Copying Firm Finds Niche Among Large Competitors By JEFF WEISS Contributing Reporter “Keep on suing,” Daniel Fabregas, founder of North Hollywood-based, Duplikat: the Copy Experts, jokes, hinting at how the litigious nature of American society has spurred the necessity of niche businesses such as his. Founded in 2002 and still very much in the initial stages of growth, the fledgling enterprise specializes in doing copy reproductions for law firms either too swamped or incapable of handling the massive amounts of paperwork they accumulate. While revenues are certainly not huge, this entrepreneur has tripled his sales each year and has good feelings about the future. Fabregas had been employed in marketing for the United States Postal Service and sensed that due to budget cutbacks his division was going to be axed. Wanting a business his entire life, the Filipino immigrant decided to explore different options. When a friend suggested the legal copying business, the idea began to germinate. “I studied it by doing a feasibility study for a few months and saw that it had a lot of potential for profitability. I rented this office barely knowing what I was going to do. I started buying the machines with money from my savings account and before I knew it I was spending $15,000-$20,000 for the startup plus I needed money in the bank to keep it going,” Fabregas said. “The entire time I was doing this I still had my job at the post office. In July of 2002, I had been here for three months when I got laid off at the Post Office. The entire marketing department got scrapped. I still didn’t know exactly where to go but decided that I should keep pushing.” Last year, the friend who had initially suggested the idea, Fernando (“Doy”) Petelo, inquired about potentially working for Fabregas. Rather than just give his longtime pal a job, Fabregas offered to form a partnership, thinking that they would either sink or swim. Yet succeeding in the extremely competitive copy industry is difficult, considering that there are 1,200 Kinko’s worldwide, along with a litany of other independent copy shops. “We drummed up business by doing a lot of cold calls and by talking to people I knew that were involved in the legal field. I went to a lot of law offices gave them my price list and told them if there ever was an overflow that they couldn’t handle we could cater to their needs,” Fabregas said. “Slowly, we started to get one call, two calls, three calls, and sales were low but it started to pick up. Our total sales for last year have already been exceeded and it’s only the end of April. It looks like we’re headed in a good direction.” Other opportunities While revenues were a meager $25,000 for 2002, they climbed to $60,000 last year. This year Duplikat projects $150,000 in sales. Furthermore, Fabregas has begun to pursue other potential business opportunities. “I also have begun looking at other avenues. I won the bidding for a contract to be an official vendor for the County of Los Angeles’ Internal Services Department, where the different county offices go to if they need copying, printing or anything. ISD cannot do everything themselves and contract things out to outside vendors,” Fabregas said. “It took an entire year of efforts to win the bid, which only came through in March. We signed a three-year deal with them. I anticipate a lot of added business in the near future and that we can convert our part-time employees to full time. It’s slowly coming about.” Duplikat differentiates itself from other similar companies by offering full pickup and drop-off deliveries. Additionally, Duplikat has portable copiers that can be used to do on-site copying. With a low overhead and only four employees (two of which remain part-time), Fabregas aims to keep prices lower than Kinko’s, offering copies from as low as five cents a copy, where Kinko’s starts at eight cents. Flexibility While several national firms specialize in legal copying, there are few local companies that handle this particular niche. The company prides itself on being able to handle any request that a law firm might ask. A sign hangs in the office, “If we can’t do it, it might not be able to done.” While 80 percent of the company’s current business is law firms, Duplikat has satisfied non-legal companies as well. “They’re just phenomenal. We can’t be more pleased with their services. Their work is excellent. Everything is always on time,” Sherry Powell, Director of Graduate Services at the Concorde Career Institute in North Hollywood said. “They are delightful gentleman to work with. We have given them all of our printing work to do. We had used Kinko’s for many years but we switched to them and are delighted with their services.” With business steadily increasing, Fabregas’ goal includes expansion, using the North Hollywood location as his prototype. “In the future, I plan on expanding to Irvine, L.A., Santa Barbara. The goal is to open three more offices in the next five years. I’m setting this business up to be my working model,” Fabregas said. “It’s very challenging but I’m beginning to see the direction that I didn’t see when I started it. It’s all starting to focus.”
