\u201cIt\u2019s a pretty competitive industry, surprisingly,\u201d said Adam Smith, co-founder of Lucky Prints. The company is currently run by Smith, an operations manager and a production manager. The other co-founder left the company last year for graduate school.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n The revenue of Lucky Prints grew to $250,000 in 2014 from $200,000 a year ago.<\/p>\n \u201cWe started with minimum findings, and built it from the ground up.\u201d The start-up capital and initial purchase of Lucky Prints added up to $65,000. Expenses for the company include costs of raw materials, inventories, rents and salaries for its four employees.<\/p>\n Building a customer-friendly business has always been Lucky Prints\u2019 main focus. \u201cWe took our pricing, we figured out what it costs us to operate and what it costs us to be successful and to be profitable, and simplified it down to a way that our customers can understand, instead of seeing a bunch of hidden fees.\u201d<\/p>\n Being located in Chicago has brought great advantage to Lucky Prints. Smith said although suburban manufacturers pay much lower rents, taxes and wages, the city location has exposed Lucky Prints to a lot more opportunities. \u201cWe can say that we are a Chicago company, and we are manufacturing here in Chicago,\u201d he added. \u201cCustomers care a lot about who is the closest to them that they can do business with.\u201d<\/p>\n The apparel printing business has a dramatic seasonal fluctuation. For Lucky Prints, sales are about three times greater in summer months than in the winter, largely due to the wide range of outdoor events including concerts and festivals that need custom t-shirts.<\/p>\n \u201cThe winter time became a very good tool for us to internally develop our economy, \u201c Smith added, \u201cbecause we can schedule out what products to promote in the summer, and what capability we can expand into in order to keep ourselves competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n A \u201cbig landmark moment\u201d for Lucky Prints was \u201ca run of 15,000 pieces that we have done on manual printing press,\u201d Smith said. The project took a week of \u201cfull eight to 10 hours of straight production time,\u201d but it was a threshold for the company. \u201cWhen we crossed it, we realized that we are getting the type of repeat business and we are getting the type of customers that we really want and need as a foundation to allow us to take the leap to the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Lucky](\"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2015\/03\/1-300x162.jpg\")
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