Is “Print Dead” in Franchising Today?

This is a transcript from Episode 28 of The Franchise Champion Show. Listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube.

Alan Regala: My guest today bought an existing AlphaGraphics franchise at one of the worst possible moments in modern economic history — and not only survived, but has spent the last 18 years growing it into something he's genuinely proud of. He's going to share how he found the right opportunity, why the franchise network has been one of his greatest assets, and what he's learned about building a business that fits your life. Dan Sher, welcome to the Franchise Champion Show.

Dan Sher: Thanks, Alan. Thanks for having me.

Alan: I'm very excited to speak with you. You are a veteran out there — you've had this business for a while. But take us back to before AlphaGraphics. What were you doing, and what started making you think about owning a business?

Dan: Before I owned AlphaGraphics, I actually lived in Boston — I now live in Chicago. I was a director at a high-tech PR agency in the early 2000s when the dot-com boom was going strong. Then the dot-com bubble burst. I had kids, and I decided to move back to Chicago, which is where I'm from, and also to get out of agency life. At the time, it was much more of a 24/7, 365-kind-of-atmosphere — before the days of work-life balance that people talk about now.

I still wanted to do things with my marketing background. I have both my undergraduate and graduate degrees in public communication. But I also wanted to be my own business owner. So I started looking around to see what was out there.

Alan: You mentioned before our call that you had some history in your family with entrepreneurship. How did that show up in your life growing up, and how did it shape your mindset about working for someone else versus owning a business?

Dan: My parents were entrepreneurs and owned several different businesses throughout the years — everything from a dry cleaner to gift shops in hotels. I always worked for them growing up. It was great to spend time with them in their businesses, and I saw both the benefits and how hard it was to be your own business owner. I think that was really the seed that made me realize I wanted to own my own business one day.

Alan: That's great. Not everybody has that. Having those role models growing up and seeing it in real life — that's wonderful.

When you started seriously looking at opportunities, what were you looking for? Was there anything that had to have certain characteristics, or things you definitely didn't want?

Dan: There were a couple of things. I came from the agency world, so part of it was I didn't want something that was seven days a week or 100 hours a week. I was also burned during the dot-com era — I'd seen us take six-figure hits on receivables that just never got paid. So I didn't want something with super high receivables either.

What I was looking for was something Monday through Friday. And even as a business owner, it's never truly a 9-to-5 — but having that flexibility, especially with a young kid, was really important. I could run over to the school in the middle of the day for something, or have a meeting with a teacher. That mattered to me.

Alan: How old was your son at the time?

Dan: He was six years old when I started AlphaGraphics.

Alan: I know a lot of people would love to have that opportunity — to be present for those moments. So tell us about how you found this specific business and this location.

Finding the Right Opportunity

Dan: I bought it in 2008 — at basically the worst possible time. It was literally two days before the market fell in October 2008. But I spent all of 2008 really looking for businesses. At the time I was working with different business brokers, not always franchise-based.

I knew I wanted something existing because I wanted some existing revenue already in place. AlphaGraphics had been franchising since 1970, and there were several franchises in the Chicago area where owners had been in the system for quite some time. The one I ended up buying had been open since 1990 — it had already been around for 18 years when I bought it.

The previous owner was in his 60s and had two sons — one had just found out his wife was pregnant, and they were living in Alaska. The other had just gotten engaged and was living in Los Angeles. He realized he didn't want to be tied to the business when he was about to have grandchildren on both coasts. So he decided to retire. And that's how it came available.

Funny enough, the location I ended up buying was in the town next to where I live — not the one I necessarily looked at first. The last thing you want to do is buy a business just because it's close to home. So I looked around at others first. But after doing the analysis, this one turned out to be the best deal for me — not just because it was eight minutes from my house.

Alan: That's smart. You evaluated it on the merits. Now, there were several AlphaGraphics locations for sale at that time. A lot of people might look at that and think, "Is something wrong here?" What gave you the confidence to move forward?

Dan: Part of it was the same doubt I had myself. When I first met the broker who introduced me to AlphaGraphics, I said, "Why am I looking at AlphaGraphics? Print is dead." Of course, here we are 18 years later and people are still saying print is dead. So I'm not sure they were right then, and they're not right now.

But to your point — part of it was just doing your due diligence. Before I actually signed with AlphaGraphics, I talked to every single AlphaGraphics owner in the Chicagoland area. I wanted to know every other owner in my market. I wanted to know what they were doing. And everybody was great.

Validation is an important part of what you do. And the nice thing about a franchise is you can validate in a way you can't always do with an independent business. If you call people in other industries, they may not be as open to sharing. With a franchise, they are. That's what made me feel confident in my decision.

Alan: The validation calls are huge. And what was your response when friends and family told you print was dead?

Dan: What sold me on AlphaGraphics was that what they were selling — almost 18 years ago now — was that they help businesses with their marketing communications. All sizes of businesses. That's what I loved about it. In an agency environment, you come up with great ideas, but then you have to go find someone else who can execute them. What I love today is that I help businesses, but I have all the equipment to execute for them. We become that one-stop shop. A trusted partner. That's where I find the most success — being that trusted partner for our clients.

Buying at the Worst Possible Time

Alan: So tell me about the timing. You closed the deal in October 2008 — and then the market crashed. What was going through your head?

Dan: When you buy a business — especially an existing one — you're drinking from a fire hose. You can only take in so much at a time. So for me, I just had to come in every day and do the best job we could and figure it all out.

Part of that meant taking advantage of opportunities that came out of other businesses failing. We picked up a couple of good employees because other businesses were letting people go. I think the same thing happened during Covid — businesses that had tried to hold onto good people eventually had to let them go, and that became an opportunity for us. Bad isn't always entirely bad.

On the financial side, I did the deal through an SBA loan. My lawyer actually got one change approved — that the bank couldn't call the loan unless I defaulted on it. At the time, it seemed like a standard ask. But a lot of loans got called in 2008. As long as I made my payments on time, they couldn't touch it. And I did. It's been paid off. That was lucky.

In terms of the business itself, we modeled for a 10 to 15 percent drop in customers during year one — not necessarily revenue, just number of accounts, because change gives people an excuse to leave. I'd rather be conservative with numbers and be happy with the results than predict 25 percent year-over-year growth for ten years. We actually came in flat after 12 months. Given the market and what was happening around us, I was genuinely happy with that.

Alan: Flat in the middle of a financial crisis, two days after you close — that's remarkable. And I love your mindset through all of this. You couldn't control what was happening in the market. What you could control was showing up and servicing your clients.

Dan: Exactly. And we lowered prices on some things early on, which brought in new customers who otherwise wouldn't have had the budget to try us. On the equipment side — part of the reason some AlphaGraphics locations were for sale was that they needed to upgrade their equipment and didn't want to sign a new five-year lease. So we actually found really good deals on equipment during that period too. A couple of years in, I looked around and there was nothing left from when I bought the business — we had upgraded everything.

What AlphaGraphics Actually Does

Alan: I have to step back and ask the important question — what is AlphaGraphics and how do you support your customers?

Dan: We are a custom manufacturer of print and marketing solutions. That can be anything from traditional print — letterhead, business cards — to signs, banners, trade show booths, direct mail, garments. If it's printed, we can do it.

What I love about it is that we are a one-stop shop for our customers. I have designers in-house, so we manage the brand identity, make sure we have all the versions of your logo, handle everything under one roof. And we have a physical location — customers can come in and I can give them a tour. We actually print here.

Growing the Business Over 18 Years

Alan: You've had this business for 18 years, and the location you bought had already been open for 18 years before that. How has the business changed since you took over?

Dan: Technology has changed a lot. Automation has allowed us to do more for our clients with greater consistency — color management being tighter, things being more consistent across different formats. If we're doing a trade show and we're printing a retractable banner, flyers, and a large banner, the color needs to be consistent across all of them. Technology makes that happen more reliably now.

We also do a lot more personalized, smaller runs today. Twenty years ago, if you wanted to do something you had to do thousands of them. Now we can do short, targeted runs and help our clients get a much greater ROI on their marketing.

As far as size — in 18 years, we've roughly doubled. Employees, revenue, square footage. About a third of our business is signage now, and that requires real space — large-format printers, cutting equipment, all of it. We've grown to fit that.

Alan: Did you stay in the same location or did you have to move?

Dan: We ended up moving. When AlphaGraphics started, it was much more retail-focused — they believed in being in shopping centers. So the original location was a retail shopping center, about 2,000 square feet. I expanded it to about 3,000 there. But a retail environment isn't really what we do today, and it doesn't make sense to pay retail square footage rates for a manufacturing operation.

Covid actually gave us an opportunity there. Real estate was very negotiable during that period, so we were able to find a much better space and negotiate a great lease. We've been in the new location about five years now.

The Power of the Franchise Network

Alan: How has your relationship with the AlphaGraphics network evolved over the years?

Dan: Something I find interesting about franchising is that I talk to a lot of people who buy a franchise and then aren't involved with the network. That always puzzles me. Part of what you're buying — and part of what you're paying for in royalties — is the relationship you have with not only the franchisor, but the other franchisees. I learn more from other franchisees than from anyone else.

And it can be a very lonely thing being a business owner. Some people do it with their spouse or significant other, but otherwise, not many people know exactly what you're going through. In a franchise, you've got hundreds of other owners who know exactly what you're going through.

AlphaGraphics has these focus groups where they put owners together. It's a fantastic program — I'm in my fourth one now. They do it in two-year commitments and then you move to a different group, which means you get to meet even more owners. At this point, there are probably 25 to 50 business owners whose businesses I know intimately — I've been to their shops, talked to their employees, really understand their situation.

There is not a day that goes by that I'm not talking to another franchisee. And it took a while to get there — probably almost ten years before I was really involved at a deeper level. But after ten years, I walk into the annual conference and I know most of the people in the room.

I've also been on the AlphaGraphics National Leadership Council for several years and chaired it for one year. That's given me great relationships with the franchisor as well.

Someone told me before I joined the National Leadership Council: "You're going to put into it, but you're going to get back way more than you ever put into it." That is absolutely true. And with tools like group chats and Slack, it's just incredible what you can access. I had a situation today where someone called me because they're looking at moving their location. I just moved five years ago. So I could walk him through exactly what to look for.

Alan: That's the power of the network. And if you're paying royalties, you should be getting everything out of them.

Competitors or Colleagues?

Alan: How do you view the other AlphaGraphics owners near you? Competitors, or something else?

Dan: Based on everything you've already heard, you won't be surprised by my answer. We are stronger together.

One of my closest friends in the AlphaGraphics network is one of the closest territories to mine. He has slightly different equipment than I do, so we actually help each other out when needed. I had a piece of equipment for a couple of years that he didn't have. That gave him enough real-world proof to eventually invest in it himself. Did I lose a little business? Yes. Did it help the network? Yes.

My philosophy on competing for the same customer — if I ever know I'm being bid against another AlphaGraphics, I'll call that owner and say, "Either we both bid at the same price, or neither of us bids." Running to the bottom doesn't help anyone. I believe in good karma.

There's a group of three owners here in Chicago. We go out for dinner every so often and openly talk numbers. Not everyone is comfortable with that level of openness, but I am. And in a market like Chicago, you're really not competing for the same customer — they're going to Google the closest one.

Building the Business Around Your Life

Alan: You had a specific vision for what you wanted your life to look like when you bought this business. How has that held up?

Dan: Overall, really well. I wanted to be a single-location operator. I believe in being here for my team and being around them. When you have multiple locations, that gets harder. So I've stayed at one location and focused on doing tuck-ins rather than full acquisitions — bringing in clients or small books of business rather than opening or buying a second facility.

I don't necessarily want to be the biggest AlphaGraphics out there. I wouldn't mind being the most profitable. The bigger operations tend to invest more in cutting-edge platforms and infrastructure, which costs more and can compress margins as a percentage. That wasn't where I wanted to be. I'm here to work smarter, not harder, for the same money.

Advice for Someone Considering the Jump

Alan: What advice do you have for someone sitting in a corporate job right now who's curious about business ownership, or someone who's been laid off and is considering the franchise path?

Dan: You can't be afraid to actually do the work. There are some franchises where you're more of an investor than an operator, and that's a different thing. But I think there's a real difference between buying a job — which can happen with some franchises — and being a true owner-operator.

I was at a restaurant last night, a husband and wife operation, not a franchise. They're open six days a week and they're there six days a week. They work very hard and they are very successful — because they are there every day.

You have the tools you need to be successful. That's what the franchisor provides. But you need to execute on those tools. If you're not there and you're not executing, you will not have a successful business. It doesn't matter what the model says. Some people think they just write a check and the plan takes care of itself. It doesn't. You've got to be the one doing it.

Alan: The systems and the processes are handed to you — but you have to execute. Well said. Dan, it was a pleasure having you on the show. Congratulations on being a Franchise Champion.

Dan: Thanks, Alan. I really appreciate the time.