Colley Avenue Copies & Graphics Inc.

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Colley Avenue Copies & Graphics Inc. Printing services for clients large and small. Friendly folks operating at the speed of business. Small business feel... Big business impact!

We can handle all of your printing and graphic design needs and emergencies with ease.

10/06/2026

Another true story from Colly Avenue Copies
Lawnmower Man

Twenty eight years ago when Colley Avenue Copies was not quite as developed as it is today, we often had small business owners drop in. Sometimes those businesses were very small businesses.
I drove into work on a blistering Tuesday morning and saw an old rusted lawnmower that looked like it was on its last legs in front of our door. I stepped around the mower and went inside. There was a shirtless man standing there sweating asking for a sheet of paper and a pen. I looked at Holly, and she waved me off.
She handed the Lawnmower man a blank sheet of paper and a pen. He returned with a handwritten flyer in crooked writing advertising “Lawn Mowing for $5”. Holly and I looked at each other. We never let our regular clients put out poor marketing materials. It was our reputation, and it’s a principle we grew our business on. We decided that we would not let him hand out bad materials as well. Holly asked the Lawnmower man if he could wait for a minute. He said “Yes”. Our team, looking at the situation and after hearing everything, sprung into action. Holly reset his flyer to look professional and clean with $10 dollars being the new price per lawn. . “R” took the flyer and made 50 copies. I went to back to look through our advertising materials and pulled out one of our branded shirts, and “T” produced fifty professional full colored business cards. Lawnmower man left with, a shirt, flyers and business cards. with more confidence and a bounce in his step.
Your business may be more advanced and complicated than the Lawnmower man’s business, but it shows how we grew Colley Avenue Copies & Graphics, Inc., one customer at a time, with service and care and not letting subpar work go unchallenged. $10 dollars a lawn, and a priceless memory.

09/29/2026

Another True Colley Avenue Story…I post every Tuesday about business matters. This Tuesday the post has a religious slant, so I don’t blame you for skipping this post.
Cara dropped into the shop one day and saw the strange necklace I was wearing. She asked what it was? I told her that Holly gave it to me, and it was an encapsulated mustard seed. “ If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can move mountains.” As many of you know I am terminal with brain cancer and stage four liver failure due the chemo. With my faith I have outlasted many of my doctor’s expectations. I believed that I had that faith.
Cara looked at me and asked if I wanted to hear another interpretation of the Mustard Seed story. I said
“ Yes”
Cara began with “ If you had the faith like a mustard seed you could move mountains. The mustard plant was known for surviving hard times and droughts because the mustard plant root’s grow deep into the soil and can access the moisture from the soil. It survives troubled times and drought because of this. Your’ re relationship with God should also have deep roots.to access the lifesaving moisture from deep in the soil. At times in our life and business troubles seem unsurmountable, but with deep faith you can move mountains.
I asked Cara if I could share her version?
Cara said” I told you that version, so you could.
Go out and move mountains.

Supporting Monarchs Give Back! Drop by the office with your nonperishable food items and join us in Feeding the Lion!
09/28/2026

Supporting Monarchs Give Back! Drop by the office with your nonperishable food items and join us in Feeding the Lion!

09/22/2026

Another true story from Colley Avenue Copies
The Mind of an Entrepreneur

One of my major role models, my Father, was a terrible entrepreneur, but he always thought he was because he could see the trap in everything. and avoided any risks. He lost out by doing no research or embracing any opportunity that had any risk involved. Watching him as a little boy made me want to be an entrepreneur
Dad was sure, when he was sure. He caught my mom reading a stock option and he took it from her hand, read it and then tore it up.
“Hey, why did you do that?” My mom asked.
“That stock is worthless. No company with a real future would name itself after a fruit”
“I don’t know. I think Apple is a cute name, besides the stock is new and relatively cheap and I did my research.”
“That’s another thing. Stop buying stocks like that, it’s a waste of our money, it’s too much risk.”
My Dad was fairly charming and easily made friends with everyone including his superior Officers. One Officer dropped by the house once to let him look into buying a piece of an IPO he was going to invest in. I sat in the living room with my legs swinging from the couch. Then I heard a lot of yelling and my Dad rushed past me as he threw his friend out.
“get out!”
“What happened Dad?”
“ Damn fool, he tried to cheat me. Who would let someone drill a hole into their house just for better TV reception?” Yup. It was Cox Cable. .
I knew that I had to hang around better business role models. A thing that I recommend everyone do. I was hanging out with RL, a successful businessman who was meeting with two other friends. I stood there listening. Until they said something so far from the cause use approach, something that was so different, it shook my core and almost caused me to fall. They were talking about a young man they were mentoring, It took me years to get into my first house. They told the young man that a good opportunity was worth the risk, they told him to sell his house. “ You can always buy another house, but an opportunity may not come along. Again.”

Research, then take risks. Sell the house and commit. No risk, no gain. Just remember that Apple is a good name.

09/15/2026

Another True Story from Colley Avenue Copies
10 Things that I would have included in my Business Plan if Iknew better.
Time always teaches you.
1. I would have set mile stones including time lines. Without it I headed aimlessly towards my ultimate goals but did not realize that I could have gotten there with more focus using less resources by achieving smaller goals and following the time line.
2. Make sure that your business plan includes an avenue to scale up. Plan for your business to grow.
3. After incorporating. Plan for the IRS to audit you after two years. An audit in the first year doesn’t give the IRS enough material to audit. The call from the IRS is the scariest phone call I ever took. A simple thousand dollar mistake with interest and penalties turned into a forty thousand dollar bill and an audit every year for seven years. The IRS is especially focused on payroll taxes. You should hire an accountant to set you up with best accounting practices or take the sure path by hiring a payroll service.
4. Learn more about running your business A great chef doesn’t necessarily make a great restaurant. One of the most common reason that businesses fail is that the owner doesn’t know how to run their business or do sales. Never stop learning. seek out information Holly and I even took unpaid internships to learn more about what other businesses do and know. Set a defined time to do research and learn. There is no shame in Googling. It is better than no help at all.
5. Stay fit. Schedule time every day to improve your physical self. If you get sick and work at a reduced capacity, then your business will operate in a reduced capacity.
6. Have a plan to cross train your employees, especially yourself. This allows you to hire less employees and makes you less reliant when employees call in sick or leave.
7. Staff up as soon as you can. As the owner your time is valuable. Shift as much of the daily tasks as you can and do what you do best, running the business!
8. Watch your money, cost of materials change, and every penny counts.
9. Review your business plan periodically. Businesses have to grow with the needs of the clients.
10. Include an exit plan. We all grow old, including our business. You may want to move on or start something new.

09/08/2026

Another True Story from Colley Avenue Copies …
Pay Yourself
We have worked with and mentored many small businesses over the years, and a highlight of these interactions is when a small business owner bursts through our doors, all smiles and excitement, and tell us that they were able to take a paycheck for the first time! The greatest feeling you can have as small business owner is to be able to pay all your obligations and then, being able to pay yourself. In the early years, paying all your obligations and also yourself was an incredibly high bar to achieve. We said we had the same feeling when we were first able to take a pay check. The follow-up quest on was always, “were you able to take a check the following month”, I would gently reply “no”. However, I did say that I always wrote the check, for each pay period, and I collected the checks in a desk drawer. “Why write the checks?” Simple, you have to value your time. When receivables allowed, we cashed them.
People often start businesses for various reasons, to spend more time with family or to pursue a vocation that they love. Unfortunately, many small business owners forget to include the need to pay themselves in that plan. This is a mistake. The purpose of any business is to make money, otherwise you are running a non-profit or being a hobbyist, and will help you to accomplish your base goals. Try and satisfy the other reasons, but always make sure you put value on your time. Even if it means collecting checks in a drawer.

09/01/2026

Another True Story from Colley Avenue Copies

5 Things I Learned

The five most important things I learned in thirty years of running a small business, I learned making the following mistakes.

1. Don’t buy your customers
When most people first start a business they make a list of their competitors and their pricing, then price their products and services lower without ever knowing about their overhead. This can be dangerous if you need more to cover your overhead and make a profit. You should always price for the product and solutions that you provide. If no one ever says that your pricing is too high, then you may be pricing correctly. If you gain a client because of pricing then you’ll loose them to pricing.

2. Don’t set yourself on fire just to warm others.
Another big mistake is to create a lop sided deal just to satisfy a customer to your detriment just to keep them as a client. A business transaction should always be fair to both parties. Don’t use over servicing as a tool.

3. You can’t pay rent with receivables.
I was speaking with a fellow business owner about, what else, money. He was bragging about how he had sixty thousand dollars in receivables. I thought to myself oh, oh he had a serious problem. As a business owner, you wear many hats. Chief of which is to take sales to cash as fast as possible because you can’t pay rent with receivables. Two years later he had to shut his business down.

4. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
In the beginning we were dizzy with the possibilities of what we could do. We did one-off solutions all the time. Problem was that we lost money because we could not price correctly and pulled resources and manpower to complete a task we may never do again. When we stuck to our core competency we much better!

5. We thought that Sales People were pains in the a**.
I was mistaken. They were a great resource for learning what equipment other shops are using, and what new technologies are becoming available. It keeps us current and future looking. I now look at Sales People as a resource and are now happy to speak with them.

08/27/2026

Emilio took his first practice chanter lesson with us last week.

Interested in giving it a try?

We offer free lessons from 6 to 7 p.m. every Wednesday at St. Patrick Catholic School in Norfolk.

No experience necessary! 💙

08/25/2026

Another True Story from Colley Avenue Copies

Haters Gonna Hate

"C" was a talented graphic artist. Smart, intuitive - but he was a stone cold hater. In the years he was with us, I learned that most of the lunch places we ordered from-he hated. Cool, semi-famous person comes in, he hates that guy. PC based business, he hates Microsoft. Hate. Hate. Hate. Not mean, not belligerent, just, well, just a hater.

We often support golf tournaments and create a foursome of golfers from our crew to play in them. "C" hated golf. No surprise there, but I decided that he needed an afternoon off, so sent him to play golf. He played very well. He was a pretty talented athlete, but made sure he let his teammates know, repeatedly, that he hated golf. They were playing near a water hole when a turtle came out of the water and trudged towards them. "C" saw the turtle his face lit up, and he yelled "I LOVE TURTLES!" Shocked by this foreign declaration from "C", his teammates almost dropped their clubs. He ran towards the turtle, picked it up and the turtle promptly peed on him. "C" gently placed the turtle back on the grass and walked back to the golf cart, a sad look on his face. "I hate turtles."
Haters gonna hate.

Mr. Maurice from Rejoyce Car Detailing making sure our teams vehicles, from the littlest Mustang to the Honda beside it,...
06/05/2026

Mr. Maurice from Rejoyce Car Detailing making sure our teams vehicles, from the littlest Mustang to the Honda beside it, are looking good for the weekend!

Address

2706 Colley Avenue, Suite C
Norfolk, VA
23517

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 12pm
1pm - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 12pm
1pm - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 12pm
1pm - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 12pm
1pm - 5pm
Friday 9am - 12pm
1pm - 5pm

Telephone

+17574404000

Website

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