Embroider Franchise Opens In Davenport

DAVENPORT (Tuesday, January 02, 2007) - Anita Kruse is a mother, a grandmother, a 14-year veteran of Docuforms LLC — and now owner of the franchise for the first Iowa location of EmbroidMe.

The first EmbroidMe business was opened in West Palm Beach, Fla., in 2000 by Ray Titus, the owner of Sign-A-Rama, the largest sign franchise in the world. With more than 400 locations in 10 countries, EmbroidMe is the leading franchise in the embroidery business. Kruse's store is at 2222 E. 53rd St., Davenport.

Kruse, a Bettendorf resident, has lived in the Quad-Cities for 22 years. For more than half of that time, she worked for Docuforms, a business forms and labels distributor. Although she said she enjoyed her 14-year career, the only partially serious suggestion of one of her previous managers that she open her own franchise became more of a reality as the years rolled by.

"I loved what I did, the people I worked with and all of the clients (at Docuforms), but I just had this dream that wouldn't leave me alone," Kruse said.

EmbroidMe offers general embroidery services and also allows customers to bring in a variety of items to print photos and lettering on. Though Kruse said she is limited to sales and marketing, she and her co-owner — who happpens to be her husband, Scott — hired two full-time workers with more than 30 years of sewing and embroidery equipment experience to run the store.

The embroidery expert, Becky Kern, also will specialize in sewing and said she found the job on the Internet.

Kern said that because she can't afford a professional embroidery machine on her own, "it's like a dream job," she said. "I love the embroidery part of it."

Luckily, Kruse said she and her husband have yet to encounter any first-time-business owner problems. By tag teaming with additional franchises, the duo realized early on which obstacles could possibly turn up.

"Instead of reinventing the wheel, we just tried different methods," she said.

The store plans a soft opening on Jan. 12 and will conduct a grand opening in March.

Olivia Moran can be contacted at (563) 383-2323 or newsroom@qctimes.com

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