New Venture Lab: Equipping Christian Entrepreneurs

I came across a story today about a former policeman that recently launched a printing business.  There were a couple of notable items about his story:

• First of all, he has committed his business to Christ
• Secondly, he changed his lifestyle by downsizing and getting completely out of debt
• Thirdly, he rightly deduced that he could be much more competitive by employing family rather than outside employees and by running the business from home rather than from expensive office space
• Fourthly, he has created a value proposition of faster service with free delivery at a competitive price

I'm not sure how large the addressable market size is that he is willing to serve and I'm not sure about his order size of only $20 for free delivery (seems too low to me), but he certainly has made some good moves so far.

Here is the story as reported...

Eyo Efiom has made a life out of serving others, from protecting his nation and community to serving God. Now, he is serving clients who need printed materials delivered to their businesses.

“I am what I am today because of Christ,” Mr. Efiom said. “The success of this business is because of Christ.”

Mr. Efiom said BOCPrinting.com takes its name from that concept — “Because of Christ.” The company accepts orders online for print jobs and delivers the product to the customer’s business at no charge for orders of $20 or more — smaller orders carry a $2.50 surcharge, he said.

Mr. Efiom, 38, said his main passions in life are faith and family. His wife, Shannon, is a teacher at Adonai Academy, a school at the couple’s church, New Home Missionary Baptist Church. Their two children attend the school, he said. Mr. Efiom said he became a Christian 10 years ago, and has served as a church elder for about seven years.

A Marine Corps Reserve veteran of Operation Desert Storm, Mr. Efiom said he served 16 1/2 years with the Chattanooga Police Department before retiring in December to focus full time on his business. His duties at the police department varied from serving as a spokesman to patrol sergeant to supervisor of the third-shift 911 center, he said.

Before launching BOCPrinting.com in September 2007, Mr. Efiom said he and his wife cut their debt by selling their Highland Park house and moving into a family-owned mortgage-free residence in the Riverside area. Their business and personal vehicles are debt free as well.

Mr. Efiom declined to give the company’s revenues, but said he has had about 100 clients since January with about half being repeat customers.

BOCPrinting.com is run out of the Efioms’ house, and the Efioms are the only employees, which means they have virtually no overhead, he said. When researching other printing companies, Mr. Efiom said he discovered that they had to build a lot of overhead into their prices. Without that overhead, Mr. Efiom said he can charge less money and afford to deliver the printed products.

The Partnership for Families, Children and Adults has used Mr. Efiom’s low-cost delivery services a couple of times, said Holly Ashley, assistant director of development for the agency.

“What caught me was the (price) for color copies,” Ms. Ashley said. “Being a nonprofit agency living on a tight budget, we’re always looking for deals. We’ve used them a couple times, and they’re quick.”

In many cases, BOCPrinting can deliver an order the same day, Mr. Efiom said, since 90 percent of the printing can be done in his home office.

By: Jason Reynolds

Source: Chattanooga Times Free Press