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A sign near the front counter at Spokane's Litho Art Printers Inc. says, "Don't mind the dog. Beware of the owner."
The dog is a pudgy, black-and-gray cockapoo named Muffin, who occasionally saunters out to the front counter to greet familiar customers bearing treats, but spends most of her time napping under a desk. The owner--or owners, rather--are Alaskan transplants Kent and Omega Chandler, who used canine-like tenacity to survive a rough start after buying Litho, a longtime Spokane printing business, about six and a half years ago.
"We had basically two years of hell," struggling to boost revenue, cope with staffing problems, and make needed equipment upgrades in a city where they knew virtually no one, says Kent Chandler.
"We were very discouraged," adds Omega, his wife. "We had some very sleepless nights."
Literally.
Kent Chandler ran presses all night long at times during the couple's first year here, when Litho was without a head pressman for an extended period. In the ensuing years, though, thanks largely to sheer perseverance and a focus on giving good customer service, the business has stabilized and grown, he says.
Litho Art has developed a strong customer base, added a couple of presses and a programmable paper cutter, and boosted its full-time staff to about 10 people, including the owners, up from about four initially.
For a time, the Chandlers wondered whether they had made the right decision in buying the business and moving here. "Now we look at it differently,...