NYReport.com Contest Winners: The Pekoe Group

The Pekoe Group

Year founded: 2009

Headquartered in: New York City

Number of employees: 9

Amanda Pekoe, President

Website: www.thepekoegroup.com

Email: info@thepekoegroup.com

How and why was your business founded?

I started the company without partners or investors. I had just left a company where I had partners and wanted to start this on my own. It was me, one other person full-time, and one person part-time. We had four clients: one Broadway show and three Off-Broadway shows. A good friend and colleague of mine offered space in his publicity office in the heart of Times Square to me to help me get started, and my staff and I all shared a small round glass table and brought our laptops from home every day. It was an amazing time, lots of energy and excitement, friends coming into our office to sit around our table or pull up a chair and help with work we needed to get done.

What is your leadership style?

I sort of straddle the "train your staff" and "sink or swim" styles. I show my staff how do many of their tasks at first, and have them listen in on calls and be a part of meetings. I am here for my staff if they have questions about how to do something and how to phrase something, but I want them to take ownership of their role within my company and think about the best way to do something before asking me. I give praise and credit to my team when it's due to them, and I also give constructive criticism when I see them making the same mistakes more than once, or not behaving as though they are responsible for the work that they do.

What is your company's growth strategy?

We have moved twice in the past three years, once each year, to larger spaces. My philosophy is that we add more team members when it becomes clear that we cannot collectively handle our current workload. We do an incredible amount of work, are extremely efficient, and genuinely care about the projects we work on. I think this speaks volumes to our clients. My strategy is to do work that we are proud of and word-of-mouth will work in our favor!

Tell us about a difficult time you went through with your business, and how you overcame it.

In the beginning I tended to hire people who I knew from previous jobs or companies, with whom I created friendly relationships. But that became difficult because these individuals wanted a level of authority within the company, sometimes authority over decisions that I was making, and I realized that the respect for me as their leader, their employer, was not quite there in the same way they would respect an employer who they did not previously know. I wanted the team to all feel comfortable and not think of me just as their boss, but also as a member of the team. I had to think long and hard about this style of leadership and come up with ways of setting boundaries and rules about their behavior towards me and the other employees within my company.

Do you have any words of advice you’d like to share with our readers?

As a small business owner without business partners, it can sometimes be difficult not having another person with whom to bounce off real business decisions. I have found that forming relationships with other people who own small businesses and have been successful in their industries can be an excellent resource and wealth of knowledge. I would recommend that all small business owners find themselves people who know how to run successful small businesses and willingly offer suggestions.

What play or musical did you last see?

Sister Act on Broadway, and I thought it was delightful.