Diversified Gifts and Awards (DGA) is what I like to consider a "restart" business. On this entrepreneurial journey, I have experienced many roadblocks, detours, stop signs, and times when refueling (to continue) was required to move forward. Passion and purpose were my drivers. Today, I will continue to let these two divers lead DGA  to its destination (Vision).
Teresha Sims, President/Owner

 My personal love for gift items that are personalized or customized with a photo or message led me to my business idea. I observed my friends and coworkers purchasing items for their children especially personalized items. The cost did not matter. The name and/or photo on the gift is what mattered to them the most. I also try to find the perfect greeting card with the right words to express my true feelings. I observed others in the greeting card isle doing the same. So, after brainstorming a few other business ideas, I decided to start a personalized gift business.

I was asked to design t-shirts for a small family event (20 shirts). I was so excited to get the opportunity that I didn’t stick to my original plan. By the end, the order was for 103 shirts. The t-shirts were designed with iron on letters and personalized with the family message on the front and individual names on the back. This did not turn out well. There were many lessons learned from this experience. It was an example of not preparing for success. Despite the outcome, the feedback I received from the people who received their shirts led me to adding decorated apparel to the business.

Later, my son started playing football. I had the opportunity to design the plaques and gifts for the coaches at the end of the season. This led to the addition of the awards/recognition gifts. I also started attending tradeshows, workshops, joining industry associations, and reading industry magazines to learn about new equipment, trends, and other processes used to not only print/decorate items for individual customers but for businesses as well. This led to adding promotional programs and products to the business.

After deciding to leave a job I held for 25 years, I was given a personalized Padfolio to take with me to my new position. The person knew me very well. She knew that I loved business related gifts. The gift was special to me because my name was imprinted on the front. This led me to thinking about adding corporate gifts to the business.

My passion, observations, and desire to help people connect with their recipients has led me to getting our customers to think deeper about their gift-giving activities.

Here at Diversified Gifts and Awards, our consultants will help customers dig deeper to discover what's important to their recipient.. Our goal is to help customers avoid purchasing an unwanted gift. We want to encourage customers to put care and thought into the next gift purchase. It doesn't matter if you are an individual, family member, club, group, business, organization or professional giving the right gift shows you care.