A Minuteman Press franchise in Footscray, Victoria has received the Top Overall Performance Award from franchisor Minuteman Press International.

The franchise, which is operated by Jag Khairjani and Durga Murjani, was started by the duo in June 2020 – at the height of the pandemic in Australia.

Today, the company celebrates nearly three years in business and has emerged stronger than ever. It has consistently hit sales milestones, alongside receiving the Top Overall Performance Award.

“Receiving the Top Overall Performance Award means a lot to us, especially as relatively new operators. It shows us that our efforts in increasing product quality and diversity, as well as our attempt to engage with our customers, has helped us to be recognised as a high-performing location,” Khairjani and Murjani said.

“It also really reflects the hard work of our team that have worked day in, and day out, with us to help grow the business and really thrive. This award is a team award that we are extremely proud of.”

The duo said running the business was challenging at the beginning as pandemic restrictions impacted how it operated, but it worked hard to reach customers and grow.

“We chose to use this to our advantage and took this time to really understand the ins and outs of printing and also to engage and learn from our experienced team,” they said.

“The pandemic also gave us the opportunity to explore how our clients and prospective clients can use printing to promote, market and rebrand themselves, particularly for those businesses that have been meaning to refresh their brand for some time, but haven’t had a chance.

“This really allowed us to connect with our local small business community and show them that printing was more than just books and flyers; it is a super diverse and beneficial tool that businesses can use to engage their customers.”

According to Khairjani and Murjani, the three biggest keys to their success are:

• Engaging with other small businesses within the community, through networking events and face-to-face interactions
• Having a strong, experienced, and friendly team that keeps the customers coming back
• Maintaining strong supplier relationships, and looking for new suppliers that provide unique products and services that customers can use to attract attention.

“In addition to the local support we receive from regional vice-president Glenn Coyle, Minuteman Press FLEX software is an amazing tool that has been provided to us in this franchise. It helps us to put together quotes without wasting a lot of time and gives us a breakdown of material costs and labour costs, which in turn helps us to understand our costs and maintain our profits,” they added.

“We love how FLEX helps us to respond to our customer enquiries and get a quote out to them because we believe that if we can get a quote back to them at the earliest time frame, we stand a good chance to secure the order. And knowing profits and reading the reports help us to always make sure that we are making enough money to be sustainable in our business.”

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