Couple opens franchise for graphics in Mountainside

Date AddedJuly 22, 2009 06:59:50 AM

Author

CategoryAdvertising Franchises

By LAURIE LEVOY

· STAFF WRITER • July 21, 2009

MOUNTAINSIDE - It takes optimism and personal fortitude to purchase a franchise business in December -- smack in the depths of an entrenched nationwide recession -- and open up for business six months later.
But that's exactly what Ed and Shirley Bankole did.
Not only did they purchase the AlphaGraphics franchise formerly located for about 16 years in Union, this couple changed their career paths to start a joint venture in the unfamiliar and detail-heavy field of design and printing services.
"We needed someone to guide us in the day-to-day aspects of production, and we are so very lucky to have that person, Joe Carillo, who is our manager,'' Ed Bankole said.
Carillo also was the top man at the AlphaGraphics in Union and helped forge a smooth and relatively seamless move to the Mountainside address, the former building site for Classic Conservatories before it went out of business.
The AlphaGraphics' brochure states it's mission is to "design, copy, print, communicate.''
Bankole said, ""What we offer clients is our ISO designation.'' ISO stands for the International Organization for Standardization, which sets benchmarks for quality, timeliness and consistency, Bankole explained.
"Every job we do has to meet those standards and is documented,'' he said.
The Bankoles have a vision for their business that goes beyond the mechanical aspects of printing materials.
"We can provide marketing and consulting solutions to businesses of all sizes and will find small ways to help clients meet their budget,'' Bankole said.
"We will sit down and discuss with a client what results they want, why color and paper matters in a job. For example, if the client is considering a mailing, we'll discuss how they track the results of that mailing. And we can tell them thatAlphaGraphics can help them do that,'' Bankole said.
The couple, who live in Maplewood with their 10-year-old son, Edward James ("E.J''), described the strengths each has brought to the franchise. Shirley Bankole said that as a former director of sales for Mary Kay, she coordinates sales and marketing aspects of the business and its clients.
"I earned a red Pontiac Grand Am, not Mary Kay's pink car,'' said Shirley Bankole, with a chuckle, alluding to the famous pink-with-four-wheels sales incentive Mary Kay has presented to its top producers.Advertisement
Husband Ed's contribution is provided through the business acumen he acquired in the field of financial services, where he specialized in risk management.
"But we had been talking about building up enough equity to get into something we could both do together,'' he said.
Ed Bankole said that after working with a franchise broker in New Jersey to search for the right business opportunity, negotiations with the AlphaGraphics in Union were undertaken.
"We wanted a business with staple cash flows that provided opportunities to offer competitive advantages to our clients, and we found it at AlphaGraphics,'' he said.
Shirley Bankole added that the move to Mountainside has been advantageous.
"It offers an area of many small and corporate accounts. And this building is great because we were able to set up a conference room to meet with our accounts,'' she said.
The Bankoles, neither native to the United States, first came her to study. Shirley Bankole, born in the Caribbean island nation of the Commonwealth of Dominica, is a graduate of The City College of New York. Ed Bankole, from Nigeria, earned undergraduate and MBA degrees at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Mutual friends introduced them, and they have been married for 13 years.
The couple said the AlphaGraphics' corporate offices in Salt Lake City provided the new owners with three weeks of intensive tutoring.
"They coached us to leave the work here, at the office, when we go home,'' said Shirley Bankole, before adding that has yet to happen.
"Sometimes, my husband will wake me up or call Joe late at night to bounce off ideas. It's still all very exciting to realize that Joe, I and my husband are all part of a collaborative team here,'' Shirley Bankole said.
Laurie Levoy; 908-243-6614; llevoy@MyCentralJersey.com