Topics >  Leadership and Managing >  Human Resources > 

Nice Guys Finish First

Profiles of the four runners-up for "Best-managed Franchises in America."

Pennsylvania or Colorado, print shop or lawn service, the Golden Rule is working

AMERICAN SPEEDY PRINTING
Tallahassee, Fla.

Operators: Bev and George Karmanos, 37 and 43

Number of units: 1

Projected 1989 sales: $1.6 million

Sales exceed avg. by: 344%

Sales/employee exceed avg. by: 106%

* * *

New customers who walk into George and Bev Karmanos's Tallahassee quick-print store are sometimes surprised by the treatment they get. If what they really need is just a handful of photocopies, George may send them to a nearby copy shop, although he could outplace the work himself for a higher price. Bev may suggest they forgo a fancy four-color logo in favor of a simpler two-color design that will cost less and look just as good -- particularly if they're running a start-up. In short, the Karmanoses don't sell printing. They educate consumers, often taking them to the back of the shop so they can better understand and use the process.

The two founders don't see anything that unusual about their style. It's a selling technique based on the same Golden Rule they teach their kids -- "treating people the way we'd like to be treated ourselves." Most of their 1,000 regular customers are retailers or small-business people, after all; the Karmanoses know firsthand how hard that can be. Besides, if they help a customer save money on this job, they're likely to get more work on the next.

Treating people right is an attitude, not a policy, and it extends to everything the Karmanoses do. No job goes out without a letter thanking the customer for his or her order. The couple will rerun any job for a regular customer, no matter who was at fault; if a new customer makes a mistake by not proofing the type or by ordering the wrong thing, the Karmanoses will split the cost of rerunning the order and take 15% off the next job.

The results have been impressive. Starting five years ago, staked with $100,000 borrowed from George's brother, the Karmanoses' American Speedy franchise has won sales-growth awards for five consecutive years. Annual volume in 1988 broke the $1.1-million mark, far outpacing both the American Speedy average of $264,000 and the industry average of $224,000.

But it's not just the numbers that make the Karmanoses' franchise such an astonishing place. Equally impressive is how gracefully a husband and wife from a small town in Michigan have managed to translate their personal values into management and human-relations policies with echoes of some of the best-run businesses in the country.

The Karmanoses don't call it cross-utilization training; they just make sure that counter, bindery, and press people all understand one another's jobs and share the authority for quality control. They don't call it wellness pay; they just pay extra for sick days not taken. They don't call it workplace democracy, either, although that, in nascent form, is what they've got. Line employees designed the system that drives scheduling. When the shop moved to a new location this spring, they were the ones who set up the floor and work flow.

It's common sense, Bev says. "My people know more than I'll ever know about what they need."

Each press operator has his or her own machine to run and maintain and is expected to order paper and keep track of jobs. All nine employees are eligible for a 5% commission on any work they bring in and are encouraged to be entrepreneurs themselves, like Jonie Voich in the front, who drafted and sent her own marketing letters to all the professors in the business school at Florida State University.

Bev calculates monthly goals and posts the numbers on a wall calendar in the lunchroom at the beginning of the year, with the target initially set 50% above the year before. Then they all figure out, together, how to do better.

The rewards are shared as well -- in generous benefit, vacation, and holiday policies, in a profit-sharing pension plan that offers the maximum contribution allowed by law, and in hefty bonuses paid twice a year. But giving, too, is an attitude, not a compensation policy. The Karmanoses give turkeys in November and December, and Christmas gifts of gold jewelry or trips to bowl games. Birthdays are celebrated twice -- first with lunch out, then with a cake at the shop at the end of the day.

"It's not that hard to figure out how to treat people," George says. "How would I want things if the tables were turned?"

Both George and Bev had been unhappy as employees. After high school and a stretch in the Marines, he'd driven a truck and tended bar; she'd worked in a medical office. They'd both been frustrated by their lack of control, dead-end tasks, and bosses who wouldn't listen. So when George's brother Peter offered to set them up, they jumped at the chance. The owner of his own small computer business, Peter had been impressed by the American Speedy in his building and loaned them the $100,000 they'd need to buy one of their own. They decided to start in Tallahassee, 1,000 miles from home, after Bev read a newspaper article about the booming Southeast.

"It was scary," George admits. "We had three young kids, we'd moved to a town where we knew no one, and we knew nothing about the business."

It was a classic family-business start-up. The Yellow Pages ad that was their primary selling tool didn't come out until their sixth month, and they grossed less than $8,000 in each of those first months -- barely enough to cover their nut, let alone pay their living costs. Bev, allergic to newsprint, worked the counter, and George ran the press. They took turns taking out the trash, sweeping the floor, and cleaning the bathroom. With children then 10, 6, and 3, "at first it seemed we worked just to pay for the day care," George jokes. He came early, and Bev stayed late, juggling the carpooling, Cub Scouts, and karate matches between them.

But by December they were in the phone book and in the black as well. They've been growing ever since. They hired their first press operator in 1985, freeing George to concentrate on selling, then added a second press in 1986 and a third in 1987. In spring 1988, with a team of six employees, they sold $126,000 worth of work, breaking the American Speedy record. In May of 1989 they sold $236,000, breaking the record again. George has promised they'll all go to Hawaii, all expenses paid, when they hit their first $300,000 month.

Read more:

How Lincoln Became A Great Leader

How to Be Liked at Work (or Anywhere)

Cargo Firms Offering Free Shipping

Sign-up for our Leadership and Managing Newsletter

Email Address: