Many times I pick up the phone and the person on the other line says, where are you located? My answer is always, “our design studio is based in Oakland California, but my team is located throughout the US. “ Over the holidays when I was working out of my parent’s home, they were shocked to see that my day was filled with zoom calls and that Jessica, our project manager, lives in Indiana!
I have been seeing a lot of photos on instagram with beautiful photos of teams. I don’t have the photos but I can describe how thankful I am to my team and a bit of what goes on behind the scenes at Modern Metal. It is a huge job to run even a small business, and it simply would not, could not happen without all of the talented people, in my case women, that work with me.
Every Monday morning, I have a core team meeting with Jessica and Nichole. Nichole is in Colorado, Jessica is in Indiana, and I am in California. Together on zoom, we share stories about our kids, dogs, weekend, and then pretty quickly dive into Modern Metal logistics. We go through each project to make sure we have all details updated and to check on project status. It’s quite tedious.
Jessica is in charge of production, from drawings to delivery. This means she tracks our CAD engineers, checks their work, sends drawings to our customers, and then submits them to fabricators once they are approved. So, not only does she need to be very technically savvy but she needs to be extremely organized as well. I’m so thankful she is! Then, once we’re in production, she tracks the product from laser cutter, to powder coater or finisher, to shipping and delivery. It’s a HUGE job, and she makes it look easy. She has been with Modern Metal for about 6 months, and has implemented new systems, and streamlined our entire production process. On top of that, she is a wonderful ambassador who is forming long lasting professional relationships with our vendors and fabricators. I’m proud to have her by my side.
Nichole just came on board about 2 months ago, and helps us with all the stuff I hate! She works with the accounting department in Quickbooks, balances and categorizes expenses, prepares invoices, and helps us with all of the numbers. I feel fortunate to have on our team. She’s quick, smart and loves what she does. Lucky me!
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