Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in graphic design but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Kim Palmer, Owner of Alley Cat All Night Printing & Design, located in Winnipeg, MB, Canada.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
We serve everyone from local home-based businesses to larger and nationwide corporations. We personally meet with each and every client to discuss their needs. Many restaurants trust us to design and print their menus, flyers, and gift certificates. Often we get calls just as they've given away their last take-out menu, and they are hoping to have a batch delivered asap. Offices all over Winnipeg count on our expertise to design and print business cards, letterhead, brochures, envelopes, and carbonless form invoices. We also provide signage for various special events. Funeral and Cremation services appreciate our approach to treating their clients as our own family because we feel it is important to honor their memories and make every memorial folder as unique as their loved ones. Dental offices, real estate agents, roofing and trucking companies, and a long list of tradespeople keep us busy too. Every one of our clients has a different request to keep our days exciting.
Tell us about yourself
When we met in 1994, Al was a head pressman for a local print shop, and I was in marketing, specializing in creative writing and design. At first, we merely joked about combining our skills in a printing business of our own, but within less than a year, we were making solid plans. In the summer of 1995, Al was moving our first press into my basement, and I was registering Alley Cat All Night Printing & Design as our business name. We chose the name Alley Cat because we are both cat lovers who worked day jobs and came home to print at night, often working all night before heading back to our other jobs in the morning. After the first year, we had built enough of a client base to run the business full-time and say goodbye to our other jobs. A year later, with presses, printing equipment, platemakers, cutting, collating, folding, and bindery machines crowding the basement, we purchased a shop in West St. Paul where Al could operate machinery more efficiently in a large free-standing shop. I continued working from home, using my original iMac to create a pre-press graphic design for our clients. Every day is different, there is no routine in this industry, but that's what makes it interesting.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
Managing to stay up-to-date and self-sufficient in a highly competitive and ever-changing industry is a challenge, but now coming up with 28 years in business, when I look back, I am pleased to see how we have grown. I enjoy driving around town, spotting logos I have designed, and finding myself in buildings where every fire extinguisher has an inspection label we have designed and printed.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
Staying on top of the bookkeeping and providing our accounting office with what they need. Both my husband lack the skill to deal with numbers, so I leave it to the professionals.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- You have to love what you do. I truly enjoy working in the creative field of advertising and communication, so it never feels like work to me. The hours I spend on each project feel more like calming meditation. Al enjoys meeting new people and the challenge of mixing inks to match colors purr-fectly. He likes to see a project from beginning to end and takes pride in delivering the finished product.
- Be honest with your clients. Don't promise if you can't deliver in time because their business is every bit as important to them as ours is to us. Get to know your clients and their business well, and when it seems appropriate, learn about them on a personal level as well.
- Always keep your sense of humor, and when things go wrong, don't stress, but work on solutions because there is one for every problem.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://www.alleycatprinting.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlleyCatAllNightPrinting
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kim-palmer-5384982b/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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