SHORTS 20 | Valued Employee Takes Over with Amanda Frost of ProCopy Business Center

Let's have some fun. Welcome to the LocoShortz podcast created by LocoThinkTank. In this podcast series, Loco Experience Coordinator Deb Piles will unfold bite-sized business learnings through conversational interviews with successful small business owners, topical experts, and community leaders. Together, they'll take listeners through the often crazy experience of founding and growing an enterprise or an idea. So listen in and listen up, because these small business stories may just have the secret ingredient you've been missing for your recipe for small business success. Welcome everybody to the LocoThinkTankShortz podcast. Today, we're coming from Lawnmont, Colorado. And today, I am pleased to announce if I have Amanda Frost from Pearl Copy Business Center. And I love her. I love her story. You're going to love it, so I can't wait to get into it. One of the services they include are Digital Printing, Graphic Design, Largest Small Format Printing, Scanning and Digitizing, Promotional Products, and more. So by all means, make sure to visit their website at procopyprints.com. And they're very creative, very personal touch. So if without further ado, we're going to get started. So Amanda, if you could kind of introduce yourself again and give me a little bit of background on how you got started with Pearl Copy. Well, yeah, so my name's Amanda Frost. I started working at Procopy when I was 21 years old. And I fell in love with it from the minute I walked in the doors. I've always been interested in the stationary and paper and all that stuff. So it was the perfect fit when I walked in. And luckily I had an amazing boss who sought fit that he, one day, would sell me the business. And that's how that came about. I love it. So how long has Procopy been in business? We have been in business for 33 years. And this August, I will have owned it for four. Beautiful, beautiful. So you're a sort of pregnant one? I'm getting there. My plan was to do that my first year. But luckily enough, we did amazing sales and got super busy. And unfortunately, that was one of the things that I put on the back burner. But I'm looking at getting several certifications. Wonderful. And how many employees do you have? Right now I have two, well, three, including my husband, but two. And remember, you told me that he's helping you expand. Like you guys are starting to get into vinyl, being a vinyl vendor that's still true. Yes, actually, just over the past couple of months, our vinyl side of things has just blown up, which is so exciting because that was one of the things that we knew we wanted to get into. We saw that there was a need for it. And luckily, my husband found the proper equipment and researched his butt off. And it's worked out perfectly. We are producing stickers left and right. And it's been a huge success. Love it. Can you, for the audience that may not know about vinyl, can you give us a little bit of background as to what that is and what you're doing with it? Well, yeah, so a lot of people right now are stuck on using labels for a lot of their items. Everything right now has beautiful labels. So we are basically taking a vinyl label, which is more of a plastic material, and we're creating labels. And then we adopted the sticker program that we have with that. So right now, all of our stickers are a vinyl, which are a little bit more of a permanent sticker. Like a three to three to seven year, depending on what kind of inks and everything. But yes, they're, they're beautiful products. Nice. And is that something they can do like big things with as well? Like, I wasn't sure if that's something that you can print in like a logo and phone number and stuff they can put on their cars. Is that, is that what I'm thinking or? Yes, ma'am. The vinyl that we use is meant for glass. It's meant for painted surfaces, all kinds of surfaces. It's a really, really nice product because it works well with edges and with rounded corners. So it lays out really well. It can get air bubbles out. So technically, we can print 54 inches wide by any length. Amazing. I love it. So tell me a little bit more about what makes you so special, because the clients that I know that go to you, they love you. So give me a little background on what makes you so special and what helps keep your clients stay with you long term. I don't know if it's necessarily special, but I honestly, my clients are my family. They're the most important thing I have other than my husband and my son. I truly want everyone to walk out happy. And if they are any bit upset with their work or any kind of project that we did, I want to make it right. And I want them to know that that's all I want for them as I want them to be happy. And I always want them to feel like when they walk in my shop that they are family, that's really, really important to me because I feel like that keeps a small business around that community feeling, that family feeling that you can walk in and say hello to the owner and have a conversation with anybody in the shop. That's so, so important to me. I love it. Love it. So as a new business owner, you've been around a while, but what would you say are some of your biggest challenges? Well, let me see, starting off, my biggest challenge was saying no. I wanted to be able to take on any and every job, which at the time I was not prepared for what that would take me into. So at the beginning saying no to certain things, that was my biggest issue. And I think now my biggest issue is trying to maintain, I guess, being the face of my business, managing my employees, managing the shop, obviously as you grow, you have different expenses, different things to worry about, and the bigger you get, the more those things affect you. So right now, I think my biggest thing is making sure that I have everything juggling perfectly, I guess you could say. Yeah, right now it's hard to keep everything together because we're growing so much. I'm sure that's exciting. So what would you say? I know we talked a little bit about you're getting into vinyl, like what's your next milestones or growth? What are you wanting to do? Where are you wanting to take this? Well, so ultimately I've got a few big visions. I think my first vision is I really want to own my own shop. I would love to have my own shop, a large shop that I could open up different other sides of the printing industry, but also maybe a second shop at some point, expanding out that way as well. That's kind of a big deal to me. Is that something like you would want to do, like within Monman or Northern Colorado or maybe the Dender area? Well, so my first thought is to obviously maintain my Longmont business just because that's where we've been for so long. People recognize it. They know where we're at. So if we're going to buy something, I would say I'd love to buy something in Longmont. And then second location, I would consider probably Northern Colorado, maybe a little bit closer to Wyoming, just so that way we could start traveling into Wyoming, possibly Nebraska for work and South Dakota. We're not afraid to expand to other states. I just would like to try to get as much of Colorado covered as possible. Love it. You know, that's what I like about Longmont and like Fort Collins area of North is we're so big on keeping the community strong and working with small business owners, it touches my heart. So that's one of the reasons why I love your story. How do you keep, because you're so busy, so how do you keep yourself sharp? How do you get up and get in every day? Well, don't give me wrong. I dropped the ball a lot. Unfortunately, it's more than I would like to admit, but honestly, it's every day, I'm up at 5 a.m. every day. I have my own little list that I know that I have to take care of. I get into my shop, I try to get as much stuff opened up for my employees as possible. And then it's just a matter of going through my daily tasks. I kind of have a set idea of what I need to get done every day. And then obviously, I have my little list of very, very important things that I need to touch on, which I try to always be going back and forth, making sure that those are taking care of. But ultimately, right now, my biggest thing is focusing on the most important things that I've got lined up and also allowing my employees to help cover some of the things, being off some responsibilities a little bit, or it was a little bit harder for me. But I've got some great employees that I'm really, really learning to trust. And they've been doing so amazing for me. So being able to fall back on them and my husband's been huge. Now, is there any criteria that helps you identify which things on your list are? The highest priority so that you're not chasing after small stuff? Yeah, you know, I really, one of the main things that I've been focusing on is kind of the back office stuff, you know, after COVID happened, my bookkeeper wasn't able to come in for a long time. So I really tried to pick up as much as I could on that side of things. Obviously, your books are so important. And I really have been trying to focus on that, making sure that that is always up to date and clear. But then again, you know, there's smaller tasks like, you know, maybe giving quotes for business cards or quotes for flyers. I've been allowing my employees to go in and kind of create their own quotes and, you know, he's got to do some design work. Will you tell me what you need for your design time? And that's been helpful and yeah, I hope I answered that. Yeah. No, I just was trying to give other business owners an idea of what might could help them stay on task like, what is it going to be? What's the biggest thing or how is it that you identify what's going to be most important to continue to move your company forward? Do you have any like advice or tips for other business owners in general? Like, is there anything that you do that you're really proud of? Well, to be honest with you, my biggest thing has been just trying to maintain and organize my customers, my customers accounts, my customers work. We have changed our policies and procedures for how we save work, how we record new projects that we do for customers. I want to have record of everything so we can always go back and we can, oh, in 2017, we did this project for this price and that's one of my biggest things right now is really maintaining the organization of my customers products and what they want us to save and everything future and really, I think right now what I'm trying to learn more than anything is how I can make my customers' lives easier when they send stuff over to us. I don't want them to feel like this was a painful process so if we can have it organized over on our side that they can call in or they can send an email that we can just get on it and within hours have their job done. So have you wanted to, because it's been what, four years did you say since you owned it? Yes. And how we could describe the culture that you're trying to create, just curious if that's something you're working on or if that's something that's going to have to wait and it'll come when you start to grow more or what is it that you envision that you want your company or your employee culture to be like? I want the culture at ProCopy to be known as, I mean I guess the best way to say it is a community favorite. I want to be the first option for anybody and everybody no matter what size job they have. You know, I want people if they need a single copy off the street not to think oh my gosh that all they do is architectural printing or large format scanning whatever. I want them to be able to come in and get their one eight and a half by eleven and be happy that somebody was able to help them. I want it to be one of those things that if an elderly person or somebody doesn't have the ability to do tech stuff that we can make something happen for them. Somebody who may not have an email address will have the email directly over to us so we can take care of it for you. I want them to know that we will always have options for anybody and everybody. I love that you're willing to provide that kind of service. And do you feel like your employees have the same passion about that too? Well, I mean, I hope so. I hope so. I will say this. I mean, I know it working at my shop is probably not their lifelong goals, but I feel like if they feel like this is their shop just as much as it is my shop that maybe that'll get them more excited and they'll just want to work that much harder or they'll just be that much more excited to work on certain projects. I feel like honestly, the better the environment I create in my shop, the more that they're going to enjoy being there, which obviously they'll want to work harder and they'll enjoy their work more. And I hope I provide that for them. I love it. I love it. So, Tony, about, do you, what brings your joy professionally and personally? I love when a customer brings in something that means so much to them and they trust me with it. And I can provide them with the best product and seeing them look at it for the first time. I love seeing happy tears. I love seeing them just explode with excitement. I like hearing the stories behind it that means the world to me. I was trusted with some love letters from the early 1900s and this woman was like, this is the only thing I have from my grandparents. And the fact that she trusted me with those meant so much. And when she picked them up, her face, it was the most beautiful sight ever because I could see how touched she was and it made me so happy. So happy. I love it. I love it. What about personally? Oh, man, personally is by far my husband and my son, they are the most amazing people in the world. And I really hit the lottery with those two. So that is, that's my number one out of anything as my husband and my son. And now we have a new puppy in our lives. So he's getting up there really, really fast. Well, I have to ask, what kind of puppy? He is a doberman pincher. Oh. Yeah. I love it. I used to foster rescues and I always pick the big ones like dobermans and stuff. So the fondest for these boys or girls and puppies and everything. So. I'm key. Yes. Um, are there any books that have stood out or quotes that have stood out for you that maybe helped you in your business journey? You know, yeah, I wouldn't say there's been a couple of things that people have said to me over my life that have stuck out. Um, I had this, I had this boss when I was 16 working at Kmart. And for the longest time, I thought that she absolutely hated me. She never talked to me. She never said anything to me. And one day I just asked her why she disliked me and she said, I absolutely do not. She said that there was nothing to correct. And she moved on to her next problem, child. And after that, she would, we created a really great bond and one thing that always stuck out to me as she told me, never ask a friend, family or employee to do something that you wouldn't do yourself. And I've kind of taken that to heart. I will never ask anybody to do something that I wouldn't do myself. And I really think that that's important, um, just in life in general for anything. So I've really followed that, um, yeah, that's, that's been a big one. Yeah, that's some great advice there. Um, I love long mat, um, but now I'm not in Minnesota, but I was hoping you might tell me where some of your favorite handouts are in long mat. Oh, man. Well, you even get time to go now. Well, to be perfectly honest with you, I, yes, I grew up in long mat. Um, we used to do some of the most crazy things, you know, you hear the local ghost stories. So we would always go out to the old cemetery and wait to see the kids hand prints on the cars and, you know, just goofy stuff like that. Um, as for like hangout spots, to be honest with you, I met my husband when I was 16. We've been together ever since. And I hung out with him and we, we were at the car tracks and race tracks and we were out cruising main when that was legal, I guess. And, you know, hanging out in the garage, working on the cars and going fishing. I was just hanging out in the long mat. Um, the old movie theater, one of probably been my most visited place when I was younger. But as I met my husband, life got interesting and we were the adventurous ones going anywhere and everywhere. I love it. Well, I, you know, I love what you're doing and I wanted people to know about you. And so if you could reiterate how listeners might be able to reach you, um, give them your name and, and uh, website and, uh, number again. And that would help us. Of course, of course. So my company's name is pro copy. Uh, you can find us at procopy prints.com. Our phone number is 303 6820313. Uh, we do have a Facebook page. It's pro copy, long mat. Um, we really, we love getting emails. We can do quotes over our online site. We can take phone calls, um, yeah, just get a hold of us anyway. And we would love to work with you on any product you got. And yeah, it's a good time when, when you can work with us. I love it. Amanda, thank you so much for your time. And, um, I'm going to go ahead and end the recording now and come back to you. Thank you for listening to today's episode of the local short podcast. This is Kurt Bear, founder of the local think tank and host of the local experience podcast. If you or someone you know would be a great guest for our show, or if you'd like to know more about our small business owner, pure advisory chapters at local think tank, please visit our website at localthinktank.com or email us at connect at localthinktank.com. That's L-O-C-O thinktank.com. If you've enjoyed this series, don't forget to subscribe. We love great reviews and Apple podcasts for wherever you're listening. And until next time, stay look.