A man in his place. 

I graduated as a artisan wood craftsman in 2004. Wood, metal, machines and equipment have been a hobby since my youth, partly because I come from a farm. However, working in my father's transport company and later continuing the business as an independent entrepreneur took me all the way until 2018. Then fatigue symptoms related to sleep apnea caused my driver's license category to be downgraded and a change in field was ahead. 

A familiar construction entrepreneur happened to give me a call and asked me to work for his firm. That was the beginning of my career in construction work. All kinds of construction work is done on construction sites. From foundations to finishing.

The pictures show the different stages of the logos, the top one being the first draft made with a mobile application for a new business idea. 

The idea for the name came when I was thinking about starting my own Youtube channel. The name would also be suitable for online shopping and other activities focusing on handicrafts. The target audience is the whole world! After googling, I found out that no one else is using the name.  

In the fall of 2023, I was in negotiations for a business acquisition for a plywood product manufacturing rights. When planning to transfer the operation, I mentioned this name idea to the seller because I wanted to create trust so that we would get in agreement for the trade.

However, the trade for the plywood manufacturing rights failed due to lack of funding. Some time later, I thought that maybe I could start something with that name and started looking at domain names. 

I searched for ArtesanFinland in a domain name search and, lo and behold, it was already taken. It soon turned out that it had been bought by the same company that was selling the plywood manufacturing rights, within a couple of days of the trade going under. I guess they just bought the domain out of spite, because it seemed like the seller was really annoyed by the trade going under and when he hung up on me on the phone.

Of course, it was annoying until I realized that a domain name is only valid for a certain period of time, in this case a year. I set a calendar reminder for the day the domain name would become available. The day came and I managed to buy the domain name. I did it on my mobile somewhere on the road when the calendar reminded me of it. 

Awesome! I got it for myself! The matter was left to simmer again, because I just have to get to work. 

In the meantime, I had started the WoodVersion training at the Työtehoseura, and there I came across branding and productization. So it is possible to get a professional degree in product development from the training by making a portfolio of product development. 

In connection with making the portfolio, I started to look into setting up a domain name again. I decided to make the portfolio as a website for my own domain name! Great idea! I can't help but do it! I open the Google Workspace and link dns records for the Google Sites service. 

ERROR! - The domain name is invalid - check the domain name.

What the heck! 

On the DNS service provider's page, the name is in the form: artsanfinland.fi 

WHAT THE HELL IS ARTSAN??

Have I really spelled that name wrong and paid a lot of money for it?

Is the right domain still available? I'll check; 

Yes! The .fi and .net endings are available, but the .com isn't! 

I messaged customer service. Can I cancel the transaction? Well, I can't anymore. It's been too long. 

I mentioned this in the branding course. 

-I strongly advice to be careful with spelling so that it doesn't happen like it did to me. 

The course participants are thrilled. That sounds like a sales story. 

-You should use that! Really. It makes for a fun and selling story. It's worth thinking about. Someone said. 

I replied to the service provider's email that I was considering using the domain name I had misspelled, and I went to redesign the logo.