Meet Douglas Cherepy

Today we’d like to introduce you to Douglas Cherepy.

Hi Douglas, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I started out a while back doing blacksmithing in my garage and making knives as a hobby. I had always wanted to go to welding school, and the opportunity came up when I was let go from the company I had worked for 15 years. After I graduated with my Associates in Welding, my girlfriend and I had been spending a lot of time in the garage just making little trinkets here and there for our house. Then it had started to progress from word of mouth, friends, and family to start making things like furniture, welding repair jobs on their trucks, grills, and we decided to jump in with everything we had and start Central Florida Metalworks. That was in October of 2019, and now my girlfriend also welds, and the two of us are a dynamic duo creating, repairing and designing metal fabrication projects for our diverse clientele in the Central Florida region. We do this while also working our own separate full-time jobs and raising four kids and a crazy dog, so it has been quite the experience but nothing makes us happier.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Not at all – we are completely self-funded, so all of the money that we make goes right back into our business. We also have full-time jobs separate from this business and are raising four awesome kids. We also almost entirely rely on word of mouth referrals for our business which makes our business a little interesting at times. It doesn’t keep us from the shop, though and working on other projects for ourselves.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
We are a metal fabrication, welding shop. We specialize in designing, creating and repairing a multitude of items such as modern industrial furniture, outdoor items such as patio furniture, stands, along with repair and modification work on trucks and trailers.

Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
It surprisingly didn’t have much of an affect on our business. We just made sure that our customers knew we were still working and were just safe and smart about everything.

Contact Info:

• Email: centralfloridametalworks@gmail.com
• Website: https://centralfloridametalworks.com
• Instagram: @central_florida_metalworks
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Central-Florida-Metalworks-103300737758139