As a co-founder of Eastern Shore Ship Print Connect, I get asked this question often. I take joy in answering the question as it provides me the opportunity to explain our why.
First a bit of background on our company. I’m the husband of Joni Thomas Doolin and brother-in-law of Nancy Lynn Thomas, my co-founders, and partners. We all worked together for many years in our business in Dallas, Texas. Joni and I came out of the restaurant industry and Nancy out of retail banking. Our business grew to become Black Box Intelligence, a leading restaurant technology and information company tracking over 2.5 million employees, 87,000 restaurants, and millions of guests. We commuted between Saint Michaels and Dallas for over 25 years. When we left the day-to-day management last year, we knew two things; no more commuting and that we wanted to channel our passion and entrepreneurial spirit to create a local business here on the Eastern Shore.
That brings us to why we bought the Ship & Print Place and rebranded to Eastern Shore Ship Print Connect. We desire to develop a successful business that does well while doing good. Not just a business but a business with purpose.
The cornerstone of our passion is building these meaningful and sustainable connections:
Guests
We don’t have customers; we serve guests and treat you as if you are a guest in our home. We seek to make each interaction with our guests to solve their problem whatever it may be, a positive experience, not just a commodity product or transaction.
Team
We don’t have employees; we have team members we treat like family. Our passion is to be a world-class employer right here on the Eastern Shore, whether it is starting pay at $15.00 or giving team members the schedule allowing them to have a life beyond work.
Partners
We don’t have vendors, rather we partner with the best companies to sell and distribute their products and services. A small example is the way we treat the hard-working drivers picking up every day who are typically offered treats as a small way of thanking them for their important work. (They let Nancy know if she forgets.) We use their products and services and share gratitude, don’t just pay the bill.
Community
We don’t take from the community; we give and promote the people and organizations in our communities. Money, time, and experience are enthusiastically shared to hopefully make a positive impact in all we do right here in our community. This is a big reason why we invested here.
Conscious Capitalism
We are not capitalists without purpose. We believe that a business must be profitable to serve its guests, team, partners, and the community. We identify as conscious capitalists by serving all these constituencies in harmony with profit to be sustainable.
Veteran and Female Owned
We are committed to being models for female and veteran entrepreneurs to embrace business as a force for inspiring others to work, invest, create and get involved. As a small local business, you can do all the things we aspire to do in our business.
In business and life, we share the same goal of serving our guests, team members, partners, families, and our community and “ TO LEAVE IT BETTER THAN WE FOUND IT”.
It would be our honor to serve you, your family, and your friends.
Drop by and meet Nancy, our Managing Partner/Owner.
Thanks for connecting, Wally Doolin
