The machinery purchased through StartUp Plus gave him the chance to stay in the country and start his own business

Lucian Dincă is a young entrepreneur who had the courage to start his own business and who, despite the problems he encountered and this difficult year, continues to believe in his future here in the country. A year ago, he bought 2 Laser CNCs from Rubiq CNC, to make personalized decorative items, clothing accessories and wooden toys, and during this period the products could be seen at Christmas fairs organized in the malls of Bucharest. He works hard, his life is now between workshop and stalls, but he is confident. For now, the website is in the works, but those interested can see his objects on the facebook page SIMBEDO ART. How he came to develop a woodworking business, find out below.

How it all started

Wood was not Lucian's first choice. In 2010 he started his Management degree in Cluj, and in 2012 he went to the USA on a Work&Travel program during his vacation. It was a period where he learned a lot. Although he worked hard and had only one day off, it was a period that allowed him to get to know the world, visit new places and discover the American entrepreneurial spirit. The American experience continued into the summer of 2013 and then, back home, he joined friends in Cluj who had started a business making audio systems, Acoustic Density. He worked with them for 6 years, during which time he invested a lot of soul. At some point he realised he wanted to do something for himself, to have his own business. Time for a restartsays Lucian. But to start a business he needed capital. Since he didn't have it, he thought of going abroad for a while to work.

"I have never thought of leaving the country for good, I believe that good things can be done in Romania. I just wanted to leave to accumulate capital in a short time, capital with which to come back and do something here. In Romania it is impossible to raise a large amount of money in a short time."

As it happened, one of his sisters, who had applied for Start-Up Plus for the Muntenia region, decided to get married and move to Galati. This made it impossible for the project to continue, so he proposed that she take it over. The programme provided him with the capital he needed, so he accepted and returned home to Plopeni.

Equipment through Start-Up Plus

The project was in woodworking, a field he had also worked with at the audio equipment company. The new business was based on the production of personalised decorative items for children's rooms, jewellery boxes, toys and even wooden clothing accessories. To produce them, however, he needed machinery. He was going to process plywood up to 8 mm thick. She researched online and found the company Wood IQ/Rubiq CNC that got his attention. It was just before the 2019 BIFE SIM fair so he decided to go to the fair to see the machines and ask for the information he needed.

"Before that, however, a friend who had already worked with Wood IQ called me by chance. He told me that the machines were good, that he was satisfied and that I could trust Dan Pruteanu, the company's manager. That gave me courage. The most important thing in a relationship is to earn trust. So I went to the fair to meet her. I knew what I wanted. Among other things, I wanted a CNC laser with a big table. Dan was very open and explained that for what I was going to do - small objects - I didn't need a big table. That was enough for me to decide. By changing the type of machine there was money left over so I was able to get a circular milling machine.”

The machines - two Rubiq CNC laser model 1309Proand a combined circular + milling machine Wood IQ model CF 1500 - came quickly and started designing and making models from 4 and 6 mm birch plywood. He was also going to make 3D maps in 8 mm plywood. In November he already participated in a trade fair with the objects he produced. Everything was going according to plan, but unfortunately the pandemic came.

2020 - a strange year when adaptation was essential

The pandemic changed the dates of the problem and had to reconfigure the original plan. The idea was to work with distributors and stores, not the end customer. Unfortunately, the pandemic closed down just those possibilities so they had to find solutions to reach the end consumer directly. Material possibilities were also limited because money was spent on machinery and there was not enough production to support the investment in such solutions. However, they joined the visiere.ro initiative by producing and donating visors to frontline staff fighting Covid-19.

Despite the hardships, the will and support of family and friends helped him move forward. He's not satisfied with where he's at, but he hasn't given up on his work either. He managed to contact customers through Facebook, Instagram or through friends, and in the run-up to Christmas he had 2 stalls at the fairs in 2 malls in Bucharest. In the workshop he works with an employee, for whom he does everything to keep it and sometimes with family members. She is also working on the website and hopes to launch it early next year. Having to work directly with customers and being in so many places means he loses production time, but he has adapted to the times. But he's confident that all this will pass and he will be able to devote himself fully to the new models and is convinced that the market has great potential.

Looking to the future

Lucian is now passionate about wood. He says we're lucky to have this renewable resource and we should take care of it. Everyone who works with wood should have replanting programmes. That's what he will do. He even aims to calculate the amount of wood he consumes and plant at least as much as he has consumed. It's a gesture of social responsibility he feels he owes it to himself to do.

The conversation with Lucian Dincă was refreshing. Self-demanding and positive, eager to build something solid in this country, he's the kind of entrepreneur you bet on to succeed. By the time he's 29, he's invested in himself, gained knowledge, worked and trained. He knows what he wants and is determined to get it.

If you would like custom-made decorative items for children's rooms, wooden clothing accessories or toys, you can contact him on Simbedo's Facebook page or on Instagram, @simbedoart. The website will be ready soon. Good luck Lucian!