Good Neighbor Podcast: Fort Collins

E43: Why Small Business Screen Printing Beats the Big Chains

• Nick George • Season 1 • Episode 43

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Ever wondered if that perfect custom apparel partner for your business might be right in your own backyard? Laura Decatur of Black Forest Print Lab shatters common misconceptions about local print shops versus national chains in this eye-opening conversation.

Laura reveals how her family-owned Fort Collins business (recently rebranded from Kosmos Green Printing) delivers premium screen printing and embroidery services with a personal touch that big companies simply can't match. Her husband Joel, the creative force behind their operation, has built a reputation for exceptional quality that attracts both local businesses and major national brands like Anheuser-Busch and Carl's Jr.

What truly sets Black Forest Print Lab apart is their deep community commitment. They offer special nonprofit discounts and built strong local partnerships through organizations like Realities for Children. When COVID threatened small businesses everywhere, they didn't retreat - Joel taught himself to sew and pivoted to mask production, donating many to restaurants in need.

This episode goes beyond business, touching on personal challenges like parenting a son with autism (who now works in their family business at 21) and finding balance between entrepreneurship and family life. Laura's authentic insights reveal how small local businesses often provide better quality, competitive pricing, and extraordinary flexibility compared to industry giants.

Ready to support a business that genuinely cares about your success and our community? Black Forest Print Lab is offering podcast listeners 10% off their next order - just mention you heard Laura on the Good Neighbor Podcast when you visit blackforestprintlab.com. Discover the difference a truly good neighbor business can make for your custom apparel needs.

Speaker 1:

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Nick George.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Are you in need of a custom screen printing and embroidery company known for its precision and creativity in every print? One might be closer than you think. Today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, laura Decatur, with Black Forest Prints Lab. Laura, how's it going?

Speaker 3:

Great, how's it going for you?

Speaker 2:

Excellent. We're excited to learn all about you and your business. Tell us about your company.

Speaker 3:

So we are here in Fort Collins, northern Colorado. We actually just went through a rebrand, so we were formerly Cosmos Green Printing and just rebranded this year to Black Forest Print Lab. My husband runs the day-to-day, joel, and he's an exceptional screen printer and embroiderer and we just we love serving our community and would love to work with you. How did you get into?

Speaker 2:

this business and would love to work with you. How did you get?

Speaker 3:

into this business. You know he's a creative and I feel like this kind of hits a lot of different things for him. He wanted to be an entrepreneur, small business owner, but he is very much a creative. So this way he gets to check multiple boxes, own his own business, but also has some creative freedom, helps people, does a lot of design work.

Speaker 2:

So it was sort of a passion for him and I'm just along for the ride. Sounds like you're a lot more than that in the business and his life, but what are some myths and misconceptions in your industry?

Speaker 3:

Gosh myths and misconceptions I think I'll focus on, like local small businesses.

Speaker 3:

I think a lot of people think that they're going to get the best deal or it's going to be easier to deal with some of these really large national companies, and I just encourage people to focus on their local small business screen printers because we're going to offer you the same exceptional quality, oftentimes better, much better pricing, and we're here in the community doing the work supporting our nonprofits and supporting your small businesses. So I think there is a misconception that you're going to get a better deal going with a large national company and it's just not true and we'll work with you, which is really nice too, I think, a local business you have that flexibility to work with someone with their budgets. When we started our business, we've said flexibility to work with someone with their budgets. When we started our business, we said we would work with nonprofits, provide a great discount, and we've maintained that and worked with so many nonprofits in Northern Colorado, and so it's just something really important, I think, to focus on community and giving back in the ways that you can.

Speaker 2:

Who are your target customers right now and how are you attracting them?

Speaker 3:

Our target customers? Anybody that needs apparel. We do love working with the larger businesses. We do a lot of orders for like 5,000 t-shirts. We've worked with companies like Anheuser-Busch, hardee's or Carl's Jr depends on where you are in the country. So our target customer they're really local businesses, but we also have a lot of national companies that we work with and a lot of what we do is word of mouth. We're also members of Realities for Children, which is a local not-for-profit. I'm not sure if you've heard of them, but it's a great networking opportunity for us and we're able to meet a lot of different businesses, connect with them and then work with them, providing them with the great customer service, the great apparel, but also while supporting our community.

Speaker 3:

So a lot of it for us is word of mouth.

Speaker 2:

I think that nonprofit was the one who turned us on to you.

Speaker 3:

Oh really, they're exceptional. We're business partners or business members and and just love the work they do have you thought about doing your own podcast um? I would love to yes, all of us have actually in our own different ways. We have a son with autism. He also works in the business. We're a family-run business. He's 21, so he's not a child, you know, but but he's passionate and wonderful, so he is starting his own podcast. I've thought about starting mine, so it's kind of, yeah, something we've given a lot of thought as a family.

Speaker 2:

Outside of work. What do you do for fun?

Speaker 3:

Well, my son just turned 21 and we live in Fort Collins, so we're enjoying bingo at the breweries and trivia nights and different things like that. We all work really hard in different ways. He's a student at CSU and works on campus, and then, of course, joel runs the business and works, you know, very long hours. So our focus is really on our family and then spending time with friends, but having a 21-year-old is a lot of fun.

Speaker 2:

Maybe switching gears? Can you describe a hardship or a life challenge that you overcame and how it made you stronger? What comes to mind?

Speaker 3:

Oh, a life challenge. Probably having a child diagnosed with autism, that was a challenge for us. And just navigating this new space, this new world and trying to get the right resources for him, the right resources, resources for our family, so that was a big challenge. And also owning a business during COVID, I would say that was a challenge. You know, it's kind of funny when that not funny, but when that, when COVID happened and all of the small businesses kind of had to shut down, you know, joel bought a sewing machine and started making masks for restaurants and that's how we stayed in business and a lot of them were donated like we did a lot of donating, and then he got to the point where we were able to, like, source really nice masks for people and, and you know, print their logo across them. But I feel like that was a really challenging time and he taught himself how to sew one day.

Speaker 2:

Good for you guys, cutting into China's margins there.

Speaker 3:

There you go.

Speaker 2:

Please tell our listeners one thing they should remember about Black Forest. Print Lab.

Speaker 3:

We want to serve our community and provide excellent customer service, meet your needs. We're just not a small, a medium-sized business and we're working really hard to provide great support for our community and for listeners of the good neighbor podcast. We are offering 10 off, so just mention the podcast. We'd love to work with you. Quote out your next job, give us a try. You know I I don't think you'll be disappointed and we would love to serve your business and help you take it to the next level.

Speaker 2:

How can?

Speaker 3:

listeners. Learn more about Black Forest Print Lab. On our website, actually blackforestprintlabcom, you can find some information just about how we do things, how the quote process works, and we do have social media probably not as active as we should be, but we have a Facebook and an Instagram page that you can find out a little bit more about what we do in the community, like how we utilize that more for our community partnerships and who we're supporting, like nonprofits. But yeah, and also, just shoot us an email. We'd love to talk you through a project to see if there's anything we can do to help and support to talk you through a project to see if there's anything we can do to help and support.

Speaker 2:

Well, Laura, I really appreciate you being on the show.

Speaker 3:

We wish you and your business the best moving forward. Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpfortcollinscom. That's GNPFortCollinscom, or call 970-438-0825.