Page 7 - Marketing Times v1

pro ciently as his Western Michigan instructors. His impressive skills, combined with the favorable job market, led to as many job offers as he had interviews.
After one year as the production manager of a printer in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Goff was ready for something else. When asked about his motivation to start Village Press, he replied, “I wanted to work for a small company, and I couldn’t nd one that I wanted to work for, so
I started my own.” He and his wife decided together that Traverse City was a great place to raise a family, so they moved up north to settle down. Initially, neither had jobs lined up, but Goff knew that the area business environment was ripe for a good printer. There were several small print shops working with letterpress printing, but because nobody was using the newer offset printing technology, all of the area’s large print jobs were commissioned to downstate companies. Goff was convinced he could do a better job than anyone else in the region and keep those big print jobs local with his own company.
Goff was only 24 years old when he
started Village Press in 1969. As a young married college graduate, he didn’t have more than $5,000 in total, not nearly enough to purchase the equipment he would need for his printing company. He found two experienced
nancial partners, Roger Watson and John Renny, who were willing to contribute capital and advice, while Goff remained the face of the business and took charge of daily operations. Years later, Goff would buy them out of the business, but he recalls their partnership fondly, in large part because: “They taught me how
to run a business. I knew the printing part,
but they taught me how to be a businessman,” said Goff.
Goff built strong partnerships within the local business community from the start. The clients that kept the company going in the early days were all local – Northwestern Michigan
As the printing industry shrinks due to the increased use of
digital technology,
VP’s creativity and diversity in its services has allowed the company to pivot
and grow.
Fall 2014 • Traverse City Marketing Times 7
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