Women in Wealth Awards 2016

Women in Wealth Awards 2016 12 Best Promotional Products Business Owner - USA I started the company in California with two employees and one embroidery machine, solely doing contract embroidery. Before entering into this industry, my research showed that it was mainly run by small independent shops that lacked quality standards and preset pricing structures; most owners were machine operators or salespersons. Therefore, there was a great need in this industry for a well-organised, principled supplier with rapid turnarounds who could consistently meet rigid event dates and deadlines. Apollo seized this opportunity and came out strong with strict quality control, on-time delivery, standard pricing guidelines, and a trained team for customer service. I was the first in our industry to send out our digitising to be done and transmitted through email, with overnight service from China, thereby shortening the standard sample times from 5 days to 24 hours. With this attention to quality, pricing parity, and quick delivery, our business doubled and tripled year over year. In 1999, we open our first additional branch in Chicago; again in 2004, we opened another branch in New Jersey. Having 3 locations allowed us to cover customers across the country with shortened delivery and savings on shipping fees. Running the business has not always been easy - in 2006, I felt Apollo had reached a plateau and changes were needed to remove bottlenecks… so I decided to go back to school. I enrolled in the Harvard Business School Owner/President Management Program, held for three weeks each year over the course of three years. There, I was taught by some of the world’s best professors in marketing, strategy, branding and leadership. After returning from Harvard, I shifted my company’s emphasis from