Today we’d like to introduce you to Megan Greathouse.
Hi Megan, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My husband and I were both in the Marine Corps after college and used our GI Bill benefits to get our MBAs. This led to jobs in corporate America, where we spent several years learning a lot and working with great people. However, after having our first child in 2016, I began looking for ways to create a more flexible lifestyle that would allow me to contribute to my family’s future. I started buying rental properties in 2017, leaving my corporate job to manage those and have our second child in 2019. By 2020, I’d fully caught the entrepreneurial bug and started searching for an industry that would use my marketing background and real estate interest. My husband has a strong operations background, so he joined me in the search. In September 2020, we founded Horizon Sign Company, a commercial sign and graphics company. Since then, our team has manufactured and installed signage for new apartment complexes, shopping centers, senior living facilities, schools, and small businesses throughout the Greater St. Louis area.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been smooth?
Entrepreneurship is a bumpy road, and starting our company during the pandemic added a few extra potholes! We faced supply issues, labor shortages, and a lot of general uncertainty in the first 12 to 18 months of operations. We’re still challenged daily, but we’re learning to adjust the course more smoothly with each obstacle we face. Part of it is learning to stay calm and centered through the chaos, which will be one of our biggest takeaways from this journey. It’s a daily practice to face stress with a smile and see all the great things that come from setting big goals and then enjoying the journey to accomplish them. We have two little ones, so it’s essential to me that we work “smarter, not harder” so we have the time and flexibility to enjoy these young years and be present as our kids grow.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Horizon Sign Company?
Horizon is a commercial sign and graphics company. We design, permit, manufacture and install various business signs. We can provide the full sign system, from small ADA restroom signs to vinyl graphics on windows and walls to three-dimensional lobby signs and lighted channel letters! I’m proud to say we’ve built an amazing team, and our clients frequently comment on our great people and service. We enjoy working on large projects for ground-up new developments as well as providing smaller sign packages for new businesses. We love St. Louis and the surrounding areas as a place to raise our family and believe it has amazing future potential as well. Horizon Sign Company is our way of being part of the exciting development and small business scene in the region.
Risk-taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
My thoughts on risk have evolved through my career changes. I remember going through the MBA program at Washington University in St. Louis and actively avoiding the entrepreneurship courses because being a business owner seemed risky and uncertain to me then! However, I’ve come to believe that there is risk in everything in life, whether we recognize it or not. There is no such thing as a risk-free situation. People are the happiest and have the most power over their own lives, not when they have no risk but when they are in the position to choose which risks they take—joining the Marine Corps in a time of global conflict involved risk. Leaving the workforce for a couple of years to get my MBA was a calculated risk. I quit my high-paid corporate job to start a business with my spouse, which involves risk for our family. Every investment in a piece of equipment, a company vehicle, and a new employee has carried risk. There’s a saying that there’s no such thing as losing; you either win or learn. The more I embrace that mentality, the easier it is to take on and even enjoy the calculated risks!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://horizonsignco.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/horizonsigncompany/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/horizonsignco
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/horizon-sign-company/
