Niko and Colin Nicoloudakis are the owners of Minuteman Press in N. Seattle, WA since May of 2023. Since taking over the business, the two brothers have nearly tripled their sales. At 19 and 20-years-old, Colin and Niko are proving every day that working hard and following the Minuteman Press franchise system can help build the foundation of their growing business.

Meet Niko & Colin Nicoloudakis

What does it mean to you to be business owners and young entrepreneurs? Who was your inspiration/where does your drive to succeed come from?

“Being business owners means taking our first steps into hopefully, a long journey ahead. Our inspiration comes from our parents, who have worked hard their whole lives to help us succeed.”

As brothers, what is it like working together running a family business?

“During our short time in business ownership so far, we’ve learned about the importance of trust. Working together as brothers, if there’s one thing we know, it’s that we can trust each other, which helps us in all aspects of business.”

What was your background before Minuteman Press?

“Since we’re young, our background is limited. We both did well in school, worked different jobs, and took some college classes/certification courses. Our limited resume gives us something to prove, which we’ve taken and ran with.”

What are the top 3 reasons you bought this business / chose Minuteman Press?

“The three main reasons we bought our shop were the financing, potential, and history.

• One of our main checkboxes was price as we didn’t have much capital to invest so seller financing was a big deal.
• The previous owners didn’t have the time to invest into the business to fulfill its potential which we recognized and they admitted.
• The long history of this location, client list, and established brand ensured we weren’t starting from nothing.”

What has the training and support from Chris Jutt and Minuteman Press been like for you?

“Starting with no experience, the initial few weeks of training were great in getting that learning process started. It would be impossible to teach everything, but it gave us resources to further our learning and Chris, Alonso, and Jason were great at answering any questions we had past the training period.”

What are your top 3 to 5 keys to your sales growth and success so far?

1. “Maintaining Old & New Clients: We’ve done a good job of keeping our clients happy and coming back, which has really helped us grow.

2. Online Presence: The bulk of our new clientele comes through our Google Reviews and Google Ads. That combination is crucial because the ads get us in front of leads, and the reviews give us the credibility they’re looking for to convert. People have repeatedly told us how the reviews got them in the door.

3. Face-to-Face Marketing: We’ve brought in a ton of people by talking about our business. Everyone in our lives knows what we're doing, and we hope they’ll come to us if they need anything printed.”

What are your high-demand products/services and key growth areas?

“Our high demand products are apparel, booklets, and mailers. Comparing our numbers over the last three years, the largest growth category has been apparel. In 2022, before we took over, the shop recorded no apparel sales, which is now a top three category for us in terms of revenue.”

Why do you think printing remains so vital to businesses today? What are the benefits of print?

“From our experience, printing holds a large percentage of many companies' marketing budgets. Like any form of marketing, print is another way to put a brand in front of potential clients, from signage for events to uniforms, brochures, and mailers. With seemingly everything going digital; print marketing will be here to stay for the foreseeable future.”

How would you best describe your business community?

“The scale of our city brings the local businesses together. We experience the same great benefits and major issues that come with the growth and politics of Seattle. We’re a part of a few business groups now, which has been great in finding similarly minded people to learn from and share our experiences with.”

What are the rewards of owning your business?

“Owning a business comes with a larger sense of responsibility than anything we’ve done in the past. Our action and inaction affect us, our clients, and our employees who trust us with their job security. A client of ours recently put it best when he said, ‘It’s different when it’s your own money.’”

What are 1 or 2 key pieces of advice would you give to other owners?

1. “Track Leads Origin: I never regret asking someone “how’d you hear about us?” because it’s an important source of data.

2. Ask for Reviews: We’re never afraid to ask for reviews, whether it’s after giving a couple copies away or from returning clients.”