Co-owner Betsy Tino Wins “4 Under 40” Award Recognizing Emerging Leaders in the Community

FAIRMONT, Minn. – Betsy and Dustin Tino, Fairmont natives and owners of the Minuteman Press franchise in Fairmont, Minnesota, are proud to celebrate five years in business. Betsy has also won the “4 Under 40” Award from Twin Valley Action Council BSA, which recognizes emerging leaders in the community. Minuteman Press in Fairmont is located at 414 North State St., Suite 2, Fairmont, MN 56031. 

Returning Home to Start a Business

Five years ago, Betsy and Dustin decided to move back to their hometown of Fairmont. Betsy says, “I was in printing and involved in magazine publication as well as a larger print shop that did everything from mailings and booklets to business cards. Dustin was in orthopedics at a clinic and was looking for a change.”

She adds, “We wanted to work together and move closer to family. When we were looking for business ideas, we saw that there was a Minuteman Press franchise up for sale. We didn’t end up buying the shop that was listed but that is how we started talking about moving back to our home town and starting a new Minuteman Press in Fairmont.”

Celebrating Five Years

Betsy reflects on a whirlwind five years as she shares, “We’ve had a lot of milestones in five years since opening in November of 2017. In our first year, we moved back to our home town and opened up a brand new Minuteman Press location. We started the business from the ground up, we had a baby, and parented our 4-year-old. After growing the business in our first two years, the pandemic certainly changed things both for the business and our family in 2020. We ended up home schooling while managing the business, and later we decided to make a big decision to relocate to a new building that we purchased.”

Betsy continues, “Today, we are stronger than ever and are having a great 5^th year. We have wonderful clients, joined groups that make us proud to see our community succeed, and are a happy family with our children now 4 and 8 years-old.”

“Our community is a wonderful small city of 10,000 people with many small towns around us. Three keys to our success come from hard work, being involved in our community, and kindness.” -Betsy Tino, co-owner, Minuteman Press, Fairmont, MN

Winning “4 Under 40 Award” & Growing the Business

As Minuteman Press keeps the momentum going in Fairmont, Betsy was thrilled to be recognized by the Twin Valley Action Council BSA for her hard work. “This award is to recognize emerging leaders in our local community. I am honored to receive this award and be one of the four recipients because being involved in our small community is a great way to help our business, other businesses, and our community all grow together.”

Along those lines, Betsy shares her biggest key to growth, saying, “The best way we have grown our business is being involved in our community through clubs and organizations, which is something that Minuteman Press emphasizes during training. We love being involved and this also ties into the idea of kindness I mentioned earlier in our keys to success. The more you can do for others, the more likely they will want to support you. It’s a team effort.”

Betsy also credits the effectiveness and versatility of printing as a marketing tool, her shop’s capabilities, and focus on customer service for her success. She shares, “We love doing mailings and we can do it all in-house from design to delivery. We design, print, and then take mailings to the post office for our clients, and they don’t even have to touch it! We have also brought new services into our building that we purchased so we can have quality control over them and manage the timeline that fits our clients’ needs. Making our clients happy is our passion and our goal.”

The support provided from Minuteman Press International has also helped Betsy and Dustin build their business. Betsy says, “We appreciate Keith Cawley and our local support and we really enjoyed attending the Minuteman Press World Expo in Dallas in July. We learned a lot and had fun seeing and talking with other owners, vendors, and the core team from World HQ. It was great putting names to faces for when we call the tech support team, and overall the World Expo was a great  energy booster from our day-to-day routine.”

“Printing is something you can touch and feel. It’s real! So many clients come in and struggle to describe what they are looking for but when they look at our display wall in our lobby area, they are excited to point to something and say, ‘I want that!’” -Betsy Tino

Rewards & Advice for Others

When asked about the rewards of owning a business, Betsy answers, “We love creating the wide range of projects for our clients, from booklets to simple business cards, from camera ready art to complete designs. Each day is completely different and that is so much fun. People might say ‘you’re just a printer’ and I smile because we are so much more than printers, we are dream creators!”

As for what advice she would give to other business owners, Betsy shares, “Put the hard work in and go lean in the beginning. Make sure to schedule lunch and family time and make it fun! One day we had a large rush job, so we turned it into a movie night so the kids could be at the office with us and we could keep feeding the press! The hours might be business hours but the business will be your life, so fall in love with it so it makes you happy.”