Leaving $700s/Yr to Buy an Underperforming Printing Business

It would be very easy to. To be very harsh and snippy in a lot of situations. And, you know, that's just not the type of manager that I want to be.

I want people to be able to approach me and come to me with their issues. And, you know, I always say I have an open door and people, you know, I. I think they like me as a manager, but. But I'm not perfect and still definitely learning.

Yeah, it has not been terribly long. We might have to do a follow on episode in a couple of years to see where I'm at. But it's been, let's see, I bought the company in February of last year, so it's been less than a year and a half.

And revenues were just about flat last year for the full year, 2025, which I viewed as a win. And that's exactly what I was budgeting. And I brought on a sales guy at the beginning of the year.

It was a little shaky. I had, you know, the battle scars of spending a lot of money in a lot of different ways and it not panning out. So I was very focused on being in the weeds and managing that sales guy.

He came in with a lot of experience and existing relationships and we're starting to see that really pan out. That customer that I mentioned that we had previously turned away or that the prior owner had turned away, we brought them back on.

So between, you know, all the things that I've mentioned, fixing the website speed, I've been selling through a few different channels, reestablishing relationships with bigger customers, just improving my relationship with all customers. And then that sales guy, it's now really starting to hit. We're up about 30% top line.

That was year to date through April and now May is probably going to be a record month. We're closer to like 50% year over year because we're starting to see those revenues hit from, from the sales guy. There's a, there's a bit of a sales cycle, so it takes a little while.

It's just a little painful when you have to, you know, see that J curve troughing. You're not sure exactly when it'll turn around, but overall it, it feels like we were, you know, just coming out of that J curve. And it's very rewarding, very exciting and it's to the point in your, in.

Your LinkedIn post, Dom, you said this has been an extremely rewarding experience that I think I'll look back on is the defining period of my career.

Yes, that, that definitely rings true. I, I had, I felt like I was at a crossroads in my life where if I stuck around at Aries, it would have been increasingly difficult every year to leave the golden handcuffs. And I was thinking if I do something, I kind of have to do it now.