washington business
8 a. m. allison and chad budvarson:
Out of The Box Manufacturing
Allison and Chad Budvarson, a husband and wife team, own Out of the Box Manufacturing in Renton. They have three children ages 6, 4 and 2, a dog and four chickens, all of which were named by the children.
Out of the Box Manufacturing specializes in contract manufacturing, which includes everything from assembly for electronics circuit boards and prototype manufacturing to medium volume manufacturing and flex circuit assembly.
The Budvarsons met working together in manufacturing years ago and filed for their business license one month after their wedding in 2008.
Because of the timing, they refer to the opening of their business as the“ honeymoon.”
On why they decided to start their own business, Allison said,“ it just happened.” Chad, she said, started doing a lot of side jobs, which was how the idea was first sprouted.
“ We have small children and a lot of our employees have small children, so one of the things we stress when recruiting is the flexible nature of our company.”
— Allison Budvarson, owner, Out of the Box Manufacturing
Heritage Distilling Company: heritagedistilling. com
Out of the Box Manufacturing: obmfg. com
Scout Systems: scout. systems. com
AWB Institute Small Business Report: bit. ly / 2017SmallBusinessReport
video extras: Heritage Distilling Company: bit. ly / Heritage-video Out of the Box Manufacturing: bit. ly / obmfg-video Scout Systems: bit. ly / Scout-video
the day to day: run, don’ t walk
Allison’ s alarm goes off at 4 a. m., giving her time to pack lunches for the couple’ s three kids and her and her husband, and put some snacks in a bag for the office. She is first to head to the office, arriving at 8 a. m.
Chad stays behind. He’ s charged with getting their kids to school, so he arrives at the office around 9 a. m., coffee in hand.
On this day, one of the key shop floor employees called out due to a family emergency, so Chad will be on the floor more than usual.
With just 36 staff and a growing customer base, Chad said he often finds himself handling the day-to-day manufacturing and assembly.
Allison digs through her snack bag and asks Chad if he would like a Kind Bar for breakfast. The answer is“ yes.” She grabs a protein shake to go with her coffee and heads off to check-in with a staffer about a recent job applicant she thinks he may know.
Chad dons his safety jacket and he’ s off to check the manufacturing lines.
The pace of his stride is somewhere between a healthy jog and a heart-pounding sprint as he doublechecks circuit board templates, punches codes into keyboards and checks on jobs and employees throughout the modestsized warehouse.
It’ s barely 9 a. m.
34 association of washington business