Initiative, education and creativity light the way for local business leaders<\/b><\/p>\n
Donna Hyatt: A woman on the move<\/b><\/p>\n
You might call Kent resident Donna Hyatt a mover and a shaker. Heavy on the moving and light on the shaking, if you please.<\/p>\n
Hyatt is co-owner of two Kent-based moving companies: City Moving Systems and P&D Services.<\/p>\n
She bought City Moving Systems in 2001, after working her way up from being the new finance manager in 1986 to serving as president, a title she still holds. Co-owner Ron Bickerstaff is the company\u2019s vice president.<\/p>\n
\u201cI came in … and proved to the current owner that I could run the company, and he was leaving it in good hands,\u201d Hyatt said.<\/p>\n
Hyatt had been in the moving industry for a decade before she started at City Moving. After a few years at the Kent-based company, though, Hyatt said she knew she wanted to own this business.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter I came to work for this company, it became my goal (to own it),\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
City Moving Systems is a full-service moving company, and an agent for the national moving company United Van Lines. Its employees pack, move and deliver everything from household furniture to medical laboratories to trade-show items.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a very personal business, where we\u2019re working with individuals moving all their personal possessions,\u201d Hyatt said, when asked what she liked about the moving industry. \u201cAnd we have employees here who really care about taking care of their customers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Recently, Hyatt decided to branch out into the do-it-yourself moving industry. In April 2007, she started P&D Services with co-owner Pat Kelly.<\/p>\n
Hyatt joked that the letters stand for either \u201cPat and Donna\u201d or \u201cPick and Drop.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can take your pick,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
P&D is a dealer for SAM (Store and Move), a company that offers mobile storage units for homeowners to pack and unpack themselves. The units are 16 feet long, 8 feet high and 8 feet wide \u2014 large enough, according to the Web site, to fit most contents of a typical two- or three-bedroom home (excluding items in basement, attic and garage).<\/p>\n
P&D has an office in Kent and another office that opened last month in San Francisco. Hyatt said that she hopes to continue expanding the self-serve moving business in California.<\/p>\n
Hyatt credits her success in business to three factors: a good education, plain old hard work, and gathering employees with a passion for excellence.<\/p>\n
She earned her master\u2019s degree in business administration at Southern Illinois University, and is a state-certified CPA. She also is a board member of both the Washington Movers Conference and the Washington Trucking Association.<\/p>\n
For more information, call City Moving at 253-518-8800, or visit www.citymovingsystems.com or www.getasam.com.<\/p>\n
Guthmiller a force in the electrical industry<\/p>\n
Mary Guthmiller, vice-president and co-owner of Transtech Electric, didn\u2019t start out in the electrical industry.<\/p>\n
In fact, her work for retail giant Nordstrom as a cosmetics buyer was the polar opposite, as far as products go.<\/p>\n
But the two lines of work have one basic requirement: Drive.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou never fail until you quit,\u201d said the Kent-based businesswoman, who has been at the helm of Transtech going on 13 years. \u201cI think you have to think big and you have to believe in your people – give them the freedom to develop their talents and to be entrepreneurial. That\u2019s what I learned at Nordstrom.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guthmiller and her husband started the company, which does high-end electrical contracts on public-works projects, in 1995. It was, Guthmiller recalled, their way of grabbing hold of the American dream.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t really have any help,\u201d she noted. \u201cWe just borrowed $100,000 and started it.\u201d<\/p>\n
From a fledgling business that operated with just one truck, Transtech has grown to a major business in South County, with 99 trucks and 40 employees.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s partly due to the way Guthmiller caught on to the steep financial and regulatory learning curve the business required.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy role has gone from \u2018what does a signal pole look like?\u2019 to now, which is very technical,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s no surprise that Guthmiller is as competitive as the bid packages Transtech regularly wins in the industry.<\/p>\n
That kind of drive also has applied to her personal life. She\u2019s not one to pass up a challenge – even if it\u2019s something she\u2019s never done before.<\/p>\n
Case in point is her climb in January of Mount Kiliminjaro. Nearly 20,000 feet high, the mountain in Tanzania is considered one of the Seven Summits – the holy grail of prestigious climbs.<\/p>\n
Never mind that Guthmiller had never so much as strapped on a pair of crampons before. She simply decided to do it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never hiked or climbed a mountain, but in January I climbed Mount Kilimanjaro,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
At the top, she temporarily lost her vision, the result of minor eye surgery she\u2019d had, combined with the high altitude.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went blind at the top and at 19,343 feet had to get down without sight,\u201d Guthmiller said, noting her companions patiently helped her work her way around obstacles on the descent, telling her where to place her feet.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just went down like I went up – one step at a time,\u201d Guthmiller said.<\/p>\n
Her other lower-elevation pursuits include riding her Harley Davidson motorcycle, and learning the art of golfing.<\/p>\n
They may not have much to do with bidding on major road projects, but they help recharge her creative batteries.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe advice that (Nordstrom founder) Blake Nordstrom gave me years ago was \u2018pace yourself,\u2019\u201d Guthmiller said. \u201cYears later I\u2019ve realized how important that is. I do a lot of that things that are not high-octane. I get some of my best ideas (when doing things) totally unrelated to my work.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to Transtech, Guthmiller continues to operate a spa business out of a Kent gym now known as Vision Quest. She formerly owned the gym, known as Kent Women\u2019s Spa & Fitness Center, which she purchased after its previous owners went out of business. She sold the gym April 1 to Brad Swartz, owner of the Vision Quest line of health clubs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am keeping my spa there, and he runs the business,\u201d Guthmiller said.<\/p>\n
To learn more about Guthmiller\u2019s business, visit www.transtechassociates.com.<\/p>\n
Gill has big goals for eatery<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an intoxicating mixture of cooking, connecting with others and using her savvy that keeps Harpreet Gill motivated as a businesswoman.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, I just love what I do,\u201d said Gill, owner of Punjab Sweets, a thriving Kent business that serves up traditional Indian foods. \u201cI love to cook, and I love people.<\/p>\n
\u201cGetting to know them; having them enjoy a good meal; and seeing a smile on their face – that\u2019s what drives me to work every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Punjab Sweets has been steadily cultivating success – thanks partly to a growing clientele and positive write-ups about its food in the local media. It\u2019s also due in big part to Gill\u2019s drive in getting the word out about her products. The Seattle University MBA graduate is a one-woman tour de force, marketing her products and developing advertising for them, maintaining a Web site, cooking entrees with her family (her mother and father started the business) and working the front counter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI kind of took it into my own hands,\u201d the 32-year-old Covington resident said of her handling of the family business. \u201cRebranding it, getting a new logo, and trying to get (a new line of snack foods) into various local markets. There are all these avenues I want to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is a sense of urgency about Gill that\u2019s apparent even as she\u2019s talking on the phone, between taking customers\u2019 orders. That energy is a part of her personal make up – even before she decided she wanted to take the family business and run with it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI actually wanted to be a lawyer when I was in college,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
But her freshman year, her math abilities led to a job as an internal auditor, and that in turn led her to take the path of business. She worked for an accountant for several years, then opted to return to college to pursue her full-fledged degree in business.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though I love numbers, I missed the personal side of it,\u201d Gill explained of her shift from accounting to business.<\/p>\n
At Punjab Sweets, Gill has had a lot of opportunities to reconnect with the human element of business. She has a group of regulars who show up, to eat as well as talk, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI try to build good relationships with customers,\u201d she said. \u201cEverybody wants to go to a place where they\u2019re recognized. People will come in and say, \u2018I really enjoyed our talk, I feel so much more relaxed now.\u2019 I find that really rewarding, just to listen to someone.\u201d<\/p>\n
If Gill has her way, other people will be doing some listening, too: folks in the grocery industry.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s hoping to broker some deals for her snack-food line, that would have it on grocery-store shelves.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I want is our sweets and snacks to be distributed to various retail chains and stores.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to her work promoting the business and working in it, Gill also is mother to an 8-year-old daughter, another important job. Her family, she said, has been a wonderful source of support in making it all work.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy parents – I don\u2019t even feel like a single mom,\u2019\u201d Gill said. \u201cThey just do everything for me and my daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Punjab Sweets is located at 23617 104th Ave S.E., Kent. For more information, call 253-859-3236, or go to www.www.punjabsweetsonline.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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