Meet Cory Vore | Business Owner of Print or Dye

We had the good fortune of connecting with Cory Vore and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Cory, any advice for those thinking about whether to keep going or to give up?
There are two sides to being an Entrepreneur, or success, if you will. The good and the ugly. Everyone is familiar with the good. It’s what lures them into this lifestyle. They see fancy cars, nice clothes, flexible work schedule, no boss, limitless potential income, they see their dreams on the horizon. But what they quickly realize the moment they step in is that ugly side that no one finds sexy to talk about. The ugly side is the work. The day to day grind. The fear of the unknown and moving forward despite the bad case scenarios you have played in your head. Watching the bills roll in no matter what and realizing the only way they will get paid off is if you pull yourself up by your bootstraps and generate revenue out of thin air.

The ugly side will show you that you will fail, fail, and fail again. By fail I mean make mistakes that cause you to miss opportunities. Will take your operation a step backwards. Maybe it cost your money and a client. But its the ugly side where you find out who you really are. Its the Ugly side that will mold you into entrepreneur you need to become to realize that lifestyle you want to live. Along the way you will learn its not all about the flash, it’s about the people. The people you serve, the people you employ, and the loved ones closest to you.

So the answer is, you have to search deep down inside and find the “why you do what you do” and decide if you are willing to fight for it, to fail for it, to fall for it. If you realize what you are doing is worth your sacrifice, then it doesn’t matter what happens, because giving up isn’t an option. There are a 1000 paths through the forrest, some paths take longer than others, but only those who keep going can ever make it to the other side.

What should our readers know about your business?
I founded and operate a small business called Print or Dye. We offer custom printed and dye sublimated products. One thing that makes us different right off the bat is that our staff are all Marine Corps veterans and veteran spouses.

I am very proud of the progress we have made since our founding at the very start of the COVID pandemic in the beginning of 2020. We have scaled up to owning many top-of-the-line printers that allow us to compete with the big boys on quality. One of our major product lines we offer are fine art and professional photos that are printed directly onto coated Aluminum, Wood, and Glass. These product offerings are quite unique and hard to find even in a large metropolitan area like Dallas Fort-Worth. Something that sets us apart is our mastery of editing software such as Photoshop, Lightroom, and Illustrator. I personally have 10 years experience in digital editing and have trained my staff to be able to make incredible improvements, changes, and customizations to the pictures or graphics that people want. For example, a customer came in with a very badly damaged photo of her late mother. This was the only photo she had of her and much of it got destroyed in a fire, 30% of her face was completely missing. I was able to restore the photo 100% back to its original form and then print it onto metal for her so that it lasts a lifetime. She burst into tears of joy as she seen her entire Mom’s face for the first time in years.

We also print or dye sublimate on T-shirts, hoodies, pants, banners, stickers, walls, floors, and more! Our shop is an incredible place to be for brand owners, business owners, and lovers of fine and photography. A service we never expected that were are now offering like crazy are Casket Wraps. This is where we take a very high gloss vinyl and wrap custom printed graphs over caskets for an incredibly personal look for your loved one’s memorial. It helps save customers a ton of money on overly priced caskets but at the same time, it removes the guilt of “going cheap” because although our alternative is much cheaper, there is nothing cheap looking about it. They look incredible.

Although my company has gained a lot of ground in under 2 years. This dream has been 8 years in the making back when I first set my mind on becoming a business owner. I knew I would need a large set of skills. So I pursued higher education all the way up to a Masters Degree and I also enrolled in a few certification courses. I did non of these college courses for prestige or for an employer. Theses were purely for my own personal development. All of my diplomas sit in a box somewhere.

The second essential ingredient was finding a team. The Marines who work with me, I served with and have known for years. These guys have been in the trenches with me working very long weeks for very little pay all because we believe in the dream. They do own a small stake in the business, of course, they earned it!

Nothing about what I do or have done has come easy. Starting, operating, and growing a business is incredibly difficult and it requires the mindset that you will ALWAYS be a STUDENT of business. You must constantly take responsibility for mistakes, and you MUST be willing to LEARN AND DO the hard things that no one else will. Some days I am in the back office taking classes on accounting, or learning new softwares. Other days I am in the front scrubbing floors, taking out the trash, and cleaning windows. There is no job beneath me, and nothing I won’t do to set the example for my team.

The way you overcome obstacles is simple, not easy, but simple. NEVER QUIT! No matter how hard it is, realize that everything in life worth having is hard. Through consistency, all things are possible. Failure is only a lesson of one way not to accomplish something. Keep failing until you find the right way to succeed.

Understand that as an entrepreneur you don’t have the luxury of a 9-5. You work an “eyes open to eyes shut.” If you aren’t willing to put in long hours for your own business, how can you ever expect anyone else to believe in you.
Understand that your time is valuable and you shouldn’t accept anything less than a fair market price for what you do. Too often I see naive business owners to include sole proprietors, giving way too much of their services away for free and close to it. I have been working for myself doing photography, graphic design, videography, web design, and more. I have learned time and time again, free work and cheap work will lead you to nowhere. Everyone will tell you that they will give you so much business, they will bring all of their friends, they themselves will be back 1 million times. I have heard this more times than I can count, and anyone who has ever said that has never followed through on their word. Good customers know the value of what they are buying and it is the customers that pay your asking price who will keep coming back and send their friends. The key ingredient is to listen to your customers, give them the best customer service possible, and be as communicative as possible.

My goal is to become a national brand one day with small custom print shops in every major city. When people need home improvement supplies, office supples, groceries, they immediately know where to go. When people need want to get a shirt made, get a wall mural put up in their bedroom, get their wedding photos printed on a sleek floating Metal print, I want them to immediately think Print or Dye.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I live in DFW. The places we can go and the things we can participate in are nearly limitless. Dallas has more independent restaurants per capita than any other city in the country so there are tons of great spots to visit for the foodies. I am a lover of the grappling arts and Dallas has some very competitive Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I’m a Marine, and many of my friends are active like I am. So first thing we would do is BJJ in the early morning to get some great rolls in. After Jiu Jitsu I would head over to Uptown Dallas and visit one of their many amazing eateries for brunch. Afterwords, the VOID over in Plano has full blown Virtual Reality that places you in real life environments that reacts with the video game you are playing. It’s incredible. Downtown and Deep Ellum is a really swanky place to take in some sights and interesting art installations. I would probably bring my camera with me to take some street photography so we can print our sight seeing experience on some cool stuff later. I would cap the night off with The Flying Saucer right off the water over of Lake Ray Hubbard. They have an unbelievable list of adult beverages, amazing ambience, and tasty night food.

Im an active person so I love doing active things. I would want to visit Six Flags for a day. My favorite shooting range is B-Tactical. They have an outdoor tactical bay that allows you to run three gun (rifle, shotgun, pistol) on a range with paper and steel targets. The best part is you can arrange the targets however you’d like and they have obstacles that you can set up to maneuver between cover and set up some really interesting tactical shooting scenarios for self defense situations. Dallas hosts a lot of concerts, professional fights, and pro sports games. I would find out what’s available during the visit and go to one.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
There are so many crucial learning points, people, books, and groups in my life that have got me to where I am today and have prepared me mentally for what is to come. My wife will always be number one, she has been with me when we started out with nothing, and she has fought by my side to get to where we are today.

A crucial turning point for me was I the Marine Corps when a fellow Marine named Clint Sharp recruited me into Amway. By being apart of Amway, I was exposed to massive seminars that sold out entire stadiums with work renowned motivational speakers like John Maxwell. I was exposed to the power of reading which introduced me to books like “Think and Grow Rich, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, The Power of Thinking Big, How To Win Friends and Influence People, Start With Why, and so on. Nothing opened my mind up more than these books, and being a part of a positive group that wants to discuss and expand upon the ideas outlined in those books was monumental.

Website: www.printordye.com

Instagram: printordyeusa

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Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz9_AZ3xarjBeF5PwXnFS4w