Minuteman Press franchisees Christo and Hanlie Lombard recently celebrated 10 years at their Sunshine Coast, Queensland company, and said service, price and quality is what drives their business forward.
“The three basics [to our success are] service, price and quality. We have assembled a great team and foster an attitude of giving unbeatable customer service. Our products are priced competitively, and quality is always of the highest standard,” Christo said.
Prior to becoming Minuteman Press franchisees, the Lombards owned a business in the automotive industry in South Africa for many years.
They had customers in the print industry and were always interested in the print business. So, when they started looking at business opportunities in Australia, they compared different franchise businesses, and the Minuteman model stood out to them as the most favourable.
“Ten years went by so fast. I suppose time flies when you are having this much fun. We look forward to the next 10 years! Our biggest reward is not only to witness the growth of the business, but also the personal and professional growth of all the team members,” Christo said.
“As a small business owner, it is very valuable to have the head office taking care of important matters such as the website, SEO, new equipment research, business opportunities, etc. This frees us up to look after our customers and focus on local marketing strategies. Also, the local Minuteman Press representatives are always available when we have questions.”
According to Christo, the franchise’s point of difference in their area of play – which now includes wide format display signage and labels – is their fast turn-around of jobs and outstanding customer service.
“We let them know that we can take care of all their printing, marketing, and promo needs. We have added equipment and machinery to handle high volume coil bound booklets for training manuals and diaries. Our growth areas are wide format display signage and labels,” Christo mentioned.
“From the word go, we have grown our business utilising all the marketing channels. We joined networking groups, sports clubs and Chambers of Commerce. We have also done mail-outs, e-mail marketing, SEO, tele-marketing, and promo handouts.”
Christo added that printing remains vital to businesses today.
“Print is easier to read than digital media, and you can fit more information on a page than in social media content. Advertisement recall is 1.7 times higher with print, and more likely to drive action than its digital media counterpart,” he said.
“Digital media can never match the tactility of print media. Like all other marketing, use must be made of all available channels to increase awareness and customer engagement.”
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