Company History
Direct Paths Printing & Marketing opened for business in 1979 as Service Printers. Our founder, Lee Michaels, owned several successful downtown businesses. His most famous property, the Black Building, was the tallest building in Fargo for over 50 years and served as the original location of Sears in downtown Fargo.
Service Printers (as it was then known) was originally located at the site of the current Cass County Courthouse. The company later moved to 520 First Avenue North in downtown Fargo and was there for nearly 30 years before moving to the West Acres area at 3401 Fiechtner Drive.
Soon after purchasing the business, Lee decided to change its name. Service Printers had served the company well, but Lee wanted to create a more memorable brand and reflect his firm belief and encouragement from Proverbs 3:5-6.
Under Lee's leadership, Direct Paths Printing & Mailing became the fastest-growing printing firm in the state of North Dakota during the 1980s. Most of our success and notoriety was a direct result of our superfast turnaround and our "on-time-or-it's-free" guarantee.
At a time when most printing firms took two weeks to print an envelope order, Direct Paths would commonly print envelopes within 24-hours. Our "on-time-or-it's-free" guarantee was one of our most popular services. At one time, we hit 17,000 consecutive deadlines without fail. When we finally missed a deadline, we then proceeded to print another 13,000 jobs before we missed another one.
It seems like every company talks about the importance of customer service, but one of the lasting cornerstones of our business is the way our customers feel about doing business with us. Our dependability and reliability have become very renowned. When you work fast, hardly ever miss a deadline, have fair prices, and treat people with dignity and respect it's hard not to grow your business. That's what we do, and Direct Paths Printing currently has 1,800 active customers out of the 4,700 businesses in the city of Fargo.
We invite you to consider using our printing firm the next time your company needs printing. There's a reason why we averaged almost 40 new business customers every month for the last 15 years, and we would love the opportunity to demonstrate that for you on your next printing order. You see, we do things very differently than the other printers in our community, and we believe we can provide the best all-around experience for you if you'll give us a try.
If you would like to talk to one of our customer service representatives, please call 701-241-9204. We would be happy to discuss how we can help your business succeed and prosper. Feel free to ask for Lee Michaels, the owner, when you call, and to inquire about taking a 30-minute tour of our business, hosted by Lee. Lee provides a very fast-paced and interesting behind-the-scenes tour of how things work in our company, and most of the 250 businesses that have toured Direct Paths Printing & Marketing have commented that it was a lot more fun than they thought it would be!
