Santa Fe Awning 20th Anniversary
Twenty years ago in 1994, when he was still a young whippersnapper, Jeff Maul found himself with little money in his pocket, the single parent of 2 children and no immediately visible means of support. So he started Santa Fe Awning. Working out of his own house, he did everything. He sewed in the living room, completed design work and drafted proposals at the kitchen table, and did painting and welding steel on the back patio.
He had no time, no cash and had to fill all of the positions, care for the children, get them to school, make meals and help with homework. He answered the phone, met people at their homes for on site design consultations, measured for fittings and priced jobs. When an order was placed, Jeff welded the frame on the back patio, cut, fit, and sewed awnings in the living room, and dressed the frames for delivery. Then he’d return to the job and install newly made custom awnings. Jeff even found time for the bookkeeping. He had lots of energy and never stopped moving.
Jeff enlisted help from the children too. Everyone had to answer the phone, and often friends thought they had the wrong number when they got “Santa Fe Awning. This is Sara. How may I help you?” Sara was 12 and Charles was 9.
Today, Jeff and roughly a dozen employees work out of 20,000 square feet of space in Santa Fe. A good 2,000 square feet of that space goes to shelving. And another 8,000 square feet is comprised of outdoor space, and the area that holds one of his signature fabric buildings which is used for painting in winter months. There are vast cutting and sewing tables, computers, offices, colorful bolts of canvas and screening lining the walls, a metal-working shop and the large area in back where the frames are dressed in good weather, and steel beams are cut for large constructions. Santa Fe Awning also employs sales estimators and installation crews who service Albuquerque, El Paso, and Las Cruces in addition to Santa Fe.
Charles is a talented artist, Sara with a business degree runs the office and Jeff lives in a very cool, but modest home which hangs from the side of a mountain. There are amazing views, a deck with shade sails, and shade sails on the roof patio of his garage – a walk of several minutes through the woods and scrub from the house, a few hundred feet down a steep path. It is the only access. He still has lots of energy and he still hasn’t stopped moving.
Please help us wish Jeff a Happy 20 Years at Santa Fe Awning. And many more …