Angila and Scott Allen have been the owners of the Minuteman Press franchise in Brookfield, Wisconsin, since July 2017.
For nearly seven years, Angila and Scott have steadily grown their business by following the Minuteman Press system, networking in the community, utilizing the Minuteman Press Internet Marketing Program, and strategically expanding their location.
All of those key elements along with their hard work have paid off for Minuteman Press in Brookfield. Angila and Scott are joining the Minuteman Press International President’s Club for achieving over $1 million in gross sales for the year ending 2023. They will be officially welcomed as first-time members to the company’s president’s club later this year.
Prior to joining Minuteman Press, Angila was a loan originator working for a mortgage banker. She was in the industry for 15 years. Scott has nearly 30 years of experience in real estate sales, development, and coaching and also serves as an elected assembly representative.
In the below interview, Angila details their keys to growth as well as their ‘secrets’ to sales growth and success.
What are your five biggest keys to business growth?
AA: 1. Using Accuzip and doing more mailings: One of the best things we could have done was to acquire the program with Accuzip, who is one of our vendors. We were doing mailings and outsourcing the mail services part. We took a good look at our outgoing costs and decided to invest in Accuzip so we could bring that in-house. Yes, it took some time for training, but it has been a real game-changer. We are also very intentional about talking to our customers about our mailing services. We are now the Brookfield Post Office’s largest customer due to the number of mailings we send. Many of our clients weren’t aware of that service. We must let people know.
2. Increasing Internet marketing spend: In 2023 and 2024, we increased our investment in the Minuteman Press Internet Marketing Program. We’ve received a lot of leads from this program.
3. Google reviews: In 2023, we were extremely focused on asking for Google reviews and we surpassed 100 reviews. We believe this really helps people trust in the quality of our work and in us.
4. Networking: When we purchased the business in 2017, I joined several business organizations. Having built relationships with people within those organizations helped us grow. In 2022, I joined a few more organizations and we started to get orders from some of those businesses in 2023 as well. It is all about getting to know people and taking care of their needs. We believe in building partnerships. It’s about serving the community.
5. Referrals: We have been fortunate to get referrals from our current clients. Our mission is to help every customer look GREAT. We work really, really hard to do that.
You expanded to a larger business space in 2022. What are the benefits you’ve seen following the expansion?
AA: First, the expansion gave us the room to purchase new equipment which allowed us to produce jobs faster. The Duplo slitter, cutter, and creaser was an excellent addition! It also let us create a sign finishing area for our wide-format production, as well as a central facility processing area where we put items that come in and we do our check for quality control.
Second, our new conference room is getting a lot of use as well. We have meetings with customers on mailings, large multifaceted projects, and — every now and then — a seminar.
Third, our graphic designers/production technicians also enjoy having a bit more space. It more than doubled. They each can have their dual monitors set up and can communicate easily with each other on design projects.
What are your three biggest secrets to achieving record sales?
AA: 1. Teamwork! Honestly, I think the secret to reaching that ‘first million’ has been our team commitment. We have an awesome team! We believe in each other. We work diligently to do the absolute best for each of our customers and to quickly fix anything that may need addressing. The size of the job does not matter. The old saying ‘slow and steady wins the race’ is true. We stayed focused on the goal. Our team also continues to look for ways to improve what we are doing and to put systems in place.
2. FLEX reports: FLEX is Minuteman Press’s proprietary business management software. Analyzing these FLEX reports to see what services are most popular is very helpful. We evaluate them to see if we can manage to do services in-house.
3. Investing in our business/team and daily meetings: We want our team to be equipped with the products/software and knowledge needed to get their jobs done well and efficiently. We started regular daily production meetings in 2023 and that made an enormous difference in keeping us all on the same page. We can always learn.
Is there anything else you’d like to share?
AA: We feel very blessed to have the wonderful team we have at Minuteman Press in Brookfield as well as the support of [company headquarters]! We don’t take it for granted. To have systems in place, updates on the latest technology and continued improvements to our proprietary software is huge! We also have an impressive team with our Regional Vice President Steve Szymanski and our Field Representatives Chrystal Sands and Tom Ganoe. We look forward to continuing to serve businesses and our community, and to helping our clients look great.
