Michael Levy owns Minuteman Press in Levittown, New York located at 3000 Hempstead Turnpike. In June 2021, he also purchased the original Minuteman Press franchise in Farmingdale, New York located at 324 Main St.
Already a member of the Minuteman Press International President’s Million-Dollar Circle, Levy has continued his strong sales growth in the first two quarters of 2022, including record monthly gross sales in March 2022.
Asked about the key drivers of his growth in 2022, Levey shares, “Some would say luck. I would say persistence, perseverance, and simply being known to be someone who gets things done. While there have been many challenges due to supply chain issues for the past year or so, I was able to use that to my advantage.”
Explaining further about this, Levy says that he recently had a customer contact him for a job he had never done before (event though he had done other jobs for this customer). “It was a huge job, for 150,000 each of two envelopes,” he remarks. “Someone else, who normally does this job for them, was not able to get the stock. So the customer called me and told me what happened and asked if I [could] help.
“I spent two days researching, and I was able to get both items for them and deliver them when they needed. One of the suppliers was through one of the field reps at Minuteman Press International, so it was great I could leverage that connection with my franchisor. I ended up producing $25,000 worth of envelopes I had never done before, and they just recently asked me to quote their next order of 200,000 of each one.”
Levy sees the wide variety of products offered by his two Minuteman Press franchises as another competitive advantage. “It’s examples like that envelope order plus the other items we offer that most other printers do not, such as in-house screen printing, embroidery, dye sublimation, and stamp production, that allows us to stay busy and grow,” he says. “Another key is to have enough customers ordering products that when one is slow, others are not. This is a key ingredient, especially with my larger clients.”
Promoting the Return of Live Events on Long Island
As more live events, concerts, ball games, and tradeshows return to Long Island, Minuteman Press is well positioned to pitch in and help promote them.
“It is very nice to be getting orders for tickets, programs, journals, and most importantly, items for tradeshows and community events,” he shares. “Promotional items and apparel have really picked up over the past six months and that is because these events are happening again. That certainly gets me excited to be able to offer such a wide range of products that cater to all of my customers.”
As for what advice he would give to other business owners right now, Levy imparts, “Of course, every business is different, but one thing all businesses must do is to market themselves. Marketing is a very wide-ranging word and can be done in many different forms. Simply wearing a logo polo shirt is marketing. In addition, advertising, mailings, flyers, business cards, promotional items, apparel, and anything you can put your company logo on are all forms of marketing.
“That is exactly where I, as the owner of two Minuteman Press franchises, come in and help. We can put your logo on just about anything that allows you to market your business. I always tell my customers, when they ask, ‘What type of marketing should my business do?’ to try a little bit of everything and see what works best for your specific business.”
—Press Release
