Mary Gutowski-Hazzard, Owner of Memories Wow
Chicago, IL. Memories Wow is a small U.S. business that was born out of the need for a one-stop personal service to organize and preserve treasured memories. As a busy mom of 4 working full-time in sales, Mary Gutowski-Hazzard needed a service that could assist her with organizing her digital photographs in a variety of professional formats to preserve her family’s memories.
Gutowski-Hazzard recognized the needs of this niche market and that the mainstream providers within the photo industry did not offer this type of service. Through her research, she developed a strong understanding of the market and built her business, Memories Wow, to fit the customer’s needs. Most customers do not have the time and or inclination to create the works themselves. “When working with Memories Wow, our customers' receive personal service all through the process. From converting old film to organizing and designing a 50th anniversary book, we do it all. We are a one-stop service oriented business, where the customers' needs and wants come first,” Gutowski-Hazzard said.
Gutowski-Hazzard left her full-time sales position and founded Memories Wow (Without the Work)in 2007. With locations in Chicago and Los Angeles, Memories Wow is a service that takes standard photos, digital photos, artwork, letters and other keepsakes and creates bound digital books, slide show/video DVDs and custom calendars.
According to Gutowski-Hazzard, Memories Wow works to support the economy by out sourcing only within the U.S. She notes that other U.S. based companies within the photo industry most often out source overseas. “We out source our printing and digital conversions to local companies in Chicago and the Midwest,” Gutowski-Hazzard said.
When she founded Memories Wow Gutowski-Hazzard noted that many of her associates were surprised at her ambitions. However, she remained confident in the Memories Wow business model. Three years later, Gutowski-Hazzard’
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