From Employee to Entrepreneur: A Journey of a Woman-Owned Furniture Dealer
“DO YOUR BEST IN WHATEVER JOB YOU HAVE, NO MATTER WHAT IT IS. LEARN THE MOST YOU CAN, EXPAND YOUR EXPERIENCE AND DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT. NEVER BE AFRAID TO TRY SOMETHING DIFFERENT.”
- KAREN HUGHES
Emerging from the activities of labor movements during the twentieth century in North America and Europe, in 1977, the United Nations officially established March 8th as International Women’s Day. A decade later, the National Women’s History Project petitioned to designate March as Women’s History Month. Year after year, the recognition has increased globally, and society has celebrated many contributions by women to history. Because this year’s Women’s History Month theme was Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories, Karen Hughes, CEO + Owner of Corporate Environments, shared her story with our team. It was an intimate and encouraging opportunity to learn about her journey of being an auditor to a business owner.
From living out of a suitcase, wearing a hard hat, and being a stay-at-home mom to becoming CEO + Owner of Corporate Environments, Karen accurately represents a perseverant person, taking every opportunity with a leap of faith. Her story is a testament to her courage and willingness to take risks. Growing up with brothers, Karen often found herself being very competitive, and with the mindset of “whatever they (her brothers) can do, she could do better,” she was able to hack the ideology of how boys could do some things girls couldn’t.
To prove everyone that she could do it, she went off to Auburn University and graduated with an accounting degree and later earned a master’s degree in accounting. After interviewing with several companies, Karen moved to Birmingham, where she worked in the auditing department which required her to travel extensively due to many of her clients being out of state. Despite the challenge of balancing work and family life, Karen persevered until she realized that living out of a suitcase away from home during the week was not what she wanted. Time passed, and Karen eventually transitioned into a different field- manufacturing, where a hard hat and boots were required. After the unions went on strike, she learned she would have to live at the plant for months and realized she did not want to be locked in, so she opted to move on.
After that experience, Karen started auditing for an office furniture company. From the start, many concerns arose, and she realized that the organization was not abiding by the accounting principles, which did not align with Karen’s beliefs. Karen decided the position was not the right fit for her and again chose to move on. After having two children and relocating to Atlanta, Karen decided to take a break from work to become a stay-at-home mom. However, when the 1990 savings and loan crisis hit, it took a toll on her husband’s commercial real estate company, and they began downsizing, downsizing, and downsizing until finally it reached the point where they both felt that Karen would need to find a job.
Once again, Karen had to go on the job hunt. While on the search for a job, she met John Harris, who was looking for someone to help run his furniture dealership’s internal operations at that time. They talked and checked each other out, and Karen finally decided it might be a good fit. Corporate Environments started with about eight employees, and after the merger with Ball Stalker, CE became a $25 million company overnight. It was like drinking from a fire hose. The constant growth and huge opportunity were exciting and required a lot from Karen to consolidate everything while running a business with little experience in knowing how to.
Through all this growth, John decided to move to the next phase of his life and sell the business. One day, he approached Karen with an offer, and for a second, she thought he had been drinking at lunch because she did not have the means to purchase such an organization. But her background in accounting brought out her analytical side, so she sat down and figured out how to make this happen. After careful thought, Karen moved forward with the acquisition.
A month before they closed the deal, CE won $10 million in business. At that time, they had a whole installation side of the business with a 100,000-square-foot warehouse and grew to 60 employees working in the field. Unfortunately, after 9/11, CE lost 30% of its business. Eventually, Karen decided to sell the installation side of the business, which had many overhead costs. After so many economic downturns, today, she claims it was the best business decision made that helped prevent any future financial drainage to CE’s stability.
Fast-forward to today, Corporate Environments has become a successful furniture dealership in the Atlanta Metropolitan area and has expanded into other southern regions, such as Savannah, Georgia. Corporate Environments is proud to say that we are woman-owned, and Karen’s story has made that even more real today. We continue to celebrate the women that make things possible.
