Resilience bolsters owner of Steffensmeier Welding & Manufacturing
Jenny Steffensmeier’s journey to owning Steffensmeier Welding & Manufacturing was not easy. But it began with a love story.
Her husband, Ben, owned the small business in Pilot Grove, Iowa. He learned blacksmithing and welding from a local man named Butch, who was said to be the best of the best in the area. Butch handed over the business to Ben in 1982.
“While he did Steffensmeier Welding, I made babies. We have five of them. My career was as an X-ray technician and sonographer in the local hospitals,” Jenny said. “After baby No. 3, I went part-time. Over the years Ben would ask me, ‘Do you want to come in and help the secretary?’ Then after baby No. 5, I kind of landed there full time.”
Ben eventually developed frontotemporal dementia. Jenny used what she learned from the secretary – crunching numbers, purchasing steel – and slowly took on more work before Ben fully ceased running the company in 2011. Jenny fully took over operations and became 100% shareholder when he passed away in 2015.
Her experience was one of getting done what needed to get done, both for her business and her family. Through a tragic loss and growth into a new world, she developed resilience without thinking too much about it.
“When you’re in it, you’re just in it. You’re not really thinking about it,” she said. “It’s all about how you react to change or how you move with the changes.”
Getting it done
In the early days of the business, the Steffensmeier family lived above the shop. Jenny was mowing the grass, cleaning inside and doing any task that you might do in your home. Those tasks evolved into work for the business.
“I can remember tearful moments like, ‘This is not patient care.’ It was numbers and I am not a numbers guy. [The secretary] would be showing me things and I’d be like, ‘This is embarrassing. I don’t know how to do this, I’ll never get this,’” Jenny said. “But it was a good thing because I learned how to buy and sell steel and lots of other things.”
Steffensmeier Welding & Manufacturing creates custom metal fabricated projects for a variety of industries. As Ben’s illness progressed, Jenny moved her way into the leadership role. That meant she had to learn a new industry while mothering five children and caring for her husband as the dementia changed his personality.
“There was this space and time that the kids and I were not even on this planet that everyone else was living on. We were living in our own little world, and it was private,” she said.
The business has always kept a small but close-knit team. Several of Ben’s brothers and friends have worked for the business over the years. Two of the Steffensmeiers’ three sons and one of their daughters work for the company.
With that community supporting her, Jenny led the company into its next phase of operation. People make all the difference, she said. They’ve since earned the Woman Owned Business certification. They’ve expanded its customer base and attracted and retained a young workforce. She and her daughter, Rachel, even began a new business, Subtle Impacts, that sells designed decorative weights.
She hesitates to describe the way she moved forward as persevering.
“It was just knowledge. You just did what you had to do,” she said. “Get educated, figure it out. Whether it was the dementia or the business, you just figured it out. It’s almost like not having time to be scared. You’re just doing.”
A never-ending journey
Jenny has learned many things over her time with Steffensmeier Welding & Manufacturing. Most recently, how to acknowledge the hard work she has put in.
“I’ve allowed myself to accept the fact that I have added value to this business,” she said. “I just learned that I actually can do some things and it’s OK to celebrate, which I’m going to start doing with my children.”
One of those accomplishments was investing in a solar power array to power Steffensmeier Welding & Manufacturing. The shop became 100% solar-powered in 2016, and she’ll pay off the loan this year.
She cites her family as the biggest blessing to her business. As she’s evolved as a leader and grown more comfortable, she’s able to celebrate their wins, too.
“It’s a special thing to get to work with family,” she said. “I love talking about this stuff now that my boys are there. They’re young. They’re giving me courage to say, ‘We can do this.’”
The journey came with anxiety and sadness. Jenny misses her husband. She’s wondered if she’s doing things right.
But now, she knows the journey is the whole point.
“I almost said, ‘[I haven’t arrived as a complete leader] yet,’ but that’s ridiculous,” she said. “That is something I have to remind myself – there is nowhere to get. I’m not going to be like this today and be a leader tomorrow. It’s just a journey.”
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