Business here for the little guys

IN BUSINESS: Little Guys Copy and Print is in Guyton St. PICTURE / PAUL BROOKS

Tania Warbrick is well known in Whanganui as a photographer, but she's also paid her dues in copy and print.
"I've been 10 years in that type of business in Quay Copy Centre." That business moved up Victoria Ave after last year's flood, and recently Tania was given the opportunity to take the business over.
"I didn't take the business name. I wanted to start it from scratch and put more of my personality in it," she says, and she called it Little Guys Copy and Print, taking up premises at 72A Guyton St, in the old CLAW offices and lately where Light and Life Centre operated.
People have asked why she called the business Little Guys.
"In Whanganui we seem to have a lot of home-based and small businesses. What I'm trying to do is keep that niche market of the small business and let people know I have the facility to print your documents at an affordable rate. They can do the work on their computer and send their print-ready documents to me and I either print them out or suggest ways to make it more affordable for them."
Tania says she's not chasing the commercial work - there are printers far more able to do those jobs - it's more for the little guys in business.
The plural also acknowledges the many people who have provided support for Tania and the business, and without whom she feels she would not be where she is. "The business has to be represented by an 'us' because I could never have done this by myself."
Already, many of her former customers have tracked her down in her new business and premises.
"It's been humbling," she says.
Little Guys is a photocopying centre, through which Tania prints documents, newsletters ... "People come in with USBs, want photos printed off - even though we're photocopyists, people don't mind using the photocopier to have their photos printed. We will do brochures, leaflets, that sort of thing. We have the transfer printing side which is printing T-shirts and fabrics. Some craft ladies - and some men - come in and get transfer prints on material to be sewn into quilts."
A new service Tania has established is personalising cups and mugs with designs and logos.
"I'm doing this in store; I'm not sending anything off-site. My biggest focus is that everything is done here. For this, I've come up with a brand called Home Made."
The difference is the quality, she says. Many people have printers at home and, supposedly, can print off anything they create on their computer. Until it comes to quantity and quality.
"At this stage I believe I am the cheapest at A4 colour copying at $1."
Home inkjet printers can show seepage on the paper.
"If I can show people what a colour copy can look like ... "
Tania says a lot of business comes from people unhappy with the quality they achieve at home.
Little Guys also does binding, laminating, A3 printing, personalised calendars with the customers' own photos, labels, cards, business cards, place-setting cards and more.
Tania still provides a fax service - sending and receiving - and finds people still need to use it.
If Little Guys can't do it, customers will be referred to local businesses that can.
Business hours are 9am-5pm Monday to Friday.