057: How to Manage Globally During a Pandemic with Mary Lyn Baker

Hosts Tracy Swain and JaVonne Williams are joined by Mary Lyn Baker. Mary Lyn is the President and Owner of DH Casters, located in Ontario, CA. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing at University of Maryland. In this episode, Mary Lyn shares her insights on building a company with buyers nationally & globally and she shares exciting news that their new eCommerce site launched in November 2020.

In 1994, Mary Lyn was a 50% owner of DH Casters until 2014 when she decided to become full owner where she has the pleasure of working with 13 full time employees and national independent sales reps across the country. For 35 years, DH Casters has been working closely with national and international buyers from manufacturing companies, distributors and buyers of all types to understand their caster and wheel applications to make their ordering of these products simple and dependable. Vendor and Customer relationships have been created that reflect the family spirit that is part of the company culture. She also continues to develop and build the partnerships with the factories that manufacture the DH Casters product in China. She has visited over 40 factories in 10 cities in China.  Today she purchases from 10 different factories and visits China regularly to maintain business partnerships, continue to negotiate her supply agreements and confirm product quality improvements.

Mary Lyn was raised by parents who believed giving back was something everyone should do as part of life. Her dedication now is towards the homeless crisis, where for over 10 years, she has been helping coordinate the collection of donations and the distribution of food, clothing and love for the homeless on Skid Row in Los Angeles. DH Casters also sponsored through Compassion a little boy named Daniel from Honduras for three years till his family moved and now has the honor of sponsoring 5 year old Samuel. DH Casters has recently sponsored Heroes Wear Helmets Golf Classic where money is raised to help the local military families.

In July of 2018, Mary Lyn became alumnae of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business Program. She was recognized as the 2018 Business Woman of the Year from the National Association of Women Business Owners – Inland Empire and was nominated for the California Business Woman of the Year Award. This year she was awarded the SBA Business Woman of the Year Award for Orange County Inland Empire District. Mary Lyn was awarded Character Building Award at the Connecting Faith & Business Summit 2019. Recently, Mary Lyn co-authored a book: Women in Business: Breaking Through where her chapter focuses on Why Listening is Important.

When she is not working she enjoys sharing time with her three children and friends. When not at work, she can be found working on her golf game out in the beautiful California sunshine.

To learn more about Mary Lyn Baker and her company's products & services, visit their website: https://www.dhcasters.com or Email: [email protected] or Phone Toll Free: (800) 543-3413, direct (909) 930-6400, Fax: (909) 930-6448.