It is impossible to visit Enid businesses without finding women playing an integral part in their success. Four out of every ten businesses in the U.S. are owned by women, and women are making up a larger and larger part of the workforce. In this month’s edition, we profile three amazing women who are excelling in traditional and non-traditional fields, alike.
Family Ties
Amy Parrish did not intend to work in the family manufacturing business. She had a degree in fashion merchandising and had spent the last decade doing hair and owning a local spa. But she found herself on her own, with two children and needing something substantial to do to support her family. Her dad, Jim Parrish, invited her to join the family business.
PT was founded by Amy’s grandfather, RC Parrish, in 1951. In 2004, it grew into one of Enid’s largest employers, and Amy was a great fit. “I started in the credit department learning the ins and outs of the business. I got to learn about our product and interact with our customers on a daily basis through the billing process. I knew I eventually wanted to transition to sales, and after a couple of years, that’s what I did,” says Amy.
As a manufacturing company, PT designs, manufactures, and distributes all kinds of products, but its specialty is industrial hose fittings and related parts. “Our parts are used in a variety of industries all over the world, from agriculture, to oil and gas, to transportation and a lot more,” says Amy.
Being a woman in a male-dominated field presents unique challenges, which Amy is more than capable of handling. “Being a woman initially gets you attention when you visit with certain companies, but you have to know your product still in and out. They lose interest quickly if you don’t know what you are talking about, so I needed to learn from our people everything about the products, the right terminology, and how they are used. Without that, I wouldn’t have gotten very far.”
Since joining PT, Amy has been there while the company has grown significantly over the last 18 years. After spending several years in sales, she saw a need for someone to head up marketing specifically, so she stepped into that position. “As the Director of Marketing at the time, I was excited to redesign our catalog and tried to find ways to use technology to market our products in a more innovative and upscale way. We are almost all “Made in America” products, and we are proud of that, so we started using that in our marketing. We developed an app and a website and wanted our customers to have easy access to ordering and communicating with us. I am proud to have been a part of some of these efforts.” Amy says.
After attending several conferences, Amy saw a need in the company for other processes that have helped move PT into the 21st century. Amy says, “As I transitioned to Vice President of Corporate Communications, my brother Matt, who by this time was named President, and I thought it would be a good fit to spearhead some other internal projects. While I am still very hands-on with our customers, I have enjoyed modernizing and focusing on safety plans in all of our departments. I have an open-door policy and feel like I am approachable, and employees can come to me with any manner of ideas. It is especially cool to see the increase of women on the manufacturing floor. While we have always had some women there, we have several women supervisors including a shop foreman, and a manager of one of our distribution centers, who do a great job for us, and women now make up over half of our overall employees.”
While quite different from owning a day spa, Amy loves working with her family and the industry they are a part of.
Barbie Beast
When meeting Emme Hughes out and about, you’d have no idea that she was a welder by day and an auto racer by night. She’s almost always made up, wearing dresses or nice clothes, and looks more like a barbie than an industrial welder.
“I have always loved dressing up,” Emme says, “I’m sure I got that from my mom. I love pretty clothes and makeup and looking nice.” However, behind that ruby red lipstick is an aggressive auto racer who has dominated grown men on the track and an accomplished welder who started her own metal fabrication business at 18.
“I started racing when I was 9 or 10. There were a couple of other girls, but I almost always raced against boys and, eventually, as I moved up, sometimes 45-year-old men. They thought they could intimidate me because I was a girl but quickly found out I could really race. I think that really is what has made me a confident young woman today,” Emme says.
This confidence led her to start her own business right out of high school. “I have always loved working in a shop. My PaPa is my best friend, and he taught me to weld several years ago. It was fun being in the shop with him and seeing what he loved to do. I liked making things and using my creativity in that kind of environment. Even though I was learning a trade, it was nice being around my PaPa too. After graduating high school, I thought I would try and make it a career. I know it is unusual for a girl to do something that seems so “manly,” but I think I was born to do it,” Emme says.
At EH Metal Works, Emme does almost anything that has to do with the fabrication of metal products. “I can do almost any kind of welding there is. My PaPa had a plasma table that wasn’t used very often, so I got busy learning how to use it as well. Now I can use it to custom fabricate lots of different products. From signs to parts, gates, and more.”
However, being a woman in a field dominated by men has its challenges. Emme says, “I may get more attention by being a woman in a male field, but occasionally I’ll get that person who assumes I have a husband that does the hard work instead of me. It’s easy to let them know that I am the only EH in EH Metal Works!”
Emme has had some great women to look up to, she says. “My mom (Angie Hughes) is one the most hardworking people I know. She is responsible and friendly, and that’s where I get my outgoing personality from. And my MaMa has taught me financial responsibility. She always said PaPa knows how to make and spend the money, but I know how to save it! I have really taken that to heart and know the difference between wants and needs to make sound financial choices.”
Emme is excited about the future and hopes to learn how to powder coat and expand her offerings. “My name and reputation are important to me. I want to know how every step is done in a project, even if I hire it out. That way, I can make sure it is done right.
“I also want to be a good example to other young women and girls and show them they can do whatever they want, even if people think it’s a man’s job,” says Emme.
Enid’s OG #Bossbabe
Jada Crosswhite may not have been selling her toys to her friends as a toddler, but if you know her now, it wouldn’t surprise you if she had been. “I have always loved sales, and for whatever reason, I have been good at it. I went to college for a bit but racked my brain to figure out what I could do to be able to quit school and my mom not be mad at me,” laughs Jada. So she went to cosmetology school and opened her first business in Mangum.
“I liked doing hair, but I had this empty space in the salon, and people sitting there waiting, so I thought I needed to sell SOMETHING there other than hair products, so I put some jewelry and clothes there, and it did great!” Jada said.
Anyone who has ever been successful at retail knows that it’s way more complicated than it looks.
“I learned everything I know about retail from google. Where to get product, how to ship, how to make labels, and everything else. From there, I started to go to ‘market’ in Dallas and met with wholesalers and decided what I wanted to carry,” said Jada.
After a few years in Mangum, her ex-husband’s job brought her and their kids to Enid.
“I was a stay-at-home mom for a bit, and while I loved spending time with my kids, I was BORED,” says Jada. “I had to do something, so I started Pearl Junkie, a retail boutique in downtown Enid. At the same time, I got in pretty early selling SeneGence products. My love for the company, and relationships I built, allowed me to develop a team of great saleswomen, and SeneGence invited me to train other distributors around the country.”
At the same time, much to her surprise, Pearl Junkie was also on fire.
“I never intended to be this big businesswoman. I just wanted something to do, but at the time, Enid needed retail. All my friends were hungry for cool fashion, and I was able to provide them with something fun and trendy. I started using social media before it was really required, and along with the contacts I made selling SeneGence, I started to get all these online orders for our clothes. It became a big business really quickly when I started shipping.”
Jada sold the retail store in 2018 and opened Pearl Parlor, also downtown, as a salon and small retail store.
“Pearl Parlor was fun, and I liked doing it, but I got an offer from a friend to purchase it, so why not,” said Jada.
“Retirement” was not in the cards for Jada. However, she just can’t sit around. She started ANOTHER retail business, “She…” in 2019.
Jada says, “I had been begging Micah to rent me his little building downtown, and he finally did. We had open retail there for a few months until Covid hit, so we closed down. I was doing so much online that it made sense, and I felt some responsibility to the community and my employees. We moved it to a building north of town, and I do open certain times of the year to the public, such as this summer a couple of days a week.”
As if thousands of mail orders a month are not enough, Jada and her husband have started a designer cattle business and a flower farm.
“I like making people happy and meeting needs,” Jada says, “I have a passion for what I do and love making women feel more confident about themselves. I especially love to help people learn to do what I have done, even if it is a competitor. There is enough business for everyone, and if you work hard, are consistent, and love what you do, you won’t work a day in your life.”
