Printing Place, at 209 Cambridge Street, as its name states, is a place to get printing jobs done. This business is a partnership owned and run by Doug and Deb Place. Deb takes care of the customer service, finances and invitations while Doug is involved with the creation of projects and managing customer files. They are sounding boards for each other regarding business decisions and have talents that balance each other.

It was twenty six years ago that Printing Place first opened off of Winn St at 1 Mountain Rd. They were there for about 2 years before moving to their current location. The industry has changed over the years and there have been ups and downs as well as changes in the printing needs of customers due largely to the widespread use of computers.

Before computers people sent out letters and cards for correspondence. There was more of a demand for letterhead stationery and envelopes. Less and less paper is now being used although traditional types of printing jobs are still being done at Printing Place like business letterhead, envelopes, cards and social invitations. Eighty percent of the printing work regularly done is for the commercial customer.

Times have changed and Printing Place is changing along with it. It’s a tech driven business, says Place. They are doing projects that they haven’t done before:  magnets, bumper stickers, promotional displays, brochures, banners, ads and tent cards for functions. The common scenario is a customer does a brochure on his computer with his own design but has trouble printing it because the quality of his printer is not that good or he doesn’t have the printing knowledge to finish the job. That’s when he brings his job to Place to correct and print.

Printing Place has a solid base of commercial clients that keep them busy. They never relied on the big companies or corporations to give them work. It’s the smaller to mid-size companies that come in on a regular basis to get jobs done for their businesses.  Place has a handle on the current business climate and adapts accordingly.

Back in high school, Place realized he had interest in graphics and was first introduced to printing. After high school he attended Rochester Institute of Technology, giving Place a technical education in business and printing.

Although Place got a good education at RIT he got an even better training working at Acme Printing. They are a top notch printing company in this area. This is where Place met Deb, his wife and partner.

“Our website is an online presence that we are still working on,” beams Place.  “We’re excited about it."

Clients can shop online placing their orders securely. Printing Place can reach a much broader audience this way. Customers have the ability to go online and price their order, streamlining customer service.  The website is www.theprintingplaceinc.net.

It’s easy to get complacent sometimes in business, says Place. “You think you have it down” but things are always changing and we have to adapt to the changes and the current trends.