Today we’d like to introduce you to Zoeb and Farzana Mithaiwala.
Zoeb and Farzana – kick things off for us. Where does this story start?
Ambees Engraving Inc. was founded by Hatim Simba 1986. Initially it was started as side business with a “New Hermes Pentograph” in a basement and used to make name badges for Nursing Schools and Restaurants. He saw that engraving business have a good future so he quit his job and invested his full time and rented a store front at Forest Park, IL in 1990.
It’s a family owned business and the current owners are Zoeb Mithaiwala and Farzana Mithaiwala. We bought Ambees Engraving Inc. in 2012. We were in a leather goods manufacturing business in Pakistan for almost 25 years. We moved to US in December 2011 with hope of a better life and opportunity. Initially were planning to start the same business in US. Fortunately, during that time our financial adviser suggested Ambees Engraving Inc.
Although the field was completely different and new from what we had experienced in but my family got enticed by the creativity and the potential of the business and its link to the advanced technology. Ever since we bought the business every day is full of excitement because we learn something new from every project.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Initially we had hard time learning and running the business as we were new to the field so literally we started from scratch. We had to learn to operate all the machinery, software, techniques, product, pricing…literally everything. Some days we did a good job yet other days we made lot of mistakes and from which we learned. In last five years, we have taken Ambees Engraving Inc. to a whole new path of success and the big credits goes to our loyal customers who stayed with us throughout the time with patience and gave us a chance.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Ambees Engraving – what should we know?
We specialize in Personalization and engraving. We deal in trophies, plaques, awards, medals, signs, name badges, etc. We offer both either buy the product from us and get it personalized or customer can bring in their own products. Besides commercial engraving we are also popular for wedding accessories engraving like glasses, decanter, knife and server, etc.
The services we offer are laser engraving, rotary engraving, sublimation, digital printing, UV printing, sandblasting, CNC, old fashioned manual engraving and many more.
Ambees is popular for tricky projects which other people refuse to do it. Our basic business concept is “You name it, we will do it”. Some of our major popularity jobs are engraving on executive watches, laptop, iPad, swords, guns, etc.
The thing that separates us from others is our additional customer service and no charge. Since we are famous for engraving on project whose cost could be $1000+ we prepare one sample of engraved text on a similar material and show it to our customer for approval and let them decide whether they want to proceed with the engraving on their final product or not. It gives benefit to the customer since they can see how it’s going to look plus most of the time customer change text, designs, fonts, etc. and we do it without any set up whereas on our end we have to create a new artwork.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
The recipe of our success is: No set-up charge, no engraving text restrictions, send proofs for approval until our customer is satisfied, no rush charges and the secret ingredient is our fastest turnaround time, we are popular for same day delivery.
Contact Info:
- Address: 10401 W. Cermak Rd.
Westchester, IL 60154 - Website: www.ambeesengraving.com
- Phone: 708 531 1942
- Email: ambeesengraving@gmail.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AmbeesEngraving/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ambeesengraving
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/ambees-engraving-westchester-2
Image Credit:
Hussain Mithaiwala
Fatema Mithaiwala
Getting in touch: VoyageChicago is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
