We caught up with the brilliant and insightful TREVOR MILLET a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

TREVOR, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

In my opinion and experience, being successful (in business) is a combination of hard work, consistency, discipline, and thoughtfulness. Everyone knows the “working hard” part, but it is the consistency and patience that ends up really paying off in the long run. Showing up every day and putting in the work over the weeks, months, and years, especially when you don’t feel like it. You’ll need to build discipline because there is no boss or manager to keep you on task or track KPI’s. Thoughtfulness is also needed in the form of creativity and also consideration for others who you work with wether it be vendors, employees, partners, or customers.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Trevor and I am a business owner and 5th generation printer. My great, great grandfather started a printing business in Dallas, Texas in 1933. I had the opportunity to work alongside my father and grandfather from a young age to learn about printing, mostly high volume printing on paper. I then worked at a couple of other print businesses to learn other forms of printing such as screen printing and roll label printing. However, I wanted to make sure that I really loved printing because I chose it and not because it’s all I knew. I always loved food and drinks so I worked at several restaurants as owning a restaurant was my second career choice. I had an amazing experience but still missed printing, but I did have a new found appreciation for small food service businesses and I decided to setup my business in order to help them using my knowledge of print. We work with other businesses too, but food service businesses are our main focus. We offer all kinds of printed products from postcards to tee shirts to coasters to printed cups. I am proud to carry on my family’s legacy in my own way while also serving the small business restaurant community that I grew to love. I believe that what sets us apart is the vast knowledge of print technologies and products, and our genuine care for our customers. Our leading value is to treat others the way that we would want to be treated.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

The business had to pivot quite a bit at the beginning of the pandemic (as did many, many other businesses). We were mainly offering paper products, large format, and tee shirts pre-pandemic, but during the pandemic, we started selling a lot more roll labels that were used by our customers to brand their to-go packaging. I thought that roll labels would sell well for a short time and then drift back to a small part of the business, but roll labels still make up about 40% of our sales.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

I started my business with only $500. In 2024, you don’t need a whole lot of capital to get started in a business (in most cases), and I would encourage everyone who has a desire to start a business to go ahead and give it a try! You can most likely keep a regular job and have your business as a side hustle while you iron out your process before jumping out to run your business full time.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://tmimpressions.com/
• Instagram: @tm_impressions
• Facebook: @tm_impressions
• Linkedin: TM Impressions

Image Credits
Maurice Sanford