Company History
K-Double-K Enterprises, Inc. began business in late 1988. It's a family owned business. The corporation is owned and operated by Bonnie Kohnert, President and James, 'Jim', Kohnert, Vice President. It is a minority owned entity.
Over many years of working closely with our clients we have evolved into a complete marketing agency. We can design your logo if you need assistance, develop a completely customized product with a quantity order and customize packaging to meet your requirements. If a romance card or gift card of some nature is in order we will include that also.
We can provide you with that pen, magnet or key tag that you want but we truly enjoy working with each client on their project to develop gifts that truly fit the clients theme.
Our business has grown tremendously over the years. We contribute much of our success to hard work, dedication to our clients needs, providing quality products at a fair price and having a great sales team. To contact one of our locations or sales executives please visit our contact page.
HOW WE GOT IN THIS INDUSTRY
Unlike most independent companies in this industry we had not previously worked for an existing promotional products company or advertising agency, but we had reaped the benefits in the corporate world of getting many goodies over the years with our corporations logo on them.
We had worked for large companies and never felt appreciated for all the hours and hard work we put into our careers. Starting your own business meant you would be in control of your on destiny, so we started living our dream in 1988.
I remember one Sunday morning Jim and I sitting at the kitchen table when he spotted an advertisement in the paper , 'own your own business show' coming to one of the local hotels. We decided we would go there and look at some of the opportunities in the marketplace.
During the show we noticed a company with TV monitors and computers in their booth, and they were taking pictures. Their samples were impressive with pictures on t-shirts, mugs, posters, calendar, hats etc. They promoted their products to be set up in malls in the middle of a shopping area. (When you visit any major mall you will see carts, kiosks, set up in the center area as you walk by to go into the stores.) Desperate to get into our own business we jumped on this and bought all the equipment!
During the Thanksgiving and Christmas vacation that year we set the equipment up in our home to play with it so we could run the machines and get acquainted with the operation. We started telling friends, neighbors and anyone we saw that we had started a new business. One of our friends, Frankie Moore called and asked us to do some work for a promotion she was running with her staff. She was kicking off a sales blitz program the first of the year so we needed to have the product delivered by January 2nd. We printed many t-shirts for them over the Christmas holidays. Jim's mom had come to visit that Christmas. Thank goodness she was there to help! Frankie was happy with the product and we got our first check!
I resigned from my paying job and Jim continued to work. We were living in Flower Mound, Texas at the time, not too far north of Dallas, and we wanted to get placement in Vista Ridge Mall in Lewisville, close to our home. They were in the middle of construction. The shopping center would be open for business the next fall season.
I called the mall to set up an appointment with the General Manager Mike Exum. I went into the meeting thinking I would just give him the months I wanted to rent space in his mall and he would agree without issue. I couldn't believe he wanted references, and wanted to know where else we had set our business up and what kind of sales we had! I was shocked. This was our first taste of real life, owning your own business. I left the meeting thinking, this just isn't right.
I made a call to the manager that oversees a group of malls, one of them being Vista Ridge and explained to him the predicament I was in. He said he had malls he would let us work in ,in Shawnee Oklahoma, Alexandria Louisiana and Corpus Christi, TX., all small malls not near the size of Vista Ridge.
It would be difficult if not impossible to work the store on my own and Jim still had his corporate job so I turned to my sister- in- law for help. After some initial conversations, Betty Lou agreed to work in the business with me at the malls.
We spent a month in Shawnee, Alexandria, and two months in Corpus Christi. Boy, were we glad when that was over! Living in furnished apartments and not sleeping in your own bed for that long, was not fun, but necessary in our case.
Mission Accomplished. I went back to meet with the manager of Vista Ridge mall for the 2nd time with all my stats and documentation that I needed to gain our entry into the mall for the Christmas season!
During the course of our stays in the mall that year we had a number of companies come up as ask us to produce a quantity of mugs or t-shirts for them. Our equipment was geared towards retail selling and we could not reproduce logos so we couldn't help them with their needs.
When I was in Corpus Christi the mall manager wanted to place an order for 500 three inch buttons. I didn't want to loose the order so I said I would get back to her.
I started to wonder where Mitel, the corporation I left, had gotten all their goodies. Someone must know. I made several phone calls and started researching the industry.
I found a source for the buttons and ordered them for the Corpus Christi mall making this our first product sale in the promotional products industry.
We continued in the retail business until the end of 1989. In January we joined a couple of local chambers and started promoting and selling products in the promotional product industry.
Betty Lou was home in Phoenix and started selling imprinted items also.
Jim left the corporate world and started working in the company.
The rest is history!