Meet the team!!

Meet the Window Treatments by Melissa TEAM!!

I have a very successful team full of smart and educated women whom have played a significant part in the building up of this wonderful business. To them, I owe so much. They are an inspiration to me and have helped me more than they know. 

First, me: My name is Melissa. I grew up in Chandler, Arizona and lived there all my life until I moved to Virginia to go to school. My mother was a reading teacher and home economics teacher. She taught me everything I know! My mom was never satisfied with things you could buy at the store. She always made everything herself. And if she couldn't she'd have my dad make it. One time she was getting rid of a coffee table with glass pieces in it and she had my dad take the cupboards from the kitchen and put the glass pieces in the,. It looks lovely!  Long story short, this is how I grew up and so I make everything in my house! 

I have a BA degree from Southern Virginia University in English. I started this business in an attempt to stay at home with my babies and not have to work outside the home. When I was successful at accomplishing this task I brought on others who wanted to stay at home with their kids before having to go out of the home to work. 

Here they are!:

Shannon 

(We had to do a shop integrity thing for etsy, so all the pictures that I have has our shop name in them :) Except this ONE):

Oh man, this was a hundred years ago. Good times.

Shannon is spectacularly smart! She was working as my assistant answering my emails, doing quotes, etc. She was working with us so she could stay home with her baby, Chloe (in the picture above), for her first year. Shannon has recently left us because she's way too good at everything she does and had to go to work. She has a BA in History and is licensed in the following: Series 7, 63, 65, 9 and 10 and AAMS (accredited asset management specialist). She had to go work for the big wigs at Charles Schwaab or someone else equally as not much fun as Window Treatments by Melissa. . . .  But we won't hold that against her. . .  ;) P.S. Shannon is my cousin and that makes her more awesome. 

Trena

(If anyone has ordered pillow covers from us, send us your pics so I can toot trena's horn!!)

Trena makes our pillow covers, slip covers, window seat cushions and is also my personal therapist ;) I don't pay her enough. Trena has an AA with an emphasis on Education, has a BA in history and currently working toward her RN. Yowza! Trena has her own etsy shop too, but I'm not going to tell you what it is. Ha! If she wants me to after reading this, I will. But between us, nursing school and Six year old Owen and One year old Emma, I think she doesn't need the publicity. ;) 

Sara

no picture. :( 

But I have pictures of her work!

Sara, has recently left us as well, but we owe so much of our success to her. She is so very talented and contributed much to our business! She is a mom of four! That in itself is a major accomplishment. She has a double major in studio art and mathematics. 

And now we have Becky and Janeen 

I will admit that there is a special place in my heart for these two. 

Becky has recently become a new mom to sweet baby Paul! Becky has taken some time off to get used to being a mom. But when she returns in the next few weeks she will be continuing work for us making valances and curtains. Becky has a masters degree in physics and before baby Paul became her number one job she was working for the community college as an adjunct professor conducting labs, etc.

Janeen

and Janeen. Oh what I have put Janeen through! Oh the many phone calls of desperation, "This order is due in two days and I'm not going to make it!!! Save me!!!" 

In the spirit of horn tooting, Janeen is also among my smart ladies having neared completion on her degree in education. She is mom to three ages ranging from 10 to 2. 

The reason I say there is a special place in my heart for these two ladies is because their positions with our business came to be out of a very trying and difficult time for me. 

When I started hiring seamstresses to work for me it was in an effort to keep mothers at home with their children as long as possible before having to leave the home to work. I reluctantly took on two seamstresses having been somewhat familiar with their financial situations. At the time I did not have the work load to share with them, but being a faithful person to promptings I knew that if I heeded the promptings I was given that I would in turn be blessed with work. After taking on the two women I was, indeed, blessed with enough work to go around. Unfortunately, these women that I had hired suffer from personal problems of insecurity and other personality disorders. It was this insecurity that lead them to choose to take offense and misinterpret an email that was sent where no offense was intended. These two women both quit (on my birthday!) sending me back all of their orders in an effort to punish me for what they had misinterpreted and chose to be hurt by. As I said, in taking them on I was very blessed with work. So I had three people's work to do. I did not get to spend Thanksgiving with my family. I had to work on their orders. I even had to work on Christmas. Janeen and Becky came to work for us during this time. They offered to take on the orders that the former seamstresses has left me with. They had agreed to do it at no cost or to wait until I had the funds to pay them, as I had paid the former seamstresses in advance to do the orders that they had sent back to me. Having been familiar with their financial situations, I thought I was being kind by paying them in advance. But they returned the orders and kept the money. So Janeen and Becky helped me make up for their negligence by waiting until I had more funding to pay them with. I appreciated this as it was Christmas and I know funds were tight for them as well. Time was limited for them too, as it always is around the holidays and they still did my former seamstresses work. I am so grateful to them. 

Becky and Janeen and are two beautiful women inside and out. And I can say this about all of my team. They are a group of women that can be counted on to deliver. They can be counted on to come through even when I make mistakes. I made the mistake of judging my former seamstresses incorrectly. I assumed that even if I made a mistake that they would understand that I am human and be forgiving. But instead they punished me for being human. My current team is a group of women that can be counted on to come through with they agree to finishing even if I have a human moment and offend. 

 I am so lucky and blessed to have these women work for me. Their quality of character cannot be matched!   To make up for someone else's negligence, someone they don't even know, during the holidays and without immediately being paid for their work just to help me. . .  well, that is a friend for life. I can say that with the help of these women we made it through that tough time without missing a deadline and without any complaints! And that is something I am very proud of. I do still feel sad sometimes as I missed out on my daughters second Christmas. It was the first Christmas that she could actually open her gifts and really enjoy and understand what was going on. And I had to work during that to make up for my former seamstresses. 

As for my former seamstresses, well, I don't hold it against them. I had a hard time for a while. But one day it clicked. Their actions speak volumes about who they are as people and it does not speak well for them. THe kind of person that could do that to another person is someone very troubled. Understanding how embarrased they must feel for their childish behavior and punishing me for something that didn't even happen, well, I just plain feel bad for them now.  I used to feel angry toward them, but now I just feel bad. How can one just keep money they didn't earn? and punish someone through the holidays? That is someone who clearly has struggles with their own selves and their own insecurities. I feel very sad for them that the person they chose to be was someone who could not be counted on, who could not come through with they agreed to and kept the money for which they had agreed to. 

I still feel very sad and am even crying now as I think of missing that Christmas day with my children. I can never get that back. But I also think about what I gained from that experience. A team of friend that I can rely on to build up my company and my name. A team of friends ho are on my side and not out for themselves. 

It is this loyalty and focus on building a business rather than focusing on themselves that has made us who we are today. This loyalty we have to each other sets us apart from the rest. We know that it is only by the success of this business that we will be able to stay home with our children. So for each other and for our families we are dedicated to producing the highest quality product so that we can ensure the happiness and loyalty of our clients. Because as long as happy clients keep returning we will be able to stay at home with our young children where we belong. 

We are all focused and dedicated to our client's happiness. And this is what keeps us building higher and higher! And I have a team full of smart and educated women who realize this and who are not selfish and only doing this for themselves. They do it for each other and for you! We would be nothing without you all and are so grateful to you! It is because of you, our readers and clients, that we can stay home with our young children. Thank you all so much. We appreciate you!