Business Spotlight: On Demand

Occupational safety training is no doubt serious business.

When it comes to federal certifications, Nixa-based trainer Span International needs nearly 2,000 training books each year.

“It’s one of the bigger expenses of the business,” owner Dan Snyder says of the roughly $60,000 spent each year on training materials.

Snyder’s go-to printer is Downtown Minuteman Press.

The quarterly jobs for Span International Training LLC is among the downtown Springfield print shop’s largest clients, along with myriad forms regularly printed for apartment management firm Hamilton Properties Corp.

“I want clients to feel we are an extension of their company,” says Minuteman Press franchisee Jack Ebersold.

Span International’s eight training manuals require regular updates, and Minuteman will begin printing the 2015 versions of the roughly 300-page books in time for Thanksgiving. The company conducts up to 50 safety-training workshops each year to classes of about 30 apiece throughout the United States, Canada and the Middle East.

“We train the best in the business to get certified,” he says of the review materials, workbooks and software put in the hands of trainees.

Minuteman has printed Span’s training materials for over a dozen years.

While owners for less than two years, the Ebersold family that owns Downtown Minuteman Press isn’t brand new to the franchise.

Jack Ebersold worked for the 334 E. Walnut St. print shop as partner with Troy Craig under Trac 6 Enterprises LLC for three years, until he joined his wife and son to buy out the franchise store. The Ebersolds formed Ebeco Ink LLC and in January 2013 purchased the Minuteman franchise rights.

Jack Ebersold says the print shop started as Central Printing before a Lebanon group in the Minuteman franchise bought out the company in the 1980s.

With a storefront on the corner of Walnut Street and Jefferson Avenue, Downtown Minuteman gets plenty of foot traffic from local students, band members and music venue operators. It’s common for posters, art projects, CD covers and stickers to be ordered with a quick, three-to-five-day turnaround.

Larger client jobs include business cards for Central High School, tournament programs for the Missouri Basketball Coaches Association and Springfield Art Museum exhibit post cards.

The company prints orders to the tune of $180,000 a year, and this year the Ebersolds are projecting $200,000 in revenue.

To meet customer time demands, the family business owners began leasing a Xerox C75 printer, switching from equipment in the Cannon line.

“With our new machine, it really helps with the speed,” Cheryl Ebersold says of the $60,000 Xerox added in April.

The company leases the printer from Document Solutions of Springfield Inc.

“It’s the price of a car; might as well put wheels on it and drive it home,” jokes Zachary Ebersold, before his father chimes in: “I was disappointed because it didn’t come with a coffeemaker.”

Joking aside, the Xerox gives the family members and their one employee, designer Rachel Crank, peace of mind when committing to meet client deadlines.

With some 800 active clients on the books the last year, the needs are varied. It could be invoices for Green Seed Co. one day and colorful trifold brochures for Culpepper Place senior living the next.

Jack Ebersold says the company buys $600 to $800 in paper goods each week from Shaughnessy and Clampitt Paper.

Downtown Minuteman also sells promotional products through distributor partnerships with Minuteman Press International Inc. Available since June, Grove Spa recently ordered 35 coffee mugs and placed a second order for drinking glasses with satin-etched logos.

“Clients are doing a lot more marketing than they used to,” he adds.

Earlier this year, the Farmingdale, N.Y.-based international Minuteman franchise was rated No. 1 in the printing category by Entrepreneur Magazine.

One of 925 Minuteman franchise stores worldwide – and one of two operating in Springfield – the Ebersolds meet with franchise representatives quarterly to hear best ideas. Considering more than a handful of U.S. franchisees run $1 million print shops, the downtown store is on the smaller scale.

“We’re working on it,” Cheryl Ebersold says, with an eye on the $1 million target.

Given the wide scale of stores, some ideas just aren’t palatable in Springfield.

“We take their ideas and tailor them to suit our area,” Jack Ebersold adds. “I keep telling them Springfield is a different cat.”

Franchisees set their own pricing, and Downtown Minuteman’s model is to make money on volume.

“Things were kind of a mess when we took over. They’ve helped us straighten it out,” he says of the franchise support in exchange for the 6 percent monthly royalties. “When we make money, they make money.”