The Printing Legendary,
Mr Welson Ang
His story...
Mr Ang, the founder & owner of Expressprint has an impressive track record of running and building a printing business. He graduated from Edith Cowan University with a Bachelor of Business, Double Major in Marketing & E-commerce. He single handedly started Expressprint in Jan 2005 with only $2000 and a mountain of debts. He did not have any knowledge and related experiences in printing at all.
The first Expressprint was started humbly in a small office within another company in an industrial park. However, with the skills, strategic planning and execution, Mr Ang managed "earn enough" to open the first retail print outlet in Chinatown Point barely within 3 months of the business. In the same year, he started the second Expressprint outlet in Orchard Plaza. Within the span of 2 years (2007), Expressprint grew to 5 outlets in Keypoint, International Plaza, Tg Pager Plaza. It was also in the same year that Mr Ang was awarded with a Merit Award by ShellLive Wire as an outstanding young Entrepreneur. By 2008, Expressprint grew to 8 outlets in Sunshine Plaza, Golden Wall Center and Sultan Plaza. Expressprint was also nicknamed as the big brother in print.
As Mr Ang has started this business without any experience, he went through a lot stumbling blocks and discouragement. These experiences caused him to be strengthened further. It was also in the late 2008 that Mr Ang decided to leverage on the Internet to grow his business while shrinking in size. Currently, Expressprint received more sales from the Internet than from the combined sales of the 8 outlets.
Being an entrepreneur, Mr Ang understand the needs and frustrations that his fellow comrades in print & design faces. After years of preparation, Mr Ang is now ready to launch the "PrintEXpert" program to empower anyone who wish to profits from the print industry. This is possibly the one and only program in the market that you can leverage on to springboard your business.
“If somebody offers you an amazing opportunity but you are not sure you can do it, say yes – then learn how to do it later!” ~Richard Branson
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INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS
Conducted by Get Real Business Group
GR: Get Real, W: Welson
GR: What are some of the most important business lessons you have learnt, especially in the competitive printing business?
W: I learned the value and importance of “having a friend is better than having an enemy”. When we are competing in business, both sides will suffer. The truth is, together, we have strength.
The most humiliating part of my business journey was betrayal from my trusted staff. Having said that, the betrayal may not have taken place if I had not been so complacent about business management.
GR: What do you think are the challenges that people will face when they want to start a printing business?
W: In order for them to run a print business and provide these methods of printing (offset printing, digital printing and large format printing), they may need huge investments (in the hundreds of thousand dollars to millions of dollars) in machinery, infrastructure and operations setup. Expertise in managing technical and business operations is also a must.
GR: By creating this PrintEXpert program, what do you hope to achieve?
W: This program is designed for people who wish to maximise their profits by offering print services to their existing or new customers. I hope to help them benefit from these opportunities.
We have already invested heavily in the machinery, technologies and the entire operational process. Now, we are offering these print solutions to them so that they can provide premium printing services to their client at a huge profit!
GR: I noticed that Expressprint is giving out little cardboard boxes for business cards, instead of plastic cases. What other earth-friendly initiatives has your company implemented?
W: Our green initiative started in 2008. We are also one of the first to have our paper and cards “Green Labelled” by SEC. Our shops are also decorated with environmental messages and images. All of our shop fronts display the reality about the state of destruction the Earth is facing. We even came up with a logo, slogan and theme.
Slogan : Expressprint, ExpressGreen
Theme: Paper can be recycled, nature cannot. Make a choice, choose recycled paper.
In addition, we are constantly introducing new efforts to do our part for the environment. For example, we print using Eco-ink and soy-ink. The latest effort will be the introduction of Card boxes (made of recycled paper) to replace the plastic boxes for containing business cards.
Want to know more about the benefits and opportunities from the"PrintEXpert" program?
Come and join us in this business sharing for free or pay $10 per ticket to receive aBONUS get a printing package which is worth more than S$300!
Date: 2 July 2014
Time: 7.30pm to 9pm (Registration starts at 7pm)
Address: 20 Upper Circular Road, #01-28, The Riverwalk, Singapore 058416
