Making an imprint on the business world

With one of her main targets to more than double her company’s market share to 35 percent this year, Roxana Pencu is aiming to become a top player on the market. Pencu also wants to encourage customers to do their printing in Romania as she believes the local market can offer the same price and quality as any other European country.

 Anda Dragan

Roxana Pencu’s entrepreneurial journey began in 2008, after she had spent five years working in business development for one of the most important retailers on the Romanian market. Despite being a legal adviser, after she graduated from university she was involved in the development of the network of Flamingo Computers, the largest IT retailer at that time. In those days the company was enjoying one of the most fruitful periods of its existence – it had grown from 20 to 120 locations and taken over Flanco, another significant IT retailer. “After five years of working in business development, two of which as development manager, I decided to become an entrepreneur instead of an employee,” says Pencu, development manager of Tipografii din Romania. She adds that her experience as project manager has played a significant role in her business. Plus, “the difficulties of simultaneously opening many stores in a very short time and in different cities convinced me of my capacity to make decisions very quickly and get the right results,” says Pencu.

The idea to set up Tipografii din Romania came naturally, as a result of the feedback she received from the biggest print shops in Bucharest and based on the development of online promotion in the Romanian business environment. “Knowing the online environment and having insight into the typographical industry – because a friend had a business in this field – I identified the lack of line promotion and the potential for development,” explains Pencu. So, along with an associate, she created an internet portal, www.tipografiiromania.ro, specialized in promoting the over 1,400 print shops that existed nationwide at that time. Financial resources are always paramount for budding entrepreneurs, and Pencu was no exception. So the decision to establish an enterprise that did not require a lot of money – at least in the first year of activity – was a natural one. “The small initial investment and the fact that we were exposed to a low level of risk tipped the balance in favor of this type of business,” remembers Pencu.

Read more about

RetuRO opens its 5th counting and sorting center in Bacău County

read more

The portal lists print shops in almost the same format and search engines allow users to easily navigate and choose the one that meets their specific needs. “The portal has two main functions: first it presents all the print shops in Romania, giving them equal space. Secondly we try to educate small and medium-sized companies about their communication with their print material suppliers and to persuade them to use print as a promotional and development tool for their business,” says the entrepreneur. In her opinion, the immediate advantages of these two main directions include the easy access of a greater number of potential customers to centralized information about the services offered, which brings the print shops more business. Through its news section and newsletter the portal also keeps its users informed of the latest developments in the polygraphic industry, the performances of some print shops and the quality users can obtain for their products.

The toughest period for Pencu’s business came with the financial crisis, when some of the company’s customers announced that they were reigning in their activity because of the lack of demand. In such a context, “it is crucial for every entrepreneur to test as many methods of attracting new customers as they can,” advises Pencu. She adds that her company has great potential for promotion because of the very low fee the print shops pay to be included in the database.

Showing true entrepreneurial spirit, Pencu has no regrets. “I could have started out in business later, considering the current downturn,” says the development manager. But she is convinced that the best show their mettle in such hard times. If she started another business, today’s turmoil would persuade her to postpone the venture. “Maybe greater openness towards the online promotion of the SME environment would have been healthier for this kind of business,” says Pencu. The entrepreneur believes that the biggest challenge for her business was to convince print houses that not all printing contracts are “arranged” and that there are new players and contracts that could change the suppliers. “It depends wholly on print houses, their sales team, their capacity to respond to the demand from Tipografii din Romania and to sign a contract,” says the manager.

As for the competition, Pencu believes there is no one on the market because Tipografii din Romania is the first and the only portal that solely addresses the needs of print houses and their customers without interference with information on adjacent activities. “Our approach to promote printing houses through their own activity differentiates us from the crowd. We are offering them a ‘spotlight’, we are adding value to their benefit and their customers’ benefits,” says Pencu. According to her, the company has a 15 percent market share at the moment and intends to increase it by at least 20 percent this year.

As for future plans, the firm intends to support and boost print houses and also to encourage customers to print in Romania because the local market, she says, is able to offer the same level of price and quality as any other European country. “We also intend to add new information to our portal in order to help new customers to use print when they want to generate publicity and to add new modules for print house members to help them optimize costs and amass new profitable and long-term customers,” concludes Pencu.