Damir Bajraktarevic from Sarajevo is conquering the market with his wooden glasses. However, the path to unique glasses went along with a song, because our interviewee started his private business by making guitars. He put his university degree aside, and he says that he “lives happily and does what he loves”.
How did the idea for starting the brand come about and who was your inspiration?
My whole “wooden” story is strange and a bit funny. Music is the reason why I am engaged in the production of wooden glasses today. I have been playing the guitar for over twenty years. The problem of every guitarist is that he_she always wants to have “just one more guitar”. Ten years ago, I told myself that I would make an electric guitar. I researched the process of making a guitar, followed forums, and after a few years of gathering theoretical knowledge, I gathered the courage to embark on that adventure. The funny part about this is that no one in my family did crafts, and I had no contact with woodworking in my life. My only experience with machines and tools was a couple of drilled holes in the wall. I bought a couple of basic woodworking machines and started practicing with unusable pieces of wood. That’s when I fell in love with wood, and decided that I would spend the rest of my life working with wood, whether it was furniture, guitars or something else.
I made a few guitars, but this type of production, due to the small local market, and the excessive costs of shipping abroad, did not make sense. I decided that I would make a high-end luxury wooden product, which I could pack in an envelope and send to the end of the world, without the cost of postage being expensive for the customer. Believe it or not, glasses can be made of wood! In my entrepreneurial venture, glasses were the right choice. That is the story of the creation of “Dawood Brend” in short.
Is it challenging to enter entrepreneurial waters?
My working day is often much harder and longer than if I had another boss. If you want to succeed in your intentions, you have to put in twice as much effort. Sometimes I wish I had a boss and didn’t have to think about work after hours. However, with the decision to enter entrepreneurial waters, I consciously chose a career instead of a job, and I don’t have the luxury of not thinking about work after working hours. Being “your own boss” is challenging, but I consciously chose my path, I try, I fight and I never give up.
Tell us more about the process of making the glasses
Although the manufacture of wooden glasses belongs to wood processing with machines from the carpentry industry, it is far from it. The preparation of the glasses board is done using standard carpentry techniques, and the cutting of the frame and the fine processing of the frame are part of the process that requires great precision in working with tools and constant measuring with a caliper (a tool for measuring dimensions to the tenth of a millimeter). Making one frame involves over 10 stages, each of which is tested at the end. If some defects are noticed at a certain stage of glasses production, that frame is not made and is thrown away as scrap in production. I cut the wood into groups of frames, and after that the frame is steamed and placed in molds, to be bent according to the radius of the face. That part lasts, because glasses are dried in molds for ten days. While the drying process takes place, I work on other glasses in parallel. In total, the production takes about 15 days. Details take the most time. Let’s say my capacity is 20 frames per month.
How expensive are materials, machines, is entrepreneurship in Bosnia and Herzegovina a challenge?
Wood is easily available in Bosnia and Herzegovina, even the best types of wood in this industry can be found in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the prices of this raw material are much more favorable than in the rest of the world.
We make most of our glasses from walnut wood, because it is the wood with the best characteristics for making glasses. We have not found such a ratio of fiber density and at the same time the necessary elasticity in any other type of wood. In the world, the most luxurious wooden products are made from walnut. The best example is the interior of luxury Rolls Royce cars.
We also make glasses from European ash, maple, plum and exotic species, such as padauk, sapella mahogany, wenge, rosewood and ebony.
The BiH market is extremely small for any type of production, and I believe that this is the biggest challenge of all those involved in local business. By purchasing modern machines, Dawood has acquired the conditions for a higher production capacity and a better-quality product, which is not at all behind other world brands of wooden glasses, so the challenge of the small local market has been overcome.
Your primary education is marketing, how did you use it in practice?
The worst thing was that I opened a profile on social networks. Although they are good for promotion, in some ways they caused a problem in my case. When I posted photos of the glasses, 150 people contacted me with orders, which I couldn’t possibly fulfill on time, and customers don’t want to wait. At first, I did not expect that there would be such a great interest. Today, as much as I make, I sell. I didn’t even manage to present my work to opticians who are interested in my work. I sent one round of ten pieces to the Netherlands, one pair of glasses is in London, one in Germany, they are traveling around the world, and that makes me happy. I make universal models of glasses. I look for some that will never go out of style. The models are standardized and fit all face shapes. I don’t make what is popular and trendy. I don’t make glasses that someone will wear for a month. The market in the Netherlands is different, where people can buy glasses with every salary, but here, customers want glasses that they can wear for five years for that money.
If you were a government, what would you change about the attitude of the state/canton towards young entrepreneurs?
The state has incentive programs for entrepreneurs, but I think it would be much more important for the Chamber of Foreign Trade to work much more on networking with foreign markets. The diaspora, which is a very underutilized potential, would play a big role in this. No entrepreneur should count on other people’s help. This is a prerequisite for any business not to fail at the start. There is as much hope as young entrepreneurs are willing to “roll up their sleeves”.
How do young entrepreneurs promote their local community with their products that they place on the domestic and foreign markets?
In today’s time of uncertainty and growing unemployment, a small entrepreneur is faced with the question of whether he_she will develop his_her business in such a situation or whether he_she will wait for better times. It is known that small entrepreneurship is an elementary segment of local communities, because it encourages private ownership and entrepreneurial abilities, affects employment and significantly contributes to the increase of production. Considering the presence of my products all over the world, it is quite certain that a unique product is the best advertisement in the foreign market. I am glad that satisfied customers know that Bosnia and Herzegovina exists through my brand.
Is there cooperation with other local entrepreneurs and how does it work?
I cooperate with other producers, small entrepreneurs. Eyeglass parts are quite complex and I cannot find everything I need here in BiH, I mostly get them from abroad. However, I try to purchase supporting material from local producers, which I see as an excellent opportunity to complement and “support” each other. Bags, packaging, cloths for glasses, I get all that from our local entrepreneurs. I would especially like to single out the cooperation with the local brand “Studio 59”, great women who make kitchen boards in a combination of wood and exspox resin. Together with them, I created a model of glasses that is a combination of these two materials.
Networking of small businesses is a great thing, but there should be criteria for everything, because I believe that the most important thing is that the product we offer to the end customer is of high quality.
Plans for the future?
If we are not hit by another pandemic in the coming years, our workshop will expand production and increase participation in other markets. As we are all witnessing a pandemic that has stopped the world, I don’t know if I can even think about where we will see each other in a few years.
