Today we’d like to introduce you to Maria Medina.
Originally from Colombia, Maria has lived in Egypt, Spain, the UK and South Florida. Maria trained to play professional soccer from the age of 5, but after a career-ending soccer injury in 2006, Maria had to reevaluate her life. Inspired by her father’s business success, Maria pursued a career in Business Management and Marketing. Reaching the peak of her corporate career with a private University in London, Maria and her wife decided to fulfill their lifetime dreams of moving to Florida by purchasing a local Minuteman Press in 2014.
As soon as she moved to South Florida, Maria was interested in getting involved with local businesses and the local community. She joined the Greater Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce along with other local networking organizations. Maria is a City Director for the local chapter of Lesbians Who Tech, an organization that provides a platform to raise awareness of groups who are fighting for LGBTQ and Women’s rights. She sits on the board of the Big Bad BBQ benefiting special Olympics as well as the board of IGNITE Community Services, a local non-profit for the LBTQ community. Maria was appointed as Vice-President for the International Association of Women Fort Lauderdale Chapter in 2018 and is the incoming President of her local Business Networking International Chapter, BNI Abundance.
In 2016, Maria’s Minuteman Press was a main sponsor for Hearts With Orlando, a local event that helped raise over $4,500 for people affected by the Pulse Orlando tragedy. Recently Maria used her network to raise over $2,000 for the Good Luck Cat Café, a local café that helps get cats adopted.
Along with all her community involvement, Maria still has time to run Minuteman Press Wilton Manors, a full service Print, Marketing and Design company that provides a variety of services from Business Cards, Brochures, Postcards, Banners, Signs, Window Graphics and Car Wraps to Pens, Shirts, Mugs, Koozies and other Promotional Items. It is their business to help your business grow!
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
As most entrepreneurs know, the road to success is much like a rollercoaster. When I first bought my franchise it was an uphill battle with many exciting challenges. Eventually, as sales increased the shop became more productive, and the shop has gone from 1 and a half staff members to 5 employees.
After being in business for three years, sales began to plateau. It was a struggle to figure out where the bottlenecks where in the business, but luckily I have a very supportive wife and family that helped me talk through the concerns and figure out the best solution to continue the steady growth in sales. Access to a supportive Franchise team was also useful as they were able to tell me what worked for other shops and what they were finding successful. The Minuteman Press franchise is comprised of nearly 1,000 locations.
As you can imagine there is heavy competition in the print industry. People have access to online shops that are always “cheaper”. Or so they seem. It was a struggle at first to help people understand the value of choosing my print shop over an online store or another local print shop. Learning from my experiences with customers by asking them for feedback has allowed me to understand what the consumer really values, and subsequently educate customers on why they should choose my shop over others. I explain the value my team brings to the table and am able to secure sales more easily now.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Minuteman Press Wilton Manors – what should we know?
Minuteman Press Wilton Manors, a full-service Print, Marketing and Design company that provides a variety of services from Business Cards, Brochures, Postcards, Banners, Signs, Window Graphics and Car Wraps to Pens, Shirts, Mugs, Koozies and other Promotional Items. It is their business to help your business grow!
As the owner, I really get a say in the direction my print shop takes when producing a job and so I am able to squeeze in last-minute jobs for customers when they need me to. I educate myself in what my customers are printing and what is working for them so that I can really help them select the right marketing materials for their next project. We also provide free delivery to the whole of Broward county for the convenience of the customer.
I am very involved in the community and give back whenever I can. Whether it be with time, money or products.
What are your plans for the future?
At the moment I am really enjoying my public speaking venture. Having grown my business through networking, I found a lot of people asking me for my opinion on how to get the most out of networking. For this reason I developed a talk called “Networking with Purpose” which I now do on a monthly basis for different groups.
I am in the process of developing another talk to help fellow entrepreneurs.
Pricing:
- Business Cards $48 for 1,000 Standard Business Cards
- Brochures $225 for 1,000 Tri Fold Brochures
- Retractable Banners starting at $100
- Large Foamcore Signs for Expos starting at $25
Contact Info:
- Address: 1416 NE 4th Ave
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33304 - Website: ftlauderdale.minutemanpress.com
- Phone: 954-731-5300
- Email: 1416@minutemanpress.com
- Instagram: minutemanmaria
- Facebook: minutemanmaria
- Twitter: minutemanmaria
- Other: mariamedinafl
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