers.

Before woodworking, Mike served in the US Air Force as a mechanic, then studied biblical studies, youth ministry, and music in college and worked as a youth pastor, a role he still holds part-time. The switch to furniture started when his second son was born. Disappointed by the quality of available baby furniture, he bought tools and built a dresser himself, then kept going as friends and family asked him to do the same. In 2020, with a third son on the way, he quit his job and went full-time.

He works out of a 12 by 24-foot basement room he shares with the washer and dryer. The space constraints are real, but so is the demand, because everything he makes is commissioned and paid for in advance. Recent annual revenue has run in the $68,000 to $80,000 range with roughly half flowing to profit. His best-selling item at one point was Little Free Libraries, which brought in $30,000 in a year before shipping complications shifted him fully into custom furniture.