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It’s okay
to cut the rug at this business
by
Joshua Covington
for
Virginia Business
April 2003
Customers of Sandy Henderson’s Farmville-based
business walk all over her product. She doesn’t
mind though; it’s all part of the custom carpet
business.
Henderson’s
company, Rug Rats, has been selling custom-designed,
hand-made rugs for more than 15 years. The former dietician
began the business after realizing the demand for high-end
rugs. “I started with Greek rugs for Hampden-Sydney
College, doing their fraternity letters on rugs. Then
things just grew.”
She
opened a shop on Farmville’s Main Street in 1990
and began a Web site, www.rugratsva.com, six years ago,
which now provides 40 percent of the company’s
sales. The small-town business, which employs seven,
ships carpets all over the country. Judging from celebrity
comments on its Web site, Henderson’s handiwork
has impressed NASCAR’s Ward Burton and country
legends Garth Brooks and Hank Williams Jr.
All
of Rug Rats carpets are one of a kind. The patterns
are laid out, cut and hand-sewn to make a floor covering
much more peeper pleasing than machine manufactured
rugs, which simply print images onto a carpet. Henderson
claims that they can match any pattern in any size.
“A machine can’t do what we do,” she
says.
Since
its modest beginning in a warehouse above a feed store,
Rug Rats has moved to its elaborately painted showroom
on Main Street. For Henderson, the love of the job is
there as much as it was in those first tough years.
“Beautiful rugs can take someone’s home to
a whole new level — and that’s my passion.”
From
frat boys to celebrity patrons, Rug Rats has relied
on customer service and old-fashioned hard work to keep
customers coming back.
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