WICHITA, Kansas, Jan. 1, 2008 -- Running a daycare and selling antiques -- that was her old job. But one day, Rhonda Savoy took apart an old door and wrote an inspirational saying on it. A business was born.

Rhonda and Del Savoy's company makes antiqued signs with sayings that are clever enough to hang on the wall.

After four years of hard work, Salt Box Signs reached a financial milestone in 2007.

"We reached our million, which is where we wanted to be at this point," said Rhonda.

That's not bad for a company that had four employees working out of a residential-zoned garage.

"We had the city knock on our door and say 'hello' -- and we said, 'you know, we're looking for a space.' And they said, 'make it soon'."

The Savoy's rent about 6,000 square feet on the west side of Wichita.

They no longer paint on pieces of antique doors. Their product volume necessitated using five-eighth's-inch birch veneer plywood.

While there are plenty of self-help books on how to grow a business, nothing replaces old-fashioned trial and error -- and more trial than error. For example, the antique finish that Salt Box Signs worked so hard to accomplish comes from months and months of experimentation. As a matter of fact, all of the production systems in their building are homemade. They were born from the necessity that comes from a growing business.

"We had a number of things that we can't buy commercially and I had to come up with ways to make it," said Del.

Del solves production problems by observing his workers. He designs systems to simplify their tasks, like portable racks used to dry the painted signs.

In 2006, they were in a financial position to buy their own building. But they decided to use that money to provide health benefits for their workers. Employee retention is a huge challenge.

"When you're working with talented people that can find a job making more money than we're able to offer, and we do have to keep our payroll low in order to be competitive," said Rhonda.

The cost of labor tempted them to take the work overseas, but the Savoy's were concerned about quality, excess inventory and punctual delivery. They are committed to keeping production in Wichita.

Following their success, Rhonda encourages anyone to follow their dreams.

"You just have to do two things: Work 24 hours a day, seven days a week and be committed. If you're committed to it and you love it, you're on."