Home-based firm a world class player(continued from page 2)
Edmonds Beacon

The company's name has a double meaning. The "Sound" in Sound & Sea Technology refers to acoustics. It also refers to the Puget Sound.

The Meggitts also carefully selected their company logo. They believe a logo is an important part of a business because it represents the company's image.

Judith Meggitt touts the advantages of being a business based on a virtual work environment.

"Being able to work 24-7 and not having to commute contributes significantly to our productivity," she says.

The nature of the firm's work requires contributions from a geographically diverse workforce, and their projects take their employees around the globe – literally.  SST has completed projects in locations from Ascension Island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean to Wake Island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, halfway around the globe from each other.

A report from the SBA Office of Advocacy in Washington, D.C., estimates that one-half of all small businesses are home-based businesses, although only 10 percent of home-based firms have employees, as the Meggitts do. They employ five people including themselves in their home administrative office, but have a total of 38 fulltime and part-time employees.

"Our employees – the engineers we hire to work for us – work virtually," says Dallas Meggitt. "The broadband high-speed internet technology helps keep the lines of communication open and current. When we need to bring a team together to do a project, we still use the technology to communicate and keep our customers closely involved in the projects."

Even so, he says he frequently travels to their California office: "There is still nothing better than face-to-face communication."

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