Lane Printing & Advertising: An entrepreneurial owner sees the future is more than just printing
By John Scibelli

Frank Lane has invested 31 years of his life in the printing and graphics business. The love affair started in high school and was tested and bruised early in his career. Through the help and guidance of close friends, family and a network of business associates, Lane weathered those difficult times, launched a business in his own image, and is now looking at a bright future.

This month marks 20 years that Lane Printing & Advertising has been in business helping clients achieve their objectives. Judging by the growth of his company, the prospects for upcoming work, Lane and his current staff of 13 employees should be busy for the foreseeable future.

An early connection to printing
Lane had a connection to printing for as long as he can remember. As a kid growing up in Braintree, he sold bundles of American flag decals that his aunts brought home from the Boston print shops where they worked. His relatives got as much of a kick out of seeing Lane turn a nickel as he did selling those flag decals.

In high school he was one of 18 kids in a vocational printing class at Braintree High School.

“I just took to it,” he says. “I found that I liked it and I was pretty good at running a letterpress and later an offset press.”

He attributes much of his success in printing to his graphic arts teacher, Steve Lopes. “He was kind of a radical. He had the long hair. He wore flannel shirts to class. I remember he let us bring in our own music as long as we played it for everyone.”

Lopes’ teaching style got through to the students. A third of Lane’s graphic arts classmates at Braintree High School in 1977 stuck with printing and eventually opened their own businesses across the South Shore. Some remain in the industry today.

Lopes even helped Lane get his first job — as a press trainee at PIP Printing, a small franchise print shop with offices in Braintree and Norwood that paid $2.20 an hour.

“I started printing anything and everything. I saw it as an opportunity to make some money.”

It was just a start. He moved quickly through the ranks of the small print shop. Within two years, he was promoted from trainee to press operator to production manager, assistant manager, and manager with oversight of the entire shop

Lane was enrolled in the formal training program the parent corporation made available to franchise owners. At 21, he was the youngest attendee there. It wasn’t long before he was sharing production tips with the program instructors. They liked Lane so much they offered him a job. He politely declined.

He was firmly planted on the South Shore. He worked for the PIP franchise for nearly five years.

Analog Devices, a world leader in the manufacture of semi conductors and other electrical devices, was coming to the South Shore. They were looking for vendors for needed services. Lane made contact with key marketing people at Analog early on. He saw a potential printing client that could develop into a lasting and profitable relationship. He pleaded with the franchise owner to invest in more equipment and employees to handle the possible work. The hands-off owner refused.

“When I started in 1976 we had one press operator,” he said. “By the time I left we had six or seven press operators. I had grown the business. I felt confident in what I was doing. I was disappointed that the owner didn’t act on my advice.”

He parted on good terms and in 1980 sold commercial printing for the Addison Getechell Company, a commercial printer on Causeway Street in Boston, near the old Boston Garden. He also learned job estimating skills there — in the days before software programs did the brunt of the number crunching. Within a year, however, he was back in the quick printing arena.

Learning business lessons the hard way
The owner of an established commercial printing company in Norwood recruited Lane to set up an independent quick print shop. Lane agreed to the job under the condition that he have equal ownership in the venture. The owner agreed, but balked repeatedly when Lane asked for something in writing. Lane walked before investing too much time and energy into the new business venture.

By now, some printers around the South Shore knew of Lane and his successful track record with the Norwood store, and they wanted him for his production, sales and management skills.

“I knew then that I needed to run my own operation,” Lane says.

Instead, he was approached by a husband and wife team who owned five PIP franchises around the Boston area.

Their business was bleeding money badly. They needed $10,000 in revenue each month to break even, but their franchises were pulling in only $4,000 collectively. Lane took the job. In less than a year, he rallied staff and got revenues well up over the monthly break-even.

He put his estimating techniques to work. He taught workers at the counters of each of the PIP stores how to identify the clients’ printing needs and then try to fill them. He taught employees how to anticipate what other printing needs clients may have, or how the addition of a color or two could help.

Lane says while the national average for a PIP invoice was $50, the five franchise locations he managed produced jobs valued at seven times the national average.

Getting back to his roots
One axiom shared to aspiring businessmen and women is if you want to be successful, surround yourself with successful people. Lane has and that has helped him immeasurably over the years.

He credits his family, friends and teachers for getting Lane Printing off to a good start. Clients, and business owners he’s met over the years through his involvement with the South Braintree Board of Trade has also had a positive impact on his business. The South Braintree Board of Trade, a chamber of commerce-like organization of business owners, community-minded activists, and just plain, “good people.”

One such friend, Victor Young, took a liking to Lane and offered to back him financially in his quest for his own company in the early 1980s. Lane found a PIP franchise on Cape Cod in Hyannis that looked promising. Young provided the financial backing that Lane lacked, and he even accompanied him to the attorney’s office when the time came to sign for a $100,000 loan to buy the business.

“All the preliminary work was done,” Lane said. “It was time to sign. I took the pen, leaned over the desk, was about sign, then paused and leaned back. Victor asked me if there was a problem.

“We stepped outside for a moment. I told him I could do better than this. For less money, I thought I could find some equipment, find a place, and start a business closer to my roots in the Braintree area. I grew up in Braintree. All my friends were there,” Lane said. His friend led him back into the attorney’s office, told the attorney they’ve had a change of heart. Young ripped up the loan application and the two jumped back into Young’s car and headed up Route 3 for home.

Soon after, Lane started attending auctions and bought used equipment. Another friend from the Board of Trade had commercial space available On April 1, 1985, Lane Printing was born. It started out with one press in a 1,000 square foot rented space at 53 Plain St. in Braintree. Lane was on his way.

Determined to have a successful business
Married to his high school sweetheart Carolyn, who also his business partner and company treasurer, and with three daughters and a son to raise, Frank Lane was determined to make his new business a successful enterprise.

He began selling printing to people across the South Shore and throughout the Greater Boston area with who he had nurtured relationships over the years.

“Everywhere I’ve worked, clients have stuck with me at each stop along the way. For that I’m grateful.” He stresses that he never stole a customer from past employers. They’ve all moved with Lane on their own.

One of his first clients was Lifestyle International, a shoe and luggage company that was bought out years ago by a foreign firm. When he finally got to work for the company, he worked with three people within the company’s marketing department. The company is long gone, but to this day, he still provides printing and related services to each of those three marketing professionals who have gone on to numerous other jobs. Each time they move on, they call Lane.

In the first year of business, Lane met members of the board of directors of the Bayside Merchant Mart, a consortium of retail apparel buyers that served all of New England. “Virtually every piece of clothing that came into New England and was sold at retail came through the consortium,” he says.

A basic printing job grew into a bi-monthly, 16-page two-color newsletter. Lane then helped the consortium get into mailing. Soon he was coordinating photo shoots for the advertising spreads the buyers needed. It gave his young company a boost.

Principles guide Lane in business decisions as well, even when there is easy money to be made.

One example was the first printing job he did for the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA) 15 years ago. The public transit authority had allocated $21,000 for 50 copies of a four-color, 32-page print job that it needed right away.

Lane landed the job and turned it around in 30 hours. He charged the MBTA a whopping $1,300. That MBTA official who saw the invoice and that it was nearly $20,000 less than the funds allocated for the expense never forgot that. Today, and for years since that first job, Lane prints a variety of materials for the MBTA.

Lane has other similar experiences from 31 years of printing on how small gestures can lead to huge dividends. One such experience he dials from memory is simply referred to as “the fax machine.”

Lane bought one soon after the technology hit the marketplace. His cost $3,500, a steep price at the time. He had been working to land a major account for years, by staying in touch with the communications manager of a well-known company that consumers all over New England and the East Coast visit every single day.

Lane was making one of his occasional visits to this communications manager’s office when he walked into the middle of a crisis. The corporation had a major meeting going on in Florida. Clients of this major corporation had traveled from all over the country to this national meeting. Last minute changes were made to important documents the corporation needed to distribute to hundreds meeting attendees. It was too late to reprint the job in Boston and charter a flight to Florida.

Quick on his feet, Lane found a printer in Florida across the street from where the national meeting was taking place. He faxed him the revised documents. The Florida printer typeset the document, made the necessary copies and got the revised document into the hands on attendees on time.

Lane had rescued that production manager.

“That fax machine helped me land an account that I’ve now had for 18 years,” he says.

A broader view of the future: A full service solutions shop
Early on Lane recognized that clients often needed more than just printing. Eighteen months ago Lane decided to change the name of his company to Lane Printing & Advertising. He realized his 13-employee company had evolved to more than just a traditional print shop.

The company offers graphic design services, print management guidance, mailing and fulfillment services, traditional printing and digital reproduction, large format printing, vinyl lettering, advertising services, event planning, public event planning, and more.

Lane Printing & Advertising has long standing relationships with some of the biggest names in the industry. Lane Printing is an HP certified Print Center, an Adobe certified print provider.

“It’s been 1½ years since I changed the name to Lane Printing & Advertising and we’ve grown considerably. We’re more diversified than typical print shop. I’m beginning to look at the company as an advertising agency with production capability,” he says.

He is working closely with a Massachusetts state agency to develop graphic standards that will apply to everything from letterhead to how the agency’s emblem appears on its vehicles.

“More and more, we are being brought into work with clients because of our expertise,” he says. “We are a resource provider in every sense of the word in that we help find solutions for our clients.

“I know the trend for a while has been that printers have do more than just put ink on paper. We are like that,” he says. “I build teams that provide the resources that our clients need — whatever they are to achieve their needs.”

About the author: John Scibelli is editor of New England Printer & Publisher magazine and director of communications for Printing Industries of New England. He can be reached at 508-804-4113 or by
e-mail at .