How It All Began

How 'crease' inventor entered the 'fold'...

The first time Graham Harris saw the creasing device he had invented actually working, a shudder ran down his spine. “I just couldn’t believe it worked as well as it did,” he recalls.

At the time, Harris had been working in the printing industry for over 20 years', and his speciality was taking on tricky jobs and helping clients solve their print finishing problems. One process that seemed beyond the capabilities of most firms was the creasing of products such as greetings cards, brochures and book covers.

Printers faced a choice: produce an imperfect crease that cracked open, or send the work to be out-sourced.

The latter is slow and expensive, prolonging the finishing process by days and costing a middle-sized print firm an estimated £7,000 to £12,000 a year.  Harris's idea was to produce a device that would fit onto the most popular folding machines so that a perfect job could be completed quickly and cheaply in-house.

To build a prototype he borrowed £2,000 from his sister and began working in his lunch hour.  Then his Eureka moment came.  "I clocked out, shut myself away with the device and when I saw the results I had to take a step back as I realised the enormity of what I had."

But it is a long way from the shop floor of another man's business to starting up on your own, especially when, like Harris, you have a young family to support.  So he certainly did not rush in and hand in his notice straight away.

Instead, he first showed the device, which he had called the Tri-Creaser, to his boss who was quite dismissive and told Harris he did not think he would ever make more than pin money.  "That was like a red rag to a bull," Harris recalls, so he set about proving that wrong.

"I did shift work, and after clocking off at two o'clock I would travel as far as time would allow and start knocking on doors."  Customers were impressed by Harris's demonstration, and soon he was making more money selling his Tri-Creaser than he was in the day job.  There was only one thing for it. He would have to take the plunge and go full time.

"My sales trebled in a matter of days and my only regret was that I hadn't done it sooner," says Harris.  By the time the business was a year old, 200 devices had been sold and Harris began to look at new and effective ways of marketing.  His first advertisements, showing shiny pictures of the Tri-Creaser, flopped so he sought the advice of a marketing consultant.

At first, he was reluctant to follow that advice which was to run an advert mainly in print, offering a money back guarantee and spelling out the advantages of the device.  But he eventually agreed to a trial placement in the trade press.

The effect was instantaneous.  "We got 135 calls and converted half into sales immediately."  Many of the rest have since become customers.

At the same time, the business was building up an army of resellers across Europe and in Australia.  One of them is German firm Heidelberg, the largest printing machine manufacturer in the world.

"When I first approached them," remembers Harris, "they said it would not be worth the plane fare for me to visit.  When I finally did manage, a year later, to get an appointment with them, they were so impressed they wanted exclusivity.  By that time, I realised the true value of the product and they are now just one among some 25 resellers."

Harris is now on the lookout for more distributors, especially in China and Japan.

To date, 20,000 devices have been sold.

Running his own business has been more exciting and inspiring than Harris could ever have imagined.  "It's like a dream come true,"  he says.