Minuteman Press

For Eric Burrill, owning Minuteman Press in Avondale Estates, GA, has always been a family journey. Since taking ownership in September of 2018, Eric has built the business alongside his wife, Ericka, while their son, Vincent, has grown from a middle school student into a high school graduate who now helps with production, mailing projects, and installations.

Eight years later, the Burrill family continues to grow together, both personally and professionally. With a recent move into a larger 3,000-square-foot facility, the acquisition of long-time local business TOCO Printing, and expanded in-house capabilities, Eric continues to achieve new growth milestones. Eric reflects on their journey, the importance of community and customer relationships, and what he has learned along the way.

What does it mean to you to build a family business?

“We’ve now been in business over 8 years. Building a business with family comes with dynamics that you don’t have in a traditional business. My wife Ericka is the strength of our production and customer service, while I’m the floater in business development and adding new production capacity beyond print. That includes everything from bringing wide-format printing and installations in-house to adding apparel decoration. She calls me the MacGyver because throughout my career, I’ve been around a number of skilled manufacturing environments, and I believe there is always a potential solution. Our son Vincent was in middle school when we started, and he graduated high school in 2026. I can tell you, it’s a new generation, but it’s great being part of him stepping in and helping with production, mail projects, and installations.”

“I traveled throughout much of my career and for much of our married life, so it has been great — and a little weird — coming home at the end of every day. After 21 years together, we still keep growing. It is special knowing that we truly respect what each of us brings to the table in building the business, because pushing a business forward is no small feat.”

You expanded and moved to a larger facility late last year. What does this mean to your business?

“In October 2025, we moved from I called our ‘New York Apartment’ business at 900 square feet, where we had a galley walkway between our equipment. Print equipment was on the right, wide format was on the left along with finishing equipment, and embroidery and DTG equipment were stuffed into small openings. We wanted to make sure we had those in-house solutions while also working with great industry partners.

When we moved into our new 3,000-square-foot facility, it filled up almost as fast as the space became available. We focus heavily on physical branding production, and event-related materials are a big part of our business. When it comes to meeting our customers’ timelines, it is imperative that we produce as much as possible in-house. Delivering for our customers is our top priority. Now we have a larger area for a diverse range of equipment that allows us to be flexible, dynamic, and produce solutions rather than add to our customers’ problems.”

You also acquired an independent print shop. What have been the benefits of this acquisition?

“In December 2025, we acquired TOCO Printing, a family-owned printing company that had been in business for 60 years. It was a neighborhood go-to print shop that really focused on print. This has enabled us to increase our print production, which is something I’ve wanted to do. It gave us the capacity to have two full inline digital presses with square-fold booklet making. It also opened new conversations with customers we might never have gained otherwise because they were loyal customers of the previous owner. In our business, customers don’t necessarily look for alternatives unless they have a need. We’ve been able to offer those customers more all-around services, including in-house variable data mail campaign production.”

What are the top keys to your sales growth and success over the past two years?

“I’m a business development guy, and I would say you always need to have multiple aspects working to your advantage. We invested in the Internet Marketing Program from the beginning and have added to it every year. Internet marketing has been great for keeping us out there for people who are looking for solutions. I’ve always believed marketing needs to involve many touchpoints and must be a budgetary part of the business because you never know who you will reach or how they can affect your business in a positive way.

In our industry, you become invested when you see great work being done, but you also need to make sure you’re there to build year-over-year. The products and solutions we provide for our customers are why they come back to us. I want them to know that we care about their company’s presentation just as much as they do. We focus on having the right materials and manufacturing processes in place to give them quality results they are proud to have as part of their company’s branding.”

What was your background before Minuteman Press?

“I grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and during my teenage years, my mom started working in print. After my junior year of high school, I worked second shift at an offset printer in their finishing department, stacking finished materials as they came off high-speed folders or cutters. Then, about a year after I graduated high school, my mom got me onto the night shift in the finishing department at Quad Graphics in Lomira, Wisconsin. They were heavily involved in perfect-bound books, saddle-stitched books, and Sunday coupons.

It was very physical work. I was working 60- to 72-hour weeks with 12-hour shifts, and I got hurt. Luckily, I ended up in the imaging department, which was Quad’s prepress department. I was teamed up with the older guys stripping film on light tables while team members in their 30s moved to the new computer processing. They ran offset and gravure presses.

From there, I got into trucking and, at one point, had a small trucking company that hauled for Quad Graphics, running just-in-time mail freight from Wisconsin to Florida. We even hauled the Super Bowl programs when it was hosted in Miami. So, printing was in my blood. From trucking, I had the opportunity to get into business development. Minuteman Press was a great model that fit what I was looking for.”

“I was traveling three weeks out of every month, and it got to the point where I wondered what I was doing on a plane every week and only visiting home on the weekends. I love my family. I only have one son, and we only live one life, so I started searching. I reached out to Minuteman Press, met with David Walton and Clay Trussell, and the journey began. My wife was a teacher at the time and wasn’t being paid well in Georgia, so she joined the journey not long after we opened.”

What has the support been like for you?

“We’ve had great support. I’m happy that David was able to retire; he picked up the phone anytime we had a question. Clay was new to Minuteman Press when we started, and now he’s seamlessly picked up where David left off. Clay has also been a great resource for my wife Ericka on the technical side too as she dove into Adobe Illustrator.

I would say we have pushed ourselves, but we also know we have a quality support network, even beyond Clay. Our support has also come from great people at Minuteman Press HQ, whether it was an issue with FLEX or simply something we needed help understanding.”

How would you best describe your business community?

“We are in a very creative place in the Atlanta Metro area. It is a great location to be, and our area has grown with new businesses over the last eight years. We have a strong relationship with our city, and we have provided much of its event collateral. We’re also involved in some of the events throughout the year. I recently became President of our business association, with the goal of creating a way for our local business owners to get together, let their guard down, and really get to know one another. I want to help facilitate conversations that may lead to new relationships, which may ultimately lead to growth.

We truly like to support our community wherever we can, especially with events that bring people together. Growing up in Milwaukee, I believe that is how diversity bridges gaps — people see each other as people. That’s why we have sponsored the City of Avondale Estates Weekend Wind Down Concert Series since 2022, which was the year they finished our new community park.”

What are the rewards of owning your business?

“To be very honest, my wife and I are very humble people. The biggest rewards are when we make our customers happy. We have great customers who have been with us since the beginning, as well as others who came to us a few years in, and we continually grow great relationships. We are blessed when we have time to spend together outside the business, but we also truly know we are blessed when we have to work a little harder and a little longer for a customer.

We have hit new milestones year after year of owning our Minuteman Press. That is great, because we know what you did yesterday may not always come around tomorrow. We keep learning, and we keep trying to be better than yesterday.”

What advice would you give to other owners?

“The biggest thing I would say is to know the tools you need to do it right. If something isn’t produced in-house, know which industry partners you can really work with, partners who will not let you down but will truly add to your business. I can firmly say we have our top partner, and they are truly great to us. Second is your vendors. How can they make you stronger in whatever direction you want to focus your business?

Third, if you focus on yourself instead of trying to beat competitors on price alone, you will always have a better chance to succeed. There will always be someone out there cheaper than you. Guess what? There is usually a reason they are cheaper. It could be the material, it could be the delivery time, or it could be that they don’t have to care if something goes wrong. Stay competitive, but don’t be afraid to say, ‘I’m sorry, we cannot meet that price.’ Those who are simply looking for the cheapest deal aren’t the ones paying your overhead or your team.”

Is there anything else you’d like to share?

“This is just the way I like to run our business: Have fun. Make money. It is our responsibility to hopefully still be here next year. Don’t let customers chase you to the bottom for their benefit.”