Cover Story: Entrepreneur Sisters

Born in Portales… Investing in the Community

by Noelle Bartl

Megan Hamilton (BS 05) and Cassidy Self (BBA 07) grew up playing and working among aisles and aisles of hardware store merchandise. After school and their little league or dance lessons, the Portales, New Mexico sisters spent many evening dinners listening to their parents Max (attended) and June Merrick (attended) discussing the challenges of running Trader Horn True Value (now ACE Hardware).

The two learned all about credits and debits, profits and losses, how to manage checkbooks and what it means to serve the community that allowed the business to grow. Later, Max and June purchased a furniture store that would become Ashely Furniture and is now an Ashley Furniture Outlet.

When asked what the two sisters thought they wanted to be when they grew up, each had very different visions for themselves. Megan dreamt of being an astrophysicist, and Cassidy knew she always wanted to be in business and work as an interior designer. Max and June encouraged their daughters to earn college degrees and follow their dreams.

Their parents didn’t push them to work in the family business. Both Megan and Cassidy discovered that their true calling was to return to Portales, build their lives in their hometown, buy out their parents from the businesses and eventually become entrepreneurs.

“I couldn’t imagine having a career in astrophysics from, say, the top of a mountain in Chile and still raise a family,” recalled Megan. “I realized family and community were more important to me than following what might have been an expensive lifelong hobby. I knew I had more to offer with all my skills and could find my future right where I grew up.”

Cassidy and Megan at ACE Hardware, reviewing new floor samples.

Cassidy is thankful for her ENMU business degree but is even more grateful for her parents’ tough business lessons to get the sisters thinking like entrepreneurs. “ENMU gave me book smarts, but my parents showed us street smarts.”

Entrepreneurship has run in the family for three generations. After their grandfather Charlie “Trader” Horn, finished serving in the United States Air Force as an airman based at Cannon Air Force Base, he recognized that Portales was a unique and loyal community that cared for its own and deserved quality businesses. Trader started all kinds of ventures when he first left the military, including selling vacuums, cars and mobile homes, owning an Army surplus store named Surplus City and holding extensive farmland.

“When we were little, we thought Surplus City was the neatest place to explore with all the mismatched military shoes and equipment,” remembers Cassidy. “In fact, our corporation has kept the name Surplus City as a reminder of our family’s belief in reinvesting in Portales in all that we do.”

Today, Portales Homes is known as Homespot and owned by the girls’ uncle Scott (MBA 85) and aunt Jane Christensen (MBA 83, BBA 80), along with cousin Amelia Christensen (BBA 08) and business partner ENMU alumnus Jody Bailey (BBA 91). The girls’ other aunt, Jackie Burns (MSE 91), put her Eastern degree to good use, serving as principal at James Elementary and special education director for Portales Schools.

Megan and Cassidy’s talents balance each other and have served them well as they evolved into business partners. Eleven years ago, Megan and Cassidy became business partners with their parents, Max and June Merrick. Later this winter, the sisters and their husbands will purchase their parents’ half of the business interest in ACE Hardware and Ashley Furniture. The COVID pandemic added an extra year to the 10-year game plan, but the two sisters and their husbands are now all business partners in the two retail stores as of this year.

For most, the story might end there, but it doesn’t. If you don’t know these two women, their vision, determination, tenacity and business sense are never-ending. Besides buying the businesses, the sisters and their husbands started a furniture store in Clovis, New Mexico, from the ground up and it is now the Ashley Furniture store. Their father, Max, was the contractor on this construction project.

Cassidy and Megan are the youngest Ashley Furniture owners in the United States in the male-dominated retail furniture industry.

The extended Merrick family in the Enchantment Vineyards.

Photo by Donita Privett

Megan’s husband, James Robert “Bobby” Hamilton (BBA 06), works with Cassidy at Ashley Furniture, while Cassidy’s husband, Rustin Self (attended), works with Megan at ACE Hardware.

“Ensuring that we weren’t spending every waking hour with our spouses has kept marriages intact,” Megan said. “Our parents warned us not to work with our husbands day-to-day, so evenings aren’t consumed with only shop talk.”

Cassidy added, “We married the best guys that respect our drive to attempt new challenges. Rustin and Bobby are equal business partners and terrific to work with. The four of us all balance each other very well. Megan and I really lucked out with those two.”

Speaking of new ventures, in 2014, the entire family took a vacation to California’s wine country. Over numerous samples of wine, all six of them started discussing starting a vineyard and if it was something that would serve to enhance eastern New Mexico and the Portales community that they love. After returning from their travels, Megan and Cassidy got right to it by sending soil and water samples to be tested, talking to experts, examining wine conditions and temperature fluctuations and learning that New Mexico is the oldest wine-growing region in the United States. They studied up on the industry and developed a business plan. Megan also earned a certificate in oenology, the scientific study of wines and winemaking, from the University of California, Davis.

From left, Cassidy, Greyhound Club board member Rose Robbins, and Megan in the vineyard.

They planted the first five acres of grapes in 2015 and opened the doors to Enchantment Vineyard’s wine tasting room in 2018. Enchantment Vineyard produces world-class wines and has won numerous awards. “We wanted the tasting room to be a retreat in Portales for the community, alumni and old friends to enjoy,” said Cassidy. You can find all their wine the next time you are in Portales or online at enchantmentvineyards.com.

A selection of the wines produced and bottled by Enchantment Vineyards. Their new ENMU branded wine will be revealed this winter.

The sisters are exploring two more possible business ventures. There is no guessing what those new projects might be, but their past successes suggest they will be innovative, improve Portales and be successful.

But Wait... There’s More!

Many recall the Casa Del Sol home south of the ENMU tennis courts, built by Dr. Bartlett Taggard Dewey and his wife, Evelyn, in 1947. Others may remember the property as the home of Dallan Sanders (MA 69, BS 61) and his wife, Mickey, or when it was later converted to a bed and breakfast by their daughter Dr. Penny Sanders (BS 85) and her partner, Carol Cotter. Now, Megan and Cassidy are assisting alumna Dr. Gay Su Pinnell (BA 66) of Columbus, Ohio, who purchased the property in 2017 and is working to renovate the John Gaw Meem-designed home into a future ENMU event center with guest apartments for dignitaries.

Photo by Todd Fuqua

Megan has a general contractor license and, with her three partners, began building homes in the Oakwood Manor neighborhood in Portales in 2011.

Photo by Todd Fuqua

The sisters have a successful interior design business which takes their middle names, Sage and June. They host podcasts and sell furniture and décor online at SageandJune.com

ENMU requested they design the new interior and floor plan for the Presidential Home, which was in need of repairs and updating. It is currently under renovation, and the University is excited to showcase the property in 2022 at future picnics and gatherings at the home.