Kevin Fletcher, General Manager and Beth Sudyk, President of PS Awards.

Beth Sudyk’s handle for email is MsTrophy. Her license plates say, “Trophy.” Beth Sudyk has been in the trophy business all her life.

“I was born with an engraving tool in my hand!” She shouts it out in jest, laughing, but something in the way she says it betrays the truth of the statement: Beth was born for this.

Klare’s Bowling Supply
Beth Sudyk represents the third generation of her family to run the family business. The first generation and second generations were named Pete Sudyk, as was the business.

“My grandfather and a pro bowler named Johnny Klares started the company in 1958 under the name Klare’s Bowling Supply. They sold balls, bags and similar supplies. They split up, and my grandfather bought it out and named it Pete Sudyk Trophies,” tells Beth.

At that point, the business primarily provided trophies and bowling supplies. Among those supplies were King Louie bowling shirts, and they were always in stock, since Pete Sudyk Trophies was the Ohio warehouse for the King Louie brand.

“My dad came on board in 1961, and over the years, the business became more emphasized on awards,” says Beth. Growing up, Beth would come in the shop on weekends and school holidays to help out.

“I would come in and hang out and watch. I was always interested,” remembers Beth. She began full time work for the family business 25 years ago, and continues to look forward to work every day.

The showroom of PS Awards highlights some of the many products offered by the company.

PS Awards
We now know how Klare’s Bowling Supply became Pete Sudyk Trophies, but how did Pete Sudyk Trophies become PS Awards?

“It sort of happened by mistake,” says Beth. “When we launched our website, 12 years ago, I was chatting about the name with my dad, and I asked him, ‘What do you want me to do, petesudyk.com?’ We were laughing, because no one can spell Sudyk, and if they can’t spell it, they’re never going to get to the website.”

They didn’t want to use PetesTrophies.com because it sounded too much like a mom-and-pop shop. They kicked a few other ideas around before finally deciding to simplify, and they settled for PSAwards.com.

“For years, I would answer the phone, “Hello, Pete Sudyk’s,” but after the website went up, people began to ask, ‘Is this PS Awards?’ I thought, ‘sweet,’ you are on my website! Those calls started becoming more common, and then, checks started coming to us made out to PS Awards,” remembers Beth.

She spoke about it with her father, who expressed that he had always wished the company had a more commercial name, because Sudyk is hard to spell.

“We went with PS Awards. We co-marketed them for a couple of years, and in my ads I still say, ‘Formerly Pete Sudyk Trophies,’ just in case someone isn’t up to speed.”

How Lemons Become Lemonade
PS Awards was happy to call downtown Cleveland home for nearly all of its 52 years, but as the last year has shown, circumstances thought stable can change quickly.

“We were caught up in a major construction project going on in downtown Cleveland, where we were located for 48 years. We lost our parking and loading dock with one day notice. All of a sudden, our customers were going to get a ticket for parking in the same space they had used for years,” remembers Beth.

Well, that just would not do. Beth’s cheerful personality reflects a childhood spent in an atmosphere of celebration and recognition. However, all of the preparation required to celebrate recognition necessitates a positive disposition and a take-charge attitude—an ability to take lemons and make lemonade—and Beth’s personality reflects that as well. She took charge and found location options more to her liking.

“Within three months, I bought a building and moved the company out to the suburbs,” says Beth.

While more accommodating in a variety of ways, the new location did present one glaring challenge.

“Our slogan while we were downtown was, ‘Some things you’ll only find downtown.’ Well, when we moved out to the suburbs, we were giggling. We weren’t downtown anymore!”

While out networking in their new neighborhood, people asked Beth and her staff what PS Awards was and what the company did.

“We would answer, ‘It’s a recognition thing.’ And, we thought that was kind of cool. We picked up that tagline when we moved to our new building,” says Beth.

Commenting on the move, Beth says, “It actually worked out in our favor. Where we used to be on split level, we are on one level now. We have a better loading dock. We have an acre-and-a-half of land, parking spots where we had metered parking before. It really worked out well for us.”

And that’s how lemons become lemonade.

Keeping Current
One of the keys to PS Awards’ longevity is their emphasis on keeping current. They are always on the lookout for new technology and awards.

“We have been a beta test site three times in our company history. We stay up with current technologies and changes in the industry in order to keep our selection fresh. We have always tried to watch where the industry was headed and to stay with it. That was something that grandpa believed in and dad believed in. I believe in it. We are always looking to grow and add new things,” says Beth.

They also take a hard look at things that just aren’t performing well. As bowling and textiles started to fade, those parts of the business were sold, and the company refocused.

Beth notes that PS Awards is usually ahead of the curve. “Cleveland isn’t like Chicago or New York; it usually takes a while for things to trickle down here. We’re usually ahead of the curve in our area.”

Looking down the list of products found at PSAwards.com, it quickly becomes clear that this is a very diverse company. Commenting on how diversification relates to success, Beth affirms, “It’s everything. If you’re just a little trophy company where people come for little league trophies, then you can be okay with limited diversification. However, when you are servicing corporate America, you need to keep up with the most current products and the most current way to personalize them and the most cost-effective way to personalize them. You have to have something different and unique to offer. You have to stay fresh.”

If a company fails to keep up with current trends, says Beth, they will become obsolete. The determination to not let that happen is one of the reasons PS Awards launched their website a dozen years ago, well ahead of most of the industry.

“You can have all of the great products and services in the world, but if you don’t have a good website online, who is going to know about it? Our website is our best salesperson. Customers order online 24/7. If someone gets home late, ten o’clock, and decides they need to get their awards order together, they can do it on our site. Our full catalogue is on there. Our close-out section is on there. We come in the doors in the morning, and a rash of orders are waiting from the previous night,” says Beth.

Nearly all of those orders will be filled in-house.

“Everything is done in-house except for the actual promotional products, such as coffee cups and pens. Anything that is award related we do in-house, and we inventory here. Our warehouse has 10,000 square feet, and we have a large showroom to display it in,” says Beth.

They also have plenty of room for production, a necessity to accommodate their diverse stable of equipment.

“We have three lasers, we do metal photo; we’ve got rotary diamond engraving. We have sublimation and digital color imaging. We have two sandblasting cabinets, we do trophy assembly, and we even have a custom framing shop,” says Beth.

Unlike most of today’s awards businesses, PS Awards has bucked the recent trend of using distributors as their warehouse.

“We personalize nearly all of our products here, and we warehouse the blank product here. We have a huge inventory. If a customer needs 50 pieces tomorrow, we just pull it from the shelves,” says Beth.

Service: The Secret Of Success
PS Awards has been around for many years longer than most shops make it. They have employed a number of new technologies over that time to make that survival possible, yet their key to success is singular and could not be simpler.

“It’s service—good, family-oriented service. We know most of our customers by name. We have relationships with them. We talk to them. After an order is delivered, we pick up the phone, ‘How was everything? How did the banquet go?’ You can go to any online company, anywhere in the United States and place your order. Maybe you get it on time, maybe you don’t. Maybe it makes it on time, maybe it doesn’t. It just seems to be very impersonal. So, even when someone is dealing with us via the Internet, we like to make sure that we communicate really well. We know their names; we make sure they know our names. We make sure we go the extra mile with communication and service,” says Beth.

She extends that need for good communication within the company as well, saying it is critical to make sure there is good internal communication within the staff.

“You don’t want final-step failure, meaning that you have everything done well and on time, and the order sets on the shipping table and doesn’t go out to the banquet. Make sure that you follow jobs through, getting them out accurately and on time.”

Beth asserts that the need for good service is more important now than ever. “With so many companies slashing their staffs, we are all noticing a lack of service wherever we go. Good service is paramount. It will make you or break you.”

Enjoy Your Work
Some people work at their career because they have to. Some people work at it because they love it. Beth is among the latter, and that is never more evident than when she is working on a custom project.

“I really enjoy fabricating product. Clients come in and give us their logo, and we are able to make an acrylic award shaped like their logo or create a donor wall. I really enjoy custom work of that nature. Our sales staff handles our stock awards, but when we design an award or install an award, I do that myself. We have done some really cool projects over the years, and I enjoy those a lot,” says Beth.

As much as she enjoys those projects, when asked what she enjoys most about her work, Beth answers, “It’s the people. What I love about this most is that it is not as if we are a doctor’s office where everyone comes in sick. We are not a law office where people are angry or scared and looking to sue. What we do is happy and cheerful. We reward. We celebrate. We deal with some of the top people in our area who are successful and doing good things. It makes you feel really good to be a part of that. I have been doing this 24 years, and I still love my job. You spend more waking hours at work than anywhere else; you might as well do something you love.”

One of the benefits to working in a career you love is that you are often very good at it. Being an awards company, it is a very seldom occasion that any awards business receives recognition. They are always the ones behind the scenes making the recognition. A couple of years ago, PS Awards experienced a rare occasion.

“In 2008, we were awarded Top Ten Female Owned Business of Northeast Ohio, which I thought was absolutely fabulous for our company. Being the person who is usually behind the scenes making the awards, it was strange to be standing behind a podium receiving an award that our company made. My dad was at the banquet; it was really fun,” remembers Beth.

Award Associates
“I still use my dad as a sounding board for business decisions, but he’s getting older now, and it’s not as easy for him. The great thing about Award Associates is that if you need some advice or a sounding board, there are 50 or 60 companies to talk to. They will help you out any way they can. It’s just a wonderful, giant family.

It’s a great network, and it has made a profound difference for our business. If you have a question, such as how to handle an outside salesperson’s pay or territory, you can send an email out and soon have 20 responses. You just can’t get that anywhere else. It’s a fabulous group, and I feel privileged to be a part of it,” says Beth.