A weblog about theatrical drapery and stage curtains for Production Managers, Set Designers, Custom Drapery Resellers, and local/school/church Productions
Recently, Rent What? had the honor to be selected by Dell Computers to be featured in an online video on America’s Favorite Small Business. It was a great opportunity for Megan and Marce and all the folks at Rent What? to discuss the committment that the company has to provide high quality, innovative custom stage curtains and hardware for rental.
I think the folks at Dell did a great job in capturing what it is like to run a small business, ensuring that your business is well run and your customers are provided the highest quality product along with the best customer service possible. As the Rent What? motto goes, “Ultimate Rentals. Extreme Service.”
Congratulations once again to Megan for being named a finalist for the 2010 Stevie Awards for Women in Business. Megan is named in the category “Best Entrepreneur – Non-Services Businesses – up to 100 Employees.”
You’d think we would become jaded – after all, this is the fourth nomination for Megan and/or Sew What? (we won the Stevie Award for “Most Innovative Company of the Year” in 2007), but the truth is, it is always exciting to be recognized. It shows that we aren’t becoming complacent, but are continuing to strive to improve the quality of our service and our product.
I think that is a key thing for small businesses to remember – no matter how successful you are, it is so important to always be searching for ways to build on that success. With this world constantly changing, in terms of technology, economic conditions, and more, it’s important to realize that what makes a company successful one year may not work five years later.
I am proud that Megan, Adam, and the entire team here at Sew What? Inc. is consistently thinking, “How can we offer our clients a more unique, better quality product? How can we make their experience with us more efficient, more helpful, and more creative?.” It’s nice to know that organizations such as the Stevie Awards recognize those efforts.
I just read a terrific article titled “Can you be creative and still make money in Australia?,” which was published last week in the Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald online edition. Yes, I admit that I started reading it because the author, Valerie Khoo, had interviewed Megan for the article (during her trip to Australia). But I kept reading because it was a fascinating subject.
Ms. Khoo makes some very good points. It’s great to be creative, but you can’t build a successful business based solely on creativity (that’s a hobby, not a business!). And that is what Megan learned. She was great at making custom stage curtains and theatrical backdrops. But if all she had focused on were making drapes, and had not also tried to work on the business itself, I don’t know if Sew What? would be as successful as it is today.
Through the years, Megan and Adam have consistently tried to find ways to improve the business as a whole – yes, to offer better, more innovative stage drapes, but also to make our company more efficient, our business practices more “business-like.” We bought our own building, we contracted with a marketing agency for a new brand and website, we bought sophisticated integrated Enterprise Resource software, we worked with a programmer to develop our own software application to standardize our sewing plans…the list goes on and on.
And Megan and Adam have been right there, every step of the way. Megan didn’t say, “Oh, I just want to be creative – find someone else to take care of this business stuff.” Of course, as Sew What? grew, we began to hire people to take care of some of the day to day operations (such as accounting and purchasing), but Megan remains focused on the company and continues to look for ways to improve Sew What? Inc., both from a creative standpoint and from a business standpoint. So great that Ms. Khoo recognized this and included Megan as the main example in her article.
Last week, I posted about Megan travelling to Australia to participate in Dell’s “Take Your Own Path” launch in Australia. I thought today I’d tell you about the other entrepreneurs who will be a part of “Take Your Own Path” in Australia. These entrepreneurs include:
Martin Port, Managing Director, Masternaut Three X
Based in the UK, Masternaut Three X provides tracking and related mobile applications for vehicles and other assets. The company recently opened facilities in Sydney, Australia.
Kym Houden, Founder, Task Retail
Task Retail is one of the leading providers of Point of Sale (POS) technology in Australia. The company was award the Dell Computers Small Business Excellence Award in 2008 (the same award granted to Sew What? in 2006), along with numerous other awards.
Tony Wheeler, Co-Founder, Lonely Planet
Founded more than thirty years ago, Lonely Planet now publishes more than 500 titles of guidebooks for locations throughout the globe. Based in Melbourne, Australia, for much of that time, the company now also has offices in London and Oakland.
As you may recall, last year about this time, Megan was selected by Dell Computers as a “Trailblazer” for its “Take Your Own Path” Campaign. It was a real honor for Megan and Sew What? to be selected, and Megan enjoyed participating in various events related to “Take Your Own Path.”
Recently, Megan was contacted again by Dell Computers. They were launching the “Take Your Own Path” Campaign in Australia, and they wanted Megan to be a part of it. As a native of Australia who is now a US citizen and resident, Megan was delighted to return to Australia to share her story about the many ways that technology has enabled Sew What? to grow and develop over the years.
In a few weeks, Megan will be heading over to Australia to meet her fellow trailblazers and share her story. I’m sure she’ll have lots of stories to share on this blog – I’ll keep you posted!
As a result of her trip to Shanghai in June, Megan was introduced to Angie Strader, host of “What’s Your Bottom Line?” on Diva Toolbox Radio Network, and was asked by Angie to appear on the show. The show aired live last Tuesday, and it was a really interesting experience, both for Megan and the rest of us here in the office.
Megan was asked to call into the show, as well as go onto the show’s webpage, a few minutes the show went live at 2:00 pm Central Time (noon here on the West Coast). Angie had another guest for the first 15 minutes of the show and then went live to Megan as that day’s featured guest.
It was really a fun experience here. Megan sent out a company-wide e-mail asking that she not be disturbed during the live radio interview, and even put a warning sign on her closed door (it reminded me of those red lights at TV studios – “Silence – Taping in Progress).
Meanwhile, we all logged onto the Internet to listen to the interview while we worked. It was a great interview, but a little surreal to be sitting in our offices a few feet away from Megan and yet hear her being interviewed on Blog Talk Radio!
If you want to hear more from Angie Strader, you can listen to “What’s Your Bottom Line?” live each Tuesday at 2:00 pm Central Time (3:00 pm Eastern, 12:00 noon Pacific), and there are also a number of previous shows available. I’ve also just checked out her blog, and I found her posts quite interesting. I especially liked the post titled, “Why the heck are you going it alone?”
Back in September, I posted on Dell Computer’s “Take Your Own Path” campaign, which featured inspiring entrepreneurs from small and medium sized businesses around the world, including our own Megan Duckett.
Well, recently we came upon a photostream from the campaign press conference in New York City, and I thought I’d pass it on. Here’s a preview of one of the photos in the photostream (Megan is on the far right):
Want to see more? Go to the flickr photostream, or check out Dell’s “Take Your Own Path” webpage. The entrepreneur stories are really inspiring!
Naturally, since Sew What? is a U.S. company, the majority of our customers are also in the U.S. We make soft goods for schools and churches, theatres and special event companies all across the country. But did you know that our custom stage curtains, digitally printed backdrops, and theatrical supplies can be seen across the globe?
As you know, we have provided soft goods to the tours of a number of well-known recording artists. In many cases, those goods are used not only for the North American portion of the tour (including Canada), but on other continents as well. In some cases, we even make custom drapery specifically for the European leg of the tour, such as with the mixed media cut drop we made for Lady Gaga.
What I find particularly exciting, however, is when we are discovered by a production designer in another country. One example is Peter Young, the well-known European music producer, designer and drummer. A few years ago, Peter (also known as Takis Kouvatseas) was producing and designing the European tour of Greek / Cypriot pop star Anna Vissi and was looking for just the right soft goods company. He discovered Sew What? through our website, contacted us, and the next thing we knew, we were turning his vision into reality. Since then, we have worked with Peter to provide drapery for several other projects, primarily in Greece.
Another exciting international project that we did was for the production of “The Gospel at Colonus” at the 2006 Vienna Music Festival. This project included colored voiles, crushed satin, and buillion trim and rope to create a multi-layered effect. To me, the showstopper was the gorgeous digitally printed medallion that we created using designer Alison Yerxa’s beautiful artwork – just incredible!
And it’s exciting to find that we are recognized in the news as a “player” in the international market. U.S. News and World Report included an article on us in their July 31, 2006, issue, in which they called Sew What? a “global brand,” and we even got a mention in Denmark’s “Backstage” magazine (in Danish, of course).
When I think about it, though, it really isn’t all that surprising that Sew What? has “gone international.” While we may be based in the United States, the reality is that we really are a global company. After all, Megan (company founder and president) immigrated to the U.S. from Australia, Adam (CFO) came from New Zealand, and many of our staff are immigrants from Mexico and Latin America. We really are a melting pot – and so I think that gives us a greater ability to expand our focus beyond the U.S. border and out into the world.
A big congratulations to Megan Duckett, President of Sew What?, for being named a finalist for a 2009 Stevie Award for Woman in Business in the “Best Entrepreneur – Service Businesses – Up to 100 Employees – Other Industries” category.
This is not the first time that Megan and Sew What? have been recognized by the Stevie Awards. Megan was a finalist in this same category in 2008, and in 2007, Sew What? won the Stevie Award for “Most Innovative Company of the Year.”
The 2009 winners will be announced on November 13th – keep your fingers crossed for Megan!
If you are not familiar with the Stevie Awards, they were “created to honor and generate public recognition of the achievements and positive contributions of organizations and business people worldwide.”
I have always loved to cook (my mother taught herself to cook watching Julia Child and then taught me starting at about 5). When I was in my early twenties, I dreamed of owning my own restaurant, so I went to culinary school to become a chef and study restaurant management. When I got out and started to work in the industry, I realized how hard the life of a chef is, especially a chef-restauranteur. Working 18 hours a day, 6 days a week (or more) – and, as the restaurant owner, everything is on your shoulders. Fairly quickly I set that dream aside and pursued other goals. But I have always recognized that it takes a special kind of person to own and run a small business. Megan and Adam Duckett are two of them.
Throughout this blog, there are bits and pieces of the company’s history (both from Megan and from myself), but I realize that many readers may not realize that the owners are actually a married couple. While Megan started the company on her kitchen table, her husband Adam (also a former roadie) later joined the company. In terms of roles, Megan is President and focuses primarily on marketing and sales, while Adam serves as Chief Financial Officer with a focus on production and operations.
I have so much admiration for the two of them, that they have built this company to its current level, and that they continue to strive for growth and improvement. Running a small business takes a lot of hard work and dedication – and sometimes it means being here late into the night or throughout the weekend. Anyone who can manage to maintain that level of dedication throughout the years and still be excited and inspired for growth definitely deserves accolades.
Add marriage and parenthood to the mix, and in my mind, it is even more impressive. Most couples spend their days apart, and then come together at home in the evening and on weekends. Megan and Adam are, for the most part, together 24/7, between work and personal time (oh – not literally – but you get the picture). That can be stressful for a couple – but somehow they manage to make it work.
Maybe someday I’ll be ready to own my own business (don’t ask me what kind of business – definitely not a restaurant!), maybe I never will. But if I do, I hope I do half as good a job as Megan and Adam have done (and continue to do) here at Sew What?
Note: There was a terrific story about them published in the “Palos Verdes Peninsula News” a few years ago – check it out in the Sew What? News Archive – I think you’ll find it an inspiring story.
