A Conversation With ... Dan Williams

The company was established in 1989. We bought it from the previous owners in November. We basically inherited all of the employees, and we’ve added a few since then, probably up to a total of 30 employees … including office staff and production staff. And that also counts the two of us, because we’re here full time. Our services are what they call letter shop or mailing services. We describe it as going from database … to design and printing of the piece, if that’s necessary. A lot of times (clients) bring it in already printed. We do all the mailing services, from addressing, which is the most common, to folding, inserting, tabbing. There are all kinds of other mailing services as well. We try to automate most of the stuff that we do.

You’ve established the goal of growing 300 percent in the next five years. How is that going?

After four months, it’s hard to say, but our business is not down. It’s on track for another really, really good year. But I think most of the growth will happen.

These first few months have just been us trying to get our feet wet and make contact with the customers to develop a strategy that we want to go forward with, as opposed to what past owners were doing. They were doing a great job, but we’re probably going to do things a little bit more aggressively and a little different than they did. We’ve already upgraded a lot of our equipment. We’re in it for the long haul, that’s for sure. We do have a long-term outlook on the business. If we don’t hit 300 percent in five years, we’re not going to fold up shop and say we were unsuccessful.

What ideas do you have for growth?

We’re still working on them. We’ve upgraded equipment and will continue to do that. Equipment in the mailing business is expensive, but … if you can get the customers – that’s the trick – for that equipment, your return on that equipment is extremely good. We’re in the process of slowly but surely combining the growth of the customers with the growth of the equipment.

We don’t want to get ahead on either one. If you get ahead on the customers, you can’t satisfy them. The other way, you can get ahead on the equipment … “ build it and they shall come,” but I don’t want to do that either because then you have unused capacity.

Given that you’ve said you’re in this for the long haul, do you anticipate having to work even harder to meet what some people might call a shrinking need for traditional mail, due to the increasing use of technology such as e-mail?

It depends which part of the mail you’re in. Industry magazines … have indicated that first-class mail is going to continue to go down. This year, it’s going down already, and it’s forecast to decline at about 4 percent. But standard mail is projected to increase 3 percent this year. Faye and I believe that trend will continue. We’re not first-class mail for the most part. We’re in the standard mail, bulk-mail business. The majority of first-class mail is bills. Statements, bills, anything with personal or financial information. That has to go out first-class, but it’s presorted first-class, so they get a little bit of a discount from the 39 cents. Still, it’s probably in the 30-cent range … but it’s required by the post office. We do some (statements and invoices), but that’s not our specialty, and I don’t plan on getting into the first-class arena.

But you firmly believe the bulk-mailing business will grow?

Yes. It’s not forecasted to decline … because the alternatives for advertising, like radio, TV, billboards and the traditional media are going up (in cost) double-digit increases per year. The pricing has just accelerated … relative to a postal increase of 3 percent to 4 percent. People are switching to direct mail at an increasing level … advertising and getting business. I see standard mail as a very promising field. The key is going to be how we get our share of that. Because if that’s true, if I’m right, you’re going to have a lot of people trying to enter the business.

What’s your business philosophy?

The best attitude to have is to be able to put yourself in the shoes of the person who calls in and wants to do business. What would I do if I was the person trying to seek business with AAA? … I just think that’s the best rule of business … to see the situation through their eyes.

Is this venture the first time the two of you have worked together?

Yes. It’s another new part of the adventure. We talk to each other on the way to work, and we talk to each other on the way home. It’s so busy here, and we’ve divided up function – we do talk in-between, I’m just joking about that – but the division of labor is so significantly different that it’s working out great.

Tell us about your children.

We have two children. Kristina is 16 and Andrew is 13. She goes to Kickapoo High School, and he goes to Cherokee Middle School. [[In-content Ad]]