A Sunday evening ribbon cutting at Isle of Hope Marina marked more than the opening of a new fencing company. For Rhett and Anne Williamson, it was the beginning of a new chapter built around the place and people they have chosen to call home.
The red ribbon stretched across the front of the 76 FENCE trucks as friends, neighbors, business connections and family crowded in around it. Some stood neatly in place. Others leaned against the trucks. A few raised their hands high in celebration.
It wasn’t exactly a stiff corporate ribbon-cutting photo.
And that seemed fitting.
On Sunday, Sept. 13, Rhett and Anne Williamson officially celebrated the grand opening of 76 FENCE Southern Lowcountry at Isle of Hope Marina, surrounded largely by people who have become part of their lives since moving to Savannah.
Against a backdrop of boats, marsh grass and late-afternoon sunlight, guests talked over food and drinks beneath the marina pavilion. Red-and-white checked tablecloths covered tables filled with charcuterie, fruit, cheese and snacks. Blue popcorn boxes carried the 76 FENCE logo, and a wooden American flag marked with “1776” continued the company’s patriotic branding.
But amid all of the details surrounding the launch, Rhett eventually explained something more personal about why they were standing there.
The Williamsons moved to Savannah just over a year ago.
They decided to stay because of the people.
“We’ve created community,” Rhett told the crowd, explaining that during a career transition over the past nine months, the couple began looking at what they wanted to do next. “We want to stay here and we want to continue to be here.”
That decision eventually led them to 76 FENCE.
From the corporate world to the neighborhood
For Rhett, the change is significant.
After spending much of his career working for other people and for national and multinational companies, owning 76 FENCE Southern Lowcountry puts him on the other side of the equation.
“This is the first time really being a true business owner,” he told The Coastal Buzz. “It’s really kind of that big step of saying, hey, this is what we’ve chosen to do and we’re gonna do something together different.”
Rhett brings more than three decades of experience in technology, warehousing, distribution and operations, including executive leadership and work involving complex, construction-related operations. Anne isn’t new to entrepreneurship either. She founded two springboard diving clubs and previously co-owned and managed a gymnastics and trampoline gym. The couple has also owned and managed long- and short-term rental properties.
What changes now is where that experience is being invested.
Instead of working across a national or multinational organization, Rhett said he is looking forward to providing a service to the people around him.
“Now I’m here locally providing service to my friends and neighbors and community,” he said. “Creating that network and those relationships with the people around us, I think, is going to be a lot of fun.”
76 FENCE Southern Lowcountry officially went live just days before the celebration, on Sept. 8. The locally owned and operated business provides residential and commercial fencing, including wood, vinyl and chain-link options, and serves the Greater Savannah area as well as portions of South Carolina.
The Williamsons say the franchise model gives them the resources and systems of a national brand while allowing them to operate as members of the community they serve. Rhett pointed to training, products, marketing and other resources available through 76 FENCE as advantages they can bring into their local operation.
The company also offers financing and technology that allows homeowners to visualize potential fencing projects before installation.
Building a business together
There is another adjustment happening behind the scenes.
Rhett and Anne are learning what it means to work together.
The couple will soon celebrate 30 years of marriage, but this is the first time they have taken on a business venture like this side by side.
For Anne, that has meant occasionally finding herself somewhere unfamiliar.
“I’m learning things and I’m outside of my comfort zone,” she said. “He just helps me and he keeps encouraging me and he says it’s alright, just keep looking ahead.”
Then she smiled at what the experience has become.
“It’s a good, fun journey to do together.”
Rhett laughed about the realities of mixing marriage and business, acknowledging that marriage takes work even after nearly three decades.
“We’re still learning new things about each other every day, especially as we do this business adventure together,” he said. “But it’s been really great so far.”
That sense of togetherness extended beyond the two owners Sunday evening.
Guests moved throughout the pavilion in small groups, stopping for conversations and introductions. There were handshakes and hugs. People gathered around tables overlooking the water. Others climbed into and around the company’s blue, red and white trucks for photos.
At one point, a photographer crouched between the two branded vehicles while Rhett, Anne and members of their team posed in the evening light.
Elsewhere, conversations carried on without any ceremony at all.
Those moments may ultimately say as much about what the Williamsons are trying to build as the ribbon cutting itself.
What does success look like a year from now?
Asked what would make them look back a year from now and feel they had succeeded, Anne didn’t begin with revenue, territory size or the number of fences installed.
She talked about people.
“Lots of satisfied customers who are happy with the work and they refer people,” she said, before adding that she hopes what they do brings “joy and happiness.”
Rhett’s answer returned to relationships as well.
After years in the corporate world, he said the opportunity to serve friends, neighbors and the surrounding community gives this chapter a different kind of meaning.
That local connection is already taking shape. The Williamsons have joined the Savannah Area Chamber of Commerce, whose representatives participated in Sunday’s celebration.
And when it finally came time to cut the ribbon, the formal moment quickly became something less formal.
People squeezed together around the trucks. Some smiled toward the cameras. Some laughed. Arms went into the air.
Behind them were sailboat masts and the water of Isle of Hope.
In front of them was a new business.
And standing in the middle of it were two people who, just over a year after arriving in Savannah, had decided not simply to live here, but to build something here.
The Buzz Take
Grand openings are usually about beginnings. This one also felt like it was about belonging.
Rhett and Anne Williamson didn’t grow up in Savannah. They arrived, met people, developed relationships and found enough of a sense of community that when life presented the opportunity for a new chapter, they decided they wanted that chapter to happen here.
76 FENCE Southern Lowcountry will ultimately be judged the same way every local business is: by the work it does and the way it treats the people who trust it.
But on a Sunday evening at Isle of Hope Marina, before there were years of results to measure, there was something else worth noticing.
A couple chose Savannah.
And now they’re betting their next chapter on serving it.
The editorial team behind The Coastal Buzz, spotlighting the People, Places & Possibilities shaping Metro Savannah, the Coastal Empire & Lowcountry. Founded by Chris & Sandy Benton.