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411 is all about inspiring business growth and development. We love hearing stories from Entrepreneurs, whether they are success stories or otherwise.

If you’ve read our Canada Day post, you know that we’re extending our Canadian Entrepreneur Stories Facebook Page to create a 4-week blog series, where we’ll feature one client per week. We’ll interview each client to see to see what it’s like to run their business, what advice they have, and how we’ve helped them along the way.

To kick off the series, we interviewed Sam Finan, the Director of Sales and Business Development at SRS Print Management Inc. SRS is a complete managed print service provider. The business works with companies across North America with the goal of stretching their marketing dollar further through cost-effective printing and branding services.

Here is Sam’s #CanadianEntrepreneurs Story:

1. How did you get into your field and what inspired you to start your own business?

Finan: My dad was in industrial printing for a while so I grew up around it. I was always interested in starting a business and I found that there was a discrepancy between how printing is purchased at the industrial scale versus how it is for smaller businesses. I figured there was a way to connect the small guys with larger production facilities and that they could save a little bit of money. If I can facilitate that transaction, it works for everybody.

2. Have you always had the entrepreneurial spirit in you?

Finan: Definitely. I love the idea of selling things. I remember when I was in Grade 8 and the first iPhone came out in the States. I had a cousin who was down there for school, so I had him ship me one because a friend wanted to buy it. I ended up selling them to my friends parents who saw the first one and they all wanted one. I paid for some food that way.

3. How did you start? Did you launch full-time, or did you have another job to keep you going?

Finan: Well when my dad retired he had a bunch of clients who were wondering what they were going to do, so he gave me the idea to research this field and see if I could provide solutions.

Now, I don’t actually print anything myself. We like to say we’re a printing company that doesn’t own a press. Over the last few years I’ve developed relationships with a bunch of printing houses across the country and essentially I field them jobs whenever I can get them.

It was definitely part-time, up until 6-7 months ago when I became full time.

4. How has your business changed throughout the years? Have you grown, diversified or stayed the same?

Finan: We’ve grown quite a bit. I started with very few clients and I guess that was the hardest part, how do you introduce yourself to new clients? So I tried a bunch of different marketing things, I mean referrals are always the best but that’s slow growth. Eventually I went into paid advertising and that’s been pretty good, 411’s helped me quite a bit with that.

5. What’s your best tip for entrepreneurs that are just starting out?

Finan: Well, I’m biased, but find something low cost with little barrier to entry and make sure your customer service beats everyone else’s because the one thing that keeps customers coming back is customer service.

6. What has been the most rewarding part of running your own business?

Finan: It’s definitely not the hours. People have this idea that running a business is working on a beach somewhere, but I probably work more hours than I did when I worked for somebody else. The difference is, when I come home after a 10–12 hour day I feel rewarded with everything that I’ve done because it’s a tangible result of all the hard work that I’ve put in.

7. What has been your biggest struggle as an entrepreneur and how have you overcome it?

Finan: Learning about accounting and managing cash flow—all of the business things that they don’t really teach you. Selling the product is just the first step.

8. If you could go back, would you do anything differently?

Finan: Probably. When I was starting out I tried a bunch of different marketing ideas that didn’t work out and a lot of it was money down the drain. So, in retrospect, I would have been more cautious with where I was spending my money.

9. Where do you see your business in five years?

Finan: In five years I hope to expand to the U.S. Luckily, the way that we operate, we don’t need a physical presence in each city, so I want to develop relationships with printing houses in the US, at least in the North East, so that’s a 12 month kind of project.

10. Finally, how has 411 aided in the success of your business?

Finan: I mostly use AdWords consulting, but it’s been really good because up until a few months ago I was spending all of my time maintaining clients instead of trying to grow my business and then I hired an account manager to help me do that. And then I started managing AdWords and knowing very little about it, I was wasting my time and I was wasting money on it. So hiring somebody like Julie at 411, she’s been fantastic in every way. She’s given me tips for the website and she’s there whenever I need her, so it’s really taken a lot off my plate.

Thanks again, Sam, for taking the time to share your #CanadianEntrepreneurs Story with the 411 community.

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