When Danielle J. Kay visits the family home where she grew up, she is taken back to simpler times of make-believe and Tyvek tags.
More than 20 years have passed, and the original tags hung by Kay still decorate the pine trees scattered throughout the property. "When I was a child, I always [pretended to be] a teacher or office staff employee, and played with all the paper and goodies I found," she recalled. "I would take the Tyvek tags and tag the trees, bushes and items around our home like I was selling them to people in a store."
Kay's penchant for print wasn't random—it was in her blood. Her paternal grandparents, Joe and Verna Kay, started a small company called Kay Printing in their garage. The Toledo, Ohio-based business took off and as they neared retirement, Joe and Verna's five sons stepped up and changed the name to Kay Toledo Tag Inc.
After Kay's father, company president Daniel J. Kay, locked up the plant, Kay used this opportunity to grow her paper product collection. She turned this hobby into a career, and currently serves as Kay Toledo Tag's sales, marketing and customer service manager.
Here, Kay talks shop.
Print+Promo (P+P): How do you set goals for yourself? For your business?
Danielle J. Kay (DJK): Setting goals for my life has become a faithful process. Thinking about my ideal future, motivating myself to be a vision of my future and turning my visions into reality help me focus on succeeding. Knowing precisely what I want to achieve, knowing where I have to concentrate all my efforts that help me strive to reach my goals. If you don't focus on your life and the way you are living, you'll quickly see the many distractions that this world has.
When setting goals for our business I like to use the S.M.A.R.T. theory that was once given to me in college. S.M.A.R.T. stands for the five steps of being: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-based goals. I feel our family business success depends on our ability as a family to set and achieve the goals we set for all staff, family and customers.
P+P: What do you expect to be some of the biggest challenges the industry will face?
DJK: Shifts in technology, changes in the industry, environment, customer demands, and communication shifts between our customers due to technology. Many customers are so busy nowadays that they do not have time to see customers or even talk over the phone. Most requests/responses are done via email and fax. Personal one-on-one [time] and phone communication are key in this industry. We find customers become easily overwhelmed when we ask questions or want to change items to benefit the end-user. My last challenge would be the resources of promoting our products in the hands of our distributors to train them to help market and sell all the products we manufacture.
P+P: What keeps you up at night?
DJK: Nothing that I can think of keeps me up at night with the printing industry. I leave work every evening knowing I have done my best to service our customers and to help them feel they are in good hands. I strive to complete my daily tasks to the best of my ability. If anything, I would like to do more for our customers to help them sleep better at night.
P+P: What do you think is the most exciting, cutting-edge thing your company is doing right now? Why?
DJK: We are going strong in our third generation with four other active full-time family members [in addition to] myself: Jeff Kay, Joe Kay, Bobby Kay and Ryan Kay. We have all been given this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to prove to our fathers and uncles that we can manage our family business. Our third-generation [employees] all have the desire, self-discipline, positive attitude and capability of succeeding in proving we are the best fit to keep our business running. Our tag manufacturing plants have been going strong in the digital/variable imaging and short run tag programs we offer. We are very excited for a few new items we are presently working on and look forward to the completion of these products soon. We have updated and improved many presses and products this year in an effort to become more competitive in the printing industry.
P+P: What would people be surprised to learn about you?
DJK: I have many special interests and gifts I have been blessed with. They include: spending quality time with my daughter, Gracie, and my best friend, Brian, mentoring and guiding people to our Reformers Unanimous program at Lewis Ave. Baptist Church, playing the organ, exercising, boating, cooking, cleaning (yes, cleaning, I love it!), singing and sports. I love coming to work each day, building a business and personal relationship with all our customers. I am very happy and content in my life and feel so blessed.