Allied Photocopy, now known as Allied Digital Printing, was founded in 1970 by the late Jim Burruss. The business originally focused on selling and repairing copier machines. Jim’s son Victor Burruss recalls traveling across Alabama with his father, helping to sell machines and supplies.

The turning point for Allied came when a friend of Jim’s mentioned an article about the growing trend of making money by selling copies rather than machines. Inspired, Jim decided to shift the business focus to providing copying services, and the company quickly took off.

Today, Victor Burruss and his sister, Natalie Burruss Tate, co-own the family business. Under their leadership, Allied Digital Printing has adapted to changing times in an industry that continues to be transformed by technological advancements.

In a recent conversation with the Huntsville Business Journal, Victor Burruss discussed the challenges of staying relevant in a field that continues to evolve.

What was it like to work with your dad?

Working with Dad was incredible because even when I was a kid, I traveled with him in the summer, on summer break. I’d get up with him early in the morning. He had a little VW Beetle, and we’d travel the state and meet people. He was so innovative. Back in the day, doctors had ledger cards, so he had another service he started offering. He would drive each month, first of the month, to the doctor’s office with a machine in the back of his van, plug it in, and copy all their papers and they could send the customer a statement. That was before anything was electronic and either you did it yourself or he offered that service. It was great learning from him.

How has the business changed over the years?

You have to be able to shift with the market and technology. There’s been a lot of changes over the years with technology, and so we’ve had to learn to adapt and try new things.

We watch trends to see where it is going and listen to our customers. We’ve got two brand new big color presses that we put in this past year. But the biggest growth is in our sign shop. We have a full sign shop, from banners to signs to magnets, and that grew into a whole other building for car wraps.

What do you enjoy most about being a business owner?

Being hands-on. Dad was the same way. I don’t ask my employees to do anything I wouldn’t do. I get out and I make all of our deliveries. I’m not going to sit behind my desk and count money or sit there and keep my feet up. That’s 20,000 prints sitting there (outside his office). I’ve got to fold them all and band them and box them. I do that. It’s one of my customers that we have out at Research Park. I get it to production. I get it printed. They give it to me. I fold and box, and I label it, and then I deliver it. So I’m still part of it.

What has been the secret to your success?

I think seeing the owner being part of the business and my employees seeing me out making deliveries and that I’m not above that. It also comes to my faith. This is God’s business and I’m just a steward of it.

What are some obstacles that you’ve encountered in business and how did you overcome those?

The fire in October 2017 was massive. I would never want to go through that again. We lost everything but within three days we had phone lines running into (temporary facilities) and we had employees out back. We turned it into basically a drive-through. I didn’t have any machines, so I had to outsource to places like Lioce Group. He let us put an employee in there using machines. We were using the UAH print shop and a couple of other places, and we were able to sub out jobs. It was a testament to my employees because they were having to go above and beyond. It was a nightmare, but it really taught us a lot about ourselves.

What advice would you give to someone starting their own business?

You’ve got to be hands-on. You’ve got to be involved from the get-go. Don’t ask your employees to do anything that you wouldn’t do. I feel like if they see me out there doing all this folding, or they see me out making deliveries, I’m sweating to death out there loading the van up, I think that says a lot.