Prime Positioning for Success
Opportunity can find us when we least expect it. When it happened to D. Todd Mellon, CEO/president, Prime Business Solutions/The Ampersand Group, he was smart enough to recognize it and turn it into a prosperous career.
As a college student attending the University of Akron, Mellon never intended on joining the print industry. But after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in marketing (and a minor in psychology) in 1985, he accepted his first job offer—a position with Duplex Products. A few years later, Mellon was recruited to another local print manufacturer, and in 2001 he purchased the company and renamed it Prime Business Solutions.
Mellon switched gears, heading toward distributing, and soon recognized even more growth potential by offering back-office support and e-commerce solutions to other distributors across the country. In 2005, he formed The Ampersand Group with the purpose of supporting independent distributors, and today the company supports more than 60 companies nationwide.
Here, Mellon provides insight about himself and talks business.
Print+Promo (P+P): How do you set goals for yourself? For your business?
D. Todd Mellon (DTM): I have always been a goal-oriented person in both my business and personal life. I strongly believe in setting goals to achieve success. I attended a forum called The Strategic Coach for three years, which helped me fine-tune the way I set goals, and I still use those strategies today. Goals give me focus and direction, but the most important part of setting goals is going back later and checking my progress on a quarterly and yearly basis. This is one reason it is so important that I write down my goals. Goals in your mind can be too easy to alter, but clearly defined goals that are written down make it easier for me to gauge my success later down the road. Goals in my personal life also are very important because if your personal life is not in check, then you know your business life will suffer.
P+P: How does the economy continue to affect the industry?
DTM: A down economy affects every industry, and coupled with the effects of the digital age, the printing industry has taken a big hit. It is easy to view this as nothing but negative; instead, I see this as a huge opportunity. For my print distributorship, I looked at our current client base and saw many traditional forms disappearing, and the rest of my products going out to bid more often. I saw this as an opportunity to offer my customers new product lines like promotional products, digital asset management and office supplies. We also have had more opportunities to bid on projects that never went to bid before. For the independent distributor support side of my business, we saw the opportunity to support distributors who were having trouble procuring a true one-stop-shop and software platform that could handle all of their print, promotional products, office supplies and digital asset management needs, all from one site. The down economy has brought on more opportunities than ever.
P+P: How does your company remain nimble and ahead of the curve?
DTM: Staying ahead of the curve is a very big focus of our company because it is so important to have that edge in a society that always wants the newest thing. It’s no secret that technology has dramatically changed the way we do business every day. Having a state-of-the-art e-commerce system tied directly into our back-office system has proven invaluable to both of my companies’ success. This standardized system gives my team the ability to quickly make professional e-commerce sites, while having it tied to the back-office system makes order-processing a breeze. The flexibility of our system and the innovativeness of my team have given us the ability to satisfy all types of customers, including small businesses all the way up to several Fortune 100 companies.
P+P: What would people be surprised to learn about you?
DTM: I guess it would be surprising to know that I have five children (four boys and one girl), along with four dogs and five cats. I have been married to the same girl for almost 22 years. I love spending time with my family and coaching kids. I am currently coaching—or at some point have coached—soccer, football, wrestling, basketball and baseball. I try to coach or assist at least one of my kids in at least one sport each season. I love to travel and try to play golf.
- Places:
- Akron, Ohio