A reader wrote:
Wanted to let you know that female small business owner Megan Duckett, founder of Sew What?, Inc., a custom theatrical drapery manufacturer, was honored yesterday as the winner of the Dell/NFIB (National Federation of Independent Business) Small Business Excellence Award at the NFIB Small Business Summit in Washington, DC. Sew What? will receive $30,000 in Dell technology and services, a lifetime NFIB membership, and a day at Dell’s headquarters to learn best practices from Michael Dell and other senior Dell executives.
Megan’s website revamp 18 months ago has allowed the company to increase revenue by 45% and establish a global clientele from New York to Athens to Sydney, and her success is indicative of the ability of small businesses to now establish global companies through the use of technology.
Full press release after the jump.
DIGITAL MAKEOVER DELIVERS ROCK SOLID RESULTS FOR THEATRICAL DRAPE MAKER
Dell, NFIB Honor Fast-Growing Custom Sewing Firm for Small-Business Excellence
WASHINGTON, June 19, 2006 – From backdrops for Sting, Elton John and Madonna to red velvet curtains for the cover of Rolling Stone, custom theatrical drape maker Sew What? marries new technology with a centuries-old craft.
It’s the use of technology that has earned Sew What? the 2006 Dell/National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) Small-Business Excellence Award.
“I never dreamed that the tiny business I started on my kitchen table would grow into the global business we have today,? said Sew What? owner Megan Duckett, who came to the United States from Australia at the age of 19 to pursue a career as a theater technician. “It took establishing a creative, information-driven Web presence to help us reach customers beyond our local community and provide customer service that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise.?
Established in 2004, the Dell/NFIB Small-Business Excellence Award honors small businesses that represent a spirit of innovation in applying information technology to improve the customer experience. For more information on the program, visit www.dell.com/ceaward.
Based in Rancho Dominguez, Calif., Sew What? was founded in 1998 and has 33 employees. Through its Web-enabled ability to reach and support customers far beyond its Los Angeles-area operations, Sew What? has grown 45 percent in the last 18 months alone and now boasts clientele from New York to Athens to Sydney.
Sew What?’s newly optimized Web site – www.sewwhatinc.com – is highly interactive and allows visitors to browse the company’s extensive fabric and drapery selections prior to purchase. It also provides electronic previews of work in progress and stores flame certifications for completed drapery.
“Use of technology has allowed entrepreneurs like Megan to not only survive but thrive,? said Frank Muehleman, vice president of Dell U.S. Home and Small Business. “With 25 million small businesses supplying two-thirds of our net new jobs, technology is helping these companies grow beyond their local communities to serve customers nationwide and even globally. Effective use of technology is good for companies like Sew What?, their customers and our nation’s economy, and we want to reward that.?
“Our partnership with Dell allows us to celebrate and reward entrepreneurs who are aggressively implementing technological changes to their businesses to compete globally,? said Todd Stottlemyer, president and CEO of NFIB. “Technology is more accessible and affordable than ever, and we encourage all our members to continually evaluate their business models and see how technology can improve their customer service and competitive advantage.?
As the 2006 winner, Sew What? will receive $30,000 in Dell technology and services, a lifetime NFIB membership, and a day at Dell’s headquarters to learn best practices from Michael Dell and other senior Dell executives.
About NFIB
The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) is one of the nation’s largest small-business advocacy groups. A nonprofit, nonpartisan organization founded in 1943, NFIB represents the consensus views of its 600,000 members in Washington and all 50 state capitals. For more information, visit www.NFIB.com.
About Dell
Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) listens to customers and delivers innovative technology and services they trust and value. Uniquely enabled by its direct business model, Dell sells more systems globally than any computer company, placing it No. 25 on the Fortune 500. Company revenue for the past four quarters was $56.7 billion. For more information, visit http://www.dell.com. To get Dell news direct, visit http://www.dell.com/RSS.
Cindy McMahen on June 29th, 2006 at 2:21 pm
What the PR doesn’t say is that when web site went through its major redesign last winter we (www.searchmarketingpros.com) were really sweating bullets that it didn’t loose its search rankings it had before. (It didn’t! Within 3 weeks we saw good rankings back again in Google by utilizing the magic 301 and getting some additional incoming links).
This is one SEO client I love to work with, as Megan and her web design team, Star Marketing (www.starmarketing.com) actually listened to the suggestions we made. They worked in the spirit of compromise in terms of design to appease the search engines. Megan keeps her focus on the ball – focusing on how to better build their site’s rankings online, working it into the budget, and dedicating the resources to accomplish the goals of growing her presence and business online.
Megan Duckett on July 5th, 2006 at 2:28 pm
As founder and owner of Sew What? I wanted to share some thoughts.
The process of developing the website and working on the optimisation has been very exciting. I think that the most interesting part of it is the balance between great design and optimisation. I did have to make many sacrifices to the design - but by working thru the different scenarios and weighing up the advantages of the changes we were able to still develop a visually interesting and informative website.
Working with an SEO specialist (Cindy McMahan http://www.searchmarketingpros.com) allowed me to educate myself while under the direction of an expert. Cindy was great at sharing the different statistics needed to produce results both naturally and via ppc.
Chris Sandberg (of http://www.starmarketing.com) also was key to the outcome as with their design and custom navigation and my page content and design opinions there were many challenges! But none too great to overcome.
I encourage anyone who is interested in getting the most from their website to consider a SEO package and monthly maintenance.
Also - those who have embraced the various technologies should think about submitting their company info into next years NFIB/Dell Small Business Excellence Award. We are proof that even a small business can embrace technology to offer superior customer service and to support company growth. Read more about the award at http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/corp/sbaward/en/index?c=us&l=en&s=corp