Mother’s Day is a day when a decorating company like Personal Touches by Jeanetta might be decking out an event for a client.
Jeanetta Hill, founder and CEO of Personal Touches By Jeanetta, isn’t booked on moms’ day, but if she were working her daughter and two sons would be right there with her.
All three of her children – A’Rika, Joshua and Christopher – work alongside their mother. And Hill wouldn’t want it any other way.
“It was always my dream that they would join the company – that’s why I made them learn the business when they were little,” Hill said.
“They don’t have to do it, but I want the company to continue long after I’m gone – so they have options.”
Their company celebrated 21 years in business last Friday at Friends: A Meeting Place in Midtown, which was celebrating its grand opening.
Hill said she could have celebrated 20 years (and still plans to celebrate here 25th year in business), but as a mother with a daughter who has surpassed the age of 21, she knows the significance of that age.
“Twenty-one is a milestone age – you are a little bit more wise, useful and cutting-edge,” Hill said.
“And I wanted to thank all of the people who have been a part of my journey, because who is to say I’ll be here when the company reaches 25?”
The question of her own mortality is also a motive for her in owning the business.
“When you look at your children and grandchildren, you know they have a legacy,” Hill said.
Hill said she also wanted to acknowledge her entire team: family, staff, clients and vendors.
“Even though I’m shining, I want them to realize they are the true stars to me,” Hill said.
Hill’s shine is buffed with nearly 50 clients and her expansion into another city, Detroit, which she executed two years ago.
While Hill was setting up shop in the Motor City, her daughter A’Rika Hill – age 25, and more like a partner in the business – kept things running here in St. Louis.
Jeanetta spent two years in Detroit, leaving her daughter with major responsibilities that included managing an entire staff. A’Rika took it and ran with it.
“It was a good learning experience and I had to grow quickly, because I was forced into a position to have to make important decisions,” said A’Rika who has been the company’s director of special events for nearly five years.
A’Rika has bachelor of fine arts degree in fashion design from the Illinois Institute of Art in Chicago.
A’Rika would be designing clothes full time if she wasn’t partnering with her mother. She still makes clothes in her spare time. College, she said, helped greatly with the decorating she does with her mother, especially assignment deadlines, production and working with fabric.
“They go hand in hand – fashion, interior and event design – so it’s all in one,” said A’Rika.
Jeanetta’s son Joshua Hill, on the other hand, said he doesn’t know what he would be doing if he wasn’t working in the family business. Like his sister, he’s been working with his mother for most of 19 years.
He has been working full-time for about one year and a half now and said he loves it.
“Together we can accomplish anything, and I love working with my family,” Joshua said.
Working with his mother can be a mixed bag. She might be a little more lenient on him than other employers about some things, but won’t hold her tongue back on others.
“Our relationship is great – it’s about business, but she’s my mother,” Joshua said. “And I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Jeanetta is also priming her youngest child, 16-year-old Christopher Hill. Right now he helps Joshua, but mother dearest is banking on him to market the company because of his gift of gab from God.
“His gift is his mouth – he’s going to be the marketing guru,” Jeanetta said of her youngest child.
Jeanetta said she ran a candy store out of her house when she was just seven-years-old. But an ability to sell things isn’t her only inspiring gift.
“When I was in grade school they used to pull me out of class to decorate the stage,” said Jeanetta. She said she has always been extremely artsy – painting, drawing and building things – and intrigued by floral arrangements.
Now, seeing her children’s skills develop is phenomenal, because she’s still “mommy.”
“We have a wonderful relationship, because while I’m Mommy and boss, there’s a mutual respect: they respect my wishes and I respect them as adults,” Jeanetta said.
“We don’t have any problems we can’t get through. We say, ‘I’m sorry and I forgive you’ a lot, so it’s all love.”
