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