For the last 10 years, Jayson Ownsby had been working for a local print service provider in the Knoxville, Tenn.-area. While he’s always dreamt of opening his own print shop, he didn’t make the leap until last year. Partnering with his cousin, Caylor Tallent, Ownsby started looking at equipment, and in early 2020, they opened PrintFX. “It was last January or February when we started pricing equipment, then COVID hit,” he says. “It threw a wrench in the plan, but through Dave [Grotkiewicz, LexJet sales representative], we worked it out.” 
Their first investment was the HP Latex 335 Print and Cut Solution. Once they got up and running with the printer, Grotkiewicz recommended the products in the HP Adhesive vinyl portfolio. “I love that vinyl,” says Ownsby. “I go through about 7-8 rolls a month of the HP Prime Gloss CP.”
The price and the quality of the vinyl have given them the opportunity to print stickers for local nutrition shops. “Because of COVID, they are using disposable cups and hand applying the stickers,” he says. “They also give the stickers to their customers to put on their own coolers or tumblers and I’ve even seen the stickers on bumpers around town. It helps them advertise and it helps us turn a profit, because of the price point.”
Ownsby says it’s not just the great pricing that keeps his customers coming back to him. The combination of the latex ink and HP adhesive vinyl means he can offer a quick turnaround on a more durable product compared to national online retailers. Getting his customers a durable product at a competitive cost with a short lead time helps make the nutrition shops more efficient. “When they purchased online, the stickers would come on rolls and the baristas can only do a few at a time. The stickers I give them are on sheets, which makes it easier to hand out so more people can knock them out in a few minutes.”
Printing stickers for the local nutrition shops aren’t the only thing keeping these cousins busy. They also use HP Optimal Gloss Air GRP for box trucks and recently, they used it on a racing truck. Once again, Ownsby says it’s the cost of the product that is helping improve his bottom line. “ I can either spend a few thousand on other brands to wrap a trailer, or a fraction of that on Optimal and the pairing laminate,” he says “I’m wrapping the same job, but only spending one-third of the money.”
As a small business owner, Ownsby relies heavily on the support of Grotkiewicz and the quality of the HP brand. “HP and LexJet make it affordable for me, as a small shop, with no employees and two owners. We are doing extremely big things as far as a two-person shop.” He says. “I think we go above and beyond and compete with the big boys who buy pallets of material.”
Tallent agrees. “The HP product line allows us to compete,” he says. “It is superior to other products and at a better price.”
Opening a new business is always challenging but starting a business and succeeding during a pandemic takes grit, determination, and the backing of customers and vendors. “None of this is possible if I don’t have the products and the support. Dave has been integral,” says Ownsby. “Going forward, I don’t see my shop surviving without HP, that’s how important the products are to my shop and to my business.” 
Looking over their first year in business, Ownsby realizes his dream has finally come true. “It’s always been a goal of mine to be my own boss,” he says. “I could never have imagined, when we set out on this adventure a little over a year ago, that we’d be sitting here in 2021, having had a successful first year.”
