Copying success.

• Author: Montoya, Karen
• Position: Date-Line Copies Inc. - Company Profile

What does it take to be dubbed the best small business in the state?

How about rapid growth, exceptional customer service and keen business sense? Throw in lots of work for the community and you've got the official Small Business of the Year for 1996, Date-Line Copies. The Fairbanks copy shop was selected as Alaska's best by the state Chamber of Commerce in October from a pool of nominees statewide.

Owned by Fairbanks couple, Terrell and Linda Lewis, the shop has grown in the past several years from a mom-and-pop operation to a business that rivals nationally-recognized competitors like Kinko's in service and equipment. Chamber members believed that the owners of Date-Line Copies deserved to receive the award because the business they built is special, said Alaska Sate Chamber of Commerce President Pamela LaBolle.

"These are people who have reached out and done something we can admire," said LaBolle. "(The chamber looks for) the same spirit that brings people to Alaska. A willingness to take a risk and try something new."

That's just what the Lewises did when they decided to open the shop nine years ago. At that time the couple knew little about owning a business and less about operating a copy shop. But they spotted an opportunity when another copy shop in the University Mall where their store is now located went out of business.

"I was looking for a business," said Terrell Lewis. "Every time I walked by the old copy shop it was crowded. I wondered why it closed."

Lewis began asking questions. The answers he got made him believe the concept was a good one. The fact that he'd never run a copy shop before didn't bother him. He simply made a trip to the local Kinko's copy store, noted the equipment used there, and purchased the same - on a much smaller scale. Relying just on...