15 Gifted Women: Ande Rooney
By Meredith Schwartz -- Gifts & Decorative Accessories, 11/9/2009
Ande Rooney
Shonnie Bilin
Frances Gravely
Isadora Frost
Janny Hammons
Anne McGilvray
Maxine Burton
Susan Roghani
Joan Ulrich
Wendy Rosen
Anna Griffin
Barbara Baekgaard
Andrea Grossman
Andrea Sadek
Marian Sullivan
Co-Owner
Ande Rooney Inc.
Peter and Ande Rooney quit teaching in 1980. Drawing on Peter's background in antiques and Ande’s in graphic design, they decided to create porcelain reproductions of nostalgic advertising. Ande handles the "creative end" of the business, heading the art department, and handling advertising and product development. She looks to customers for new product ideas, and adds about a dozen sign and magnet designs to their 300-item collection each year. Peter, whom Ande calls "the boss," runs the business as a whole, but decision-making is often shared and jobs overlap. Without reps, the Rooneys travel about half the year. When not on the road, they throw themselves into landscaping and renovating projects.
Gifts & Decorative Accessories: What have your biggest challenges been?
Ande Rooney: The biggest challenge for me in business has been dealing with the economic forecast of a particular season. It has been very tough the last few years. Right now the greatest challenge has been dealing with the economic downturn. Prior to that the biggest challenge, which was the fun part of being in business, was making sure I could get out sales promotion materials and new products to sell. The buzzword in the gift industry is ‘what’s new?’ And that to me is a wonderful challenge; it keeps you buzzing and alive. Also dealing with licensors, and banks who don’t necessarily understand the industry, [as well as] learning the language of the group that you’re dealing with in a positive manner are other challenges. We’re all trying to grow together.
G&DA: What have been your greatest successes?
AR: My personal greatest successes have been in working with my partner, who is my husband, to build a successful company with great integrity. For that reason we have a very loyal, consistent customer base, and they are our success. We have been able to maintain their confidence in our products. The amazing thing is we probably have quite a few of the customers that we started with back in the 1980s. Some of those customers carry all three divisions. (The company recently changed its name to The Ande Rooney Cos. to reflect its three parts, Ande Rooney, Danger Men Cooking and Danger Women Shopping.) I couldn’t do it without my staff. We have a very committed team, and that is a measure of our success. Our latest hire was 10 years ago. One person has come back three times.
G&DA: Do you think that as a woman you approached doing business differently?
AR: No. In fact I’m one of those who thinks the gender thing has been blown totally out of control. I was a product of the ’60s. I went straight into the job market in New York and I felt no prejudice; I was not not-hired. I did not not-get the salary that I needed that was comparable to the men. It may have helped, but I never saw it as a negative. I do recall I submitted a couple of prints to an exhibition at the New School. I used to sign them A. Rooney and they thought I was a man. Maybe having the name Ande, they thought I was a man and were surprised I was a woman.
G&DA: How has being an executive affected your personal life and relationships and how do you deal with it?
AR: It’s very stressful, particularly because my husband and I are partners in business and partners in life. We have learned that we just have to turn off the business at a certain time and allow our personal life to take over. You really have to schedule the time you’re going to take with your friends and family. But as an executive you’re always thinking about it. The only way for me to recharge myself is to go into my garden.
G&DA: How and why did you get into business?
AR: I was a high school art teacher. My husband was in charge of the industrial arts department in the high school. In the late 1970s-early ’80s, we became totally disillusioned with the educational system in America. Little did we know, that was the golden age of education, but you don’t know that when you’re in it. So we quit. We had to do something. I was always involved in designing graphics and doing my own artwork, and Peter had been in the antique business. We just kind of stumbled on an idea of doing reproductions of American advertising that are made in America. We started selling product at state fairs, and everything we learned we learned from the seat of our pants.
G&DA: What advice would you give to a woman starting out in the business?
AR: I would say don’t give up, wait a couple of years. Forget the business plan, because it doesn’t make any difference. Find something you love doing, whether it is making jelly or binding books or making lamps; have a lot of passion and go for it. … But I would also say, young people today need to look for an area that is healthy for mind, body or spirit: good eating, health-related, maybe spa-related. In the future, I don’t think the gift industry as we know it is going to exist. It is going to be much more involved in lifestyle, whether it is through gardening, decorating, alternative heating systems, all those little things that are going to make our lives more comfortable and healthy, such as non-electric kitchen gadgets — back to what was the best of the past, combined with current technology and a 21st century edge. Also I think people have to be very aware, vocal and active about what’s happening around us politically because that is our future.
G&DA: What is the best — or most memorable — gift you ever received?
AR: Having all my family and very close friends give me a surprise 50th birthday party. It was in the middle of the week and I was convinced that everyone had forgotten about it. Everyone was there; people flew in. Having everyone in one place at one time was very special.
To read the interviews with each of the other 14 Gifted Women, please click on their image at right.
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