Business Name: Commonwealth Press
Business Owners: Shannon and Dan Rugh
When did you open? Started in our south side basement in 2001
Did you do any renovations? Nothing heavy, but we turned our basement into a printshop, then turned the loft above the beer distributor into a printshop, then turned the current store on carson into a printshop....then moved all of our production to our current warehouse on wharton - which we turned into a printshop. Its was in poor shape so it took the most time/money/elbow grease to date - but its great to be able to print standing upright and not having to crawl under or over each other.
Why did you pick South Side? I live here. I own a house here. I am raising my kids here. my commute to work is 167 steps (I've counted)
What is your business story/motto/mission? Story: Started the idea of cwp while in grad school at duquesne - the company I worked for went under as I graduated - I made cwp my full time job focusing on web design and eventually screen printing. con-ned my wife into joining me as 50/50 partners. Grew our business and family at the same rate.
motto: work hard, live free.
mission: aiming to be a young mom and pop with a vested interest in our local community.
What is your key to success? a unique view and down to earth approach in an amazingly supportive community
What is something no one knows about you/your business? Shannon plays the bassoon
What is the ultimate goal for your business? to monitor our growth - to be large enough to handle any job we would like to work on without losing all the things we love about being a small business