Page 40 - Holly Carney Issue (3)

Women of Distinction

By Judith A. Habert
Photos by Lisa K.Miller

Adrienne Streeter

Making Printing an Art
A woman in the printing industry is rare; a woman owning a age of 21 Adrienne ventured to San Diego and not long after
printing company is even more unique. For Adrienne Street- got married. She then started working for a printing company
er, printing is in her blood. She grew up in the business. Her in San Diego. Soon after she was able to get her husband a
parents owned a printing company and by the time she was job there too and he quickly learned to run a printing press.
14 she was helping out in the family business. Adrienne They were only making $6.00 an hour each and working
obtained a degree in Commercial Art after high school and extremely hard. So when her Dad offered to loan them the
worked at two San Diego Printing companies where she money to open their own business they took him up on the
obtained additional experience prior to founding Streeter offer.
Printing in 1980. Her knowledge and artistic sense are in- Adrienne and her husband Jack started their business when
strumental in producing consistent top quality printing. their youngest son Jonathan was only 6 months old. Thank-
When I first arrived at her office she took me on a tour of her fully her mother-in-law offered to take care of the baby so
facility. Not only is it state of the art, but everyone seems to Adrienne could concentrate on the business. As a working
Mom Adrienne often felt as if she wasn’t do-
ing enough at home or at the office; a feeling
so many working Moms must endure. When
her second child, Rachel, was born she took
a break and stayed at home for a year and a
half. By the time her third child, Natalie, was
born Adrienne knew she needed to balance
40 caring for her children & business and luckily
Nancy came into her life.
Nancy was providing child care at a jazzer-
cise class when they met. It was an instant
friendship and Adrienne knew that this was
the type of person that would be loving and
nurturing to her children. Adrienne chose

genuinely enjoy their job. The break room is full of photos
from a cruise that a majority of the staff attended. There
are funny comments and smiling faces shining out from the
photos. What she loves most about her job is the creative
process and helping clients transition from concept to com-
pletion. With the printing business (being) primarily a male
industry, I wondered if it was tough being a woman in the
printing business. Adrienne smiled, admitting that she has
often found that female clients seem to prefer to talk to male
salespeople. “They seem to bypass me at trade shows and
go right to the men at our booth.” When asked when she
knew her business was a success she paused and told me
she doesn’t think in those terms - even though she is listed
among the top 50 woman owned businesses in San Diego.
This attitude keeps Adrienne on her toes and always striving
to be better; a quality that makes her very successful. As
Adrienne notes, “I work as hard today as I did the day we
opened our doors.” Her clients will tell you that if they want
a quality product at a fair price - Streeter Printing is the place
they go. to return to work part-time and Nancy came to work for the
The printing industry is a tough business since profit margins Streeter family on the days Adrienne went to the office.
are so low: the average profit margin is only 2 to 3%. At the
July/August 2008