Making People Happy - All Day Long: The Paradise Copies Story.

One of the greatest selling points Carol MacColl tells potential employees at Paradise Copies in Northampton, Massachusetts, is that they get to work in an environment where they make people happy, all day long.? Print has that power.

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Most NPSOA owners can relate on some level to this statement. They can agree that at a time when methods of communicating are becoming increasingly complex, print—ink on paper and countless other substrates—has consistently proven to be the most reliable medium to convey images and ideas.

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Print has an unequalled history of strength—and believability. It has the power to shape ideas and influence action. Whether educational, instructional, or promotional – print delivers, as has Paradise Copies for almost 35 years, capitalizing on a winning formula that puts community, customers, and people first.

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Over the last year I have profiled many fascinating print and sign owners, who typically fall into two categories: those destined to follow in the footsteps of their ancestors with ink running through their veins or those who circuitously found their path to print by happenstance or epiphany.? Carol MacColl’s story falls into the latter category.

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She was born in Philadelphia, the second of six daughters to Mary Wentworth and Alexander MacColl.? Her mother was a Smith-educated social activist and feminist who twice ran for Congress (unsuccessfully) and later became a sales rep for a promotional products company. Her father was a headmaster at a Quaker School.?

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From an early age MacColl understood the importance of community.

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While only nine years separated the six MacColl sisters from oldest to youngest, Carol was the only one with an “entrepreneurial edge” she recalls.? As early as the fourth grade she would sell plant seeds door to door to finance her goal of getting the first “skateboard on the block.”

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The family would eventually move to New Jersey for Alexander MacColl’s work within the Quaker school network.? When her parents divorced, her mother moved to Amherst, Massachusetts so that Wentworth could enter graduate studies at the University of Massachusetts. ?While Wentworth did not continue to pursue a degree eventually MacColl would go on to graduate from the UMass with a degree in Economics.?

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While at UMass she would often visit a local print shop to get her curriculum course books. It was her print epiphany. “I was fascinated by the equipment, by the rhythm of the machines.? I just knew I wanted to work there,” she shares. ?

And so, after graduation, MacColl joined Gnomon Copies and began her illustrious career in print.? The year was 1979.

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Digital printing was at its infancy, and it was baptism by fire for the young, hardworking MacColl.? “We’re talking about the days when machines produced just 24 copies a minute, with no auto-feeders; when copying required the finesse of literally rolling a book to the timing of the light of the machine operated with a foot pedal, where you would make the even copies first then put them back in the copier to print the odd.? It was very labor intensive,” reminisces MacColl, who worked the night shift in the 24-hour operation.

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MacColl and her co-workers unionized after her company fired their hard-working local manager. “If they would do that to him, we thought they would do that to us.” After two years of negotiating and three months on strike the landlord ended the tenancy at will and asked the company to vacate the space.? MacColl and five other union members, already discussing doing so, started Collective Copies, where she was a co-owner for the following six years.

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She opened Paradise Copies in Northampton, just across the river from Amhurst in 1989.? Northampton is a suburb of Springfield with a population of just 30,000 people, known for its academic and artistic influences.? It is where she resided with her husband Don and young daughters Tory and Cassie.?? “I knew my girls would go to public school in Northampton and that’s where I wanted my business, in my community” says MacColl.

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MacColl was ready for the challenge with years of hands-on experience working the equipment, negotiating contracts, paying bills, and working with customers.? She looked for a name for her company that would resonate with both "town and gown."? Her husband came home from grocery shopping one day and suggested Paradise Copies. She knew instantly it was perfect because prominent landmarks at Smith College are Paradise Pond and Paradise Lane and because the Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind was famous for saying Northampton was the “paradise of America.”

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With a $20,000 loan from her father to purchase equipment and leasing a 600 square foot basement space in a one story office building in downtown Northampton, the exciting origins of Paradise were set in motion.

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Unfortunately, the July 11, 1989, opening was anything but paradise.? “The rehabilitated Xerox 9500 I purchased from a California company was too heavy for the grips to bring down the stairs and the equipment tumbled head over head, crashing through a wall and landing just steps from the gas tank.? Fortunately, no one was hurt but it could have been even more catastrophic,” shudders MacColl.

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Undaunted, she capitalized on her relationship with Xerox and other copier companies and demoed five or six machines from different manufacturers until a permanent replacement machine could be installed.? “My only permanent copier starting out was a Panasonic desktop machine,” she chuckles.? “Fortunately, my few customers were forgiving and the expectations for immediate turnarounds were less back then,” she adds.

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Starting with just one additional employee and a part-time bookkeeper, MacColl quickly expanded her business, becoming a fixture of her community and always putting customers first.? By her third year in operation sales doubled from the $200,000 she grossed after her first full year and Paradise Copies moved to the main floor of the building it leased.? Over the next 16 years she would lease progressively more space, ultimately occupying the entire property.

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“I had a phenomenal landlord, and we had a great relationship.? His word was his bond and when he shook your hand you knew you could trust him” she remembers.?

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Unfortunately, when MacColl’s landlord passed away, his son did not inherit his business practices.? “I knew I had to leave,” she says.

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MacColl’s community relationships once again paid dividends when a location one eighth of a mile from her shop went up for sale.? The land included the 5,500 square feet of space her print shop occupies along with a brick home with office space that also operates as a bed and breakfast.? “Some questioned the decision, but it has turned out to be great,” she asserts.

“While we can always use more space, we make do.”

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Once strictly a black and white copy shop, Paradise Copies has expanded over the years into full color digital printing, wide format, signage, and mailing.? It has a design team of three and a half people and also does binding and finishing, along with die-cut stickers and labels.? Its current staff complement is 18.

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“We’ve come a long way from software on floppy disks. To get newsletters done we had to shut down our Mac SE30 just to load fonts, not to mention that tiny screen,” laughs MacColl.

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Her current equipment list includes a Versant 3100 and 180, Oce 115, Xerox d110, Digimaster 7110, Colorwave, Rolland TruVis3, Oce 700, in addition to a Duplo 618, Duplo perfect binder, Challenge Titan 265 cutter, auto and roll laminators, folders, coil, wire, and sure binders.

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Ultimately, it has always been about the customer for Paradise Copies.? Until the pandemic the company was open seven days a week for their convenience, weekdays 7 a.m. to 10 p.m, with shorter hours on weekends.? MacColl still has a policy of giving free copies for customers just wanting three copies or less.? Some of her longtime customers use it as opportunity to drop by and visit the cheery, colorful shop with its palm trees and tropical décor, which MacColl had a hand in designing personally.?

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“We do what people need and we never turn down a job, no matter how small,” she says.

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While her business model has had to adapt to changing technologies and take advantage of new opportunities, MacColl’s core customer base has not changed in 35 years.? “I always wanted to stay a community shop,” she says. And one thing she learned from those first years, “You have to respect your employees and give them the tools they need to do their jobs!”

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A third of her business continues to be individuals, whether walk-ins or orders emailed in.? Another third comes from businesses within Northampton and the final third comes from the educational community, principally Smith College, which, though it has purchased copying equipment of its own, still relies on Paradise for larger jobs.

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Like virtually every printer in America MacColl saw her business take a hit during the pandemic. “We lost about 50 percent of our business but fortunately never had to close because we were deemed an essential service by the state because of our printing COVID related materials such as hospital signs and unemployment forms.”? Her shop shortened hours for one month from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and closed on Sundays.? It has kept the later policy in place ever since.?

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Within a year her business was back to 75 percent of pre-pandemic sales levels and continues to grow.

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MacColl was grateful to receive PPP funding and credits NPSOA’s popular Owner’s Listserve with helping her navigate through the pandemic with business advice that was “very useful.”

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When asked what skills are required to remain in business for 35 years, MacColl says she has always had a head for numbers, is a competent negotiator, is frugal and ultimately is “a good employer.”? The tenure of many of her employees is a testament to this with several working at Paradise for more than 20 years, including a brain-injured employee who has been with the company for more than 30 years.

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Several Paradise employees who left the company to pursue other opportunities have returned because of the collegiality of the team and receiving “the tools they need to succeed.”

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What does the future hold for the 68-year-old MacColl and Paradise Copies?? “I’m not a long-term planner,” she smiles.?

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One thing she can say is that looks forward to working fewer hours enjoying time spent with her family, which now includes two young grandsons, August and Noa.