At the end of last year my business Printed Greener was bought out by a larger print company. It was a little depressing to have to hand it all over after 2 years of hard work setting it up. Im sure it is in good hands and look forward to seeing what the new owners achieve with what I believe is a fantastic concept. I see that they have since taken the website down (hopefully to improve on it).

The sale of Printed Greener left me with my original business Coe Design a Print Sign and Design business which I have been operating for almost ten years. It has had its ups and downs starting in a tiny dirty garage with very little capital $2000 to be exact it grew to employ in its peak 6 staff and securing some major clients such as Coca-Cola Amatil, Masterfoods Petfoods, Mary Kay Cosmetics as well as providing promotional signage and printing for local Subway’s, ChemMart and more. A big decision was made after the sale of Printed Greener to rebrand Coe Design to fit more with the products we are pushing and the clients we are targeting.

We have changed a lot since my wife and I started out in that little garage. We have so much more to offer. The equipment we required and accumulated over the years to keep up with the demands of larger businesses allows us to produce high quality signs, large format printing and displays very efficiently. We have grown as people, becoming more experienced at what we do. We have a much better understanding of what makes a good business, how to market it, manage it and build it.

It was time for us to take a step back and look at what we have achieved with both Coe Design and Printed Greener, it was time to make a decision…..

Do we continue growing Coe Design?
Do we sell out while the business is thriving?
What were our reasons for goimg into business in the first place?
What were our goals way back then when we started?
Did we acheive any of those goals?
What are our goals now?

After months of pondering these questions, late nights of throwing ideas at each other we came to some conclusions. The number 1 reason behind starting our business all those years ago was so we could be our own boss. So we could work when we say its time to work not when someone else tells us to (even though owning a business is like working 24hrs a day) n. So selling up was out of the question unless we had a new business to go to and that would mean losing a lot of our great clients and after all its our clients who matter most in our business. So instead we started to look at ways we could look after our clients better.

We did achieve a lot with Coe Design more than I expected. It became something I wasnt expecting it to become. I honestly thought as a young 24 year old that the more I grew my business the easier it would become to operate….WRONG!. For those reading who have started a business from scratch would know how difficult it is to grow and maintain a good business. I guess the most important thing we have recieved from it is education. I have learnt more from owning a business than I did from any school or course or job.

So here here is the final decision. Keep Coe Design but rebrand it. Simplify the business by offering only the products that we know we are the best at manufacturing. This of course has meant some scaling back was needed but it also means that we can concentrate more on looking after our clients as opposed to reinventing the wheel so to speak. So what used to be Coe Design a business that could look after all your needs, the do anything sign, print and design shop we have now become XL Grafix specialising in Large format printed displays take a look at our new secure website www.xlgrafix.com to see what we now offer. These are the products that we know are a step above our competitors.