As the owner of a small business, Mary Carol Flynn knows that some businesses are fortunate enough to survive, while many others wither and die.

When she took over her ex-husband’s business just over thirty years ago, Flynn didn’t consider failure an option.

Her Oak Lawn company, TBK Promotions, Inc., sells promotional products, merchandise emblazoned with a company’s logo, to clients in a variety of sectors including financial services, manufacturing, higher education, and the service industry.

In 1990, when she began, TBK operated out of Flynn’s home. In addition to Flynn, the company had three full-time employees and four part-time workers, with annual sales of about $600,000 at the time.

“It’s funny because people look at it (the business) as being a success,” Flynn said. “I had three kids to support. If I had failed, what was I going to show them?”

Flynn, then 51, officially took over the business in April 1989 from her ex-husband. At the time, the company was called The Idea People, Inc. She kept that name until October 1990, when she rebranded.

Flynn had worked with her husband in the business and described it as “struggling” when she stepped in. Needing a quick infusion of capital to stabilize operations, Flynn borrowed $20,000 from her brother.

“Back in 1989 we didn’t even have a fax machine,” Flynn recalled.

She made arrangements with suppliers to keep merchandise flowing while TBK found its financial footing. She and her team pulled together to keep things moving.

“I was fortunate to have good people around me,” Flynn said. “They wanted me to succeed.”

The only business training Flynn had was what she learned from working with her husband. She had earned a bachelor of science in speech pathology from Fontbonne University in St. Louis several years earlier.

“I have always been a pretty good money manager,” Flynn said. “My mother and father taught me that.”

Naming the Business After the Boys

Flynn believed the company needed a new identity and brainstormed options. It was her accountant who suggested naming it after her three sons: Tom, Brian, and Kevin.

“They’re in birth order so as not to give any indication of favoritism,” Flynn explained.

Kevin, then 22, joined the business to help bring TBK into the digital world. Tom, then 27, and Brian, 25, worked for other companies at the time.

Strategy, Not Just Swag

Through the Women’s Business Development Center in Chicago, TBK was certified as a female-owned business enterprise about two years after Flynn took over.

Flynn emphasized that her goal wasn’t just to be an order filler. Rather than having clients pick items out of catalogs, she took the time to understand their goals.

“I find out more about what the client does and who they are trying to reach,” she said. “Knowing the market they are aiming for helps in choosing the item that will best serve their purpose.”

From Basement to Fully Remote

By 1997, employees were working out of Flynn’s garage and sharing basement space with the furnace. The business had outgrown the house.

“It was great when the boys were growing up,” Flynn said of operating TBK out of her home. “There was always somebody at home. But now we’re wall-to-wall and we’re looking to move out.”

TBK moved into its first office space in 2001, then again in 2006, and once more in 2015.

When COVID-19 hit in 2019, TBK’s cloud-based, connected workflow allowed the team to make the shift to remote work quickly and effectively. Today, TBK operates 100 percent remotely.