Owner Runs Factory With a ‘Free’ Hand

Kelly Lester started decorating beige switch plates with colorful collages after her first child was born and she wanted a job that would let her stay home. She took the plates to street fairs, craft malls and boutiques and has turned the idea into a wholesale business with 1,500 accounts nationwide. Making her family her top priority, Lester has continued working at home while giving her employees a large amount of freedom to run her factory. Lester was interviewed by Karen E. Klein.

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From 1992 to 1995 I ran the entire business myself in my garage. Then I did the Los Angeles gift show in 1995 and wrote so many orders I knew I couldn’t handle it all myself. Within a month I found a workshop space and hired my first two employees. We got the orders out in six weeks and were officially in the wholesale business.

I loved working from home and the time it gave me with my daughter, and I didn’t want to lose that. I lucked into a couple of great college students, gave them keys to the factory and said, “Work.” I’d drop in there every day and always found the work being done, the orders being sent out and everything going well.

Over the years, I’ve given my employees great freedom and respect. They can work around their schedules and take time out for finals or family matters as long as they get the work done on time. They fill in their own time cards and they all have keys to the factory.

I enjoy giving my employees the same freedom I have and they are very grateful to get it. The way I treat them has made them very loyal. They work extra hard because they know they are an important part of the company.

I find employees through college job placement offices and through the Employment Development Department, where I have come to know one of the job counselors. She screens the people looking for work, understands what I’m looking for and she’s hooked me up with three of my best employees. It’s nice to get referrals from her because I know they’ve been interviewed once, they’re eager and they have a positive attitude. I also enjoy giving an opportunity to someone who is out of work and really needs employment.

A couple times over the years, employees have taken advantage of the benefits I gave them. One was making personal, long-distance calls from the office and putting false hours on her time card. The other employees alerted me to the problem within two weeks and I gave this person a couple of chances. When she didn’t change her ways, she was gone a month later. I think in the future, I wouldn’t give more than one warning before I let someone like that go.

My employees really proved their worth last January, when it rained so much we had a flood in our factory. My second daughter was only 2 weeks old so I couldn’t really get to the office at all. The employees put everything in plastic, my husband and I found a new location and they packed up and moved all the materials over the weekend. By Monday, they were ready to start back into production.

Last year, rather than renting an office and hiring an [administrative] staff, we purchased a larger home and added on a big office for the business. Since I handle all the business aspects from the house, I deal with all my customers personally and I can solve all their problems myself. If I need to, I can come in and finish up some work at night after my kids are settled into bed.

And I think we could double our business, hire a couple more people and still run things just like this absolutely fine.

If your business can provide a lesson to other entrepreneurs, contact Karen E. Klein at the Los Angeles Times, 1333 S. Mayflower Ave., Suite 100, Monrovia, CA 91016 or send e-mail to kklein6349@aol.com. Include your name, address and telephone number.

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AT A GLANCE

Company: Art Plates

Owner: Kelly Lester

Nature of business: Manufactures and sells decorative switch plates

Location: P.O. Box 570817, Tarzana, CA 91357-0817

Web site: https://www.artplates.com

E-mail address: info@artplates.com

Founded: 1993

Employees: 5

Annual revenue: $400,000