Page 5 - BusinessWest May 12, 2025

Jim White
says Go
Graphix has
evolved over
20 years,
cultivating
new markets
such as
vehicle
wrapping and
architectural
graphics.
Photo by
Bob Zemba,
Simple Truth
Imaging
White concurred, noting that there have been many challenges
along the way, from the Great Recession, which hit just a few years
after they opened, to COVID, which brought most of the traditional
work to a standstill, and early on, the loss of a major fleet-wrapping
client.
“We’ve rolled with the punches and learned some important les-
sons along the way,” he said, adding that resilience is perhaps the
company’s strongest trait.
Both partners agreed that, while the cultivation of new business
lines, such as vehicle wrapping, architectural installations, and sig-
nage of all kinds has been a key to success, a bigger factor has been
relationship-building, which has enabled the
company to add and retain customers and gen-
erate all-important repeat business, often across
several different product lines.
For this issue, BusinessWest talked at length
with White and Stone about their journey,
where it has taken them to date, and where
they might go next.
Plane Speaking
While working for Biolitec and then Lumen-
is, White and Stone spent a considerable
amount of time in airplanes, hotel rooms, res-
taurants, and trade show floors.
And while passing that time talking busi-
ness, they also spent it talking about going into
business for themselves. And the seriousness
of those conversations picked up in intensity
the more they were away from home and their
families.
“We both had young children ... Jim had
three and I had four, and we were on the road
a lot,” Stone recalled, adding that the two were
very good at what they did, and the more they
succeeded for their corporate bosses, the more
that was demanded of them in terms of being on the road.
“I remember looking at my schedule at one point, I was going to
be gone 17 out of the next 23 weekends,” said Stone. “And I said,
‘that’s enough; I’ve got to make a change.’”
White had reached the same conclusion and had many of the
same recollections.
“All the money in the world didn’t mean as much to me as my
wife and kids, and Gary felt the same way,” he recalled. “And there
was just enough shakiness in the business to make a dream mate-
rialize. Gary and I were together for many of those trips; you talk
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“Our persistence is
definitely what kept
us going. We had
many opportunities
to quit or to get
back into our cushy
corporate jobs, but
we never turned
back; when we made
the decision to start
our own business and
build it, it was pedal
to the metal.”
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