A Letter from Greg Muzzillo

Dear Business Owner:

Thank you for your interest in Proforma.

If you own your own business in the printing and promotional products industry and are seeking an opportunity to grow your sales, profits, and value of your business while having more fun, Proforma may be the opportunity that you are seeking.

I founded Proforma in 1978 and by 1980 sales exceeded $1 million dollars. By 1983, our multi-million dollar success put us on the list of Inc. Magazine’s 500 fastest growing companies—a recognition that we received for three consecutive years. In 1985, the President of the United States named Proforma the National Small Business of the Year.

Despite all this success and achieving sales of $5 million per year, I still wasn’t making the kind of money or having the kind of fun I thought I should be as a business owner. I knew there had to be a better way.

Sound familiar?

After a bit of research, I realized that there were hundreds of similar distributorships in the Cleveland, Ohio area—and tens of thousands of distributorships in North America—that shared my feelings. We had duplicative overhead, with our own computer operators and systems, rent, phone systems, accounting staffs and systems, billings, accounts receivable, accounts payable and so on.

That’s when the idea hit me. If we could find a way to share our expensive overhead, combine our clout with our suppliers, and continue to produce real marketing programs for customers—now that would be a better way to business!

So, in 1985, I started franchising Proforma and found the better way.

Franchising allows each distributor to continue to own and control their own business, while benefiting from shared overhead, marketing programs, and vendor purchasing clout.

Today, Proforma is comprised of over 600 independent owner members and 100 employees in our Worldwide Support Center. We help our owners reduce expensive overhead, leverage a multi-million dollar marketing fund to their bottom-line advantage, and realize the benefits of $200 million dollars worth of purchasing clout with suppliers.

I am confident that together, we are building a better way for distributors to grow their sales, grow their profits, grow the value of their business, and have more fun.

I wish you good luck in your search for a better way. If your search leads you to a Discovery Day at our Proforma Worldwide Support Center, I look forward to meeting you in person and, perhaps, welcoming you as a member of the Proforma family of independent business owners.

Sincerely,

Greg P. Muzzillo
Founder & Co-CEO