By Megan Sayles, AFRO Business Writer,
Report for America Corps Member,
msayles@afro.com
Mogul Printing has been providing Baltimore area businesses with apparel, signage, paper products and custom merchandise since 2014. CEO Daryell Mack’s decision to open the printing shop arose out of a previous business endeavor.
At the time, Mack led a street team that traveled around communities promoting events and products for brands and companies. BluntPower Air Freshener had begun to take off in Atlanta, and Mack’s team took charge of the product’s distribution in Baltimore.
Since they often frequented markets with the air freshener, Mack thought it would be a good idea to spread the word with flyers. Rather than have a sales goal, he set a flyer output goal of 5,000.
The street team ultimately distributed over 10,000 flyers for BluntPower Air Freshener. Other brands saw how diligently the street team worked to reach residents across the city and employed their help to promote their own products and services.
Mack began to expand his client base, even distributing flyers to other states, and he eventually decided that the next step would be to learn about the design and printing process.
A colleague helped Mack purchase a printing press and Adobe Illustrator, and once he saved enough money and mastered the platform, he bought a large format printer and officially opened Mogul Printing.
“Mogul” is representative of the title that all entrepreneurs aspire to have in their industries, according to Mack. He chose the word because his business allows him to collaborate with entrepreneurs during each step of their journey.
“I believe there are different stages of entrepreneurship, and from where I came from, I started as a hustler… the most important thing was the sale, not the marketing materials,” said Mack. “Because of that, I grew and also my clients grew. I grew from the hustler to the entrepreneur, and now I’m a CEO, and eventually, I’ll be a mogul.”
Mogul Printing’s print products center on business essentials, wide format marketing, pop-up shop packaging and apparel. The shop can design and produce business cards, postcards, brochures, banners, wall graphics, outside signage, car wraps, retractable banners, T-shirts and more.
For Mack, it’s extremely important to serve Black-owned businesses with his printing services. He said often, businesses spend large sums of money particularly to obtain branded apparel from foreign manufacturers, and sometimes the quality is not satisfactory for the price.
Mack wants Mogul Printing to be the more affordable alternative.
When the COVID-19 pandemic emerged, Mogul Printing’s sales increased significantly.
While watching the news, Mack learned that a mask mandate would soon be in place, and he immediately sourced nearly 20,000 masks.
“During the pandemic, business took off. I saw numbers that I hadn’t really seen my business do before, and the reason for that was preparation,” said Mack.
He thinks the pandemic helped him to reach and retain clients outside of his usual network because they needed masks.
Currently, Mogul Printing is opening a second location where it will provide retail space for brands that do not have brick-and-mortar stores to sell their products.
In November, Mack’s birthday month, entrepreneurs can snag a 50 percent discount on all banners.
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