Entrepreneur Spotlight: Donald Mee Design

Donald Mee Design, owned by Donald Mee and his wife Rebekah, specializes in creating custom commercial and residential furniture out of their Indianapolis studio. They focus on quality craftsmanship and heirloom one-of-a-kind pieces.

However, like many businesses in the "maker" industry, the studio started off as just one entrepreneur. Donald, an artist and furniture designer who graduated from the Herron School of Art and Design in 2001, has been passionately designing and building custom furniture for ten years. Over the years, Donald's business gained momentum and was at a point where he needed to grow his staff. In 2013 Donald's wife Rebekah quit her job as an IPS teacher to help Donald with the operations and management side of the business. The couple makes a great team: Donald loves the craft and working with clients, whereas Rebekah is great with numbers and business. Since Rebekah joined, the business has consistently doubled their sales every year. 

Struggling with how to keep up with the growing business, Donald and Rebekah came to Business Ownership Initiative for help determining their next growth strategy. The first step was to invest in machinery that would help shave thousands of hours off their work each year. Because traditional bank loans aren't always favorable for small businesses, they were able to secure a BOI microloan to help purchase their new machinery. Now, equipped with more advanced machinery and several sub-contractors, the team is working on step two of their growth strategy with BOI.

“The process of working with BOI, I would say it’s kind of seamless and it’s familiar. They really pay attention to detail, pay attention to growth, and the direction that I want the business to grow in. They help us find the right path to get to that end goal” -- Donald Mee

To learn more about BOI's free one-on-one coaching, microlending, and other resources for entrepreneurs, visit Indychamber.com/entrepreneurship.

To learn more about Donald Mee Designs and to view their work, visit DonaldMeeDesign.com.

Donald and Rebekah Mee, owners of Donalds Mee Design, in their studio at 1413 Naomi Street.