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Keeping people moving is the mission of Monique Swyer of Blue Moose Elevators. Through 14 years in the accessibility industry, she has been able to design very high-end elevator systems as well as help many people stay in their homes and access public places in spite of different abilities. She didn’t plan on becoming the “elevator lady”, but when you find work where you can excel and enjoy yourself, you just have to stick with it. |
| Monique graduated from the University of Kansas with degrees in French and International Communications and Relations. In 1993, she was able to put her degrees to use in international sales at Access Industries (now TK Access.) She served as the liaison with the manufacturing plant in the UK, as well as handled the dealer sales in Canada, Asia and Latin America. Eventually, she took over the Midwest territory in the United States where she was in charge of dealer sales in 14 states. Through her travels within the industry, she met many accessibility dealers. She came to admire certain dealers for their dedication to their customers and their drive to serve them. These were not necessarily the largest dealers in terms of volume of sales or size, but definitely the type of people you would want to take care of your own parents – the ones with the biggest hearts. They treated their customers like friends, often giving where other companies won’t. It’s a different way of doing business, and surely not the most profitable one, but at the end of the day, you can feel good about what you have done. |
| Monique also places a high value on knowing your product inside and out. You can’t sell something that you don’t know how to install. She has been through the training classes of many of the manufacturers, including Cemco, National Wheel-o-Vator, Inclinator, Access and Garaventa. She is very hands-on and will help her clients and their contractors with the construction lay-outs, no matter how many times she has to go back out to the jobsite to answer questions. This breadth of knowledge allows Monique to be able to design elevator systems for the more discerning buyer as well as more difficult applications. Blue Moose is often called upon to bail people out. Whenever other companies either can't or won't figure out how to make something work, people rely on Blue Moose to come through with a solution, whether it's finding the perfect custom elevator for the needs of a $20,000,000 home or just getting a product in quickly to meet a time frame, the people at Blue Moose have done it.
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| Helping people has been an integral part of life for Monique. She has always been involved as a volunteer in one organization or another, but after becoming part of the accessibility industry, she found that volunteering with people of different abilities actually helped her understand her clients better. While at Access Industries, she felt that working at a factory where their main clients were people with disabilities, that people from the factory would want to give back to the community that made their business viable. She found out about the opportunity to volunteer at the Paralympic Games in Atlanta in 1996. She and her father spent a week working with the amazing athletes from all over the world who came to Atlanta to compete in the Olympic venues. She also has volunteered at the National Veteran’s Wheelchair Games and served on the board of Whole Access.
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| The volunteer work as well as her everyday interactions with customers gives Monique a well-balanced sense of the world. Making millions is not Monique’s goal – but helping people is. She has realized that no matter how much money you have, you cannot buy your health or your happiness. She is content to live in a small cabin in the hills of North Georgia with her husband and four dogs. She rides a motorcycle, gardens, travels, and reads for fun. She lives each day to the fullest and hopes she is able to help other people do the same – by keeping them moving. |
| Blue Moose Elevators serves commercial clients, people who have to make their homes accessible and those upscale clients who just choose to install an elevator. Blue Moose does not follow your typical business model. Employees are highly valued and actually enjoy their work. Blue Moose feels that the employees are the biggest asset. More emphasis is placed on the employees and their well-being, rather than a large commercial location and a fleet of vehicles. If employees get to use their own vehicles for work, they can afford a better vehicle that they can use for the whole family. Employees are salaried, so that they do not have to worry about ups and downs in the work load. They receive as many paid days off as possible to enjoy time with their families, whether it's for the first day of school, or just to spend an extra day on the lake. They don’t work if they are sick or tired. Even the best elevator is only as good as its installer – so employees are kept happy and in top form. It’s a formula for long-term success.
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