Today we’d like to introduce you to Maria and Jerry Charping.
Maria and Jerry, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
For a long time Jerry and I wanted to be business owners but didn’t know ourselves what kind of business would suit us. I always admired my father who had various businesses even before I was born. Now that I am a business owner and deal with the stresses of bills, knowing my craft, maintaining current customers, along with obtaining new ones, I have more respect for him than ever before.
In January 2015, Jerry went to one of those franchise expos. I wasn’t able to go but gave him a few booths that were of interest to me for him to obtain some information. Jerry came back so excited and continued to tell me that we needed to look into buying a shop that sold awards and promotional items. I was not on board. What do either of us know about awards and promotional products? For some reason I was not thinking of my 17 1/2 years in corporate Human Resources and how many times in those years I was tasked with purchasing recognition awards and promotional items for employee anniversaries, job fairs and annual company sponsored events. I told Jerry that I would think about it but not to get his hopes up.
Fast forward to the end of May. I was at home thinking of a goal I set for myself that I would be a business owner by the time I turned 42. Well I had my 42nd birthday approaching in July. I googled local business’ for sell and found several that caught my attention but there was one that I knew had to be a sign from God. It was an awards and promotional business in Humble for sale. I emailed the broker and after numerous meetings, Jerry and I decided we wanted to meet with the business owner and check out the shop.
While meeting with the previous owner, both Jerry and I just knew that we were meant to buy this business.
We are both fortunate that the previous owner has and continues to help us when new projects come our way that we don’t have the experience with. Ideally Jerry was supposed to run the shop and about two weeks before we were to take possession of the business, I sadly lost my job. At first, we agreed that I would run the business just long enough to get trained by the previous owner and also set up all the legal administration paperwork for the business but then something happened. I fell in love with the business. Being in Human Resources you deal with employee’s frustrations, disciplining and terminating employees, as well as numerous meetings with operations management. So basically, you are the “bad guy”. After 17 1/2 years I could experience the other side. Customers came in to buy something for their employees, boss, organization’s and so on. Customers were happy to see me. Don’t get me wrong, this has been a stressful process. Jerry and I have had to learn a new craft, software and so many ins and outs of the award and recognition business. Having a Human Resources background also helps because I have spent many hours with employees to determine what they want in regards to recognition gifts and have passed this information along to my customers. Although I run the shop on a full-time basis, Jerry continues to help on weekends and nights when we have large projects.
Having a customer pick up their order, smile and tell me, “it’s perfect”, makes my day and reminds me that we were meant to buy this business. One day we hope to pass it down to our daughters. We are proud that since buying an existing business All Awards has been serving customers for over 20 years.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Learning brand new software and system, as well as making sure items are placed properly into the engraver has been a struggle. I look back at some of my previous work and can truly see that I have improved significantly. It took many hours to perfect my trade and still feel that there is always room for improvement.
People assume you buy a business and you automatically become a millionaire, so not true. You have to spend money to make money, especially at the beginning. You have to spend money on marketing your business as well as restocking your supplies. We have been fortunate that our business has done well based on customer referrals. Having a new customer come into the shop and advise that they were referred
Yes, there are specific stock items that an awards and trophy business must have at all times such as plaques, plates, etc. I can’t speak for other business owners but for me, looking back at the beginning I was truly clueless. There is so much you learn as you go and when it’s your own business you only have yourself to blame when something goes wrong.
Please tell us about All Awards & Promotions.
At All Awards & Promotions we are your “One Stop Shop”. Our motto is, “Recognition Is Our Art”. Each item we make is custom and unique for each of our customer’s needs. We offer glass, acrylic, crystal awards, marble, wood, sculptures, desk accessories, corporate gifts, clocks, resins, medals, pins, ribbons, rosettes, houseware, traditional trophies, Shirts and Caps, customization and more. We can create custom designed awards, plaques and trophies and personalize each item for your special occasion.
We will help you recognize and commemorate accomplishments in your business as well as local communities, organizations and/or schools. We understand our client’s needs and can assist with bringing your ideas to life! We will work within your budget and help you make the right statement with your scholarly or corporate awards when you choose from our selection.
Corporate Recognition Awards: The key to a successful company is employee recognition. What better way to show your employees how much you appreciate their tenure and performance than with an award? All Awards & Promotion’s will fit your corporate gift-giving needs-from unique or customized to our best-selling items.
Academic & Sports: We specialize in sport and academic recognition. We offer trophy options for all age groups, from spelling bee, academic, martial arts, swimming, soccer, track, baseball, football, golf to wrestling and more! If trophies are not what you desire, we also specialize in resins, medals and ribbons and championship rings.
Fantasy Football: Anyone living in Texas knows the importance of football and at All Awards, we have you covered for your Fantasy football league from a custom trophy on a high-end base, to medals, resins plaques and more!
Personalized Gifts: We have custom gifts that we sell and engrave on from cutting boards, knife and serving sets, wine, beer and champagne stemware, we have available special shaped cuttings boards for BBQ cook off such as, chicken, pig or cow and BBQ grill tool set. As well as religious items, graduation gifts and other unique items to choose from. We laser mark on all stainless-steel cups from RTIC, Yeti and/or local suppliers’ style cups. An explosion of new products is being added regularly and we are most excited to offer this to our customers.
Miscellaneous: Whether you need a custom gift for a special teacher, graduate, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s or Father’s Day or even sorority and/or fraternity, we can help. Have a religious occasion you want to commemorate? From crystal crosses to custom items we can make that occasion special for you.
Military/Police/First Responders: From resins, medals and special plaques we have what you need to recognize those who serve our country and community.
Industrial Sector: Need name tags, door plates and/or business signs? Phenolic and stainless-steel tags as well as safety plates and tags?
Promotional Items: Looking for ways to promote your business? From business cards, banners, apparel, pens, key chains, mini flashlights, USB flash drives, water bottles, post its, car stickers, stress balls and more. We can do customized items for trade shows and new business openings.
Sublimation: Sublimation is a heat transfer from special paper and ink to the final product and offers various colorful gift products. We can create items such as mouse pads, T-Shirts, license plates, puzzles, key tags, clip boards, Christmas ornaments, coffee mugs, beer steins, travel mugs, frosted mugs, water bottles, plates for plaques, acrylic awards, paper weights and other unique items.
Golf: We have assisted numerous customers with their golf tournaments from trophies, resins, shirts, caps, towels, divot tools, personalized golf balls and plaques. We also offer exclusive custom Hole In One Plaques.
Plaques: You can choose from our rock resin plaques, to our rosewood or black piano finish plaques, genuine walnut plaques, all the way to our economic cherry wood finish plaques. We can customize each customer’s plaque for whatever type of recognition service they need. We also make custom plaques in various sizes and colors from shields to cross’. We specialize in employee of the month/year perpetual plaques.
Leatherette: Leatherette plaques and items has definitely been the new trend in our industry. We now can engrave on various colors and sized leather plaques, wristbands, padfolios, desk wedges, koozies and other fun items.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I wouldn’t have changed a thing. You have to learn from your mistakes and take something away from them.
For me, I learned that I could learn very quickly how to run a business because I didn’t have a fallback. Failure was not an option.
Contact Info:
- Address: 3103 FM 1960 Rd. West Ste H
Humble, TX 77338 - Website: http://www.allawardstx.com/
- Phone: 281-443-3433
- Email: allawards@sbcglobal.net
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/allawardsandpromotions/
Image Credit:
George Foreman Senior
Stefani Montiel
Getting in touch: VoyageHouston is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
