Interview with Proforma's Co-CEO

Greg Muzzillo, founder and co-CEO of Proforma

INDEPENDENCE, OH - There's something unusual about Proforma, the fast growing printing and multimedia solutions franchise. Franchisor Proforma has been listed three times in the Inc Magazine list of 500 fastest growing companies. But more interesting is that this year, six of Proforma's franchisees have been listed in another of Inc. Magazine's lists, its fastest growing 5,000 companies. Six! And if that weren't enough, Forbes, with the help of franchise research firm FranData, just listed the 700-unit franchise chain as one of its top 20 franchise investments for under $100,000.

The chain's founder and co-CEO Greg Muzzillo shares some of his thoughts with Blue MauMau's readers on how that happened. Before founding Proforma, Mr. Muzzillo was with the auditing firm of Haskins and Sells (predecessor to Deloitte & Touche). Since the founding of his company, he has served as a member of the board of directors of the International Franchise Association. He is an advocate for a number of franchise issues, including providing franchise performance representations.

BMM: The quick print industry is quite mature. It seems that Quick Printing magazine each year for the last 10 years has been reporting that the number of quick print shops has been shrinking. What's your take on this?

'09 Disclosure Document

Muzzillo: Quite candidly, it is hard to keep up with the investments required in this digital printing age to really give consumers the breadth and depth of solutions that are needed. What is antiquated and outdated is owning equipment in this industry [the quick print industry]. Printing is not antiquated. In fact, the industry is growing. Check your mailbox. I think you'll see that the industry is growing. End users are looking for solutions to market their business with print and promotional products. It's just the path of the marketplace. Owning equipment is becoming obsolete because it is difficult and the investments are very high.

BMM: What made you get interested in the print brokering business?

Muzzillo: When I graduated from college in 1977, I went to work for one of the Big 8 CPA firms when there were eight of them. I was an auditor for General Motors and Westinghouse. I was part of what is now Deloitte & Touche. A buddy of mine that became my roommate after we graduated from college was working for a small print and commercial products broker. And I really didn't pay attention originally to what he did. But we'd go out on Friday nights when 22-year-old kids, looking for dates for Saturday night. We'd be sitting around talking and he'd be telling me about a $10,000 order with $4,000 in profit and a $25,000 order he had received with $10,000 in profit. Eventually my ears perked up.

After about six months of him telling me about the business, he was such a salesman at it that it didn't take long to see that you don't need to own any equipment in this industry. You don't have the limitations of a retail store. Let's go. You know sales. I know accounting. So together we each put in $100. We bought a phone answering machine. We bought some business cards and a box of letterheads. We sent some letters to suppliers asking them for a line of credit. And in 1978 we started Proforma from the dining room of the little apartment that we shared, with a $200 investment and a whole lot of big dreams and big wishes.

BMM: How did Fred DeLuca, the founder of Doctors Associates, Inc., also known as the Subway sandwich chain, get involved with Proforma?

Muzzillo: Our opportunity became big enough that we needed investment. Fred DeLuca and I had become friends through being on the board of directors of the International Franchise Association. He expressed an interest in making an investment in Proforma at the time we needed an investment – in the early 1990s. So he and his partner Pete Buck made an injection of capital. And he has been a very good friend of Proforma all along the way.

He is an investor and we talk whenever we need to talk, if I want to chat with him or he wants to chat with me.

Hear more from Greg in Blue MauMau’s 20-minute podcast. 

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