08/09/2026
I came across this post on another small business owner’s page and I wanted to share it cause we have had similar stories. One in particular that I will share at the end.
This was their story -
The first order I ever lost money on cost me $340 and I'd pay it again tomorrow.
Guy wanted 60 shirts for a family reunion. I was new, I was hungry, and back then I said yes to everything including a deadline that made no sense.
I ran that job twice. First run the color was off because I didn't check teh screen close enough. Second run came out clean, but I ate the cost of the first one and then drove it out myself an hour each way because there was no time left to ship it.
I made nothing on it. Actually I made negative $340.
But that family posted their photos. Somebody in their comments asked who did the shirts. That turned into a church order, then a softball team, then a whole youth league that still orders from me every single spring.
Here's what I took from it. Not every loss is a loss. Some of them are just marketing you paid for in the wrong currency.
I'm not telling you to work for free. I'm telling you that showing up right when it actually costs you something is the loudest thing you will ever do for your reputation.
Now this is Katrina’s story -
She started this business in 2002 with just one computer, one plotter, a roll of vinyl, and a hope and promise. She rented a small spot in town and opened the door!
One of her very first customers placed an order for 100 corrugated signs. When the signs were finished, the customer said the color of the vinyl lettering wasn’t right.
At that point, she had a choice.
She could have made excuses, told the customer that was what he ordered, or simply walked away from it. Redoing 100 signs was a HUGE expense for a brand-new business — honestly, it could have put her under before she ever really got started.
But Katrina knew one thing: if your name is on it, you make it right.
So she redid every single sign.
She didn’t do it because it was easy. She didn’t do it because she could afford to. She did it because integrity means doing what’s right, even when doing what’s right costs you something.
And you know what happened?
That customer stayed.
All these years later, he is still one of our very best customers. He sends other customers our way, supports our business, and he walks into our back door at work at least once a week to check on us!
That one decision could have looked like a loss at the time. Instead, it became one of the best investments Graphics Plus ever made.
You can replace materials. You can redo a job. But once you lose a customer’s trust, that’s a lot harder to get back.
That’s something we’ve carried with us at Graphics Plus from the very beginning: Do good work. Stand behind it. Treat people right. And when something isn’t right, make it right.
That’s integrity. ❤️
