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Solutions February 2006 
president’s
message
By TIMOTHY J. MEHL, CDC
Change
Your Business Focus to Create
Opportunities
A
note from DMIA President Tim
Mehl, CDC: Dick Gray, CDC, has
contributed a lot to DMIA. He
was Member of the Year in 2000,
and always has been an active
participant in meetings, webcasts
and the principal’s listserv.
Dick has extensive knowledge
of our industry, and is always
willing to share. In this article,
Dick explains how he transformed
his company, Xtension Technologies
Inc., Laguna Hills, Calif.,
from a forms distributor to
a solutions provider.
How
would you feel if within a 2-year
period, you had to learn a new
language, adopt new customs and
do it so well that customers never
saw you make a mistake? Could
you succeed? What if your very
business existence depended on
it? Welcome to my world!
Several
years ago, I decided to transform
myself from a successful business
forms professional. I embarked
on a whole new area that was just
starting to appear in our industry.
Our industry has been very adaptive
over many decades—we change
gears and directions based on
the needs of our customers and
prospects. Customers need to change
because their competition gains
advantages, or because new processes
are mandated by new laws or new
technologies. The challenge to
change, brought on by customer
needs, is still a driving force
in business today.
Change
and customer needs created opportunities
for me to sell my expertise in
printed checks and MICR check
printing systems. While
I was classically trained in all
phases of business form and label
design, and I had been selling
all types of forms, checks and
labels for 25 years, I wanted
to be a specialist—a niche
marketer—in an age of specialization.
In 1995, there weren’t many
people in our industry making
a concerted effort to include
document security on new check
designs or trying to convince
customers to pay more for what
looked like a novelty product
upgrade. So, that was my area
of concentration.
I
tested the market by talking to
CFOs and CEOs about the value
of incorporating MICR check printing
and document security into their
payroll check and accounts payable
check printing processes. I talked
about protecting one of their
most valuable company assets:
their hard-earned cash. I found
a receptive audience from most
of the executives I contacted.
There wasn’t anyone
else calling on them about this
particular niche. In being a new
specialist, though, I reluctantly
passed up a lot of traditional
business, but that business would
have taken away from the time
I needed to concentrate on where
I wanted to be.
As
a long-term goal, I was shooting
to have a large stable of customers
spread over the entire country
who recognized me as an expert
with a passion for what I did
and would be willing to recommend
my services to others.
Over
10 years, I’ve grown my
business and become a student
of how criminals think and operate
when it comes to all forms of
document fraud. I applied that
knowledge in designing defense
mechanisms into customer’s
check writing systems. Today,
Xtension Technologies Inc. specializes
in many types of document security,
MICR check writing software, plus
integration and consulting services.
All the while, we work to stay
on top of the wrinkles criminals
keep incorporating into document
fraud.
With
20-20 hindsight, my strategy seems
obvious and simple, but in 1995
it seemed pretty risky. Yes, it
was a carefully calculated risk,
but no amount of calculation can
guarantee success. The lesson
here for all entrepreneurs is
this: The business success I’ve
had is because I created an opportunity.
Timothy
J. Mehl, CDC, is CEO of Dispatch,
a manufacturer in Erie, Pa., and
DMIA’s president.
