Today we’d like to introduce you to Rick Gutierrez.
Rick, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I went to work May 13, 2013 6AM like any other day. I was employed at a printing company as a lead press operator and bindery operator. This same morning the sheriff department and the bank also showed up to work. They walked in the building like they were on a manhunt, and they were I was the only one there that early in the morning.
The sheriff told me to gather my personal belongings and I could not take anything else and go home. At this time, I had no idea what was going on. I left with my personal belongings. I called the VP of Operations to advise him of what was going on. He seemed worried and told me they would figure it out. Later I found out that the company had been using the employees 401K trust to pay for bills and payroll. The quickly filed for bankruptcy and the company closed its doors. Needless to say, all employees were without a job and without a 401K or any other benefits.
Word got out very quickly and clients were wondering about the projects we had on the presses. I built great relationships with these clients as we discussed their future orders. Two clients ask me where I was going to go work because I was the only printer they trusted. At this point is when I took a leap of faith and I told these two clients that I would be going on my own. I explained that I would love the opportunity to continue to print their projects. There is something to be said about building relationships because these two clients believed in me so much that they gave me all their printing projects. The thing they did not know is that at this point, I did not have a DBA nor a bank account needless to say not even a press nor a print shop where to do all these projects. I rolled up my sleeves and I went to a friend of mine that works for one of the largest paper mills in the nation. I told him my intentions and that I needed to place an order.
I took $256 out of my own pocket to purchase my very first paper order. I then called an old friend of mine I remembered at one point he told me he had a press in his garage. When I called, he remembered me and agreed to let me rent his press in the evenings to print my print orders. A few months later, I saved enough to purchase my very own printing press. At that same time, one of my clients referred me to one of her friends that owns office buildings. I spoke with her friend who is the leasing agent for the building and struck a deal for an office space. That same day my press was being delivered. I moved in that weekend. I only had three things, my press, a computer and a desk.
I continued to generate more word of mouth business for about a year and half. One year later an old friend of mine who i worked part time for called me and asked me to come see him. When I arrived to visit him, he jokingly mentioned he wanted to retire and wanted to leave the business for me to run. I laughed because I just could not believe him. He was not joking at all. A few months later in early 2016, I purchased his business that he and his dad owned and serviced their clients for over 40 years. I am proud to say that we still service all those clients till this day.
We service our clients with old fashioned face to face customer service and provide amazing products with the latest technologies the printing industry has to offer. We take pride and ownership in everything we do. We take our client’s creative ideas and bring them to life through effective results from graphic design, printing marketing materials, promotional products for your business and products and services.
In September 2019, I celebrated 30 years of experience in the printing industry. It’s been a very long road but very well worth it. I realized a long time ago that my passion is to help others, to be of service to others. And I am able to do so by providing our clients with the most amazing customer service experience. With that said, I only ask that you give us a shot and experience face to face customer service and client appreciation. You can go online and pay more or less, but there is nothing like dealing with an actual person when it comes to generating the look and feel for your brand, your company’s image that you work so hard to create and get it off the ground.
We would love to work with you, print all your marketing materials and bring your creative ideas to effective results.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It’s been a challenge, but what’s life without a challenge, right? Being an employee and always in the warehouse in the back in production. I still have both hands and all fingers, but I do have some scars to show the years of experience working with heavy equipment. Never setting foot in the front office nor any business administration experience and being all alone. I had to work very late night either in production or in the front office educating myself on how to run a business and how to manage the bookkeeping software. I did not know how to sale so, it’s been a lot of learning. Some trial and error but I believe that is the best way to learn.
I now have a team to help me run my business. I quickly realized I could not do it all on my own. I know I have a team that can help me run the day to day business while I focus on what I do best. I love working with my hands creating things, working with tools and doing quality control on every order that goes out the door to our clients.
I also developed a love for talking to people generating sales and networking to generate new accounts.
So, let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Priority Printing SS story. Tell us more about the business.
Well, our company sets itself apart for the fact that, we are a independent company, we are not a franchise. This is a family owned business.
We specialize in taking client’s creative ideas and bringing them to life through effective results through, graphic design, printing all marketing materials and promotional items.
It all begins with an idea, that idea is what we are passionate about, bringing it to life than putting it on all sorts of marketing materials like, business cards, postcard, flyers, posters, pocket folder, mailers, envelopes, letterheads, vinyl banners, retractable pop up banners, table cloth, window graphics, real estate signs and much more.
What sets us apart?
I always say, “there are 100’s if not 1000’s of people that do what we do professionally. We all provide the same products. It is the level of customer service we provide to our clients from start to finish. That is what sets us apart.”
You see it’s never about creating a design uploading it to an online system where they take your payment upfront and someone somewhere that does not know you nor care about your design nor your brand the look and feel for your brand and colors. We love to inspect every single file that we receive. We open the file and can detect how your file was designed if it was not designed by us. We want to know if your file was created in CMYK, RGB or if your file has solid pantone colors. The better we understand how the files were created the better we can produce the original idea the client had when creating the brand.
I believe taking an extra step to ensure we exceed our client’s expectations is what sets us apart.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I don’t necessarily believe there is such thing as luck or coincidence. I believe we work hard and sometimes we are faced with making decisions and sometimes we don’t have much time to think wisely on those decisions. We make firm decisions and we stand our ground regardless of the outcome. Great outcome or bad outcome we deal with the consequences and move on by learning from our experiences.
Contact Info:
- Address: 10900 Northwest Fwy
Suite 105
Houston, TX 77092 - Website: www.priorityprintingss.com
- Phone: 713-575-9800
- Email: rick@priorityprintingss.com
- Instagram: priorityprintingss
- Facebook: priorityprintingss
- Twitter: @priorityprints
- Yelp: priority printing ss
Image Credit:
Priority Printing SS
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